Welcome to Early Years!

Just look at our amazing classroom. We are so lucky to learn and explore in such a unique and special building. 

The children have settled wonderfully into their new term of learning!

Our themes this Summer term are “Sunshine and Sunflowers” and "Big Wide World.

Literacy and Communication and Language

This term our topic is Minibeasts. We will be exploring lots of non-fiction, poetry and fiction texts based around this theme.

We will listen to and explore the a variety of nursery rhymes and stories that include different Minibeasts and complete lots of writing activities based around this, such as ordering a story, writing speech bubbles for characters, freeze framing parts of the story, taking part in role play and writing captions for key parts of a story.

We will be creating information texts about different creatures by writing lists, labels and captions and exploring features of non-fiction texts.

Our classroom environment is set up to allow our children the opportunities to extend their learning with lots of different exciting activities that enriches the quality of their development.

We will also learn about key events that happen during this term, such as Chinese New Year, Valentines Day, Pancake Day, Lent and Red Nose Day.

A very busy and extremely exciting term a head!

There are also lots of writing opportunities in our provision to promote independent writing and we encourage children to write their name each morning when they arrive at school before their daily handwriting practice.  The variety of activities help with their fine motor skills, mark making, letter formation, writing words and sentences.

Have a look at some of our literacy lessons...

Maths

We love our maths lessons and are always keen to explore numbers, shapes, and space. We use a variety of resources, and we often take learning outside. The children are very busy in maths this term!

Nursery will be building numbers to 5, exploring 1 more and 1 less, sharing, positional language and 2D and 3D shapes.

Reception will be busy building numbers beyond 10, adding more and taking away, doubling, sharing and grouping, exploring odd and even numbers and select, rotate, and manipulate shapes to develop spatial reasoning skills and composing and decomposing shapes to understand shapes can have other shapes within it, just as numbers can.

There are always lots of maths resources and games set up in our provision. We particularly love using numicon and multilink cubes to build numbers.

Here are some of the learning opportunities that have been keeping us busy…

Understanding the World - Science

We are always excited to carry out science experiments and investigations. Our focus in science this term is animals and plants where we will learn about: life cycles of plants and animals, animals in springtime and plant seeds and care for a growing plant.

Here are some of our recent science activities…

Forest School

Our forest school sessions are so much fun! We love getting crafty using lots of natural resources and exploring our beautiful forest area. 

We are very lucky to have Emma our forest school practitioner from Inside Out Forest School who leads forest school sessions every week. Throughout these weekly sessions, the children develop resilience, self-confidence, communication skills, creativity and risk assessing. Head to our 'Forest School' page to see what we get up to each week! 

Reading

 We love sharing and reading books with our friends. We also enjoy choosing a book from our book corner and cosying up in the quiet area to read.

Understanding the World – Geography

The children have enjoyed learning about place knowledge. Where we have explored Scotland and Africa looking at the similarities and differences between each place.

This term the children will be focusing on place and locational knowledge. They will explore the location of castles, castles in other countries and explore our local area of Combs. The children will look at maps, including a map of Combs and go for a walk around the village to spot key features. 

Understanding the World - History 

The children have enjoyed learning about changes in living memory. Where we have explored past and present technology and uses of communication. The children enjoyed exploring uses of communication from the past such as type writers and thinking what they were used for.

This term in history the children will be focusing on events beyond living memory. We will explore castles in the past and present and how castles have changed over time.

Understanding the World – Religious Education 

The children enjoy listening to different bible stories and learning about different faiths and beliefs. The children have learnt lots about The Easter Story and how Christians celebrate Easter.

This term during our RE week the children will be focusing on the theme living. We will explore the questions: Where do we belong? And what is special about our world? The children will, discuss the idea that each person is unique and valuable, consider religious beliefs about God loving each person and think about the wonders of the natural world learning that some people believe it was created by God.

Expressive Arts and Design – Art

The children always have a wonderful time in art and love getting creative! We have been very busy developing our drawing skills and pencil control by completing observational drawings and paintings of fruit. We have also developed our painting skills by using water colours to paint stained glass windows.

This term we will focus on printing and using shapes in our art by using different resources such as Lego and blocks to print with, creating a castle out of 2D shapes using different materials such as tissue paper and card and exploring a piece of art inspired by Paul Klee. We will use chalks and crayons to recreate ‘Castle and Sun.’

Expressive Arts and Design – Design and Technology 

We enjoy our design and technology sessions where we develop and learn new skills.

We have enjoyed exploring lighthouses. Where the children learnt what a lighthouse is, where you find them and made a lighthouse with a using junk modelling.

This term we have an exciting design and technology week, where we will focus on castles. The children will design and make their own castle using junk modelling. We will then order and write simple instructions for making a castle.

Expressive Arts and Design – Music

Jenni is our fabulous music teacher.  We are always excited for her music lessons and love her guitar she brings and plays each week. We do lots of singing, use instruments and play music games. This term we will learn songs all about castles.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

We are incredibly lucky at Combs to have Jess, our mindfulness teacher. The children enjoy taking part in her weekly mindfulness and yoga sessions. These valuable sessions give the children the opportunity to relax, feel calm and share any worries or concerns. Jess helps the children to feel special and loved.

The children are encouraged to reflect on how they are feeling each morning using the 'Colour Monster' display. We listen to lots of stories and have enjoyed making self-portraits using different materials, drawing our families as well as making faces using playdough.

This term we will focus on being safe and following rules. We will discuss what rules are and understand why it is important to follow them.

British Values

The British Values are incorporated throughout the children's daily routine, and this is highlighted on a day to day basis, from being a nice friend, following instructions and using our manners to having responsibilities, understanding boundaries and looking after ourselves and doing what makes us happy. We always have one value that is a main focus and this term it is “Individual liberty”.
Each of the British Values are incorporated through the children’s PSED lessons, daily learning and they lay the foundations for discussion during our weekly class assemblies. Our student council meet and suggest ways of how we can filter the understanding of these values throughout school, they talk to the other children and bring their feedback back to the meetings, promoting a voice for all the children at Combs.

Physical Development  

Our PE lessons are so much fun with our PAS coaches. This term the children will focus on the fundamentals of small ball skills and multi-sport games. The children will take part in different games and activities to develop these skills, including individual ball work, rolling, dribbling and bouncing, body parts game (Football based) and playing team games.

Fine Motor

We are continually developing our fine motor skills and know how important it is to help the muscles in our little hands grow and develop. We love our box of fine motor challenges, our favourite is dough disco! There is also lots of activities in the provision to support with our fine motor skills such as cutting, threading and using tweezers.

Continuous Provision

There are always so many fun and exciting activities set up both inside and outside our provision to encourage and promote learning. There is maths challenges, writing, role play, small world, fine motor challenges, building in the construction area, water and sand which is our favourite. We also have lots of opportunities to get creative with playdough, paints, cutting, sticking and junk modelling. Activities are changed and added to weekly to support the focussed learning outcomes of each week. Our provision also supports key skills such as communication, teamwork, and physical development. Here are some pictures of our exciting creations…