Firetips (Nursery and Reception)

Welcome to Early Years Foundation Stage

Our class is called Firetips.  We are taught by Miss Stachg (Mon-Wed) and Mrs Ralph (Thur-Fri).  We are also supported by Miss Surridge, Miss Lennard and Miss Rossiter (Wed-Fri).  

P.E. lessons will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please come into school wearing your P.E kit on these days. There is no need to bring a change of clothes.  

Library will take place on Mondays. Please bring back your book on this day, so you can choose a new one.

Children in Reception will have their one reading practice book changed on Monday and Wednesday if they have read at home and are reading it confidently. Please ensure your child has their reading book and orange reading record book in their school bag every day.

Nursery children  will have their reading practise book changed on Mondays. It is very important that the children read on a daily basis, so please take ten minutes to listen to them each day and make a quick comment in their reading record on how they got on.

Please ensure your child comes to school every day with their coat, as we will go outside whether it be rain, hail, snow or sunshine. 

Please make sure your child has a named pair of wellies to be kept at school that will be worn outside in the EYFS garden, as well as some spare clothes in their bag in case we get wet or muddy. 

What an amazing year it has been!

Starting school and making new friends. Visits from Santa, Sweep, the police and many more. Learning to read and write and getting messy outside.

Going on number hunts and using our Maths to help us make some delicious treats. Playing lots of games to learn to share and take turns with our friends. Firetips have been busy and to end it all Sports Day and ice pops to cool us down during the hot days. Firetips have done so well this year and have turned into confident, caring and independent members of Margaret Wix. We are so super proud of them and wish them all the best for next year!

Summer 1 update

Firetips had a Roooooarsome half term! After reading Ten Little Dinosaurs the children made their own Dinosaur collages using lots of different materials and we consolidated our numbers to 10, counting forwards and backwords, finding one more and one less as the dinosaurs disappeared and reappeared.

We read loads of other stories such as Dinosaur Roar and Ten terryfing Dinosaurs and learnt lots of interesting facts about Dinosaurs, such as where and when they lived and that there was all sorts of different dinosaurs, flying and swimming ones, herbivores and carnivores. The children did an amazing job at painting their favourite ones.

The children's favourite part was making their own dinosaur biscuits. They remembered some of the ingredients we would need to make our biscuits and did a great job at helping to measure out all of the different ingredients using our weighing scales before decorating their unique dinosaurs. Yummie!! 

After reading If I had a dinosaur and How to look after my dinosaur we thought hard about which dinosaur we would like to have and why, and what we would do with them. Would we take them to the park? Or take them swimming? Or let them fly us to school? The children used their Phonics to write down their ideas and share them with their friends. The children have been working really hard this term with their phonics and are starting to become more and more confident in reading their books and writing more independently and can't wait to show of their super skills! 

To finish the term the children helped decorate the Early Years classrooms ready for the queens big Jubilee celebration. We learnt a bit about the queen and how long she has been queen for. We made our own crowns, decorated some fancy knickers for the queens big party after reading The queens knickers and the children thought hard about what kind of special present she should get on her big day! 

Spring 2 Update

Firetips have enjoyed their new classroom this term. We have been lucky enough to enjoy our new outside area both in the sunshine as well as the snow. The children loved showing their new classroom to their parents during our Parent Play and Stay sessions. Next term our Parent Sessions will be on Monday afternoon at 2.40 or for Nursery children leaving earlier at 11.30.

This term our topic was The Jungle! We learnt lots of things about the Jungle, made jungle animal biscuits, did animal yoga, dressed up like jungle animals in our role play Jungle area and made our own Jungle books. We even had a Jungle theme during Book week, reading Elmer, reminding us that we are all unique and special in our own way, making Firetips a fantastic place to be!

We also learnt about Easter and how and why people celebrate it. The children enjoyed making their Easter Cards and chocolate Easter nests and to finish it all off an Easter Egg Hunt. But our highlight this term must have been the visit of the chicks. The children were so excited at the arrival of the eggs and were expectantly watching them everyday, in the anticipation of the chicks hatching. The children loved watching and holding the chicks and we are so pleased they have gone to a good home close by.  

Next term will bring lots more fun with our Dinosaur topic. Until then we hope you have a lovely Easter break and don't forget to share your adventures on Tapestry!

Spring 1 Update

Firetips have had a busy first half of the Spring term. It has been a pleasure getting to know the children and spending time with them. They have loved playing outside, getting messy in the water, shaving foam and muddy puddles and we were even lucky enough to have a little bit of snow!

This term our topic was Fairytales. The children have helped turn our Role Play Area into the three little pigs brick house and loved making some porridge like Goldilocks. There was lots of dressing up and acting out the different fairy tales with puppets, huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf! The children have become real fairy tale experts!

We have had some exciting days such as Number day and Well being week with some yoga this term. As well as this we have had some exciting visits to Firetips. We had an artist come and show us some of her artwork and we produced our own art work inspirerd by Kandinsky, focusing on the maths aspect of it, including lots of shapes. The Police also came to Firetips to talk to us about what they do, how we can spot them when we need help and how to keep ourselves safe. 

We look forward to another exciting term ahead in our new classroom.

We wish you all a happy half term!

Autumn 2 Update 

The autumn 2 term has been another vibrant term full of more explorations, investigations, sparkly moments and lots of lovely learning in our indoor and outdoor environments. 

Our topic for this term has centred around People Who Help Us. The children in Firetips have really enjoyed learning about some of the professions who provide help to our community and to keep us safe. The children have marvelled and relished in the art of role-playing our key worker heroes, whether it be constructing a fire engine with construction blocks and loose parts, looking for clues and taking notes from a cordoned crime scene investigation or writing a prescription for a poorly pet visiting the vet Firetips have been ready for action to tackle any problem and become an everyday super hero!

Firetips have been very hardworking and proved great resilience in the lead up to and their performance in the Christmas Concert. The EYFS Team and I were so very impressed by how courageous and confident Firetips were when conducting themselves on and off stage for their first ever Christmas Concert! All were absolute super stars, spreading so much joy with their spirited singing and dance moves! 

Outdoor exploration has taken further strides to our very own Forest School! We are extraordinarily lucky to have such a magical place, full of awe and wonder to explore our natural world. The children in Firetips have been intrigued by the ecosystems and wildlife they have spotted in our Forest School. Recently, we were visited by the Christmas Phonics Fairy who left some phoneme (sound/letter) snowflakes dangling on branches for us to find in our Forest School. We came prepared with our new waterproofs, clipboards and pencils to jot down all the phonemes we could spot on the snowflakes. The children were excited by how many phoneme snowflakes they could find and shared with their friends which sounds they had found. The children returned to the garden to explore the 'snow' and practised forming some of the graphemes (letters) they had found in Forest School in the 'snow.'  

What a delightful term it has been and I am so proud of each and every member of Firetips for your amazing effort towards your learning! Ms Johnston is sad to say goodbye, as we come to the end of this term. It has been a pleasure to have got to know every individual child in Firetips. I am so very proud of you all and the journey you have had so far. For this next chapter, I warmly welcome Mrs Stachg to the Firetips team. I know she will make a wonderful new addition to the Margaret Wix community!

On behalf of the EYFS team and I we wish you and your families a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! We hope you enjoy this festive time of year with your families. 

Thank you for your kindness and support in helping your child make a strong start to their education. Mrs Stachg and the EYFS Team look forward to seeing you in the new year. 

Warm wishes,

The EYFS Firetips Team 

Week 5 and 6 Update

It is hard to believe we are nearly at the end of the half-term!

Firetips have enjoyed some new additions to our classroom and educational resources. A top favourite has been the versatile collection of dress-up costumes! Firetips have loved getting into character and participating in lots of fun role-play. 

The children in Firetips went on an autumn colour hunt to see how many different coloured autumnal objects they could find in the EYFS garden. They enjoyed exploring and investigating the autumnal objects they found. The children sorted the autumnal objects by colour and made their own nature faces on wood slices. Firetips were amazed to see the range of colours that we found. Particularly, when looking at the autumn leaves, the children were intrigued by the blend of autumn colours they could see on the one leaf. 

Firetips have also been working on their big muscle movements and problem solving skills. We have had car track painting patterns, building with wooden blocks roads and garages for our Firetips' cars and car mark making races just to name a few. A particular favourite problem solving activity was how to catch the conkers down the tubes. The children worked thoughtfully and collaboratively to find a variety of bowls, trays, buckets, cups and even a welly boot to see if the conkers could be caught securely. There is definitely never a dull moment in EYFS! 

Week 3 and 4 Update in Firetips

Week 3 and 4 Update

Weeks 3 and 4 have seen Firetips develop their confidence and settling in to school life. Reception Firetips have incrementally increased their stamina in the last two weeks, staying for full days. They have done exceptionally well, and should feel enormously proud of themselves!

The children in Firetips have been wonderfully explorative and have dived into some energetic and creative activities over the past two weeks. The children delightfully enjoyed participating in some big movement painting. The children used a variety of brushes, which then turned to hands and fingers to make a variety of paint strokes and patterns on big paper outside. The children were intrigued with colour mixing, and the texture of the paint. Even though it did get a bit messy, the children were actively involved in their creative outlet to make various marks, whilst strengthening the big muscles in their body (gross motor development), crossing the midline (which supports coordination and balance) and strengthening the hand and wrist when using their paint brush (fine motor development). 

Firetips have enjoyed the new addition to our outdoor area... football goals! The children have been highly engaged in practising their fancy footwork and aim to score a goal. They have also been practising how to take turns, play with a partner, or small group to enjoy the game together. 

It has been lovely to see children return to school with their 'All About Me' bags, and sharing what they have brought in for the week's talking topic. Do please keep bringing them back into school, as it is such a pleasure to hear the children share a bit more about themselves that is special to them. 

This week, we focused our attention to washing our hands properly. We used lots of various kinds of liquid hand soap in bottles and bars of soap. The children really enjoyed the sensorial experience, as well as having very clean and beautiful smelling hands! They continued the water play further mixing up lots of foam and bubbles, using an assortment of brushes, cloths and sponges to scrub windows, toys, benches and fences etc. Some children used spray bottles to wash off the soapy water. They had such a lot of fun! 

Firetips' First Blog of the Year

Welcome to the first blog post for the new academic year! On behalf of the Early Years team and I, we would like to warmly welcome you to Margaret Wix Primary School. It has been lovely to meet you all and getting to know your children.

Firetips have done so well coming into school with increasing confidence and settling in so nicely. They have really enjoyed exploring our new classroom and making new friends. 

Reception (and the Nursery children staying for two full days), have really benefitted from the staggered and gradual increase of time when being at school. Next week all Reception children and the Nursery children staying for two full days, will have their first full day week! We are sure they are going to enjoy the fun activities we have in store for them in the afternoon.   

As our termly topic is 'All About Me', we have been focusing on a different book linked to our topic each week. This week we have been reading the story, 'The Colour Monster'. This story is about feelings and associating them with colours. We have had many speaking and listening sessions this week discussing our feelings and starting to identify when we are feeling a certain way. During child-initiated learning (ChIL) the children explored a tuff tray where all the colourful objects had been mixed up, like the Colour Monster was feeling at the beginning of the story. To help the Colour Monster to group his emotions to colours, the children helped to sort the objects by colour using tweezers or by hand. The children also made their own monster using lots of different textures and materials. They were encouraged to say aloud which art materials they wanted to use to create their monster and what it would become, (e.g. the strings of wool will be the monster's hair). 

See below for some lovely photos of Firetips having lots of fun, making new friends and being brave exploring their new setting and routines.