Welcome to EYFS

Our class is called Firetips. 

Reception class are taught by Miss S (Monday-Wednesday) and Mrs Ralph (Wednesday-Friday).

Our early years practitioner is Miss Surridge and Nursery support is Miss Jones. Reception are supported by Mrs Cousins (Monday & Tuesday) Miss Rossiter (Wednesday-Friday).

PE Days

Firetips will have PE on a Tuesday and a Thursday.  Children will need to wear their PE kit to school on this day and will remain in them all day. As the weather changes, please ensure your child has the correct PE kit so they can participate successfully. 

Library Slot

Your child will get an opportunity to visit the school library on a Monday afternoon if your child is in Reception or on a Wednesday morning if they are in Nursery. Here they will have the chance to borrow a book that they are interested in: a book they will read for pleasure.  If they wish to take a book home, this will need to be returned on a Monday/Wednesday morning ready to change.

Give Me Ten 

Children are expected to read for at least ten minutes every day and this should be recorded in their reading record by a parent/carer. Children should bring their reading record to school every day. We hope to see lots of children becoming Reading Champions this year and celebrating them in our Friday celebration assemblies.

Important dates

Tuesday 22nd April- Children return to school

Monday 5th May- School closed Bank Holiday

Thursday 8th May- Physical Development share & learn (Nursery & Reception)

Friday 9th May- PTA Disco

Wednesday 21st May- Trip to Hertfordshire Zoo (TBC)

Friday 23rd May- Break up for half term

Monday 2nd June- INSET DAY

Tuesday 3rd June- Children return to school

Monday 16th June- Class school photos

Spring 2

This term has flown by! Only two half terms to go...

This term we have learnt all about life under the sea and Pirates.

Phonics in Reception, has seen us continuing to remember our Phase 3 tricky words and sounds whilst introducing 's/es' and 'ing' on the end of words. Phonics in Nursery, has continued to introduce phase 2 sounds (c, k, e u, r, h), recap rhyme in our rhyme time sessions.

In literacy, we have planned and wrote our own stories, created a class fact book on sea life. We have created lists and linked our learning powers with characters from stories. Used drama to act out '10 Little Pirates' and wrote our own endings of a story.

In Reception maths, we have continued to consolidate numbers bond to 5 and 10. Remember, for your child to achieve their early learning goal in maths, they must be able to recall these by memory. We then explored money, odd and even numbers, doubling and finally, halving. Please use suggested websites/songs and activities where you can at home, to consolidate all your child's learning that occurs in school.

In Nursery maths, we have continued to develop our subitising skills (recognising an amount without counting), naming and recognising 2D shapes, identifying most/least and matching quantity to a numeral.

We have continued to develop our Expressive Art Design skills through the use of paint, printing and collage as we created Daffodil artwork, Easter chick cards and created beach scenes imitating the work of Claude Monet. The children have enjoyed communicating and acting out roles in our Pirate ship and on our outdoor stage. We performed in our second music concert this year. Showing off our wonderful song and djembe drumming skills.

Understanding of the world

In Science we have explored sea life and their habitats.

In our R.E sessions, we have explored the Easter story and how Christian's celebrate Easter and why. We looked at Easter symbols, ate Hot Cross Buns and discussed the relevance of these and Easter eggs at Easter time.

In our 'Feel good Friday' sessions (Personal, Social and Emotional), we have explored keeping healthy. We sorted and grouped healthy and unhealthy foods, made fruit salads, took part in a yoga session, discussed safe strangers and unsafe strangers and explored germs and hand washing.

In P.E (Physical development), we have developed our ball skills through controlling and moving balls with precision. This was with big and small balls to further develop our control.

Communication & Language

We have loved hearing all about the children's favourite books during show and tell this term. Our confidence and ability in communicating with others is putting our Oracy skills to good use. Next term, show and tell will see us bringing back Paddington. Paddington will come home with the writer of the week and spend the weekend with you. The children can then write/draw about their weekend adventures with Paddington, before sharing with their friends in class the following week.

Please check above for our important dates for next term.

Have a lovely half term,

Mrs Ralph, Miss and the EYFS team

Spring 1

A short but sweet term. A term where children seem to grow that bit more and try to be more independent. 

In phonics, we continued to delve into our phase 3 sounds, blending and segmenting words before applying them into sentences. Don’t forget to use the Little Wandle website to help you at home. Here you will find useful videos on how to support your child with the phonics stage they are working within.

In maths we kick started the term with shapes. We introduced 3D shapes and how these differ to 2D shapes. We then created a 3D museum in class of real life objects that represented 3D shapes. A ping-pong ball for a sphere and a dice for a cube are some examples. This type of activity can easily be done in and around the house. We then continued to work hard developing our understanding of number. We explored numbers bonds to five, before exploring number bonds to ten. Here the children used numicon, five/tens frames with counting objects to identify which two numbers made either five or ten. Do use suggestions given on tapestry to consolidate all learning in class.

The children took part in some amazing activities to consolidate their knowledge on fairytales and Chinese new year. They made porridge like the three bears in DT. They made houses out of different materials like the three little pigs. We jetted off to China where we had a two course meal in a Chinese restaurant and created lanterns and snakes to celebrate the year of the snake.

Please do keep reading, reading truly is the door to many successes and there is huge evidence proving this. Let’s get as many of EYFS at our book vending machine by Easter.

Next term we explore our oceans and sea life. You will find all the texts that we will be exploring in our ‘focus text’ star, on our class page.

Have a wonderful half term,

Mrs Ralph and Miss S

Autumn 2

Welcome to our last blog of the autumn term…

We cannot believe how quickly this half term has flown by. What a lot of things we have done! 

Our topic focussed on celebrations that different people celebrate. Through a variety of texts, we have explored Bonfire night, Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas. The children have used their phonics to create; books, posters, cards, invitations, add speech to images and write descriptions. 

Through the continuation of our daily little wandle phonic sessions, the children have now learnt all phase 2 sounds and began phase 3 (ch, sh, th, nk, ng). After the break we continue with our phase 3 sounds and will begin to explore ‘ai,’ ‘ee,’ ‘oa’ and ‘igh.’

In maths, we have been using language to describe the properties of 2D shapes and finding real life 2D shapes. We have been adding and taking away from an amount. The children began to explore number bonds and which two numbers added together, make 5. Do continue to explore the above areas through games on topmarks.com or through the use of songs which can be found online. 

Our trip to the Cathedral was a success and the children LOVED catching the bus and learning all about our local town, St Albans. We are looking forward to heading back into town to visit the Library next term. 

This past two weeks have been the busiest, fullest final two weeks we have ever had had this point in the year. We would like to thank the children for bringing the calm in the chaos and filling our hearts with joy and pride. The nativity was out of the world and many visitors have been impressed by all of their learning powers. We celebrated by having so much fun at the Christmas party, with many treats, games and prizes.

Whatever your plans are over the next two weeks, enjoy every moment together. Time is flying as always.

See you for Spring term very soon.

Mrs Ralphs, Miss S and the EYFS team

Autumn 1

The first half term is complete - what a busy half term it has been. We have been building strong relationships, creating lifelong friendships and simply having a ball!

We kicked started our year with a visit from 'Little City.' This developed our communication and language skills as we took on different roles in the city. It developed our personal, social and emotional skills as we played alongside peers and took turns using the equipment. Finally, it helped to develop our understanding of the world.

We explored our families, homes and interests as we read 'Monkey Puzzle.' During our session all about pets, Toast the Tortoise came to visit us. We also had many visitors when we read the text 'A superhero like you’: we had a Q&A video call with Sergeant Rossiter (a firearms officer); a face-to-face session with PC Alex; and a session with our local dentist who brought goody bags in for each child. A huge thank you to all for giving up their time to provide these amazing sessions for our children.

We learned about harvest as we baked bread like the ‘Little Red Hen’ did in our weekly focus text. The children created hedgehog habitats as we learnt about autumn and hibernation in science.

In phonics, we have now explored all Phase 2 sounds and continued to work on our blending and segmenting to help us with reading and writing. Do keep working on recognising and blending words - remember, once confident, your child will bring home a reading book with words.

In maths, we have explored patterns with everyday objects and 2D shapes. We consolidated our knowledge of properties of 2D shapes. We have explored weight (heavy/light) and measure, identifying biggest/tallest and smallest/shortest. We have spent a lot of time gaining a stronger understanding of numbers 1-10. Numberblocks helped us visualise numbers and understand how two numbers added together can make a new number. Subitising skills have been developed as we played board games and used dice in lessons. Tens frames were introduced during a fantastic game called 'tens frame dash.'

Useful websites to help consolidate this half term’s learning:

BBC iPlayer- Numberblocks

Jolly phonic songs on Youtube

ICT games website

Phonics play website

Topmarks website