Year R

Class Teacher: Mrs Mann 

Teaching Assistants: Miss Palmer (AM), Mrs Coldwell (Monday-Thursday) Mrs Mawer (Friday mornings) & Mrs Upham (Friday afternoons)

 

Website links:

Here is a game we have enjoyed playing together in class.

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/yes-no-yeti?phase=3

This is the link to the Little Wandle videos to help with how we say the phonemes. 

https://www.littlewandle.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

 

Songs we use to help us learn in Maths:

Number bonds 5 - Bing Videos

Number bonds 10 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD9tjBUiXs0 

Big Number Song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0dJWfQHF8Y 

 

Recent learning:

Investigating Plants

As part of our learning in Understanding the World and science, we have been busy investigating plants. The children have explored different parts of plants, including bulbs, roots and stems, and have been learning about their important roles.

We have planted our own and carefully observed how they grow over time, discussing the different stages in a plant’s lifecycle. The children have shown great curiosity, especially when learning about pollination and the important role insects play in helping plants to grow.

One of our favourite activities has been our cucumber experiment. We have germinated seeds, closely observed the changes as they begin to grow, and taken great care in nurturing them. We are very excited to continue looking after our plants and can’t wait to take our cucumber plants home soon!

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Perfumes and Potions!

Linked to our plant focus, the children have been busy using flowers to create their very own perfumes and potions. This hands-on activity kept us engaged all day as the children explored mixing, pouring and experimenting with natural materials.

They developed fantastic fine motor skills while using pestle and mortars, pipettes and miniature spray bottles, carefully crushing, squeezing and transferring their ingredients. It was wonderful to see their creativity and curiosity shine as they created their own special mixtures.

A beautiful blend of science, sensory play and imaginative exploration!

 

Here are a few snaps of reading and writing enhancements within our provision

Phonics Stay and Play Reminder

Dear Parents and Carers,

We would love to invite you into Ash Class to join us for a phonics session! This is a wonderful opportunity to see a live phonics lesson, celebrate how much progress the children have made since the Autumn term, and take part in some fun phonics-based games together.
Each session will run from 9:00–9:45am (approximately), with a short stay-and-play afterwards for games and activities.
Available dates:

Friday 27th March
Tuesday 31st March
Wednesday 1st April

To help keep things calm and comfortable for the children, we can welcome a maximum of 8 parents per session.
If you are unable to attend, please don’t worry, we fully understand work commitments and other responsibilities. We would still love to see you if you can make it!
Please keep an eye out for the sign‑up sheet or reply to the message sent on tapestry.
We’re looking forward to sharing our phonics learning with you!
Many thanks Mrs Mann

 

World Book Day Celebrations and Drawing Club with Our Year 6 Buddies

We had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day in Ash Class with lots of exciting book-themed activities throughout the day. The children each had the opportunity to choose two “new to us” books from the wonderful PTA book shop, which was a real highlight.

We also enjoyed a special Drop Everything and Read session where everyone took time to relax and enjoy a good story. One of the most exciting moments of the day was heading to the hall to catwalk our fantastic costumes in front of the whole school. The children did this with great confidence and pride!

As part of the celebrations, we also helped choose a story for Cannington’s Big Read, alongside taking part in many other fun activities inspired by books and storytelling. It was a wonderful day celebrating our love of reading and the magic of stories! 

We had a very special Drawing Club session for World Book Day as Mrs Mann led the activity alongside our wonderful Year 6 buddies. The children loved sharing the magic and power of Drawing Club with them while listening to the story Granny’s Easter Eggs Are Not the Sort You Eat.

Our focus vocabulary for this one-off session was brittle, speckled and emerge. The children enjoyed discussing these new words and spotting how they linked to the story. Working together with their buddies, they drew and wrote about what they would hide inside their own special Easter egg.

It was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate reading, creativity and teamwork across the school, and the children were very proud to share their Drawing Club ideas with the older pupils.

 

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Fun Outside!

We’ve been making the most of our outdoor area and having lots of fun! The children enjoyed taking part in a rolling challenge, exploring mark-making on the chalk boards, and spending time in our fantastic new sand pit.

There has been so much to explore, create and investigate, with plenty of opportunities for teamwork, creativity and physical development. We can’t wait to keep building on this outdoor learning!

Pen Disco Fun!

We enjoyed our very first Pen Disco session this week! With music playing, the children practised drawing triangles in time to the beat. It was a fantastic way to develop pencil control and shape formation while adding movement and fun to our learning.

Lots of concentration, great rhythm and brilliant triangle drawing, we can’t wait for our next Pen Disco!

Super Sentence Writing!

Since returning from half term, we have been working incredibly hard on writing sentences every day as part of our phonics sessions. The children have been practising remembering key writing skills, including using capital letters at the beginning of their sentences, leaving finger spaces between words, and finishing with full stops.

It has been fantastic to see their growing confidence and independence as they apply their phonics knowledge to their writing. We are so proud of the progress they are making in becoming careful and thoughtful writers!

 

 

Space and Whatever Next

What an exciting week we have had in Ash Class! Our focus text has been Whatever Next!, which has truly sparked the children’s imaginations. We explored rich new vocabulary including orbit, adventure, launch, galaxy and rocket, using these words confidently in our discussions and learning.

In Drawing Club and English, the children sequenced pictures from the story to show their understanding of the narrative and independently wrote about the text, demonstrating fantastic progress in their writing. Our classroom has been filled with space-themed enhancements, inspiring imaginative play and storytelling.

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Spring 2 Overview

Celebrating Lunar New Year

In Ash we have been learning about Lunar New Year, linking our learning to Geography and Understanding the World. We explored the continent of Asia and focused on China, comparing it to England. The children were excited to learn about Beijing and made fantastic links to our previous learning about London, comparing the skylines of these two amazing capital cities. Inspired by this, some impressive skyscrapers were built in our construction area!

We studied the beautiful written symbols used in China and remembered that we already know how to greet one another in Mandarin, saying 你好 (nǐ hǎo), which is one of the languages we use when answering the register. The children explored creating their own Chinese-inspired symbols using different media, including paint and even vibrant orange sand, developing both creativity and fine motor control.

The children enjoyed using a range of Chinese-themed resources, and they practised their fine motor skills by using chopsticks to pick up noodles , which proved to be both tricky and fun! We also learned about the Chinese Zodiac. As it is the Year of the Horse, we created wonderful horses in the creative area. The children were brilliant at ordering the animals according to the Zodiac race story although we all felt very sorry for the cat!

It has been a fantastic week of cultural learning, creativity and global exploration.

 

 

There’s a Spider in the Bath!

This week our learning has been inspired by the hilarious story There’s a Spider in the Bath! A book that truly captured the children’s interest, especially as Mrs Mann bravely admitted she is not the biggest fan of spiders! This certainly added to the excitement and plenty of giggles throughout the week.

We explored lots of rich new vocabulary including spindly, jumpy, crawling, trembling and arachnid. The children enjoyed using these words to describe the spider’s movements and the characters’ reactions in the story. It was wonderful to hear them confidently weaving this language into their role play, discussions and drawing.

Through storytelling, drama and creative activities, the children developed their understanding of descriptive language while building confidence in speaking and expressing their ideas. A week full of laughter, imagination and just a few “trembling” moments!

 

 

Love is in the air in Ash

This week the children enjoyed creating their own Valentine’s Day cards. They carefully designed and decorated their cards before writing special messages inside for someone important to them. It was lovely to see their creativity shine and their growing confidence in writing. A learning task with kindness, care and lots of love in Ash Class! ❤️

 

Our visit to the Church

As part of our RE learning about special places, we visited our local church this week. The children were wonderfully respectful and curious as they explored the building and discovered why it is a special place for many people.

During our visit, we focused on the three different altars and learned about their importance within the church. We also admired the beautiful stained glass windows, noticing the colours and patterns as the light shone through them. Rev Alison very kindly rang the church bells for us, which was an exciting experience and something we all loved hearing.

It was a valuable visit that brought our learning to life and deepened our understanding of why the church is a special place within our community.

 

 

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The Three Little Pigs

Dinosaur Discoveries

Our classroom has been full of prehistoric excitement as we’ve explored the fascinating world of dinosaurs. The children have been learning about dinosaur diets and confidently using new vocabulary such as herbivore, carnivore and omnivore to describe what different dinosaurs might have eaten.

We became palaeontologists, carefully investigating sensory bags to discover hidden “bones” and making thoughtful predictions about which dinosaurs they might belong to. The children showed great curiosity and reasoning skills as they examined shapes and shared their ideas.

To deepen our learning, we made salt dough and formed our very own dinosaur bones, thinking carefully about size, shape and texture. It has been a hands-on, imaginative focus that has sparked lots of discussion, creativity and scientific thinking.

 

 

 

 

Come outside!

 

We are so excited to share some of the wonderful new additions to our EYFS outdoor provision! Since the landscaping during the summer, our outdoor area has continued to develop, giving the children even more opportunities to explore, move and learn through play.

The children have particularly loved using the new brooms, taking great pride in sweeping and caring for their environment. This not only encourages responsibility and teamwork but also supports coordination and upper body strength. Our new climbing frame and tunnel have already proved very popular, with children building confidence as they climb, balance, crawl and navigate different spaces. We have also introduced a fantastic upcycled rocker, which has inspired imaginative play alongside balance and core strength development and lots of laughter!

A huge thank you must go to Ben, Chris, Jo, Kerrie and Dean, who generously gave up their time on Sunday to help us build the new sandpit, outdoor kitchen and install the wellie racks. We are so grateful for your support in helping us create such a rich and purposeful learning environment for the children.

Developing our outdoor space is incredibly important in EYFS. Large-scale physical play, climbing, sweeping, digging, balancing and crawling strengthens children’s gross motor skills. As these muscles develop, children build the stability and core strength needed to support fine motor skills, which are essential for pencil control, mark making and early writing. Strong bodies help create strong writers!

This is just the beginning. We are continuing to enhance and develop this area to ensure it remains an exciting, challenging and inspiring environment for our children. Watch this space — there is still more to come!

Reading Café!

Today the children enjoyed a very special Reading Café session, where they relaxed with a snack while reading their phonetically decodable books. This cosy and enjoyable experience helped build confidence and motivation as the children practised using their phonics skills to read independently.

It was lovely to see how engaged and enthusiastic they were, and it was definitely a very popular activity!

 

Investigating Light, Reflection and Shadows

As part of our science, the children have been exploring light and shadows through a range of hands-on experiences. We began by identifying different sources of light and talking about objects that reflect light. Using the light box and an old overhead projector, the children explored how light travels and creates images (with a lovely link to history as they discovered how technology has changed over time).

The children investigated a variety of materials on the light box, using rich scientific vocabulary such as transparent, opaque, bright and dark to describe what they could see. They observed how some materials allow light to pass through, while others block it completely, leading to thoughtful discussions and predictions.

To deepen their understanding of shadows, the children explored silhouettes through creative activities. They made stick puppets, experimented with hand shadow puppets, and took part in shadow drawing, carefully observing how shapes change depending on the position of the light source. These activities encouraged curiosity, creativity and early scientific enquiry, while developing fine motor skills and expressive language.

The children have showed great enthusiasm and growing confidence in using scientific language as they explored how light and shadows are created.

 

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Drawing club!

Today we launched our very first Drawing Club session and the excitement in the classroom was wonderful to see! This week’s vocabulary words are creep, furry, swirling, fearful and windy, and the children have been using them confidently as they explored our story focus, The Hairy Toe.

Mrs Mann created a much-loved hairy toe for the tuff tray, complete with story props, which quickly became the centre of some fantastic role play and storytelling. It was brilliant to hear the classroom filled with growls of “Who has my hairy toe?” as the children retold and adapted the story in their own imaginative ways.

During Drawing Club, the children spent time drawing their own monsters, carefully thinking about details and features. Some children even added a special code to their drawings, making their monsters do something silly! This was a fantastic opportunity to develop creativity, storytelling, mark-making and early writing skills, all while building confidence and excitement around drawing and imagination.

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Exploring Ice, Weather and the Changing Seasons

Today the children thoroughly enjoyed exploring ice outdoors, following the recent cold spell. This provided a fantastic opportunity to talk about the changing seasons and winter weather patterns, linking our learning to geography as well as science. The children discussed why the water had frozen, how temperature affects materials, and what happens when the weather becomes colder.

As they investigated the ice, the children experimented with breaking it apart and closely observed the different shapes they created. This led to rich conversations about cause and effect, I wonder what happens when we apply force, warmth, or pressure, and how these actions change the ice. Key vocabulary such as ice, freeze, frozen, temperature, solid, liquid and water was used confidently as the children shared their ideas and predictions.

The children also carried out their own simple investigation by placing water-covered doilies into different containers to observe what might happen over time. This encouraged curiosity, careful observation, and early scientific thinking. There were thoughtful predictions about when and how changes would occur. We are excited to check back tomorrow and see the results. Overall, it was a highly engaging experience that supported understanding of seasonal change, weather, materials, and scientific enquiry, all through hands-on exploration and play. 

 

Happy New Year and welcome to Spring 1

 

 

 

Santa Maps and a Very Special Visitor!

Building on our map work from earlier this half term, the children returned from lunch to an exciting surprise — the arrival of Tinsel Toes the elf, sent by Santa to keep an eye on us during the final week of school! Tinsel Toes also had an important job for the children: to help create a map to their house so Santa can find his way on Christmas Eve.

Using their developing map knowledge, the children carefully drew maps showing the journey from the North Pole to their own homes. They included key symbols, chose appropriate colours, and used wonderful mark-making skills to create their own unique maps. It was fantastic to see how confidently they applied their learning, adding a festive sense of purpose to their map-making!

 

 Whole School Nativity!

We are incredibly proud of Ash Class for their amazing performances in all three whole-school nativity shows this week. The children sang beautifully, remembered their places with confidence, and showed such enthusiasm and teamwork on stage. Their hard work in rehearsals really paid off, and it was wonderful to see them performing with such joy and pride.

A huge well done to our brilliant Ash Class! You truly shone like stars! 🌟

Measuring, Snipping and Creating Christmas Trees!

This week, the children took part in a lovely creative maths task with a festive twist. They carefully cut strips of Christmas paper to different lengths and then arranged them to build their very own Christmas trees. The activity supported accurate measuring, comparison of lengths, and lots of focused scissor practice. The children worked with great concentration and creativity — all while enjoying a sprinkle of Christmas magic!

Christmas Calls

 

As part of our maths learning on digits, we enjoyed a very popular phone-themed activity outside this week. The children had great fun reading the different phone numbers, matching the digits carefully, and then using the phones to have imaginative conversations with some very well-known characters! This playful activity really supported their recognition of numerals and helped build confidence in reading numbers in a meaningful, engaging way.

The Nativity at Blackmore Farm

Today we set off on our very first coach trip of the year, filled with excitement for our visit to Blackmore Farm. When we arrived, we were welcomed into a wonderful, immersive retelling of the Christmas Story. Guided by kind shepherds, we travelled towards Bethlehem, taking part in the census along the way and even paying our taxes just like people would have done long ago!

When we reached Bethlehem, we discovered that all the inns were full, but eventually we found the stable where a very special miracle took place. The children were captivated throughout, showing great curiosity and understanding as the story unfolded around them.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, and it has truly deepened the children’s knowledge and understanding of the Christmas Story. A magical experience to begin the festive season!

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Phonics Fun with Magnetic Letters!

For one of our learning tasks this week we recapped our recent grapheme knowledge by using magnetic letters to build words. The children looked carefully at the picture, sounded out each word, and then selected the correct letters to match. They worked brilliantly, showing growing confidence in blending and segmenting. A great hands-on way to strengthen their early reading and spelling skills!

Bridgwater Carnival Visits Ash Class

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Discovering Maps and Our Capital City!

This week we have been developing our understanding of maps in a very exciting way. Using Google Maps, the children explored the world from above, quickly spotting the UK and learning that we live in England. From there, we zoomed into our capital city, London, and revisited our prior knowledge about the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and the Gunpowder Plot.

We talked about famous landmarks and who lives in London, from the Prime Minister and King Charles to one of the children’s favourites, Paddington Bear! During choosing our learning time, the children showed amazing creativity as they built skyscrapers and London landmarks, drew their own maps of the city, and even enjoyed a lively “open-top bus tour” of London, taking in all the sights and sounds of our bustling capital.

We’re excited to continue exploring and developing our map skills throughout this half term!

 

Outdoor Kitchen - Thank you!

A huge thank you to a Susanna Taylor and Travis Perkins who have donated a huge bag of play bark and membrane, so that we were able to complete the next stage of our EYFS landscaping development. It looks amazing and has saved the school a considerable amount of money from all of Ash class a gigantic thank you! 

Shopping list fun.

As part of our work on the classic text Don’t Forget the Bacon!, the children took part in a fun and practical shopping list activities. They listened carefully to the story and then created their own lists, practising their early writing skills and using picture cues to help them remember each item as well as developing reading skills and matching words to pictures. The children had great fun shopping around the classroom, collecting the items on their lists and checking them off just like real shoppers. A brilliant way to build memory, language and early literacy skills...... and nobody forgot the bacon!

 

Exploring Cars, Pipes, and Guttering!

This week, we’ve had so much fun experimenting with cars, pipes, and guttering in our outdoor area. The children made fantastic predictions and carried out their own investigations, exploring how different angles, distances, and surfaces affect speed. It’s been wonderful to see their curiosity and problem-solving skills in action — such brilliant early foundations for scientific thinking and mathematical understanding!

Remember Remember the 5th of November

This week, we learned all about Bonfire Night and the story of Guy Fawkes. The children were fascinated by the history behind the celebrations and loved watching some beautiful fireworks displays. We took our creativity outdoors, painting large-scale fireworks with bright and bold colours! We also talked about how to stay safe around fireworks and bonfires — showing great understanding and sensible ideas. What a wonderful mix of history, art, and safety learning!

 

 

The Gingerbread Man

This week we have been immersed in the traditional tale of The Gingerbread Man. We have made marks in ginger, explored ginger playdough, decorated and created lovely gingerbread artwork, ordered different quantities of gingerbread men and created wonderful story maps.

We all had a go at creating our own story but changing the characters. This was lots of fun and we had lots of wonderful characters included including lots of sharks!

 

We have developed our STEM knowledge by building bridges both inside and outside to help the Gingerbread Man cross the bridge.

Welcome back to Autumn 2

Half term home learning and adventures.

Many thanks for those who have uploaded photos, videos and observations over the October half term. Children have made fireworks using junk modelling, carved pumpkins, made carnival carts and so much more!

 

Happy Diwali

This week in EYFS, we have been learning all about Diwali. Jack kindly brought in some wonderful items to share with us, helping us explore the celebration in more detail. We listened to and acted out the story of Rama and Sita using masks, made and decorated our own salt dough diva lamps, and created beautiful henna hand patterns. The children also enjoyed Diwali-themed puzzles, creating Rangoli patterns, maths activities, traditional dances, and even made chapatis! Ash Class glowed with calmness and pride as we lit our diva lamps to finish our celebrations. 

Can I use clay to make an animal sculpture?

We have been using play dough and clay as part of our art focus this half term.
We have learnt how we can change how play dough looks using equipment and manipulate it to create objects or even people. This gave us a great base of knowledge before moving on to clay.
We looked at the work of Julie Wilson a famous artist and we’re very impressed by her sculptures. We then designed our own before creating it out of clay. We look forward to bringing these home soon when they are fully dry and painted.

 

Pantosaurus 

In Ash we have been learning all about keeping ourselves safe, both in school and at home. We enjoyed listening to the Pantosaurus song who helps children understand that their body belongs to them and that they can say “no” if something doesn’t feel right. Through song we explored how to stay safe while still having fun, and the children showed great confidence in sharing their ideas about who they can talk to if they ever feel worried.

Please listen to this together at home following the link below, the NSPCC website also have lots of ideas and advice to help have these conversations at home. 

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/pants-underwear-rule/

//www.youtube.com/embed/-lL07JOGU5o#t=0.5

 

 

 

Autumn Adventures

This week in Ash class the children have been busy exploring the wonders of Autumn. A big thank you to all our families for helping the children to fill their Autumn bags over the weekends – the children have loved sharing and exploring these treasures together.

We have been observing and discussing the changes of the season, rolling conkers and measuring how far they can travel, and creating insects and artwork using the beautiful natural resources collected. These activities have sparked lots of curiosity, conversation, and creativity, and it has been wonderful to see the children learning through play and discovery.

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Phonics

This week we have focused on S,A,T and P. 

We have had many enhancements so we have frequent opportunities to embed our new knowledge. 

 

Here are just a few photos.

S- cutting spaghetti with scissors

A- Apple art with spray bottles

T- Lots of tea party play and tracing paper skills

 

The Colour Monster

This week we have discussed our emotions and our focus text has been the colour monster. This then lead to some great colour monster paintings and discussion over our emotions. 

 

 

 

 

Storm - Knowledge and Understanding of the World

This afternoon we were very excited and interested in the thunderstorm. We listened carefully to the thunder and Mrs Mann showed us a lightening tracker on the computer which we really enjoyed studying. We spoke about other countries we knew and then checked to see if they had any lightening too. The hailstones then added the extra wow factor and Mrs Mann braved the storm to go and fetch some for us to look at. What a great experience for us to share in school together.

 

Bikes - Physical Development

We were excited to have bikes outside today as a new challenge and we were working on our waiting and turn taking skills as well as core strength, team work and endless physical skills using these. The circle bike was very well received and they really enjoyed zooming around on it together.

 

 

 

Starting School. 

We have made a fabulous start on our school journey. We’ve explored the classroom, enjoyed playing outside, caught up with friends we haven’t seen over the summer and started to form new friendships. We've eaten our lunch in the big hall and played outside with the older children. Since day one we have enjoyed daily squiggle while you wriggle sessions.