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Ash Class
Year R
Class Teacher: Mrs Mann
Teaching Assistants: Miss Palmer (AM), Mrs Cannell (PM), Mrs Mawer (Friday mornings) & Mrs Upham (Friday afternoons)
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.
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.
/i/video/Autumn_Adventures_in_Ash_Class.mp4
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
Autumn 1 Overview
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.
Reading Books
Please ensure that books are returned every Monday and Thursday to be changed.
Wordless books and reading information
At first, you will notice these books are wordless. Wordless books are the first stage of your child's phonics journey. It gives you the perfect opportunity to establish a routine together without the pressure of actually 'reading' words. Every family will have a different space and time that works best for you to read together we just ask that you record it in their reading record. You can record any reading practice, it doesn't need to be the book we send home we also love to know when you have read a recipe, a magazine or even the instructions of a game, any reading is beneficial. Of course they will usually find the reading books from school easier to read as the words have been specially selected to match their current phonic development.
Wordless books are really important to develop oracy skills and support language development. It is important you spend time together looking at the illustrations and images and discussing the possible story. Encourage your children to ask questions and share their ideas but also to listen to you or others about their ideas. Wordless books are fantastic at supporting children's vocabulary. Vocabulary is a key predictor to later academic success. Check that your children know different objects within the book and help them identify anything they are unfamiliar with. If they describe something as 'small' maybe next time you read the book you can introduce the word 'tiny' instead to extend their vocabulary. Wordless books still have a beginning, middle and end structure and usually a problem and resolution. Can your child identify any of these parts of the story or who the characters are what is the setting? Is this story familiar to anything they've read before? Can they predict what might happen next?
Other ideas when reading with your child:
- Play I spy using the book
- Find objects which start with focus sounds
- Find things that rhyme
- Clap the syllables in words
- Can the adult can model segmenting a word such as 'can you find the c....a.....t' your child will then use their blending skills to bring these sounds together to make the word cat.
- Can your child discuss the facial expressions of some of the characters can they use their inference skills and discuss why they might be feeling that way? Have they ever felt that way?
- Can they retell the story in their own words to you a pet or a teddy bear?
- Can they share their story over facetime with a family member?
- Can they role play the story or act parts out?
Reading is a life long skill we want to foster in all children in our care so please make reading a priority in your children's routine.
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or need further support.
Thank you to those who have signed up to our open phonics mornings, some spaces are still available the sheet is up on the classroom door.
Mrs Mann
Please help your children to look after these books they are expensive to buy and we have limited funding so your support ensuring your children take care of them really helps, thank you in advance.
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.
2024-2025
Summer 1 Knowledge Organiser
/docs/_Knowledge_Organiser_Summer.png
Spring 2 Knowledge Organiser
Spring 1 Knowledge Organiser
Autumn 2 Knowledge Organiser
Autumn 1 Knowledge Organiser
Reading books
Please ensure that books are returned every Monday and Thursday to be changed.
Wordless books and reading information
At first, you will notice these books are wordless. Wordless books are the first stage of your child's phonics journey. It gives you the perfect opportunity to establish a routine together without the pressure of actually 'reading' words. Every family will have a different space and time that works best for you to read together we just ask that you record it in their reading record. You can record any reading practice, it doesn't need to be the book we send home we also love to know when you have read a recipe, a magazine or even the instructions of a game, any reading is beneficial. Of course they will usually find the reading books from school easier to read as the words have been specially selected to match their current phonic development.
Wordless books are really important to develop oracy skills and support language development. It is important you spend time together looking at the illustrations and images and discussing the possible story. Encourage your children to ask questions and share their ideas but also to listen to you or others about their ideas. Wordless books are fantastic at supporting children's vocabulary. Vocabulary is a key predictor to later academic success. Check that your children know different objects within the book and help them identify anything they are unfamiliar with. If they describe something as 'small' maybe next time you read the book you can introduce the word 'tiny' instead to extend their vocabulary. Wordless books still have a beginning, middle and end structure and usually a problem and resolution. Can your child identify any of these parts of the story or who the characters are what is the setting? Is this story familiar to anything they've read before? Can they predict what might happen next?
Other ideas when reading with your child:
- Play I spy using the book
- Find objects which start with focus sounds
- Find things that rhyme
- Clap the syllables in words
- Can the adult can model segmenting a word such as 'can you find the c....a.....t' your child will then use their blending skills to bring these sounds together to make the word cat.
- Can your child discuss the facial expressions of some of the characters can they use their inference skills and discuss why they might be feeling that way? Have they ever felt that way?
- Can they retell the story in their own words to you a pet or a teddy bear?
- Can they share their story over facetime with a family member?
- Can they role play the story or act parts out?
Reading is a life long skill we want to foster in all children in our care so please make reading a priority in your children's routine.
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or need further support.
Thank you to those who have signed up to our open phonics mornings, some spaces are still available the sheet is up on the classroom door.
Mrs Mann
Please help your children to look after these books they are expensive to buy and we have limited funding so your support ensuring your children take care of them really helps, thank you in advance.
Class of 2023-2024
Ash Class School Trip
We had a wonderful day at Rodway Farm! We have lots of tired children who will hopefully sleep well tonight. We were met by Dani from Farmlink who showed us where to go on arrival. We began with a walk to the dairy cow shed where there were 200 cows! Dani explained how the cows are fed - they have a magnet around their neck and if they have eaten enough for the day the magnet will not work at the feeding station. Dani also told us that cows only sleep for 20 minutes a day! Imagine only having 20 minutes sleep! We went to the dry cow shed where there were pregnant cows and one looked as if it was very nearly ready to give birth to a calf. We stopped for lunch and then Dani showed us the sheep with their lambs. We all had chance to cuddle a lamb but Mrs Upham’s lamb was the LOUDEST! and VERY wriggly! On our way back to school we stopped for a biscuit and then completed our walk, arriving back just in time to prepare for home time.
This is our Word Wall for Spring 2, we are certainly working hard at segmenting and blending in our writing.
In Ash Class we are learning the song; Catch A Falling Star as part of our learning to link with the topic this half term: 5,4,3,2,1...Blast off!
