Early Years Foundation Stage
Children joining EYFS (Reception) in August 2024.
In order to ensure a smooth transition for your child starting school in August, we will be having staggered sessions for their first week of the term. This reduces the number of children in the class initially so that it is less overwhelming for them. The children will be split into two groups depending on their date of birth, called 'younger' or 'older', for these staggered start sessions. If your child is born before 1st March 2020, they are our 'older' children. Children born on or after 1st March, 2020 are our 'younger' children.
EYFS - week commencing 13th May, 2024.
As the weather is less rainy at last, the children are choosing to be in our outside classroom for longer periods of time - PLEASE remember to bring a named bottle of water and a named sun hat. It would also be great if you could apply sunscreen before school. As someone with very pale skin, I can highly recommend a suncream that lasts for 7 hours and this will avoid your child having to re-apply their own sun cream and getting in their eyes.
In Literacy lessons, we will be listening to, discussing, acting out and writing about the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.
In Understanding the World we will be planting our bean seeds. In Expressive Arts and Design we will be making and painting props for our new role play area, as well as painting leaves and characters for our display board. WE will also be using oil pastels for our Jack and the Beanstalk pictures.
Our phonics programme continues this week and the children will continue to revise set 1 sounds and the special friends - sh, ch, th, qu, ng, nk as well as ll, ss, ff, zz and ck. Some children will revise set 2 sounds - ay, ee, igh, ow, oo as in 'poo at the zoo,' oo as in 'lookout the book,' ar, or air, ir, ou and oy, with a focus on spelling words containing these sounds and for other groups they will be learning these sounds, one at a time. The office have emailed home links for 5 weeks of phonic videos to watch for homework to help support this work.
In Mathematics, we will complete some sessions on measuring as well as week 26 of the NCETM Mastering Number programme, which focuses on subtilising on a rekenrek.
Early Learning Goal: Subitise (recognise quantities without counting) up to 5
The Mastering Number Programme has developed the children’s skills in subitising by giving them regular practice of recognising small numbers without counting. Subitising is important because it encourages the children to recognise small amounts efficiently (perceptual subitising) and to quickly see the ‘numbers within’ other numbers (conceptual subitising). Both skills will support the children in developing their understanding of the composition of numbers and will support greater fluency with calculation.
While this week’s materials continue to provide further subitising practice within familiar contexts, a new focus this week will be on subitising beads on a rekenrek. This key piece of equipment will allow the children to continue to develop their subitising skills as they explore the structure of small numbers, while building a foundation for further work in Year 1.
This week’s activities have a continued focus on using spatial language and visualisation. Encouraging the children to visualise and describe arrangements of objects will further deepen their number sense.
When facilitating the suggested activities, you should use your professional judgement to determine whether the children can demonstrate these key skills:
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perceptual subitising (recognising small amounts without counting) of up to 4 clearly defined objects in different contexts
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perceptual subitising to 5 – saying an amount to 5 shown in a familiar, structured arrangement, e.g. finger patterns, die patterns, number plates or dots on a 10-frame
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auditory subitising – correctly saying when they have heard 2, 3 or 4 drum beats
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conceptual subitising to 5 – quickly saying the groups that they have seen in standard and non-standard arrangements, and naming the whole amount, e.g. I know it’s 5 because I can see 4 and 1 more.
This week’s activities are designed to allow ALL the children to explore the rekenreks and to practise these key skills.
We will be introducing the children to a rekenrek and showing them how to orientate their rekenrek and how to push quantities of beads smoothly with one finger.
Our work in Physical Development involves PE sessions in the hall on Maypole dancing and Mrs Lewis, a retired Little Bowden teacher is kindly coming in to teach us all about this. We will also be completing work to develop our gross motor skills through our 'Big Moves' programme, as well as working on developing our fine motor skills using activities from our 'Funky Fingers' station. This term, weather permitting, our PE session on Thursdays will be outdoors on the astro turf on ball skills, games and athletics - including preparing for our first Little Bowden Sport's Day!
We are also working very hard on our handwriting and are trying to hard to remember that all letters start at the top, except for d and e and also that all our numbers start at the top. Please help us to practise at home in sand, rice, chalking as well as on paper using felt tips.
PE kit should be worn to school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Don't forget to label everything, especially jumpers/cardigans! Please note that ear-rings need to be removed on these days and left at home. Our hall slot is on Wednesday afternoons, so please ensure you wear warm clothes for outside Physical Development on Thursday afternoons.
We have had a change over in our role play areas and now have a new 2 tier stage outside for our shows and inside we have a new 'Bubble Tea cafe.'We must give a special thank you to Mrs Marsden's daughters Ellie and Olivia, ex-Little Bowden pupils, who kindly got the resources for us and came in after school last week to set it up for us!
We are using 1ps only in the cafe and would like to use real 1ps. If anyone has any 1ps that they could donate we would be very grateful. Also if any children come home with 1ps from the cafe in their pockets, please do return to school. Many thanks.
Bubble Tea cafe
Please click on the phonics powerpoint below if you have not already watched it. If you need any further guidance, please arrange to meet with your child's class teacher.
EYFS Summer Term Overview 2024
Open Evening - EYFS Information
Phonics Information
Intent, Implementation and Impact of the EYFS Curriculum at Little Bowden Primary School
What to expect in the Early Years Foundation Stage - a guide for parents and carers
