Explorers

    

Welcome to Explorers class page.
Explorers is our Nursery and Reception class. 

Staff: Mrs Brayshaw (EYFS class teacher) and Ms Marsden (EYFS TA) 

As we enter into the second half of the Spring Term the children have some new and exciting topics to explore! 

Our Spring term topic is "WATCH IT GROW!".

Our second topic for Spring 2 is “Healthy Eating

Spring 2

We hope you all had a lovely half term break and we are looking forward to starting a new chapter with our learning!

This half term our main topic is Growing. Now that the warmer weather is starting to creep back in, we will be learning all about the impact the changing season has on our environment. We will be encouraging the children to look closely at the changing outdoors on our environment walks noticing- the warmer weather, the buds appearing on the trees, insects appearing, bulbs and flowers beginning to bloom. We are going to become horticulturists and we are planning on planting and caring for flowers and vegetables both inside and outside the classroom. We also think it is important that children realise where their food comes from. So, we will also be creating our own small world farm where we will sprinkle grass seeds and watch the crop grow.

As part of investigation Fridays, we will be focusing on Healthy Eating and looking at food from around the world and there will be opportunities to taste different food. We will be using all our senses to describe the taste and we will have a vote to find out our favourite! The children will be learning about the importance of a healthy diet and making healthy food choices. We will be looking closely at the different food groups (carbohydrates, proteins, fats, dairy products, fruits and vegetables and the importance of having vitamins and minerals to help our bodies grow. We will also discuss how we can make choices with what we eat- what it means to be vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, to eat Halal meat and to have allergies and intolerances. We will also have a new role play area of a greengrocers where the children will be able to pretend to sell fruits and vegetables to customers.

In literacy our focus texts will be "I will not ever never eat a tomato" and "The extraordinary gardener" for Reception and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" for Nursery. 

Rainbow Challenge - In EYFS, a key priority is for us to support children to become independent, confident, and resilient learners. We consciously spend the first weeks building positive relationships and creating a fun and safe space that the children both enjoy and feel comfortable in. Starting in nursery they will be encouraged to display independence and take ownership over their learning through the use of the ‘Rainbow Challenge’. For those pupils and parents who are new to our school the ‘Rainbow Challenge’ is used by the children during their ‘continuous provision time or extended learning’ which occurs after adult input lessons.  The classroom is broken up into areas such as construction, roleplay or reading and each represents a different colour of the rainbow. Children are encouraged to explore their whole environment throughout the week and in doing so gain a coloured lollipop stick for each area they have engaged with. If they complete the Rainbow they are rewarded with a sticker and prize at the end of the week.

A few quick reminders

End of the day- Please inform Mrs Brayshaw/Ms Marsden and Mrs Rourke if there are going to be any changes to your normal home time arrangements or when a different person collecting your child. This is for the safeguarding of your children.

Homework – children will have weekly homework set that supports the learning in school for that week. This could be phonics sounds, maths work or understanding the world tasks. These will be given out on Friday to be returned the next week (this will give you extra time just in case you have had a busy weekend). They will be small, manageable tasks to complete at home to support the learning we do in school. We appreciate that our lives can be very busy at times but please do your best to do these with your child as these tasks will have a positive impact on their learning.

Please read to your child every night, share the phonics bug book, encouraging them to sound out the letters and sing nursery rhymes when you can. This is not limited to books at school, any books that they enjoy! They will also have a weekly “Weekend diary” where the children will be asked to draw a picture of what they have done. Please encourage them to draw pictures and label their drawing with initial sounds and/or simple words e.g., mum/dad/dog/cat. Their ability to recognise sounds will increase over the school year, at the beginning it is the drawing and discussion of your weekend that is important. 

EYFS

Explorers Topic Cycle 2023-25

EYFS Curriculum and Timetables 2024