Welcome to St Michael's Early Years Setting!

Who are we?

The Early Years is made up of a Nursery class and a Reception class, where children are able to join us from the age of 3. We are in two different rooms called Woodpeckers and Robins.  Woodpeckers teachers are Mr Morris and Mrs Whipp and and the learning support assistant is Mrs Robertson.   Robins teacher is Ms Pattenden and the learning support assistant is Ms Bennett.

Timings of our day:

Nursery (Woodpeckers)

Morning Session - 8.40am-11.40am

Afternoon Session - 12.20pm-3.20pm

Reception (Robins)

8.40am-3.20pm

Our Favourite Activities in Early Years

Dough Disco:

Dough disco involves moulding play dough in time to music and performing different actions such as rolling it into a ball, flattening it, putting each individual finger into the dough, rolling it into a sausage and squeezing it.

This activity helps to strengthen children’s fine motor muscles to enable them to develop their pencil grip which in turn will help to develop their writing skills. But most of all it’s fun!

What do you need to do a dough disco?

• Music – any song will do! We have had Abba, Frozen, Musicals and TV themes to name a few of our favourites.
• Dough – You can buy pots of dough or make your own with your child. See the recipe below.
• A set of moves – These can be done in any order and you don’t need to include them all.

What are the dough disco moves?

• squeeze it
• roll it into a ball
• roll it into a sausage
• poke it
• flatten it
• pinch it
• See the image below for more examples!

Here’s a simple recipe for you to make play dough at home:

• 1 cup of plain flour
• Half a cup of salt
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 cup of water
• Food colouring (if wanted)

Instructions:

Mix all of the ingredients together in a saucepan. Stir the mixture over a low heat until it comes away from the sides of the pan.

Tip the dough out and leave it to cool slightly.

Store the play dough in an air-tight container or plastic bag and let your child use it every day (it should keep for about a week).

Watch the video below which shows how to do dough disco:

Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle:

Squiggle whilst you Wiggle is a kinaesthetic approach to stimulate early writing. It encourages children to focus on making large scale movements to music. The children then mirror these movements using pens on paper. It is the first stage in handwriting practice delivered in a super fun, lively way and it has been shown to increase handwriting confidence and progress.

Phonics (Read Write Inc):

We use Read Write Inc to teach the children how to read in St Michael’s. Here is a link to a parents guide explaining how phonics is taught. https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/ 

The children in Robins are making great progress with learning their letter sounds. This video shows you how to say all the letter sounds that we teach the children at St Michael’s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkXcabDUg7Q&list=PLDe74j1F52zSCiOMSn3zQDSzgu9TrbQ1c 

Mathematics:

We enjoy exploring numbers and numerical patterns through play.  The children enjoy counting activities every day and are learning how to subitise numbers.

What is subitising?

Subitising is the ability to instantaneously recognise the number of objects in a small group without the need to count them.  An example often used to explain this, is to think of a die – we immediately recognise the number of dots without having to count each one individually. 

Talk for Reading and Talk for Writing:

The children are always encouraged and supported to write about a variety of topics and are encourage to come up with their own adventures each day.

Each half-term a story is selected as a part of our Talk for Writing learning for the children to investigate in depth over a period of weeks. We explore the book in detail and engage the children in a variety of activities such as role play, vocabulary building, making predictions and questioning. 

Important Information:

Nursery (Woodpeckers):

• P.E Day - Our P.E day is Thursday For PE, we wear red shorts or jogging bottoms in cold weather, house colour t-shirt, plimsolls/trainers.  The children are to come to school in their PE kits but please make sure that any jewellery, including earrings, is left at home.
• Outdoor learning – We go out in all weathers so please make sure your child has a pair of wellington boots left in school with their name on and bring a coat every day which is appropriate for the time of year.
• Library – Every Monday we visit our school library and the children will choose a book to bring home to share with you. 

• Uniform – Please put your child’s name in everything you bring to school. This makes it easier to trace mislaid items.

Reception (Robins):

• P.E Day - Our P.E day is Monday For PE, we wear red shorts or jogging bottoms in cold weather, house colour t-shirt, plimsolls/trainers.  The children are to come to school in their PE kits but please make sure that any jewellery, including earrings, is left at home.
• Outdoor learning – We go out in all weathers so please make sure your child has a pair of wellington boots left in school with their name on and bring a coat every day which is appropriate for the time of year.
• Library – Every Friday we visit our school library and the children will choose a book to bring home to share with you. 
• Uniform – Please put your child’s name in everything you bring to school. This makes it easier to trace mislaid items.

Robins

Autumn Term Learning 

Personal Social and Emotional Development

During this term we have been building positive and respectful relationships and learning how to express our feelings. We have been learning how to look after ourselves to support our health and well being. 

Communication and Language

As a class we have been learning how to use our Talk Guidelines:

· We look and listen.
· We take turns when speaking.
· We speak with a just right volume.

Physical Development

We have learnt lots of moves in our Squiggle sessions – straight lines, wiggles, circles and arches. During our hall time we have been learning to move the gymnastics equipment safely and use it to move in different ways and jump safely.

Literacy

We have read lots of books this term and enjoy our visits to the library. In Talk 4 Reading we have read these books:

● On the Way Home
● The Kiss that Missed
● The Best Diwali Ever

In our Talk 4 Writing sessions we have learnt to retell these traditional stories:

● The Magic Porridge Pot
● The Elves and the Shoemaker
● Chicken Licken
● The Three Little Pigs
● Little Red Riding Hood

Mathematics

We have been learning to match and sort objects in different ways. We have been copying patterns, repeating patterns and creating our own patterns. We have been learning to subitise numbers to 5.

Understanding the World

We have talked about our families and who lives in our homes. During our Wild Wood sessions we have been exploring our outdoor classroom area and found out what trees we have in the area. The children have learnt how to use leaf IDs and
magnifying glasses to look closely at the leaves. 

During the Autumn Term we learnt about the following celebrations:

● Harvest
● Diwali

Expressive Arts and Design

In our music sessions we have been exploring how they can use their voice and bodies to make sounds, experiment with tempo and dynamic when playing instruments, identify sounds in the environment and differentiate between them. We have been learning to use different media to create pictures such as pencils, crayons, chalk and paint. .

                                                                                        Woodpeckers Class

                                                                                    Autumn Term 2025

Communication and Language 

We have been trying to use our good listening ears, good looking eyes and good stinting skills as per our Talk Guidelines. We are learning to take turns when speaking to someone else. We are following the Talk Boost programme to develop our speaking and listening skills. Each sesion includes talking about how to be a good speaker/listener with Tizzy the tiger, an activity, sharing a story and singing a song. The children really enjoy their "Tizzy time".

Personal, Social and Emtional development

The term is all about separating from our main career with support, and learning the rules and routine of the setting.We also play plenty of turn taking games, developing our sharing skills, and talking about our feelings.

Physical Development

We are developing our gross and fine motor skills through drawing, painting and other activities.We are learning to run/jump/ride scooters outside. The children regularly take part in yoga sessions, practising moving their bodies in different ways. 

Literacy

We share books and stories everyday.  In Talk for Writing we have read Lost and Found, making a story map and the innovating our own versions of the story. As part of our non fiction opportunities we made a missing penguin poster. The children have also written their own "Autumn" and "Firework" poems. 

Numeracy

We have practised subitising to 3, exploring the sequence of numbers through songs. The children experineced handling different shapes, talking about the key features such as sides and corners, when making space rockets for fireworks celebrations.

Understanding the World

We have observed changes in our natural world during Autumn and Winter, exploring Autumnal objects such as conkers and pinecomes. We celebrated Diwali by making diva lamps and making rangoli rice patterns. Woodpeckers commemorated Remembrance Day by making poppy pictures and observing the two minute silence. We explore the outdoor world in our Forest Fun Friday sessions. 

Expressive Art and Design

We have created fireworks our of natural objects and pipe cleaners. The children have explored spraying paint, splatting paint, mixing colours, and changing the texture by adding salt. We have used instruments whilst singing our favourite nursery rhymes.