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 teach 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.

                                                       Woodpeckers Class

                                                     Autumn Term Learning

 

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 earning to take turns when speaking to someone else.

Personal, Social and Emtional development

The first half term is all about separating from our main career with support, and learning the rules and routine of the setting.

 

Physical Development

We are developing our    gross and fine motor skills through drawing, painting and other activities.We are learning to run and moving safely around the rooom.

 

Literacy

We share books and stories everyday.  In Talk for Writing we have learnt and mapped the following rhymes, Little Miss Muffet, Humpty Dumpter and I had a little nut tree.   

Numeracy

We have practised subitising to 3, exploring the sequence of numbers through songs. 

Understanding the World

We talked about our families and people that are important to us. We explore the outdoor world in our Forest Fun Friday sessions.

 

Expressive Art and Design

We have used a variety of media to create pictures of us and our families. We have used instruments whilst singing our favourite nursery rhymes. 

 

                                                             Spring Term

During the Spring Term we learned about British Animals through two topics: On The Farm, and Into the Woods. The children enjoyed learning animal names and the sounds they make. We talked about the different produce animals give us such as wool and milk. We learned some animals are awake during the day and some are nocturnal. The children enjoyed lots of sensory and craft activities based on these themes. In the latter half of the Spring Term the children made tie-dye tee shirts for Holi, and handprint flowers for Mother's Day. We also spent some time learning about the Christian celebration of Easter. 
In Talk for Writing we memorised Little Red Hen and Squeaky Story. We made story maps and then created our own versions. 
We spent time in the wildwood looking for British birds, going on a Gruffalo hunt, and looking for signs of Spring amongst other activities.