Smoothie Heaven!

As part of our Keeping Healthy week, the Reception children will be making smoothies. The children worked together to write a class list of ingredients and instructions. Using their phonic knowledge to spell and then read the words used for the class smoothie recipe.

In groups, the children chopped up their chosen fruit into small pieces. They had a choice of ingredients; raspberries, strawberries, bananas, pineapple and satsumas to add to the blender. Next they added yoghurt and/or orange juice. Lastly they mixed the ingredients in the blender to make their own smoothie.

Making smoothies is a great way to ensure you have some of your daily recommended allowance of vitamins and minerals in your diet; a quick and easy snack on the go and a way to discuss your favourite fruits, vegetables and healthy foods together.

“My mum makes smoothies at home for me and my sister.” Ryan-Franklin.

“I like orange juice in my smoothie, it tastes good.” Lacey.

Obstacle Fun in Reception!

This week the Reception children have been talking about how they can keep their bodies healthy. We have discussed eating healthy and balanced diets, drinking lots of water, washing our hands, getting lots of sleep, managing risks and doing exercise. 

We decided to get our hearts racing and thought setting up an obstacle course in the sunshine would be a great way to do so. The children decided on the obstacles and all took turns to complete the course. There was lots of cheering, balancing, hopping, weaving and jumping. The children talked about what had happened to their bodies after they had finished. Later  in the afternoon the children decided to race against each other as well as timing themselves using a stopwatch. 

"My heart is beating faster." Karimah 

"The stepping stones are tricky. The floor is lava, don't stand on it!" Princess-Aniyah 

"George was the fastest, he got 21." Oliver 

Internet Safety in Reception

This week, we read the Internet Safety story, Buddy the Dog, to help us understand how to use the internet safely in a fun way. As we read the story we had to answer questions about Internet safety. We discussed what we should do to help Buddy’s friend Ben, as he played with his tablet and mobile phone in different scenarios.

Should you press the download button if it appears on a mobile phone or tablet?
Should you talk to strangers online?

We learnt and sang the ‘Use Your Tablet Safely’ song to help us make safe choices when we are online. After we spoke about the Internet safety rules and to remember to...

Always ask a grown up for help if you see anything strange or unusual on a tablet or mobile phone.

“Don’t press the (download) button ask your Mum or Dad first.”  Lucas.

Nursery Newsletter 25.2.19

Dear Parent/Carer,
We hope you had a lovely half term with your children. Our Topic this half term is 'Amazing Animals'. We are starting the topic by exploring woodland animals and sharing the story 'The Wild Woods' and 'The Gruffalo'.

Our Nursery Rhymes to focus on this week are:
Horsey, Horsey
Mary had a little lamb

Maths

Our number of the week is number 3. We will be learning the Ten Town song for the number and the children will have lots of opportunities to develop number recognition and counting skills in all areas of our learning environment. This week the children will be encouraged to count and match quantities in our woodland themed tray. 

Communication and Language  

This week we are continuing to support the children to listen and copy simple rhythms. They will also be encouraged to identify action pictures and expand their use of verbs in sentences.

Malleable

The children have a selection of googly eyes, sticks and feathers available to create their own woodland creatures.

Water
This children started to use the pippettes to move water really well last term. It is suprisely tricky to control the tools and they showed determination and concentration.

Snack
The children have toast available to cook themselves and butter to spread on top.

Here are the words to this weeks Nursery Rhymes so you can practice at home:
Horsey Horsey
Horsey horsey don't you stop
Just let your feet go clippety-clop
Your tail goes swish and the wheels go round
Giddy up, we're homeward bound.

We`re not in a hustle, we`re not in a bustle
Don't go tearing up the road
We`re not in a hurry, we`re not in a flurry
And we don`t have a very heavy load.

Mary had a little lamb

Mary had a little lamb,
It's fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.

He followed her to school one day
Which was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play,
To see a lamb at school.

 If you would like to contact a member of the EYFS team via email the address is  eyfs@broadford.havering.sch.uk.     

 Kind Regards,

The Nursery Team

Do you have any spare wood?

The Reception children have been thoroughly enjoying the woodwork area this year. Woodwork provides children with a unique experience that involves curiosity, creativity and a rich opportunity to engage with process based learning which leads to deep involvement and engagement.

But our wood stores are rapidly deplinishing and we need your help! Do you have any clean, softwood at home or work that you could donate? Do you know a carpenter or builder who may have some offcuts of wood? We are looking for softwoods such as Balsa or pine. This wood is soft enough for children to use successfully and competently. 

If you or anyone you know has wood they can donate we would be very grateful. We also ask that if you have the tools to do so that you cut the wood into smaller manageable pieces for small hands to work with. Please bring any donations to the Reception classrooms or the office. If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to ask a member of the Reception team. Thanks in advance for your help and support!

Reception Newsletter 25.02.19

Term: Spring 2                            Date: 25.02.19

Dear Parents and Carers,

We hope everyone is feeling rested and has enjoyed their half term break. This half term we will starting our ‘Superheroes - fact or fiction?’ topic.

We will be visiting Jump Evolution on Tuesday 19th March as our trip for the term. Thank you to everybody who has already filled out the form (via the blog or facebook) and paid using their sQuid account. If you have any problems please speak to your class teacher or the office staff if it is about sQuid. Thank you!

This week we are starting off our topic by looking at how we keep our bodies healthy. We will be reading the story ‘I will never not ever eat a tomato.’ The children will be making their own smoothies.


Physical Development
We will be talking about the different ways we can keep our bodies healthy as well as discussing the effect exercise has on our bodies. We will be making our own smoothies, choosing the ingredients and using knives to carefully cut the fruit.

Maths
This weeks number is 16. Perhaps you can spot the number at home or outside.
We are revisiting calculating one more and one less than a given number this week. We will be using Numicon, objects and number tracks to help us calculate one more or less.

Literacy
We will be writing recipes for our smoothies as well as planning and labelling healthy pack lunches. We will also be testing our new writing tablets.


Dates for your diary:

Literacy Stay & Learn Session: Tuesday 12th March
Jump Evolution: Tuesday 19th March


Messages:
We are looking to make a family display in our home corner and would love a photo of your child and their family to display. If you are happy to have a photo of your family displayed please hand to your class teacher or email it to the Early Years email address: eyfs@broadford.havering.sch.uk. Thank you for the ones we have received already.

Can we please ask that your child has their reading folder in school on their reading day so that their reading books can be changed. If you are unsure of what day this is, please ask. A staff member will read with your child on this day also writing in their record. Remember to write in your child’s reading record each time you read together at home, as these will be counted towards reading awards as well as letting staff know how your child is getting on at home. You should be aiming to read together for around ten minutes on most days.


Learning Challenge:
Each half term we will be setting our pupils a optional challenge related to their learning. We believe that it is important for us to provide guidance for parents on how their children's learning can be extended at home. The learning challenge will include either a nursery rhyme, famous person, illustration or a piece of music. Please talk to your child about the challenge and help them to engage in their learning. The children can choose how they present their learning challenge outcomes to their teacher or class.

Person: A Superhero
Piece of Music: Johann-Strauss Radetzky: March
Poem/Song to learn: Jack and Jill went up the hill

Nursery Rhyme	Piece of music	Person
1.    Learn it off by heart. 2.    Draw a picture to illustrate the rhyme. 3.    Find out about the origin of the rhyme.	Listen to the music and dance to it. Find out facts about the composer. Produce a collage or picture to illustrate the piece of music.	1. Draw a portrait of the person. 2.   Find out facts about the person. 3. Watch the person in action.

If you would like to contact a member of the EYFS team via email the address it is: eyfs@broadford.havering.sch.uk.

Kind Regards,
The Reception Team

Apple Class Learning Challenges!

Congratulations to Eddie, Lily, Aisha and Olivia, who have all been busy at home working on this terms learning challenge. We have heard recitals of 'Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear', seen fabulous pictures of bears as well as learning facts about real bears. Olivia drew a beautiful picture of a teddy bear with lots of detail and Aisha sewed her own teddy bear. 

Lily and Eddie were busy researching and learning about the illustrator Axel Scheffler. They both made fabulous collages, told us facts and shared their favourite books he has illustrated. Lily created her own illustrations in the style of Axel Scheffler and Eddie created his own stickman while visiting the Stickman trail. 

Well done to you all, thank you for sharing your learning with Apple class! 

Who's been visiting Reception and left a big mess?

It is likely that you have heard about the events of Tuesday lunchtime already! The Reception children and staff were quite busy eating their lunch and playing outside whilst some mysterious person was making a big old mess in the three Reception classrooms! 

The children returned from lunch to find not only had there been a visitor, they had left a mess and they most definitely had not being looking after the children's resources. The visitor had carelessly left behind a lots of clues and evidence and the children set about to solve the mystery. 

Thinking about the clues they could see, the children shared these ideas wth their friends as well as the other classes. 

"There are footprints all over, but they are child size." Alex 

"Look a pink ribbon!" Maxi 

"There are three chairs and three bowls and a lot of mess." Max 

"They've been in all three classrooms!" Peter 

We put all of the clues and evidence together and thought about who might be behind it all. There were lots of guesses including the Gruffalo, witches, a troll, spiders and even ants. Aspen thought that perhaps the builders were behind all of the mess! After a lot of thinking and teamwork, we figured it out! It was Goldilocks!

"It was the builders. They brought their mess from outside inside!" Vanessa 

"Cheeky Monkey doesn't have shoes." Lexi 

"I'm not sure ants can turn over tables." Miss Poulter 

Whilst the children were busy investigating lots of children decided to write a lists of the clues, applying their phonics knowledge. This exciting hook will inspire the letters to Goldilocks and the wanted posters that we will write later in the week! 

Reception Awards!

The children in Reception have been working really hard, both at school and at home. We are very proud of all their achievements and below are the children who received certificates last week.

Apple
Reciprocity- Eddie
Resilience- Hasir, Bernado


Reading Awards
Bronze- Ralph
Silver- Emma
Gold- Aisha

Aspen

Reciprocity- Scarlett

Reflective- Francesca

Resourceful- Ali 

Resilience- Lexi

Alder

Happy Teacher- Asher, Ryan, Domenique, Eivis, Anushri, Larissa, Lucas

Star Writer- Eivis

Reciprocity- Lacey

Reflective- Faramade

Reading Awards

Bookmark- George

Bronze- Loju, Khalifa, Grace,

Silver- Lucas

Gold- Larissa

Keep up the good work!

Nursery Newsletter 12.2.18

Dear Parents,

Our focus story this week is: Guess how much I love you..
The children will be encouraged to talk about people who are special to them. If you haven't already please sent in a photo this year please send in family photos to eyfs@broadford.havering.sch.uk to support the children to talk about people they love.

Our Nursery Rhymes to focus on this week are:
Mary had a little lamb
Teddy bear, Teddy bear

Maths

Our number of the week is number 2. We will be learning the Ten Town song for the number and the children will have lots of opportunities to develop number recognition and counting skills in all areas of our learning environment. This week the children will be encouraged to recognise and count accurately by using tweezers to move pom poms. 

Communication and Language  

This week we are continuing to support the children to listen and copy simple rhythms. They will also be discussion people who are important to them.

Malleable

The children have cupcakes available to create their own tasty playdough cakes.

Water
This week we have added a potion themed enhancement to the water tray. The children will be encouraged to use the pippettes and basters to transfer water. This is a great way to develop hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor control, important skills for little hands to develop!

Creative
The children will be able to use the resources available to stick, cut and create their own valentines inspired designs.

Snack
The children have toast available to cook themselves and butter to spread on top.

Here are the words to this weeks Nursery Rhymes so you can practice at home:
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, reach up high,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the sky,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, bend down low,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your toes,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, go to bed,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, rest your head,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the lights,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say “good night”.

Mary had a little lamb,
It's fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.

He followed her to school one day
Which was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play,
To see a lamb at school.

 If you would like to contact a member of the EYFS team via email the address is  eyfs@broadford.havering.sch.uk.     

 Kind Regards,

The Nursery Team

Reception Newsletter 11.02.19

Term: Spring 1            Date: 11.02.19

Dear Parents and Carers,

Last week the children all enjoyed following the recipe and making bread rolls, they smelt and tasted delicious.

We will be finishing our traditional tales topic this week with the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We hope you are all looking forward to a restful half term holiday with your family. The last day of the half term will be Friday 15th February.

We are looking to make a family display in our home corner and would love a photo of your child and their family to display. If you are happy to have a photo of your family displayed please hand to your class teacher or email it to the Early Years email address: eyfs@broadford.havering.sch.uk. Thank you for the ones we have received already.


Communication & Language
The children will be solving a mystery. They will use talk to organise their ideas and clarify their thinking. They will also be discussing whether it is okay to borrow something without asking.

Maths
This weeks number is 15. Perhaps you can spot the number at home or outside.

We are revisiting one more and one less than a given number this week as well as adding two groups of objects to find the total.

Literacy
We will be writing letters and making missing posters. As well as completing treasure hunts around the classroom, where we will attempt to write simple sentences independently.

Dates for your diary:

Literacy Stay & Learn Session: Tuesday 12th March
Jump Evolution School Trip: Tuesday 19th March


Messages:
Can we please ask that your child has their reading folder in school on their reading day so that their reading books can be changed. If you are unsure of what day this is, please ask. A staff member will read with your child on this day also writing in their record. Remember to write in your child’s reading record each time you read together at home, as these will be counted towards reading awards as well as letting staff know how your child is getting on at home. You should be aiming to read together for around ten minutes on most days.

If you would like to contact a member of the EYFS team via email the address it is: eyfs@broadford.havering.sch.uk.

Kind Regards,
The Reception Team

Baking Bread in Reception!

This week the Reception children have been reading and retelling The Little Red Hen. In the story the Little Red asks the other animals to help her bake bread right from the beginning by growing the corn. At all of the stages the animals say they will not help. The children were shocked by this and quickly pointed out this wasn't very kind. It also sparked some fantastic discussions over whether the Little Red Hen should have shared her bread at the end of the story.

                                   

"She should have shared her bread, it is kind to share." Niamh  

"Well the animals didn't help her when she asked and now they want to help eat it!" Darci 

The children demonstrated a lot more reciprocity than the animals in the story as they set to baking bread rolls in small groups. Before we started we read our new recipe book using our phonics knowledge and then of course we washed our hands. 

The children have become a lot more confident and proficient at baking as the year has gone on. The adults stepped back as much as possible as the children followed the step by step instructions. The children thought that the yeast smelled a bit funny and Lily also commented that "it looks a bit like breadcrumbs!". Once we had made our dough it was time to knead it. This was a great workout for our fingers and we all did a great job as our bread rose beautifully. The Reception classrooms also smelt pretty great as the bread baked! 

"I'm covered in flour!" Charleigh 

Reception Awards!

The children in Reception have been working really hard, both at school and at home. We are very proud of all their achievements and below are the children who received certificates last week.

Apple
Star Writer - Emma
Reciprocity- Louie-Ray

Reading Awards
Bookmark - Ryan
Silver- Mahdi, Olivia
Gold-Eddie

Aspen
Happy Teacher- Scarlett
Reciprocity- Eleni
Resourceful- Elyakim
Reflective- Rosie

Reading Awards
Bronze- Asad, Liam

Alder

Reflective- Peter, Emily

Resilience- William 

Star Writer- Sahir

Keep up the good work! 

Malleable work for malleable hands

In Reception this week we have been exploring the properties of different malleable materials.

We are now able to make our play-dough ourselves, following the instructions to balance the recipe, mix it all up and then colour it to support our play. 

Rosie: "Look at the birthday cake!"

We have been making birthday cakes out of play-dough to celebrate our friends' birthdays!

Happy Birthday Macie and Callum! 

Amber: "Look how much spaghetti I've got!"

Liam: "It's so slippery!"

Thinking about Chinese New Year, we have been playing with big noodles of spaghetti, mixing it up with our hands and practising using knives and forks! 

We try and do different fine motor activities all the time to keep our finger and hand muscles working so that we have strong hands to help our writing develop. 

We even built our own Chinese cafe in the loose parts area and practised using chopsticks! 

Princess Aniyah: "It's so hard!"

Eric: "Chopsticks are yummy!"

Poppy's Tails

Thank you to the parents who were able to attend the Nursery Stay and Play session last week. We had a busy session completing story challenges in the environment like creating houses for the three pigs and making playdough gingerbread men. The children enjoyed listening to the author Cate Douglas and trying on the fantastic tails she bought along!
Stories and Nursery rhymes are a very important part of our learning. You can really help them at home by sharing stories together. Reading books aloud to children stimulates their imagination and expands their understanding of the world. It helps them develop language and listening skills and prepares them to understand the written word. Even after children learn to read by themselves, it's still important for you to read aloud together.
We hope you encourage the children to share the Nursery rhymes they learn in school with you and that lots of parents and children make use of our reading cart to share bedtime stories together.

Nursery Newsletter 04.2.2019

Dear Parents,

Thank you to all of the parents/carers who were able to attend our Stay and Play last week, the children clearly enjoyed spending time with their grown ups. We had a great time celebrating Number Day last week, there were lots of fabulous costumes.

Our Nursery Rhymes to focus on this week is:  Little Peter Rabbit and When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears. 

Maths

Our number of the week is 1. We will be learning the Ten Town song for the number and the children will have lots of opportunities to develop number recognition and counting skills in all areas of our learning environment. This week we are exploring numicon and trying to make sure we count accurately and realise the last number we say is how many there are. 

Communication and Language  

The children are exploring rhythm this week. We are listening and repeating rhythms using our hands or instruments.
You can support your child by clapping short rhythms and encouraging your child to join in.

Malleable

The children have glass pebbles and buttons available to encourage them to create their own designs.

Creative
The children are focusing on cutting skills and have images of favorite characters available to encourage them to create their own stick puppets.

Snack
Our Story this week is 'Goldilocks and The Three Bears', as last week was such a busy week some children will be making and tasting their porridge this week.

Here are the words to this weeks Nursery Rhymes so you can practice at home:

Little Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his nose.
Little Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his nose,
So he swished it and he swashed it
And the fly flew away.

Powder puffs and curly whiskers,
Powder puffs and curly whiskers,
Powder puffs and curly whiskers,
So he swished it and he swashed it
And the fly flew away.


When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears,
Oh what did her blue eyes see?
A bowl that was huge,
And a bowl that was small,
And a bowl that was tiny and that was all,
And she counted them one, two, three,
She counted them one, two, three.

Repeat with chair, bed and bears!

 If you would like to contact a member of the EYFS team via email the address is  eyfs@broadford.havering.sch.uk.     

 Kind Regards,

The Nursery Team

Magic Porridge Pot

After sharing the story the Magic Porridge Pot, Nursery have been learning to make their own delicious porridge. They have followed the recipe to add oats and milks and watched carefully as they stirred the bubbling porridge, we made sure we stopped just in time unlike the story and added some delicious fruit to our porridge.  The children had to carefully weigh and measure the ingredients by counting the cups and used the timer to make sure we cooked the porridge for the right amount of time. 

"I put in blueberries to it.." Kiara

"Can I mix it all up?" Aziz

Reception love Number Day!

Wow what a lot of fun Number Day was! The children all looked fantastic in their Maths related outfits, thank you for the effort you put in as well as your donations towards the NSPCC.

The children enjoyed a day of Maths related fun. They played musical maths games, that involved getting into groups of certain numbers as well as building shapes from their bodies. There was a special game of number and shape bingo. We also worked our fine motor skills as we built 2D shapes from marshmallows and spaghetti.

Each class worked as a team to complete a special Number Day quiz. They had to find staff members to answer questions, add people together and count sides on shapes. Take a look at our video to see some of the fun we got up to. We cannot wait until next year!

Reception Newsletter 04.02.19

Term: Spring 1            Date: 04.02.19

Dear Parents and Carers,

The children’s outfits for Number Day last week were fantastic. Thank you for all your effort and donations. The children enjoyed a fun filled day of spaghetti and marshmallow shape making, musical maths, bingo and a special quiz. The children thoroughly enjoyed their storytelling workshop with Charlie and listened and participated well.

This week we will be reading another traditional tale, The Little Red Hen. We will be baking our own bread, labelling characters and using a story map to retell the story. It is also Internet Safety Day on Tuesday so during the week we will discussing staying safe online.

Communication & Language
The children will be retelling the story of The Little Red Hen using a story map. They will also be working in groups to bake their own bread.

Maths
This weeks number is 14. Perhaps you can spot the number at home or outside. We will be looking at measure for the next two weeks, introducing and using key language as well as ordering objects by length, height, weight and capacity.

Literacy
We will be writing shopping lists for our bread ingredients, reading the recipe instructions using our phonics as well as labelling key characters from the story.

Messages:
We are looking to make a family display in our home cornerand would love a photo of your child and their family to display. If you are happy to have a photo of your family displayed please hand to your class teacher or email it to the Early Years email address: eyfs@broadford.havering.sch.uk. Thank you!


Can we please ask that your child has their reading folder in school on their reading day so that their reading books can be changed. If you are unsure of what day this is, please ask. A staff member will read with your child on this day also writing in their record. Remember to write in your child’s reading record each time you read together at home, as these will be counted towards reading awards as well as letting staff know how your child is getting on at home. You should be aiming to read together for around ten minutes on most days.


Dates for your diary:
Literacy Stay & Learn Session: Tuesday 12th March


If you would like to contact a member of the EYFS team via email the address it is: eyfs@broadford.havering.sch.uk.

Kind Regards,
The Reception Team