The Great Bake Debate

This week the Reception children have been reading and retelling the story of ‘The Little Red Hen’. In the story the Little Red Hen asks the other animals to help her grow ingredients and help bake the bread. Through each stage the animals say they will not help until the end when they offer to help eat the bread. The children have enjoyed reenacting the story and there have been some fantastic discussions over whether the Little Red Hen should have shared the bread or not!

Unlike the animals in the story, the children demonstrated their reciprocity skills as they began baking their own bread rolls. The children used their phonic knowledge to read the recipe and then made sure they had washed their hands.

As the year has gone on, the children are becoming much more independent when cooking, following the step-by-step instructions to make the dough. The children loved kneading the dough and this was a great workout for our fingers. With the smell of baking bread floating in the classrooms and flour on our uniforms, the bread rolls rose magnificently!

“It’s like play dough.” Siana

“1,2,3,4 spoons of flour.” Roman

“It looks like porridge.” Archie 

Drop Everything and Read!

Reception children have been enjoying a new change to our storytime on Wednesday afternoon. It's called 'Drop Everything and Read!' and allows the children to choose what story they want to listen to. Each week the reception teachers choose three different story book. This weeks choices had a Dr. Seuss theme, Miss Poulter was reading 'The Cat in the Hat', Miss Metters was reading 'Green Eggs and Ham' and Mrs Gradley was reading 'Oh, the Places You'll Go!'. The children are shown the three options and can choose which classroom and which story they want to hear. 'The Cat in the Hat' was a very popular choice this week!

The children have loved being able to be in control of which story they hear and which teacher they listen to!

Counting and Matching in Nursery

We have been developing our early math skills in Nursery. Basic skills might be taught or practiced  in small focus groups but there is also  lots of opportunity to develop and practice math skills in continuous provision so the children are always learning lots! 

At the moment they are learning to count in order and that the last number they count is how many they have. They have been using one to one correspondence and making sure they touch each item first when they count, they have also been trying to recognise small amounts on sight for example when we roll a dice.  

If you want to help at home ensuring children are really confident with counting small amounts first is a really good place to start, playing lots of dice games or dominoes would support this. There are also some online games on the website below: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/3-5-years/counting. 

Cultural Celebrations

Nursery have had a great time learning about other cultures and traditions recently. We shared photos of Scotland when speaking about Burns Day and enjoyed listening to Mr McLucas play the bagpipes. They were a little different from the percussion instruments the children have been using recently and made a very loud noise! They tapped and clapped to the rhythm and enjoyed listening to the different pace of the songs. The children even tried haggis and potatoes for a snack, this was  very popular and lots of children asked for more!

This week we have started to look at how Chinese New Year is celebrated and have been practicing using our chopsticks already. The children have started to use their scissor skills to make some fantastic lanterns and help decorate our home corner.


"I like haggis. Can I have some more?" Pippa
" You blow the bagpipes really really hard!" Ayana
" Chopsticks are a bit tricky aren't they, I put the bowl close to me." Chloe

Reception Stay and Learn!

Thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us last week for our Maths Stay and Learn session. The children were very excited to have you in their classrooms and to show you some of what they have been learning during Maths. 

Reception Red Word of the Week!

This week's red word is.... she!

You might have noticed the bright cut outs on our classroom doors which have red words written on them. We have been using these as secret passwords to enter or leave the classroom, the children have to hit the button and say the red word before they go outside to play or come back into the classroom. A fun way to practice recognising these words on sight.

Red words are words that are tricky to read because you can not sound them out in the normal way e.g. ‘said’ or ‘the’. Your child needs to be able to read these words on sight. We like the 'sh' in she,  but the 'e' is tricky so we have to remember it!

You could look out for the red word of the week at home, out and about and in books and on signs. You may want to practice writing the red word, as these are words the children will need to be able to spell correctly at the end of Reception. Good luck!

We need your JUNK!

Junk modelling is so important because it involves exercising the imagination, problem-solving, designing, communicating, self-expression, trial and error, sharing, resilience, happiness and building knowledge. And, above all, this type of activity nurtures recycling! 

“It’s a rocket.” Ollie

“It’s a hamster house.” Harry

“It looks like a pig” Grace

“It’s the three little pigs house.” Rosie 

Thank you😊

Nursery visit the Dentist

This week our focus story has been 'Alan's Big Scary Teeth'. We have been learning all about our body and this week the Dental nurses came to check our teeth! The children learnt about how important brushing their teeth is and practiced by scrubbing our large teeth in the watertray. They enjoyed acting in role as dentists and have performed some excellent examinations over the week.

"My toothbrush goes bzzz and moves!" Ava
"I was brave, the dentist isn't scary now" Chloe

The Hungry Grumpy Mongoose

The Reception children  enjoyed their visit from Charlie the Storyteller. Everyone listened well, participated with enthusiasm and there were lots of singing and laughter. 

The session was based around the story of the hungry, grumpy, moaning Mongoose, who wanted to catch different coloured frogs to eat their feet.  He managed to catch lots of frogs, squashing and stuffing them into his hole. Luckily  the clever little frogs escaped. The children joined in with a selection of actions, sounds and songs as they joined in with the storytelling. 

This storytelling workshop links in with our topic, Traditional Tales. The children have been retelling familiar stories, and will be creating alternative endings as well as making up their own stories this term. 

“My favourite was the frogs.” Kamari

“I loved jumping up and down like a frog.” Farina

“I am the green frog and I have to run away.” Amelia

In a World of Pure Imagination

Loose parts play supports divergent thinking, problem solving and offers a sense of wonder and fantasy to children. The children have used a variety of materials such as cable reels, tyres, wooden blocks, crates and sticks. These resources are carried, moved and create the children’s fantastical ideas. The children have created soft play areas, rockets, living rooms, bonfires and rollercoasters. This type of play encourages storytelling, imaginative models. engineering, problem solving and working collaboratively to create their models and role play. 

“We are playing and building and eating.” Gabi.

“I built a bouncy castle.” Hope

“10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1...blast off.” Ollie 

“I’m doing a picture of Miss Hines.” Osazemen 

Reception Award Photos 17.01.20

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.

Alder Class
Resilience- Jessica
Star Writer- Abdul-Aziz and Adra
E for Excellence- Kamari

Aspen
Reading Awards
Bookmark- Lily, Elliot
Bronze- Ayaan, Stefania, Joshua, Laynie-Rae
Silver
Gold
Platinum- Charlie

Apple
Reading Awards
Silver- Evie, George
Reciprocity- Kamar, Evie
E for Excellence- Dina

Keep up the good work!

Meet Broadford's Digital Leaders!

Meet our Digital Leaders!

Broadford Primary School introduces our Digital Leaders.

Meet Sophie, Charlie, Alice, Laicey, Naz, Adam, Fayo, Florence and Jessica!

They will be on hand throughout the year to support the school and children with anything technology related!

They have already supported Year 3 in their computing workshop in December and have videoed a football match (video pending!). 

Snack Faces in Nursery

The children have been developing their cutting skills recently. We have modelled the claw grip and explained to the children how to really carefully hold our fruit or vegetables with one hand and cut with the other. They were all very focused and concentrated when cutting their items with the safety knives. Last week after the children had prepared the ingredients they made their own snack faces. They were able to carefully spread cream cheese on their rice crackers before designing their own tasty face!

         "Look it has big cucumber eyes! I'm going to put peppers on next." Victoria

"I cut it by myself! That was hard!" Tommy 

Who's been eating my porridge?

The Reception children returned from lunch on Monday to find that someone had been in their classrooms and had left quiet the mess. There was chairs knocked over, porridge oats everywhere, a pink ribbon, footprints and three bowls and three spoons. Who could it be?

The children had lots of ideas and theories and their suggestions included monsters, ogres, bandits, giants, bats, bears and vampires. Together we looked closer at the clues that had been left behind and tried to connect these together. The children spent the rest of the afternoon looking for more clues, discussing what had happened with the other classes and recording the clues they had found on clipboards. At the end of the afternoon, we put all the information we found together and decided that the culprit was Goldilocks! 

This has been a very exciting hook for the week ahead, when we will be focusing on the story Goldilocks and the three bears. The children will be describing Goldilocks and writing wanted posters to help find her. We will also be discussing whether we would be friends with Goldilocks and how we look after property, resources and belongings. 

Harry "It happened in here as well! The same person has been Aspen!"

Osazemen "I found another clue, there is porridge by the writing area."

James "Lets look outside for more clues." 

Reception Red Word of the Week

This week's red word is.... the!

Red words are words that are tricky to read because you can not sound them out in the normal way e.g. ‘said’ or ‘the’. Your child needs to be able to read these words on sight. We like the 'th' in the,  but the 'e' is tricky so we have to remember it!

You could look out for the red word of the week at home, out and about and in books and on signs. You may want to practice writing the red word, as these are words the children will need to be able to spell correctly at the end of Reception. Good luck!

Reception Awards 10.01.2020

Alder Class

Reciprocity- Mason
Star Writer- Siana
E for Excellence- Tayla

Aspen
Reading Awards
Bookmark- Chuka, Ava

Reciprocity- Zayd,
Resilience- Ayaan
E for Excellence- Stefania

Apple
Reading Awards
Bookmark- Teddy, Emmy
Silver- Georgia, Sophie
Gold- Eason

Reciprocity- Teo
Resilience- Elkah
Star Writer- Teddy
E for Excellence- Merlyn

Reception Red Word of the Week!

This term in Reception we will be introducing a 'red word' of the week. Red words are words that are tricky to read because you can not sound them out in the normal way e.g. ‘said’ or ‘the’. Your child needs to be able to read these words on sight. Each week we will focus on a new red word as well as revisiting previous red words.

You could look out for the red word of the week at home, out and about and in books and on signs. You may want to practice writing the red word, as these are words the children will need to be able to spell correctly at the end of Reception. Good luck!

This weeks red word is....... I!

Reception Maths Stay & Learn!

We would like to invite all parents and carers into school on Tuesday 21st January for a Maths Stay and Learn. It will run from 2.00-3.00pm and will take place in the Reception classrooms. There will be a chance to watch a short carpet session as well as to explore a range of Maths activities and games with your child. We look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday!

Reception Spare Clothing!

Could we please remind all Reception parents and carers that your child should have a set of labelled spare clothes on their peg at all times in case of accidents or spills. These do not need to be school uniform.

If your child has come home with school spare clothing on please could you make sure these are returned to school for anyone else who may be in need.

Thank you,
The Reception Team

Yummy Gingerbread Men Baking

As part of our 'Traditional Tales' topic, we have been reading and enjoying the story  'The Gingerbread Man'. The children have been making their own gingerbread men. We have enjoyed honing our baking skills from last term and working in small groups collaboratively to bake.

First, they had to select the right resources and ingredients. The children used their phonic skills to help read and follow the recipe. Then they had to use their math skills to carefully count the correct number of spoonfuls of ingredients into the mixture! Everyone was great at sharing and turn-taking. Finally the biscuits were placed in the oven to cook and then they were ready to take home and enjoy!

Jessica "I'm so excited when I go home I'm going to make gingerbread men too."

Gabi: " You need flour, butter and sugar to make biscuits and ginger too."

Reception Curriculum Letter Spring 1

Dear Parents and carers,                                                                                         Term: Spring 1

We hope you have all had a lovely holiday with your families and are ready and rested for the Spring term ahead. The children have settled back in well last week and have been excited to talk about their holidays. We will be revisiting expectations and rules of the setting during the first few weeks, ensuring we have remembered these over the break and are all following these.

We will be having a Maths Stay & Learn on Tuesday 21st January from 2-3pm. All parents and carers are invited to join us in the classrooms to see how we teach Maths and to join in some maths activities with their child.

The children’s reading is progressing well, with some strong sound recognition and blending skills. The more they practice these skills the more fluent your child will become at decoding words, this then allows them to develop their comprehension skills. We would like to remind everyone that the school’s expectations related to homework, is to read every day.

Try to make reading a part of your daily routine, finding a time that this fits in with your schedules at home. This could be when you first get home from school or after dinner. This time could include your child reading to you, practicing reading green words, practicing sound recognition or sharing a story together. Record this is in your reading record, for it to be counted towards awards and certificates. This time should be in addition to a bedtime story, where you are reading just for pleasure. Aim for ten minutes a day. Of course there will be days when it doesn’t happen due to special events, trips out or extreme tiredness.

This half term we will be reading a selection of traditional tales during our topic sessions. These stories will include: The Gingerbread Man, The Three Little Pigs, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Little Red Hen and On Sudden Hill. Below are some of the objectives we will be focusing on this term.


Communication and Language
Children are often familiar with traditional tales and they provide children the opportunity to retell them in their own words, act them out in their play as well as imagine alternative endings. These all help children develop their communication and language skills.

Physical Development
This term we will be focusing on our letter and number formation, ensuring the children have the right patterns, formation and direction. It is vital we encourage these from the beginning, so the children do not form bad habits. We ask if your child is writing at home and forms a letter or number backwards that you work with them to write it the correct way. We will also be continuing with fine motor activities to strengthen our hand and finger muscles. Of course we will still be working on our gross motor skills in the outdoor areas and during PE lessons.

Maths
We will continue with our number of the week, moving on to the teen numbers. Perhaps you could go on a number hunt at home or out and about. The children will work on number recognition and representing the number in different ways. This will deepen the children’s number sense and basic maths skills. We will be focusing on counting objects accurately to ten and beyond as well as irregular arrangements of objects. We will be looking at weight, capacity, length and height during our measurement lessons. We will compare, order and solve problems.

Literacy
We will continue with our daily RWI lessons, focusing on our ‘special friends’, two letters that make one sound when together (for example: sh, th, qu, ng, nk, ch). When the children are confident decoding simple words we will teach and encourage them to ‘Fred in their head’ words to increase their fluency. Starting next week will also introduce our ‘red word of the week’. Red words are common, irregular words that the children must read on sight.

During topic we will be focusing on writing simple sentences. We will be writing wanted posters, speech bubbles, recipe cards, alternative endings and labeling characters.

Helpful Websites:

• Phonics Play (https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/): Click on the free phonics play and then children for phonics games. Most children are working within phase two or three at this point. Our favourite games are Picnic on Pluto (reading real and alien words) and Pick a Picture.
• Topmarks (https://www.topmarks.co.uk/): Lots of maths games that are Early Years appropriate.

Messages:

• Please ensure your child has a named set of spare clothes on their peg at all times.
• All uniform should be labelled with your child’s name. 
• Please can toys from home stay at home. We have lots in school and it saves toys being lost or broken. 
• We ask that your child’s reading book is in school on their reading day each week so it can be changed and your child read with.

If you have any questions or concerns please speak to your class teacher. 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 Reception Team

Broadford Bakery!

The Reception children have been busy exploring their new bakery role play area this week. There has been cupcakes, bread, gingerbread men and cookies baked galore! There has been lots of collaboration as the children worked together to create their favourite recipes. The children have demonstrated great reciprocity as they've baked, played and tidied up together.

Role play is an important part of child development, as it builds confidence, creativity, communication, physical development and problem solving. Along with being a fun activity, it also allows children to get into character and act out real life roles or fictional performances. It can be purely child-led, and encourages children to take risks and be creative with the role they are playing.

But it is not all pretend, the children will all be making their own Gingerbread Man this week, working in small group to follow the recipe. Later this term we will also be making bread when we read The Little Red Hen. 

"We need eight spoons of flour." Paige 

"I'm mixing it up." George 

"Careful, the oven is hot!" Evie 

Nursery Parents - Start using Evidence Me

Happy New Year! We hope you have all had a lovely break, we are looking forward to welcoming the children back on Monday and starting Spring Term.

During the last week of the term you should have received an email from 'Evidence Me' (please check your trash if you haven't received this). This is our upgraded assessment system and will enable the Nursery to share observations/teaching moments with parents and parents to share special moments with the school in a simple way. Please follow the information below to start using the app. We have already had positive feedback from some parents and have received some lovely videos! This is a slightly different platform to the previous 2simple parent share so even if you have used this you will need to reconfirm your email for Evidence Me.

This works either via the website you will follow in your email link: https://evidence.me/login or you can download the app Evidence Me to your phone. Unfortunately this is only for IoS however the company are due to update this to include android in early 2020. Please explore and try to share some photos with us. This could be a family celebration, a proud moment or simply a practice picture to see how it works! You will also receive photos or videos from school via this website during the next half term. 

How Parent Share Works

• You will be sent a Parent Share invitation to activate your account via email.
• If you would like to participate, click on the link to activate and confirm your email address.
• Manually Download the App
• Visit the App store on your device and search for Evidence Me by 2Simple
• Follow the steps to download the app
• Log in to the app
• Open the app on your device
• Enter your Email and password
• Tap Login
• The following pop up message will appear:
• “Evidence me” Would Like to Access the Camera – Tap OK
• "Evidence me” Would Like to Access the Microphone – Tap OK
• Would you like to save this password to use with apps and websites? Please Note: If you are using a shared iCloud account we would recommend clicking Not Now
• Do you want to set a PIN? we recommend that you select OK to keep your app secure (you can select No and set this up at a later date).
• Press OK
• Create a Parent App Observation

Photo 

1. The photo will be instantly captured

1. Edit your image using the image edit features – Please Note this feature will only appear if you have switched on Enable Crop Screen in the Settings area of the app

1. Tap Done in the bottom right-hand corner

1. Select Tap to Edit

Video  

1. The video will automatically start recording

1. Click on the stop button  to stop the recording

1. Click Tap to Edit

Existing photo/ video 

1. Your device gallery will instantly open

1. Select the image(s) you would like to upload (max 10)

1. Click Select in the top right-hand corner

1. Open the device settings

1. Scroll down to Camera

1. Tap Formats

1. Tap Most Compatible

Add App Observation Details

1. Tap to edit an observation

1.  You can add evidence if you want to take a photo of a piece of work

1. Click on Add learners - Your child will be the only learner so select their name.