EYFS at Woodland Grange

• We encourage children to be curious and imaginative. 
• We teach them to ask and answer questions — find things out and explain to others. 
• We want our children to be aware of the world around them.
• We encourage them to be independent.

General Information:

We have our Mother's Day event on Tuesday - 1st April. 

LEGO Discover - 

The sessions will continue to take place on a Thursday morning and will run for the next 6 weeks.

Reading at home:

Please could we remind all families just how important practising phonetic sounds and reading, at home, is. Those children that read and share books at home regularly are progressing so well. They are super confident and are beginning to segment and blend independently.

We all understand how busy life can get, but 5 minutes daily will make a huge difference. If you would like any support or suggestions regarding reading and/or phonics at home, then please let us know. 

We are now using BoomReader to record reading logs. 

Week beginning : 31/03/2025

This week's learning:

Focus text: The After Fall (Week 2)

Humpty Dumpty's famous fall—and Humpty's determination to overcome his fear to reach great new heights. This beautiful book explores the aftermath of Humpty Dumpty’s famous tumble, his subsequent fear of heights and the terrible impact on his life. Will he be able to summon up the courage to face the wall again?

Some of the things the children can look forward to seeing in the classroom this week:

The construction area - it is Stickle Brick time. What creations can you make? Have fun and use your imagination and building skills. 

 

Finger Gym - to build up the children's muscle strength and memory and develop their dexterity and fine motor skills. The classroom has a finger gym - the activities in this area will change regularly and include activities to help build children's motor skills and confidence - all of which should help the kids to improve pencil grip and handwriting. This week, children can use their fine motor skills to create their own Mother's Day floral art. 

 

Role-play area - the return of the Home Corner. Children love this role-play area. Time for them to play happy families and get lost in a world of imagination. 

Reading area - familiar stories, sharing and retelling stories. The children really enjoy sharing and exploring a range of different texts. It is a pleasure to see such joy from reading! The children's phonics skills are improving, and it is amazing to see their confidence develop and observe them sharing books in our reading area. 

Maths area - can you weigh the objects and use your mathematical vocabulary?

Malleable - Play-dough - can you use your construction skills to build?  

Tough spot - messy play with cornflour and a fun egg theme. 

Our carpet sessions will include English sessions (Talk through stories), maths sessions and phonics sessions. We will be focussing on the below: 

Phonics

Our Rocket Phonics phonic sessions continue to happen once a day, 5 times a week. This week we will be focussing on the digraphs oa and oo. We will also revise and continue to learn Common Exception Words (tricky words). Why not practise these initial sounds at home with your children? 

Maths

This week, the children will continue to develop their subitising skills (seeing the quantity without counting) in increasingly complex arrangements. Some arrangements are easier to subitise than others – e.g. a set of 6 dots arranged in a structured die pattern that exposes the double-3 pattern is easier to recognise than a random arrangement of 6 dots. A key focus this week is to use the children’s developing understanding of doubles to support their subitising skills. By moving away from counting for sets that can be subitised, the children will develop their abstract understanding of number, which will help to support future calculation strategies. This week’s sessions will also continue to encourage the children to consider when they can subitise and when they might need to use counting as a strategy.

Other areas of the curriculum....

Music - we will be enjoying some fun and familiar songs together. 

RE - This week our big question is: What happens at the end of Winter/beginning of Spring? How do dead plants come alive again?

We will also be discussing the religious celebration of Eid and sharing some of the children's personal experiences. 

Topic - a focus on positional language. E.g. "Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall, then he had a great fall."

PE - The children will do a PE lesson on a Friday afternoon. 

Please make sure that all jewellery is removed, including religious bracelets. Could we please ask that all earrings are removed for our Friday lessons? This is really important for safety. Thank you to the vast majority of parents/carers that continue to do this. 

This week, we will be continuing our new Get Set 4 PE unit - 'Ball Skills 1'. 

Please see the Knowledge Organiser below:

Thank you to all the families that have been practising their Big Moves - we are very proud of you. Keep it up by visiting the website below and clicking on 'Big Moves parent videos and using the password: 

LSLSSPBM

Big Moves – Learning South Leicestershire School Sports Partnership

Remember that the House list has been shared on Tapestry and your children can now come to school, on a Friday, in their PE kits. 

Please see the family area of the Get Set 4 PE website. We use this scheme at school, so why not see what they suggest for some fun activities at home - Get Set 4 PE - Resource Bank (getset4education.co.u