Friday 26th April

This week our story has been Jack and the Beanstalk. We have read different versions and talked about the differences. One has a hen laying golden eggs, another has that and a magical harp. Jack climbs up and down the beanstalk each time and another he climbs down once carrying the harp and the hen. See if your child can retell the story to you!

We have looked at the life cycle of a bean and next week we will have a go at planting them. 

In Maths we have explored adding two numbers together and begun using the word 'altogether' and discussing how it means 'total'. Then we have begun talking about 'taking away' and how this means removing some of an amount. We have been using dried beans which are gold on one side to show the two amounts as well as an interactive tens frame. Here is the link if you want to try some more at home. 

Our tadpoles have all hatched now and are getting bigger by the day. The children are learning how to care for them including feeding them. We all love to sit and watch them swim about. Now they are bigger we can see some of their features better - eyes, mouth and the pattern on their bodies.

Thank you and well done to everyone who is reading so much at home! Keep it up!

Have a lovely weekend!

The EYFS Team

Friday 19th April

Welcome back to Term 5. This term our topic is 'Into the Forest', where we will be reading traditional tales such as Goldilocks and the three bears, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood. At the end of each week, perhaps you could see if your child can retell the story we have been focusing on that week! This will help their literacy skills!

This week in Maths we have been exploring numbers beyond 20. In class we have been counting beyond 20 and also working out different ways we can making numbers bigger than ten. If you're looking for an activity at home to support your child you could find different ways of making bigger numbers through addition, starting with 10 (10+1=11, 10+2=12), etc). For example, if you go out on a walk and find 10 sticks and 3 leaves, how many have you got altogether? How about if you have 10 leaves and 6 sticks? Exploring numbers in this way will support your child with their number composition and deepen their understanding.

We have had great fun this week. Please view the slideshow to see some of our fantastic learning.

Key Dates:

Next Friday is 'Dress Down Day'. Children are allowed to wear their own clothes with colours of the Olympic rings. FoFS are asking for a donation of a toy your child might not use anymore for our summer fair. Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

The EYFS Team

Friday 28th March

Can you believe it's the end of Term 4!

This week we have had so much fun getting into the Easter spirit. We've made rice krispie cakes and Easter cards! 

Over half term, we hope you're able to enjoy some of the early Spring weather and doing lots of fun activities.  This term has been full of great learning and over half term this can still continue! Perhaps if you go on a walk:

• Can your child spot some 3D shapes in the environment?

• Can they count their steps/jumps?

• Could they draw a map of where they went?

• Can they tell you the importance of stick safety which they have been learning about in Forest School?

• Can they point out any birds/flowers?

Next term we will be hosting a 'Book Look'. This is an opportunity to come and view your child's books/learning and an opportunity your children to proudly talk you through their fantastic work this year. We will update this page when we have a date. 

Finally, we wish you a very Happy Easter and look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 15^th April.

Friday 22nd March

This week we have been very creative, starting the week off by making paper plate space helmets and creating our very own moon rocks! Towards the end of the week we made and decorated rockets to help us get into space.

In Forest School the children have been roasting marshmallows and having hot chocolate! 

Supporting with Phonics:

Previously we uploaded a video of the Phase 2 sounds for Phonics. Please see the video below for the Phase 3 sounds. By the end of Reception, children are expected to know sounds in both Phase 2 and 3.

It would also be great to continue reading with your children as this will support them with their fluency. This can be reading a book, a sign whilst out and about, any reading is great reading!

As always, thank you for your support! Wishing you a lovely weekend.

EYFS Team

Friday 15th March

This week we started our handwriting sessions and the children have been fantastic! This will really help support your child's writing. We have put the Phase 2 and 3 Phonics sounds and tricky words in your child's book bag, which will further help them to practice and consolidate their phonics knowledge. You can use these to check which sounds your child knows. In our phonics lessons, we use each sound/word as a flashcard and show them one at a time. You can challenge them to tell you the actions for each sound, for example "d, d, d, dangerous digger" or "s, s, s, squishing strawberry". Perhaps you could also challenge them to listen out for the sounds in some simple words such as cat, pin, map and sat. 

As a reminder, a tricky word is a word that we cannot use our phonic knowledge to sound out, as the letters make a different sound to what it typically does. For example 'is', the s makes a z sound.

We have had a great week at school, engaging in lots of fun learning. We ended the week with Science Day and our theme this year was 'Time'. We looked at the days of the week, months of the year and the seasons of the year, discussing why they are so important! We have also created salt crystals which we will observe over time to see how they turn out! Please view the slideshow to have a look at some of the exciting activities we've been up to this week!

Reminders:

Next Tuesday and Thursday (19th and 21st March) we have our parent consultations. Please make sure you book an appointment for a chance to discuss your child's progression with their class teacher.

Friday 8th March

From next week we will begin introducing letter families to the children, in order to support them with correct letter formation. There are four letter families. These are:

• Curly caterpillar letters (c, a, o, d, g, q, e, s and f)
• One armed robot letters (r, b, n, h, m, k and p)
• Ladder letters (l, i, t, u, j and y)
• Zigzag monster letters (v, w, x and z)

It would be great if you could encourage using this vocabulary when supporting your children with their reading and writing. Perhaps you could challenge them to read or write a sentence that includes all of the letter families, for example 'the cat in the van'. Can they identify which letters belong to which family? 

World Book Day 2024

It was so lovely to see everybody dressed up yesterday! A big thank you for providing costumes and books. We had some princesses, dinosaurs, Where's Wally? costumes and so much more! We had such a fun day! The slideshow above shows some of costumes and also the fun we have had this week!

Have a lovely weekend.

The EYFS Team

World Book Day

Tomorrow is World Book Day, I hope you all have your outfits prepared. We can't wait to see them! 

A few reminders for tomorrow:

Best dressed competition - the winners will be announced in Worship tomorrow. 

Create a book character from a vegetable at home – a potato would be the best but you could try something else that is similar. Judging will happen tomorrow with prizes given out in Worship on Friday.

Bring in a photo of themselves reading in the most interesting place – this will be displayed in classrooms or can be emailed to the office if it is an electronic photo. This is not a competition.

Book Swap – Eco group have organised a book swap at lunchtime. Old unwanted books are going to be brought in from Monday 4th in exchange for paper vouchers for each book that they donate. These can then be used to choose some new books to take home. Please put them in your child's book bag with a note in their contact book. 

See you tomorrow!

EYFS Team

Monday 4th March 2024

We are looking to develop our outside area - please view the leaflet below to see if you can help us at all! Thank you very much in advance.

Friday 1st March 

Correct number and letter formation are important skills that will support your child throughout school. It supports with developing handwriting and pencil grip. To support your child with formation, we have attached some resources we use in school - please use these with your child by following the arrows. The resources are saved below. 

In Forest School, the children have been making paintbrushes out of natural resources. Can your child tell you which resources we used and the sequence the order using the words first, next, then and last? For example "first I got my stick and then I got my leaves, next I tied them together and lastly I made a picture".

A reminder that on Thursday 7th March is World Book Day! We are excited to see who or what you will dress up as! On Thursday at lunchtime there will be a book swap. Please feel free to bring in books from Monday. We will keep these at school ready for the exchange on Thursday.

Thank you for your continued support. We wish you a lovely weekend.

EYFS Team

23rd February 2024

This week we have begun our half term topic of Space! The children have enjoyed thinking about what they might take on a rocket ship. We have also been learning about the days of the week in Maths but have found this a little tricky. Here is the song we have been using https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXMofxtDPUQ to help us learn them. Please can you support your child in learning these and answering questions such as 'What do you do on Wednesdays?' 'Swimming!'. What day comes before/after......?  We will be reviewing this later this term.

Have a lovely weekend.

The EYFS Team

Friday 9th February

In PE this term we have been learning about ball skills. We have been learning to roll, throw, catch and accurately stop a ball with our feet. An activity you could do is practice catching a balloon to develop you child's reaction time and hand-eye coordination. If they find this easy, you could move onto larger balls.

We are really grateful for our parent volunteers this term. If anyone is interested in helping with reading in mornings/afternoons next term, please let the class teacher know.

The pictures above show a glimpse of the fun we have had this term. As we reach the end of term, we wish you a lovely, restful half term and look forward to welcoming you back for our 'Flying High' topic!

Friday 2^nd February 2024

This week our weekly newsletter will focus on answering questions in a full sentence. This supports children with not only developing their vocabulary and conversation skills but will also support them when it comes to writing in full sentences.

When speaking to children and asking them questions it is very easy to know what they mean/want even if they only say one or two words or sometimes none at all based on their body language. Encourage your child to answer in a full sentence eg.

Q – Would you like a drink?

A- Yes, please can I have orange …. Rather than accepting ‘orange’

Q- What did you have for lunch today?

A-I had a roast today….. rather than accepting ‘roast’.

Below is a link to a website which has some more reading around this and some suggested activities you can play at home to encourage this.

https://teachearlyyears.com/learning-and-development/view/confident-communicators

Here are some of the activities from this website:

The ‘Question King and Queen’

Ask children to help you create a throne and a crown. Add question mark symbols to the crown and explain their meaning to the children.

Let the children take it in turns to be the Question King or Queen and sit on the throne wearing the crown.

Build a back story for the children; the Question King/Queen is very naughty and will only answer questions when they are seated on their throne.

Model asking simple questions to start off with: What’s your name? What’s your favourite food?

As the children get the idea, allow them a free rein with their questions – and give them time to develop extended conversation, if they wish.

Tea and chat

Set up a café table with a tablecloth, flowers, cups, plates and so on or go to a real one. Provide appropriate drinks in a teapot and healthy snacks.

Print cards with an invitation for tea and a chat; for example, ‘Dear…, please come for tea and a chat, love from…’.

Help the children to fill in invitations to give to one or two friends/family members. Act out the process of hosting a tea party and chatting to guests, and encourage your child to talk over their drinks and snacks.

Thank you, have a lovely weekend!

The EYFS Team

Friday 18th January 

Below are some songs we use in Phonics to help children blend words and identify tricky words. You could watch these videos and pause them at various points and ask your child to read the word. Can you challenge them by asking them to write the word?

A tricky word is a word which we cannot sound out. For example, this 's' in the word 'is' makes more of a 'z' sound, rather than a 's'.

Next week, we will be junk modelling! If you have any recycled materials such as cereal boxes, milk cartons/lids, yoghurt pots, please could you bring them in.

Thank you for your support. Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Friday 12th January 2024

Reading

This week our newsletter focus is reading. Congratulations to all the children who are now reading worded books, we are really proud of your learning. As a teacher the children who make good progress are those who are read to and also read themselves regularly. 

Some handy tips:

* Record in the yellow book every time your child reads with you. This can be a magazine, news paper etc. as well as school phonic books and library books.

*Did you also know that it is free to sign up to and borrow books from Crowborough Library?

*When your child reads, encourage them to point to each sound themselves before blending. If they are reading a phrase or sentence, go back and read it all again to support understanding. 

*Sometimes, it can be helpful for an adult to read the book to the child first, before they then have an attempt.

*If words are repeated, draw your child's attention to the fact it is repeated so they don't need to keep sounding out the words once they know what they say.

*If your child can sight read words, they do not need to segment them into individual sounds. 

* Tricky words cannot be sounded out (I, to, no, go, is, the, into, has, his, as, of and into)

*Wordless books are designed to allow your child to take ownership and read the story. You could play games like I-spy or get them to spot the main character on each page if they are struggling. 

*Books will have a mixture of singular words, phrases and also sentences. 

*Children's attitudes to reading are often carved based on the attitudes of those around them so please be mindful of keeping it a positive experience.

Monday 8th January

We were all so excited when it started to snow at school today! We have been watching it all day and we wanted to show you the fun the children had in the snow this afternoon! Sometimes, we will send your child home in their forest school gear and wellies. Please could you return these so your child can enjoy playing in the snow. Thank you!

Reminders:

PE: Please send all PE kits in as we have started PE for this term.

Swimming: Please could these be brought in tomorrow as we have Church on Wednesday.

We hope you all enjoy the snow and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Friday 5th January 2024

Happy New Year! Welcome back to Term 3, where we are looking at 'People Who Help Us'. We have all enjoyed a wonderful Forest School session where we looked at different types of birds and made some bird food for them!

Important Notices:

Forest School: As we enter the cold spell, please make sure your children are dressed appropriately for the cold weather (thermals, extra socks, gloves, etc), as we are outside for long periods at a time. 

Phonics Parent Visit: On Thursday 11th January (9:05-9:30), we are welcoming parents/carers to come and watch a Phonics lesson to support with your child's early reading. Please enter via the Year 4/swimming pool entrance. We will continue to post resources on this page to help you support your child if you are unable to attend these sessions.

Swimming: Swimming will be starting Wednesday 10th January. 

Friday 15th December 2023

We are so proud of each and every one of your children for settling so well and having a fantastic first term at school. Thank you so much for your thoughtful cards and gifts. Wishing you all a restful few weeks and we look forward to seeing you in January.

The EYFS Team

Swimming in EYFS

First, I would like to say Hello! My name is Elliott Stevens, and I am the owner of Swim Stars South East and founder of Heathfield Swim School. I am also one of the teachers that are now delivering swimming lessons and a new swimming programme to your children at the school. I just wanted to spend some time to give you all a quick update regarding the progress of your children this year to date. So far, the last two terms that me and my team have been delivering lessons at the site we have seen a huge increase in water confidence, technique, and swim skills so to everyone who has been participating I just want to say a HUGE WELL DONE, you are making excellent progress.

A small overview on what we have been doing:

Reception – Have been working on building Water Confidence, introducing Movement Skills and learning to stay safe in the water.

We will be adding in a Water Safety element to all classes over the next two terms to include personal survival skills, lifesaving skills and how to stay safe when in and around the water. I look forward to seeing you all continue with the great progress and want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Friday 8th December 2023

Please use the video below as a reference for you to support your child's reading at home. Ensure they are saying the sounds as a pure sound, correcting them if they say it wrong.

We have also attached the tricky words for you to go through with child. A tricky word are words that don't have their typical sound when blended phonetically.

The children have adapted really well to our transition to the KS2 hall. Please view the slide show of the fun things we have been doing this week.

Wishing you a restful weekend,

The EYFS Team

Monday 4th December 2023

Dear parents

A polite reminder that no parents should be coming past the little wooden gate.

All messages should be in the contact book so that children can come straight in and the teacher and TA can welcome children supporting them to settle.

We will ensure a member of staff from both classes is by the gate to welcome your children.

Thank you for your support

Miss Rose

Friday 1st December

This week, we have been busy rehearsing for our play on Monday! We cannot wait to show you what we have been working on! The children had their dress rehearsal in front of Key Stage 1 and they all did brilliantly! For the Nativity, please enter via the Year 4 entrance. Keeping with the theme of Christmas, we have continued learning about the Christmas Story and talking about our own Christmas experiences. The children have been busy creating lots of Christmas arts and crafts, including making snowflakes, trees and reindeers out of lolly sticks!

Please ensure your children are wearing extra layers under their uniform (vests/thermals) while our heating is being fixed. Thank you.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

The EYFS Team

24th November 2023

This week, we have been learning about birthdays. We have learnt how Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ day of birth and we give gifts at Christmas like the Wise Men gave to Jesus. The children have begun learning the songs and actions for our show Hey Ewe! Which we are looking forward to showing you on 4^th December! Further details are under the key dates tab.

We are looking forward to seeing lots of you at the Christmas fair tomorrow, keep an eye out for the decorations children have made around school!

Friday 17th November

Welcome back to Week Three! This week has been all about Remembrance Day and Children in Need. We have been very creative this week, using apple printing to make poppies and decorating some Pudsey Bears!

This week during Forest School, the children made their own Owls from pine cones and feathers, inspired by the story 'Owl Babies'.

Please refer to the 'Key Dates' section of the class page for more information on the EYFS Nativity and Christmas Fair! It would be great to see as many of you there as we can!

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

Friday 10th November

This week, Owls and Hedgehogs have been looking at Diwali – the celebration of light. We have read stories such as ‘Peppa’s Diwali’ and ‘Little Glow’, and made out own Diva Lamps! We have enjoyed learning all about Diwali – can your child tell you some of the ways Diwali is celebrated?

We had our second swimming lesson this week and all of the children have grown in confidence in the water! Well done everyone!

We all enjoyed coming to school in our PJ's! We wish everyday could be PJ day!

We hope you have a restful weekend and look forward to seeing you on Monday.

3rd November 2023

Welcome back to Term 2. Our topic this term is ‘Celebrations’. We have started by looking at Bonfire Night and have watched videos of fireworks displays and had a go at creating our own fireworks pictures, using watercolours and chalk pastels. We have also made sparklers and held our own Reception fireworks night!

We have continued with our Phase 2 Phonics sounds and it has been great to see the children remembering the sounds we covered before half term!

Owls and Hedgehogs also had their first swimming lesson this week and the children had great fun pretending to be crabs in water and using the noodles!

Well done for a great first week back!

Friday 20th October

This week we have been thinking about friendship and what makes a good friend. We have had several circle times where we say who is a good friend to us and why. We have begun learning our phase 2 sounds and the children have done a great job beginning to form the letters.

We enjoyed superhero day and had lots of fun creating superhero masks and exploring with the green screen!

Important Notices

Swimming – We will be beginning swimming on Wednesday 1^st November. Children will also need to bring their own pair of poolside shoes – crocs or flip flops are fine. Please ensure they are named.

Volunteers – If Forest School or supporting with swimming is something that you think you would like to get involved with, we would love to have you! Currently we have one volunteer so far and we would really appreciate a few more, if possible!

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the half term break!

Friday 13th October

This week we have been looking ourselves and our families and have spoken about who we live with, including our pets. In PE we played ‘Follow the Leader’ with musical instruments. In Maths, we have been collecting items from around the classroom and testing to see if they will fit in different sized boxes. We explored the wooded area at the beginning of the week and made lots of mud cakes!

Important Notices

Swimming – Swimming begins on Wednesday 1st November after half term and we will need some volunteers to support with changing. If you would like to volunteer to support us, please contact the school office so you can arrange a DBS check.

Superhero Day -  On Wednesday 18th October we will be dressing up as superheros for our fabulous finish. 

Forest School – Please do not send your child in wearing skirts or dresses for Forest School as they are not practical or comfortable under water proof trousers.

Have a great weekend, can you believe we have nearly finished our first half term together?

Friday 6^th October 2023

This week we had a tour of the school and some of us even had some cheeky photos in our siblings seat. We had our Harvest Festival on Thursday and sang our song ‘The Big, Red, Combine Harvester’ beautifully for our audience. We were so amazed with how well the children were during the service! We have started looking at matching and sorting in Maths and have been identifying objects that have the same properties. In the blue area, we have been making ramps with the construction blocks and have had so much fun!

Important Notices

Swimming – We will be beginning swimming on Wednesday afternoons after half term and would love for some volunteers. If you would like to volunteer to support us, please contact the school office so you can arrange a DBS check.

Wet Weather gear – Thank you for sending these in, if you have. We still have a small number who need either wet weather gear/wellies. Please send them in as soon as possible.

Superhero Day - During the final week of half term, we will be dressing up as our favourite superheroes! We will update this page when the date has been confirmed, but please could you send your child in wearing a superhero costume! We will have lots of fun and we can’t wait to tell you all of our adventures.

Forest School – If Forest School is something that you think you would like to get involved with, we would love to have you! Currently we have one volunteer so far and we would really appreciate a few more, if possible!

Thank you, have a lovely weekend!

The EYFS Team

Friday 29^th September 2023

We have had another great week in EYFS! This week we have been thinking about Harvest Festival and creating art work using different parts of our hands to make pictures of pumpkins! We have enjoyed playing in the wooded area painting trees with our homemade paint brushes and using green boxes with rope to pull each other along. In the blue area we have been making more fantastic creations with the blocks including a slide and a boat! Have a great weekend!

Important Notices

Wet Weather gear – Thank you for sending this in!

Harvest Festival – All parents are welcome to attend our Harvest Festival which will be Thursday 5^th October. Please bring your child to All Saints Church and not the school for 8:45am. Children will sit in the front few pews and parents will be seated at the back. After the service we will walk your children back, holding their Year 6 buddies hands. We kindly ask that parents don’t accompany us back. Thank you for your understanding.

If you wish to bring a contribution for the Harvest Festival, tins and packets of dried food (in date) are welcome! Thank you in advance.

Volunteering – If you are keen to come and help and haven’t got a DBS check, you will need to contact the office. It would be great to have more volunteers for Forest School and when it starts, swimming!

Thank you, have a lovely weekend!

The EYFS Team

Friday 22^nd September 2023

Owls and Hedgehogs have had a great first week together! We have met our buddies from Year 6 and we will see them again soon to show them our All About Me Boxes. We have been playing with the blocks outside making aeroplanes, trains and obstacle courses. The children enjoyed using the blue jelly on a tuff spot on Friday, some of the teachers may have enjoyed it a little bit too! We have been reading The Colour Monster and the Colour Monster goes to School, using this to discuss our feelings and begin using the zones of regulation. This is a way to allow children to show how they are feeling and begin learning different ways to bring us back to the green zone – calm, happy and ready to learn.

Important Notices

Swimming – Apologies for the miscommunication, it will begin next half term.

Wet Weather gear – Please ensure that your child has a set of waterproofs which stay in school – a waterproof jacket and trousers or an all-in-one waterproof suit as well as a pair of wellies (which are named). As well as Forest School we will go and play in the wooded area but we are not able to unless the children have suitable protective clothing. When it’s cold we get the children to wear their ‘going home coat’ under their waterproof jacket so it is worth getting them a little big so we can do this. Trousers can be rolled up at the bottom and round the waist if need be.

Woodland Walk - Next week we would love to make some art using natural objects. If you happen to go for a walk this weekend please can you collect some conkers, acorns, interesting leaves, small stones and then bring them in on Monday? Thank you in advance!

Volunteering – If you are keen to come and help and haven’t got a DBS check, you will need to contact the office. It would be great to have more volunteers for Forest School and when it starts, swimming!

Thank you, have a lovely weekend!

The EYFS Team

Our new Owls and Hedgehogs have settled well into school and we are enjoying getting to know them better. The children have been busy saying hello to friends they recognise and making new ones! They have loved playing with our new climbing frame, in the red spinning tops and using play dough! On Friday they went and had their first Forest School session with Mrs Patient!

Monday 18th September - Bring in PE kit 

Wednesday 20th September - Bring swimming kit