Beech 2020-2021
Trip to the Country Park
Early years had a wonderful trip to the country park this week! We began with a story all about saving endangered animals, then Ed the ranger took us all pond dipping. We caught fish, snails, tadpoles and water beetles. We had our picnic lunch in the sunshine and some time to play on the playground. Ed took us on an insect hunt in the meadow, we swept the field with our nets and caught butterflies, crickets and grasshoppers, this was really fun! We had a great time and have followed up our trip with writing, pictures and paintings in school. A big thankyou to Ed at the country park and all the parents who came along with us.
Dinosaur topic has begun in EYFS.
Dinosaur day in EYFS!
On Thursday in EYFS we had our dinosaur topic day. We all came dressed as palaeontologists or dinosaurs and took part in loads of fun activities! We went hunting for dinosaurs and fossils in swamps and up volcanoes, we made salt dough dinosaurs, everyone made a dinosaur puppet and mask to take home and a special dinosaur egg! We decorated a swamp biscuit to eat at our dinosaur picnic where we had dinosaur bones (breadsticks), dinosaur claws (cheesy puffs) and a cake with a dinosaur skeleton on! To finish the day we went hunting for trex’s in forest school! Thank you to all parents for such wonderful costumes!
This week in early years we have had some dinosaur bones to look at! We have been learning all about what a palaeontologist does and have written questions about dinosaurs to send to one, we are hoping for a reply!
We have had great fun following a salt dough recipe and then using it to make our own fossils! We have also used assorted pasta shapes to make a dinosaur skeleton picture.
'This week we have been learning about what dinosaurs eat ! We were herbivore dinosaurs for the day and we made fruit skewers after exploring the colours, textures/smells of different fruits. We also looked at the different seeds inside and decided we wanted to plant them and see what happened!'
The children have been fascinated with growth and change observing caterpillars, duck eggs, plants and tadpoles.
This continued during an exciting session in forest school. Percy the Park keeper left us a letter to say there were mysterious footprints. We followed them to the huge nest in forest school and it was full of eggs! We had great fun exploring the frozen eggs and experimenting with how to open them-rolling, melting, smashing, chipping. Inside the eggs were baby dinosaurs!! We talked about what the eggs looked and felt like. We had the most exciting day!
We have come to the end of our first week back and we are planting and exploring seeds.
Here are some pictures.
Each child had an egg box to decorate ready for putting their seeds in.They placed cotton wool in the base and then added a sprinkling of seeds. We discussed what our seeds will need to help them grow.
The children were given some cress seeds to feel, smell, touch and look at with a magnifying glass. They were asked to say what they thought after exploring the seeds.
Spring Term 2021 topic is Traditional tales, fairy tales and magic. Please click here to view our class updates on the EYFS home learning page.
Beech class is our Early Years Foundation Stage class for our Nursery and Reception pupils. This term our topic is ‘Our Homes’, through the term we will share our own experiences and develop our learning further by exploring links to our topic.
In EYFS at Alveley School, we follow a child led approach to play based learning with the belief that each child develops at his or her own pace. The teachers and teaching assistants support and develop the children in their learning, focusing upon the child's interests and taking opportunities to support and extend their learning in a meaningful context. Play is a child's work, we follow their personal exploration and natural inquisitiveness to extend and develop learning opportunities.
This positive ethos is at the heart of the EYFS at Alveley. It is extremely important that the children feel happy and comfortable within the setting; where they are constantly supported and encouraged. The children's achievements are recognised and celebrated. This ethos allows for and encourages problem solving, resilience, curiosity and high levels of engagement. All adults recognise the importance of developing a strong, positive, trusting relationship with each child, knowing each of them as an individual.
Pupils are gradually introduced to more teacher directed activities, whereby the learning experiences follow the children’s interests, linking to a termly topic. Initial ideas of enhancements and stimulus within the environment link to the termly topic and allow children to further develop their learning.
To maximise learning opportunities, the children have daily access to both an indoor and outdoor classroom, and are encouraged to make their own choices. The environment is carefully planned to develop the children's learning experiences.
Please click here to view Early Years at Alveley
Our Nursery and Reception children have all made a fantastic transition. It has been wonderful to see them so engaged with all of the new resources in our classroom and so settled as they begin to develop friendships here at Alveley. Our topic this term is ‘Homes’, we have begun by sharing the things we enjoy doing at home.
Playing together with our new animals. 
Counting and making connections between numerals and quantities.
reating our own dinosaur swamp in our sensory tray.
Making dinner for our friends in the home corner.
Taking turns using our bricks.
Painting the acorns found in Forest School.
Creating a puppet show with familiar story character's.
Relaxing with a story in the book corner.
Sharing stories together.
Working as a team to roll the tyres.
Drawing the big bad wolf from the story.
Enjoying our new forest school equipment
All the children have thoroughly enjoyed our new forest equipment these past weeks, they have engaged with all the new areas and have practiced looking after the equipment.
