YR FOXES 2022-2023

25th May 2023

Our last week before half term has been wonderful in Fox Class. This week, we read the story 'One Hundred Steps: The Story of Captain Sir Tom Moore'. This was a perfect end to our topic of 'People Who Help Us'. The children had an in depth discussion about Tom Moore and why he was known as one of our Modern heroes. We all had a circle time discussion about who we would like to be when we grow up and created a poster of us grown up. We also set ourselves 'challenges' like Tom Moore did such as creating obstacle courses and timing ourselves with a sand timer, balancing on the climbing frame for a period of time, building Lego models on with a time limit.

Our personal challenge of growing garlic was a great success. We are now watering for the final week and after half term, we will be using the garlic grown in our garden for our school lunches! 

We also had the opportunity to talk about everything we have learnt over the last half term during Oracy time to ensure that our Foxes remember what they have learnt and can build on their skills learnt so far. Our 'Learning Journey' wall is always a useful tool that were refer to during our carpet sessions. 

During exploring time we carried out the following activities independently:

-Creating and writing up our own Fox timetable

-Using our imagination to create worlds for animals using blocks

-Developing our fine motor skills by creating patterns

-Designing and building emergency service vehicles using junk

-Writing recipes and making birthday cakes in our Mud Kitchen

-Reading non fiction and fiction texts in both our indoor and outdoor areas

-Using the water trays to measure volume and capacity

-Using Lego and Duplo to build our own fire and police stations

-Developing our communication and language skills in our camping area

-Using sand timers to develop our counting and measuring skills

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

Challenges Inspired by 'Sir Captain Tom Moore'

P.E

19th May 2023

This week, Fox Class we very lucky to have two Fox parents to come in and talk about their job roles (A radiologist and a knee surgeon!). We also had a surprise visitor that our parents had bought in with them, a life size skeleton dressed as a pirate! Foxes had a wonderful opportunity to learn about how doctors help us as well as naming different parts of the skeletal system. During PSHE, We discussed why it is important to take care of our body and brainstormed reasons why. Foxes have also been learning about superfoods and made their very own fruit smoothies. This was a great way for the children to put all their skills of chopping and cutting into action. During exploring time, we carried out the following activities:

- Practicing our number bonds to 10 and beyond

-Developing our balance skills in Gymnastics

-Learning and writing new vocabulary linked to our topic of 'Doctors'

-Working together to complete sorting games.

-Using our fine motor skills to create emergency vehicles and stations using Lego.

-Developing our pencil grip and drawing real life flowers for our Blue Bell Fair.

-Exploring non fiction texts on 'People Who Help Us' in our reading den.

-Enhancing our gross motor skills by making an obstacle course in our outside area using blocks and crates.

-Using our phonic skills to label our obstacle courses using chalk.

-Building our knowledge on capacity using the water tray and measuring jugs. 

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

PSHE

Doctors Visit

Show and Tell

Gymnastics

DT Project- Making Smoothies

8th May 2023

This week in Fox Class, we have been learning about the role of a Postal worker. The children wrote some wonderful thank you letters to our Headteacher, Mrs Swain. We also read the story ' The Jolly Postman' which was our book of the week. Fox Class also had an opportunity to write some 'Thank you' letters to their family and friends. In Science, we learnt about floating and sinking and experimented with different objects. 

During our exploring time we carried out the following activities;

-Carrying out the role of a postal worker

-Writing new vocabulary linked to our topic of Postal workers

-Ordering numbers to 30 using our police number cars

-Exploring and writing in our outdoor area

-Creating and writing up maps in our outdoor area and using maps to build our own town using Lego and large blocks

-Exploring with emergency vehicles in the sand and creating patterns with the tyres.

-Using water and 'emergency' boats to explore floating and sinking.

-Measuring capacity and volume using the water tray

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

Gymnastics

5th May 2023

Fox class have had a brilliant and exciting week. We began our learning by reading 'Charlie the Firefighter' as a whole class. We had some good discussions about the role of a firefighter and how we help others every day. We then carried out some wonderful activities linked to the Coronation of King Charles. It was a great way of understanding British Values and a wider understanding about the country we live in. We also enhanced our learning experience by carrying out the following activities;

-Colour mixing (making orange) to create fire pictures

-Creating potions and medicine in our mud kitchen

-Using our fine motor skills to create crowns!

-Practising our weaving skills in DT to make police cars.

-Reading fiction and non fiction texts with our friends.

-Practising our phonics skills and writing firefighter keywords!

-Enhancing our gross motor skills and making a fire engine using blocks and crates.

-Playing pretend in our firestation and police station areas. 

-Enjoying a healthy picnic lunch on our Coronation Day celebrations

-Using our fine motor skills to draw and colour our very own soldiers!

-Continue to practise our balance and ball skills in P.E and Gymnastics.

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

P.E and Gymnastics

Coronation Day Celebrations

28th April 2023

Linked to our topic of 'People Who Help Us', Foxes have been learning about the role of the Police force. We have been reading our book of the week 'Cops and Robbers' by Janet and Allen Ahlberg. During our learning time, we have been discussing the importance of having police officers, how they help us as well as comparing police from the past and present. We had some great discussions during our Oracy sessions about how the world would be without having police officers to help us. We also enjoy library day every Thursday where we get to explore and choose our books to take home. We have carried out some fantastic learning during exploring time which is listed below;

-Creating and carrying out the role of a police officer in our new Police Station role play area!

-Thumb printing and writing about ourselves on our police badges

-Developing our fine motor skills dressing in emergency services clothing

-Using our phonic knowledge to label our 'jail' in our outdoor area!

-Brushing our teeth for 2 minutes with our friends

-Practicing our balance skills in P.E

-Enhancing our communication skills in our Mud Kitchen

-Counting how many beanbags we can throw in hoops

-Using Numicon to help us create number bonds.

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

PSED- Dental Care

Show and Tell

P.E

Library Day

21st April 2023

A fantastic first week back for Fox Class. This week, we have introduced the topic 'People Who Help Us'. We created a class brainstorm about who helps us in and out of school. The children gave some wonderful answers. Paramedics was a popular one! We have also been introducing the children to using 10's frames when counting and creating number bonds. Our book of the week 'Superworm' was a wonderful read. The children had a lovely discussion about how Superworm helps others in their time of need. In PSHE, we have been learning the importance of dental health. During our lesson, we sorted food into different groups and discussed which types of food were healthy or unhealthy for our teeth. Some of our Foxes rose to the challenge to think of other food that was not on the list! We also carried out many activities during our exploring time such as:

-Revisiting and developing our skills in Gymnastics

-Using our fine motor to create hospitals and police stations using Lego

-Enhancing our cutting skills to create emergency vehicles

-Writing about different people who help us such as police officers and firefighters

-Exploring fiction and non fiction books in our reading area (chosen by some children from our Library!)

-Having a go and writing sentences with finger spaces

-Exploring pattern using peg boards

-Exploring capacity as well prediciting what might float and sink in our water area

-Dressing up as different emergency officers

-Creating emergency vehicle sounds in our music hut

-Reading and developing our communication skills in our outdoor camping area

-Painting different types of emergency officers!

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

PSHE

P.E

31st March 2023

Fox Class have an amazing Easter week. We have been learning about the story of Easter as well as reading the book 'Mr Impossible and the Easter Egg Hunt'. Foxes have also been very busy learning about weight and capacity during our cooking lesson. We made some delicious hot cross buns and Foxes were able to understand why we made them. We developed our skills in rolling, mixing, stirring, patting and learnt new vocabulary in the process! Foxes learnt and explored through many other activities such as:

- Painting and exploring Spring flowers

- Exploring and using different materials to create Spring animals 

- Working as a team to create animal homes

- Repeating patterns using puzzle bits

- Counting and writing numbers to 20 and beyond

- Writing sentences and key words for our learning journey board

- Using junk to create bird houses

- Developing our gross motor skills by creating vehicles using crates, tyres and planks. 

- Practising our balancing and dribbling skills in P.E 

- Exploring festivals such as Vaisakhi (celebrations of Sikhs) and Easter (Christianity) 

- Understanding the importance of handwashing and learning our new handwashing song!

- Celebrating our Oracy skills in Show and Tell

- Exploring fiction and non fiction books in our reading den

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

P.E

Cooking

24th March 2023

Fox class have had another brilliant week. This week Foxes have been learning about new life, including plants and lifecycles. Our book of the week 'Jack and the Beanstalk' inspired us to plant our very own cress seeds, which will be taken home before breaking up for Easter. We will be observing our plants over the next week and keeping a log in our very own cress diaries! We have also been exploring indoors and outdoors by carrying out the following activities;

- Developing cutting skills by creating chicks

- Exploring pattern by making butterfly prints

- Finding one more and one less of a given number

- Planting our very own cress 

- Writing new vocabulary independently from our book of the week

- Making small world models using blocks, trains and animals

- Creating potions and concoctions in our mud kitchen!

- Practicing our ball skills

- Developing our skills of movement in our Dance and Sports sessions. 

- Enhancing our Oracy skills in another week of Show and Tell

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

P.E

17th March 2023

Fox Class had a whirlwind of a week learning and exploring. We had a visit from Ark Farm where the children were able to have a bespoke experience with some furry animals. This linked perfectly to our topic of Animals. We also had a wonderful exploring time of making animal homes and creating maps. 

Indoor Exploring

Ark Farm Visit 

Science Day

Show and Tell

10th March 2023

This week, Fox class have been learning about farm animals. Our book of the week 'Mr Gumpy's Outing' was very popular with the class. It also opened up class discussions about capacity, weight and how animals may have acted in real life! A brilliant way of developing those oracy skills. We have also been learning about shapes this week and linked to this, we recreated work from Wassily Kandinsky (Concentric Circles). We were so proud of our Foxes and how they were able to use their knowledge of shapes and put their artistic skills to practice! We also carried out the following activities during exploring time;

- Discussed and explored real life farm animal photos

- Developed our fine motor skills using peg boards

- Practiced our letter formation by writing farm keywords and vocabulary

- Acted out the role of a farmers/animals by creating a farm as team

- Explored with farm themed jigsaws

- Solidifying our oracy skills through Show and Tell by asking relevant questions or describing what they have bought in to show. 

- Understanding properties of shape by creating 2D shape pictures. 

Indoor Exploring

Kandisnky-Concentric Circles

Show and Tell

Farm Animal Discussions

3rd March 2022

This week, Fox Class have been learning all about the book 'Dear Zoo'. Most of our Foxes were familiar with this story and really enjoyed learning about the animals in detail. Fox Class were eager to learn about animals that live at the zoo and why they live there. We had wonderful discussions about safety of animals and how we could help preserve their ways of living. World Book Day was a great success. Fox Class bought in many books of different genres including non fiction texts about animals! During our exploring time Fox Class took part in various activities listed below;

-Creating animal homes using blocks 

-Recreating the role of a vet in our new role play area

-Practising our writing skills in our new Vet Surgery

-Using our phonic skills to create animal fact files

-Learning and writing new vocabulary linked to our topic

-Observing and drawing real life photos of zoo animals

-Matching numerals to quantity

-Ordering paw print numbers to 20 in our outdoor area

-Exploring non fiction books on animals in our reading den

-Using junk to create animal dens

-Painting animals using a variety of colours

-Using our mud kitchen to make animal food

-Exploring with Duplo to create a zoo

-Creating tally charts of favourite zoo animals

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

Maths Challenge

24th February 2023

This week, Fox class have been carrying out various activities linked to the book 'The Gruffalo'. This coincides perfectly with our 6 week topic on Animals. This week, our focus was woodland animals. We learnt about their habitats and how these animals have adapted to their surroundings. In our R.E lessons, we have been learning about Shrove Tuesday and why pancakes are eaten!  During our PSHE circle time activity, Fox Class got to hold our class Gruffalo and spoke about their experiences of showing courage.  During exploring time, Fox Class carried out the following activities;

- Designing and making their very own pancake faces! Fantastic for fine motor control

- Learning how to make 10 in different ways using natural objects

- Sorting out animals and finding their correct habitats

- Recreating and acting out the story of the Gruffalo

- Exploring our reading den and sharing stories with each other

- Practising our sounds and letter formation using our 'vocab of the week' board

- Learning to work as a team using construction

- Exploring our forest school area to find leaves and twigs for our Gruffalo story tray

- Building homes for animals using natural materials such as planks and wood slices

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

PSHE

P.E

10th February 2023

This week in Fox Class our PSHE lesson was based on love (Valentines Day) and how we care about the people we love. We also learnt about different foods eaten in Asia as we are coming to an end of our Chinese (Lunar) New Year topic. Noodles was a very popular dish that many of the Foxes were familiar with. We created our role play area into a Chinese restaurant and explored different textures by exploring cooked and raw noodles in our outdoor area. The children also enjoyed their last Forest School session for this time. Fox Class were introduced to our topic of the Gruffalo which we will continue to explore after half term. We carried out many activities that consolidated our learning over the last two weeks such as;

-Creating Dragons and developing our fine motor skills

-Using different colours to create Valentines cards.

-Writing messages using our phonic knowledge

- Exploring and creating menus in our mud kitchen

- Exploring different media to design and make animal puppets

- Discussing the importance of Friendship and creating cards our friends in and out of school

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Forest School

Show and Tell

PSHE

3rd February 2023

This week, Fox Class were introduced to the topic of Chinese (Lunar) New Year. Fox Class were very lucky to have a special guest who came to our class and read the story of the Great Race. The children were able to enjoy some of the resources that were given to us to use during our exploring time. The children had the chance to act out the story in both our indoor and outdoor areas. Some of our Foxes chose to become dragons themselves! We have also learnt so much during our exploring time by carrying out the following activities;

- Hunting for early signs of Spring during Forest School

- Developing our fine motor skills by cutting and creating rabbit collages (Year of the Rabbit)

- Practicing our phonic skills by writing names of animals from the story

-Working as a team and creating enclosures for animals 

-Exploring books in our reading den and in our outdoor area

-Using our knowledge of one more and one less using Duplo. 

-Finding different ways to make 8. 

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Forest School

Show and Tell

Chinese (Lunar) New Year

27th January 2023

Fox Class have had an action packed week! This week we have been learning about the book 'Town Mouse and Country Mouse'. Linking with our topic of Near, Far, Past and Present, the children have been exploring the differences between villages, towns, the countryside  and cities. In Forest School, the children learnt about Winter and explored the our Forest School independently. The children understood from previous weeks on how to keep safe in the woods. No picking, no licking is a motto Foxes have learnt for the great outdoors! We have also been exploring and learning through play by the following activities;

-Making our own healthy food plates to use in our Cafe Role play area

-Understanding the different food types such as carbohydrates, fats and protein,

-Acting out the role of waiters and waitresses at our new Cafe!

-Writing our own menus

-Exploring our new mud kitchen outside

-Creating time machines using wooden blocks

-Using wooden blocks to create towns and villages

-Using our skills of twisting, rolling and sprinkling

-Creating 'Friendship Soup' and adding this to our Cafe Role play area. (PSHE)

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

Forest School

Cooking

20th January 2023

This week Fox Class have been learning about shopping! We created our very own fruit and veg stall by adding our own signs to the shop! This really helped Foxes develop their number formation and writing skills. We also used carried out the following activities linked to our theme of the week 'Shops':

- Using playdoh to make cakes and develop our fine motor skills

-Created 2D shape pictures and labelled them independently

- Created a tally chart of our favourite vegetables and practiced writing our numbers

- Drew number lines for our cars in the outdoor area

- Investigated the frozen ice in the tuff trays

- Looked out for signs of danger in Forest School

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Forest School

Show and Tell

P.E

13th January 2023

This week, Fox Class have been learning about our village Jordans, which coincides with our topic of Near and Far, Past and Present. We have been learning so much about comparing buildings from the past to present including having a trip to our village store in Jordans. We have also had our first Forest School session. Our mighty Foxes were introduced to all the resources they could use to explore the woodlands. Fox class also had the opportunity to develop their fine motor skills by creating resources for our new role play area. We decided as a class to turn it into our very own Fruit and Veg shop! Not only have the children learnt about the different types of fruit and vegetables but have also learnt to develop their mathematical skills in counting money and using our phonic skills to create shopping lists. The learning is endless! An amazing week Foxes! 

Forest School

Indoor Exploring

Jordans Village Shop

Show and Tell

6th January 2023

Happy New Year to you all. It has been a very short week. However, the children have really enjoyed seeing their friends and learning new topics. This week, we had a focus on creating maps. The children were very excited to draw their own maps of the towns they live in. Fox Class are beginning to use their phonic knowledge to write independently! This week, the children also got to choose their own resources during our exploring time. This gave them independence and were able to lead their own play. Well done Fox Class! 

Indoor Exploring

16th December 2022

Wow! What a week Fox Class have had! Not only have we completed our Nativity plays, but we have learnt so much about Christmas. We have been learning about the festival of Christmas and how it is celebrated throughout the world. We also had a brilliant discussion about how people who may be from different backgrounds still celebrate Christmas and all the different activities we do during the festive break. The children have been mastering their skills in cutting, sticking and creating beautiful Christmas trees. We have also been busy baking star biscuits which links into our topic of Shapes. Foxes had a really good go at kneading, mixing and rolling the dough! In our outdoor exploring time, we had the chance to investigate and experiment with ice and snow. Children worked together as a team to build our very own Snowman. Some decided to collect as much snow as possible in our outdoor garden. Well done Fox Class. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year! 

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Cooking

Show and Tell

9th December 2022

Fox Class have had a really busy and fun filled week of learning this week. The children have been practicing their Nativity songs as well as dress rehearsals. We have also been enjoying learning about the 'Jolly Christmas Postman' story. This week, Foxes have had the opportunity to explore independently indoors. They have had a particular interest in magnetic shapes and creating dens for animals. The 'Post Office' role play area has been wonderful for practicing  writing their names as well as writing captions for their friends. Foxes had the chance to speak about any celebrations and traditions that is unique to them and their families. A wonderful way to build on their communication and language skills. Fox class really have become so confident when speaking in front of others and their peers. Well done for another week Fox Class!

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

Celebrations and Traditions 

2nd December 2022

This week Fox Class have had a brilliant learning week based on 'The Jolly Christmas Postman'. We have been learning about the roles of a postal worker, why and how we send letters and together created our very own Christmas post office! In our outdoor area, we have been learning about numbers by going on envelope number hunts, posting letters in the correct letter boxes (matching numerals). A kind parent from year 1 donated some flowers to plant in our flower bed. We spoke about the life cycle of a flower and what they need to grow. We are also lucky to have a small vegetable bed in our outdoor area. Fox class decided to grow garlic, as this is used in our school kitchen when making pasta sauce! The children really enjoyed putting down new compost and getting involved as a class. Foxes also enjoyed 'camping' in our outdoor area, creating wonderful Autumn collages and hunting for bugs in our investigation areas. Construction is really popular in our outdoor learning environment. Foxes got together and created a fantastic obstacle course. Even the teachers had a go! A wonderful way to develop those gross motor skills. We really have had a wonderful week of learning and exploring. Well done Fox Class!

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Gardening