YR FOXES 2022-2023

21st July 2023

Our Fox Class have had a tremendous year. We have learnt so much and the children have thrived from our enriched curriculum that we have created for Reception. All of our Foxes have remembered all the wonderful and exciting things we have learnt this year and are ready to implement these skills when going into Year 1.

This week, we celebrated our learning of Under the Sea by having a Pirate Day. We carried out the following activities that enabled the children to enhance all of their skills in every area of our curriculum such as:

-Writing their 'Pirate' names and placing them in bottles

-Carrying out a number treasure hunt and finding clues to find the missing treasure!

-Writing and creating maps

-Using our doubling skills when using our gems and doubloons in the water

-Developing our confidence and performing in our music area to Sea Shanty music.

-Creating boats using wooden planks and crates

-Enhancing our fine motor skills to create props such as flags for role play

Pirate Day

Indoor and Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

14th July 2023

This week, Foxes have thoroughly enjoyed our book of the week ‘On a Pirate Ship’. This coincided perfectly with our topic ‘Pirates’. We carried out many writing activities linked to this book and have been working on writing sentences. We have also been doubling in maths this week using Numicons.

Our Foxes have also been writing and creating their own treasure maps, which we will be using for Pirate Day next week. We had to stain the paper first using tea bags and then discussed how to create a map. Some of our Foxes were able to explain to the class how a compass is used! We also learnt about the different roles of a Pirate such as a Boatswain and a Sailing master, which proudly went up on our Learning Journey Board!

Foxes really enjoy having the new vocabulary that we have learnt this half term including examples of work on our Learning Journey Board. This really helps our children so that they can remember what they have learnt and build up their learning on past experiences!

We also had some wonderful learning during our Indoor and Outdoor exploring time such as:

-Exploring in our Bluebell Woods during Forest School

-Creating maps

-Using our fine motor skills to create Tap- A-Shape boats and ships.

-Making food in our Mud Pirate Galley

-Working as a team to create water channels using chutes

-Crafting for our Pirate Day adventures, making flags and telescopes

-Enhancing our gross motor skills to create ships and boats

-Writing and making signs for our ships that we have made in our outdoor area

Indoor and Outdoor Exploring

Forest School

Show and Tell

Doubling-Maths

7^th July 2023

This week, Fox Class have been introduced to our final sub topic of Pirates. We created a in depth brainstorm of everything we know about Pirates on our first session. We have also been learning and creating our own maps. We carefully stained our paper with tea bags and wrote our treasure maps together!

In Forest School, we had a lot of exploring time by making mud pies and chocolate shakes in our Pirate ship ‘Galley’.

In maths, we have been learning that number can be represented in different ways. We used our ‘treasure’ boxes and sorted out which pictures represent a number.

The children have also been learning about our book of the week ‘We’re Going on a Treasure Hunt’. This was a lovely introduction to our topic and touched on numbers.

We have also been very busy learning during exploring time by carrying out the following activities:

-Using our outdoor crates and blocks to make our own pirate ship!

-Enhancing our fine motor by counting and making gold doubloons with our playdoh!

-Creating our very own tally charts independently

-Sorting and grouping by playing Pirate Snap!

-Developing our knowledge and understanding of the world in our reading areas

-Ordering our pirate numbers to 30! Go Foxes!

-Understanding maps and developing our positional language

-Using our phonic skills when writing and creating maps

-Finding ways to develop our Oracy skills in our Aquarium role play area!

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

Forest School

30th June 2023

This week, our Foxes have really enjoyed exploring non fiction texts linked to sea creatures and our oceans. We gained knowledge and understanding of how non fiction texts are structured, the use of a contents page and how we can find out information from books. Foxes have particularly enjoyed researching odd sea creatures such as coconut crabs and conga eels on our school computer! They have definitely taught the staff at Jordans about creatures we haven’t even heard of!

Our Foxes came in with their grown ups this week to plant a flower in our outdoor areas. This was a beautiful opportunity to promote the love of gardening as well as including our grown ups to do something special with their little Fox.

Linking to our maths topic of measuring weight, this week, our Foxes followed a simple recipe to make some fish shaped pizzas. Our Foxes used cooking scales to measure the ingredients as well as developing our fine motor skills to knead and spread using different utensils.

We also carried out many activities during our exploring time such as:

-Carrying out the role of an assistant in our ‘Aquarium’ role play area

-Taking care of our fishes and snails.

-Writing descriptive words linked to our topic of sea creatures

-Writing sea creature fact file books.

-Exploring with balancing scales and developing an understanding of measuring weight

-Developing our gross motor skills by creating a boat using planks and crates

-Working as a team to create an aquarium using blocks

-Using sand to build a volcano as a team in our sandpit

-Looking after our new flowers planted this week

-Creating sea creature puppets to support pretend play

-Enhancing our fine motor skills by creating sea creatures using school made playdoh

Foxes and Parents Planting Flowers

Indoor Exploring 

Outdoor Exploring

Cooking Fish Shaped Pizza

Show and Tell

P.E

23rd June 2023

Foxes have had a very busy week! We had our second forest school session which our Foxes thoroughly enjoyed. We made some dinner in our nature kitchen and explored the different herbs we could use, we took care of some of our new plants that needed to be watered, found different types of plants and so much more. For Literacy, our book of the week this week was 'Fish With a Wish' by P M McCormick. This was a fantastic text to read with the children and is based on how to keep our oceans safe nd clean. We had some wonderful discussions and wrote down our ideas on what we could do to protect our marine life. Fox Class also had their first Sports Day which was a great success.

Alongside this, we carried out the following activities during exploring time:

-Playing snap fish with our friends and understanding pattern

-Exploring non fiction texts in our reading areas both in and outside

-Creating water machines using our chutes and jugs

-Designing and making our own fish using paper plates. 

-Using our phonics to label parts of a fish

-Learning our tricky words by finding it in our 'magic box'

-Exploring our marine life tuff tray and discussing the different animals and fish we find

-Creating props to support our Aquarium role play area!

 Indoor and Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

Forest School

16th June 2023

This week, we have been so fortunate to have two parents to come in and help us build our Foxes knowledge and understanding of sea creatures! Foxes we introduced to 2 Axolotls who are pets of one of our pupils. Axolotls are amphibians and part of the salamander family! We were lucky enough to stroke them and learn so much about how they live and where they may be found! We also had another parent who was very generous in setting up and buying fish for our topic of Under the Sea. Our lovely parent spoke to us about how to look after our new pets over the next six weeks and how to keep the tank clean and safe. We had a class vote on picking names for our fish who are called Dynamite, Kong and Tilly. Our snails are now called Shelly and Sticky! Our Foxes are doing a good job on feeding them and observing the fish in our Aquarium role play area. 

The Foxes have been very busy learning about the story of the week 'The Undersea Cleaning Spree'. This was a wonderful story which led to a discussion on how we can keep our oceans and seas clean and safe. Our Foxes also enjoyed their Forest School session that commenced this week. We were looking for bugs, cooking using natural objects and played leaf snap! 

During exploring time, we carried out the following activities:

-Science experiments using water and oil?

-Explored fiction and non fiction books in our indoor and outdoor areas

-Created obstacle courses for our sea creatures

-Used our phonics skills in our writing areas both indoor and outdoor

-Developed our counting skills in conducting a tally chart on our favourite sea creatures. 

-Finding bugs in our 'bug hotel' and looking them up on our Ipads

-Measured capacity in our water tray using jugs and pipettes

-Using our fine motor skills to paint different types of marine life

-Enhancing our gross motor skills by using blocks, planks and crates to build our own submarine!

-Developed our Oracy skills in our 'Show and Tell' session this week. 

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Axolotl Visit

Our Fishy Visitors

Forest School

Show and Tell

Science Experiment

9th June 2023

What a busy first week back from half term! Over the next few weeks, we will be learning and exploring the topic of 'Oceans and Under the Sea'. We have been reading the book 'Commotion in the Ocean' and have been learning some exciting facts about sea creatures. We have also been lucky enough to dig up the garlic that we have been growing in our Fox Garden. The children were so proud of their achievements and it will be used for cooking our school lunches! In PSHE, we had a wonderful discussion about how we like to spend time with our families and what makes us unique. In P.E, we have been practicing our running skills in prep for sports day!

We have also been carrying out the following activities during our exploring time:

- Creating and painting submarines for our 'Under the Sea adventures'

-Using water to measure volume and capacity.

-Learning how to use tally charts linked to sea creatures.

-Writing the names of different sea creatures in our indoor and outdoor environment.

-Reading and exploring fiction and non-fiction texts linked to Oceans and Seacreatures.

-Dressing up as divers for role play activities.

-Preparing summer BBQ's using our mud kitchen!

-Enhancing our musical and performance skills in our Music area.

-Using magnetic fish to make words.

-Developing our phonics skills by playing reading games and using the 'word bones'.

-Enhancing our fine and gross motor skills by painting sea creatures.

-Hunting for bugs near our 'bug hotel'.

Indoor Exploring

Outdoor Exploring

Show and Tell

Maths- Exploring Capacity

School Grown Garlic!

P.E

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