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Teaching Team Miss Oliver Mrs Fitzgerald Mrs Paynter
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Support Staff Miss Hardwick Miss Shaw |
Week beginning: 2nd February 2026
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Squirrels Class weekly theme Animals from around the world
Last week the children really enjoyed sharing animal stories and we began to make up our own in Literacy. It prompted lots of discussion about animals and where different animals are from. This week we will explore that a little further during learning and exploring time. |
Owls Class weekly theme Animal Stories
The children have really enjoyed sharing their own favourite animal stories. It has been wonderful to see their joy when they share a favourite story with the rest of the class. “The next bit is a really funny bit.” “I love this page!” Please continue to send books in if you haven’t already. |
Our Learning this week includes:
Literacy - This week the children will begin writing their own animal books. Their first page will tell us something about our main character. The children will be encouraged to say their idea out loud, count how many words and segment each word using their ‘segmenting fingers’ and sound mats to support them. Children will be reminded how to sit and hold their pencil correctly so they are ready to write.
We will discuss orally what happens in some of our favourite animal stories. The teacher will guide children to write a simple sentence with everyone having a go at the same sentence to show what happens next. Children will then have an opportunity to create their own what happens next page for their story books. This will be done in smaller groups with an adult guiding and supporting each child, according to their own writing development.
Maths - This week we will be focusing on the comparison of numbers. When comparing, children notice attributes and begin to understand differences and similarities. We will focus exclusively on the numerosity of sets, without being diverted by colour, shape or size. They will then be encouraged to notice when quantities are equal or unequal, and will begin to consider how they can manipulate the number of objects in 2 sets to make them equal.
Language will be a key focus. As we are exploring the numerosity of sets, ‘fewer than’ will be used instead of ‘less than’ when comparing how many objects there are in each set. The children will also be encouraged to use the phrases ‘more than’ and ‘an equal number’.
Expressive Art and Design - This week we focus on colour mixing. We will look at an image of the African sunset and talk about the colours we can see. Introducing the new word 'shade' in terms of colours. We will have a go at mixing colours to make different shades of reds, yellows and oranges. Then having a go at painting an African sunset on paper. When dry, we will create a silhouette of an animal using black paper to stand in our sunset picture.
PE - We will have pedal bike coaching on Monday and Tuesday this week with coach Ben. We will also take part in a coaching session with Game On on Thursday.
| Phonics focus of the week | Song of the week | Words of the week |
Poem of the week |
| Recapping sounds learnt so far | 5 Little Monkeys | shade, mix, dark, light |
Spring Wind |
Our termly Class letter is viewable here
What the children say...
In our EYFS unit we plan according to the children's interests. We spend time talking to the children, asking them what they already know and what they would like to find out.
Our weekly themes are led by the children. Each week we share ideas and then pick a theme for the coming week.
Our PE days for both classes are:
- Tuesday
- Thursday
RE learning
In Religious Education, we will be learning about different celebrations and festivals which link to the heritage of some of the children.
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