Home » EYFS – Newsletter – 24/04/2026

EYFS – Newsletter – 24/04/2026

We have had a fabulous first week back after the Easter break and Reception have dived straight back into their brand new topic titled ‘Let it Grow!’. As Spring is now in full-swing and we’re finally seeing some warmer and sunnier weather we look forward to spending this time learning all about different things that grow – and this week we have got off to a fantastic start! We began the week learning all about plant life and the important things that plants need to grow and reproduce. The children learned about the different parts of a plant, and how plants often start off as seeds or bulbs, and what conditions are needed for the best growth. We tested this out by each planting our own bean in a pot of soil, and we shall all be responsible over the coming weeks to nurture our bean plants, making sure they are sufficiently watered and kept in a suitably sunny spot to bring them on once they have sprouted. The children were then challenged to cut out four stages of a plants growth and place them in the right order to demonstrate their understanding of this topic. We also prepared our vegetable bed by clearing it of weeds, thanks to lots of fantastic helpers and then we planted rows of lettuce and radish seeds, which we hope to see grow as the weeks pass by. To complement all this thinking about plants, we challenged all the children to produce their own sunflower painting, using a cut potato to print the vibrant yellow petals.

Inspired by the planting of our own beans, we read and enjoyed a couple of different versions of the traditional tale ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. The children then enjoyed using costumes and props to retell this story with their friends – handling the magic beans and using a toy axe to chop down the beanstalk that had sprouted through the middle of our classroom. We also challenged the children to cut our their own leaves to add to a beanstalk picture, carefully counting out the right number to match a given two-digit numeral.

Perhaps the most exciting element of our new ‘Let It Grow’ topic was the arrival of ten hen’s eggs on Monday. Reception have been very carefully watching during the week as the one by one the chicks began to hatch out. We have been very lucky with the timing as he children have been able to watch several of the chicks as they emerged from the egg and see how they begin life out-of-the-shell. It was fascinating to watch as the chicks dried our and became fluffy and how they took time to ‘find their feet’ and become stronger. As the chicks grew more resilient we carefully took them out and the children were invited to hold and stroke them (very gently, of course!). Next week we’ll ask the children to help name the little beauties – so get your thinking caps on over the weekend!

In our Maths sessions this week, we have been exploring the concepts of addition and subtraction and how these operations change numbers. To visualise the idea of adding the children role-played as bees flying to different ‘flowers’ and counting up the totals. To further rehearse addition the children rolled a die in pairs and added their two numbers of bricks to build a tower that represented the total. To better understand the concept of subtraction, the children used apparatus to physically ‘take-away’ blocks as well as counting back along a number-line to solve subtraction problems.

Phonics this week has seen is revisit the long vowel phonemes ‘ai’ ‘ee’ ‘igh’ and ‘oa’. We have played a fun treasure hunt outside, seeking for words that contain these phonemes and reading them aloud before deciding if the word was real or fake. The children’s reading comprehension was put to the test in a matching activity and everyone was challenged to write words and sentences containing these focus phonemes.

On Thursday, we used our Forest School session to go on a walk around the neighbourhood of Cookridge. This was actually an over-hang session from our last topic of ‘Around the World’ that had to be re-arranged due to staffing constraints. We wanted to explore the local area to appreciate all the local amenities with have close by to school. Along the way, we answered questions about the things we came across and managed to take in the water-tower, fire station, high school, library and supermarket amongst other sights. The children were very observant and loved telling their stories of life in Cookridge as we walked. Back in class, the children discussed how neighbourhoods are arranged and how it is important to have certain amenities close by. They then explored the idea by either designing and building their own amenities or by cutting and sticking different places on to a map to create their own ideal neighbourhood.

We took advantage of the pleasant Spring weather by setting up a ‘Game Zone’ outside on some blankets. Here the children were invited to sit with a friend and play a game of Jenga, Four-in-a-Row, Snakes and Ladders or Noughts and Crosses. Some of these games tested patience and needed close attention and all needed good cooperation skills to ensure fair gameplay as the children took turns politely with one another to finish their games. This has proved very popular and it has been lovely to see children chatting together and enjoying the time spent together as they have played in the sunshine.