Home » EYFS – Newsletter – 02.05.2025

EYFS – Newsletter – 02.05.2025

What a beautiful week of sun we have had this week. Happy Days!

On Monday we had delivered ten hen’s eggs in an incubator. Following the instructions to keep the eggs warm we eagerly waited for the hatchings to begin. Over Wednesday and Thursday all ten chicks hatched from their eggs – clearly eager to enjoy the good weather whilst it lasts. Mr Verdi named the first two to emerge as Lidl and Aldi for they were going ‘cheep’ and the children helped come up with names for the other eight chicks in a similar fashion (Asda, Co-op, Morrisons, Sainsburys etc.). The chicks were transferred to a ‘brooder’ and given food to help them grow in the coming days. Hopefully, we shall be able to get the little guys out next week to give the children an opportunity to hold them and take a closer look as they grow.

Lots of children chose to have a go at a jumping chick craft activity too this week in celebration of our current guests. A cup was decorated to look like a chick with wings, feet and a beak cut out from card and added to a yellow cup. Details were drawn on and then an elastic band added underneath to allow the bird to ‘hop’ when pulled down on top of a second cup.

Outdoors we had an egg inspired maths game in which children had to go hunting for hidden eggs and look for the numbers held inside. When they found two eggs they were challenged to add the numbers together and make an addition number sentence. Many children also had a go at ordering the stages of a chicken’s life cycle.

We’ve also finished work on our class scarecrow which is to form a part of this weekend’s Cookridge Scarecrow Festival. Our scarecrow has been inspired by our reading of Jack and the Beanstalk last week, so he is named Jack and covered in magic beans, with a giant beanstalk growing alongside him. The school’s scarecrows will be displayed on school property so if you are following the trail locally keep an eye out! There have also been children choose to take on a cut and stick challenge to piece together a scarecrow picture from 2D shapes.

We read the story of The Enormous Turnip and acted out the story with gusto! We discussed how a lot of vegetables we eat grow as roots under the ground and some children tried a cut and stick activity matching roots to their leaves (radishes, carrots, parsnips and turnips).

Maths sessions this week saw us investigating 2D shapes again and in particular manipulating shapes in different orientations. The children had a go at constructing pictures from 2D shapes, rotating Numicon pieces to fit inside a larger outline and fitting pieces in a tangram puzzle.

In Phonics, we have been rehearsing the digraph phonemes ‘oo’ (book) ‘oo’ (moon) ‘ar’ (star) and ‘or’ (horn). The children are making great progress in their writing and really starting to become more independent in their spelling and sentence writing skills. In the reading area they were challenged to read a phrase or sentence and then draw a picture to show they understood it. Outside, the children had to read lots of different words and decide if each one was real or made up.