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Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.

This week in Reception Ducking Class @FP, we had an exciting and hands-on learning experience inspired by our story of the week: The Gingerbread Man! The children have been fully immersed in this classic tale, bringing it to life through storytelling, art, and a very special baking activity.

Story Time and Literacy

We started the week by reading The Gingerbread Man together, exploring the characters, the sequence of events, and the exciting chase. The children participated enthusiastically, acting out parts of the story and repeating the famous line, “Run, run, as fast as you can!” This not only reinforced their understanding of the story but also helped develop their listening and speaking skills.

Creative Baking Fun

To make the story even more memorable, the children became little bakers and made their very own gingerbread men! Guided by their teachers, the children learned how to measure ingredients, mix dough, and carefully shape it into gingerbread people. As the aroma of baking filled the air, the excitement grew!

Each child decorated their gingerbread man with colorful icing and toppings, adding unique details to their creations. It was wonderful to see their creativity and focus during this activity. Of course, the best part was tasting their delicious creations. Thankfully, none of the gingerbread men managed to run away!

Learning Through Play

This activity wasn’t just fun—it was packed with valuable learning opportunities. The children practiced:

• Math skills: Measuring ingredients and counting decorations.
• Fine motor skills: Rolling, cutting, and decorating the gingerbread men.
• Teamwork: Working together and sharing tools.
• Language skills: Retelling parts of the story while they baked.

What’s Next?

The children have truly enjoyed this week’s adventure. Building on the theme, we’ll be exploring other related activities such as designing storyboards and creating their own versions of the tale. Don’t forget to ask your child about their favourite part of baking and which character they liked most from The Gingerbread Man.

Have a fabulous weekend… Mrs Dervish

This week we have really enjoyed Looking at the artist Keith Mallet. We have been doing observational drawings of instruments and plants in the classroom and using our artistic skills to make our drawings as realistic as possible. 

In science, we have been experimenting with how objects move on different surfaces. We set up an experiment using a marble, slope and different surfaces and we found that the marble moved quickest on the soft, smooth surfaces. We look forward to more exciting learning ahead this term 

We have also been enjoying learning about how our brain works and learn in our My Happy Mind sessions. This week we learnt about how our brain stores memories and skills to help up get better at things. We then wrote about something we couldn’t do before that we can now do really well.

In Nightingale 1 class @FP, the children have been enjoying gymnastics this term. Check out their amazing balancing skills!

The children enjoyed listening to the 'Colour Monster' story last week. They named and identified different emotions then created their own Colour Monsters by blowing paint with straws.

Hawk Class @FP have kicked off the new year by coming back doing lots of work towards our goals. We have started the My Happy Mind scheme and we have been learning lots about how our brains work. We know what to do when our Amygdala takes over, and we have been working on our happy breathing techniques. 

In History we started off our World War topic, and we have touched upon reasons why WW1 ended and how WW2 started, very interesting stuff. In Geography we started our Africa topic, and this week we spoke about the scramble for Africa. Please take a look at our amazing work! 

In Nightingale 2 class @FP, the children have been working incredibly hard in their core classes this week. They have been writing some amazing non-fiction texts about their special interests, as well as finding out new information and sharing it with their classes. Together they worked well to sort the books in our book corner into non-fiction and fiction texts. They had to really look at the details of each text carefully as some were trickier than others to work out which area they would fit into.

In the resource base, they worked incredibly well together developing their key communication skills whilst completing puzzles. They had to think about the different shapes, colours and sizes and use their words to describe what pieces they needed. They had to take turns and share whilst also being incredibly patient and wait.

Find out the latest news from FP here:  https://wp.me/peWTXe-47R

This week, Kingfisher class @FP are improving their knowledge and skills in gymnastics. In this week's lesson we were tasked with creating different letters of the alphabet using our bodies and then in groups. 

This week in Reception Ducking Class @FP, we have been diving into the wonderful world of storytelling with the classic tale of The Three Little Pigs! The children have had an exciting time exploring the story, and we are thrilled to share all the fantastic activities and learning they have been involved in.

Storytime Adventures We began the week by reading The Three Little Pigs together. The children were captivated by the big bad wolf and the clever pigs. They enjoyed joining in with the repeated phrases, such as, “I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down!” This provided a great opportunity to talk about storytelling techniques, repetition, and building suspense.

Creative Construction Inspired by the pigs’ houses, we explored different materials to build our own models. The children worked in teams to construct houses using:

• Straw
• Sticks
• Lego bricks (to represent bricks)

We then tested how strong each house was by using a hairdryer as our “Big Bad Wolf”. This activity was a fun way to introduce basic science concepts about materials and their properties.

Role Play and Drama The children took turns acting out the story. Some were pigs, some were wolves, and others narrated the events. This role-play activity encouraged creativity, confidence in speaking, and teamwork.

Art and Craft In our creative area, the children made their own pigs and wolf masks, which they used during the drama sessions. They also painted pictures of the houses and created collages using straw, twigs, and paper bricks.

Writing and Literacy We encouraged the children to retell the story in their own words, using drawings and emergent writing. Some children created their own versions of the story, imagining new adventures for the pigs or even giving the wolf a change of heart!

Maths Links The story provided a wonderful context for exploring numbers. We counted pigs, sticks, and bricks, and even measured how “long” our straw and stick houses were.

Key Learning Outcomes Through these activities, the children have:

• Developed listening and comprehension skills.
• Explored the properties of materials.
• Practiced teamwork and problem-solving.
• Expressed themselves creatively through art, drama, and writing.

Extend the Learning at Home Here are some ideas to build on this week’s learning at home:

• Read other versions of The Three Little Pigs or similar tales.
• Encourage your child to build their own houses using blocks or natural materials in the garden.
• Discuss the importance of building strong and stable structures in real life.

Thank you for your continued support in your child’s learning journey. We hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our week! If you have any questions or would like to contribute to our upcoming activities, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

 Storytime Fun with Dear Zoo!  

This week, our little learners have been diving into the beloved story Dear Zoo! 

 Retelling the Story:
We’ve been using our imagination to retell the tale, bringing the characters to life in our own words! 

 Exploring the Animals:
With our fine motor skills hard at work, we’ve been feeling, sorting, and exploring all the wonderful animals from the story. 

 Where’s the Puppy?
Our positional language skills are growing as we describe where the cheeky little puppy is hiding. Under the table? Next to the box? Behind the chair? 

 Lion Faces:
ROAR! Our creative juices were flowing as we made our very own lion masks. Fierce, fabulous, and full of fun! 

 Building a Zoo:
Tiny architects have been hard at work designing and building their very own zoos. What amazing creations they’ve made! 

 Our Very Own Book:
We’ve even created our own Dear Zoo book with all the children’s wonderful drawings and words. Storytime has never been so much fun! 

We’re so proud of how engaged and creative our little ones have been this week.  What a joy it is to see them learning through play! 

#DearZoo #NurseryAdventures #StorytimeFun #EarlyYearsLearning #FineMotorSkills #CreativeKids #BuildingOurZoo #PositionalLanguage #RoarLikeALion #NurseryLife