Welcome to Meadowsfoot!

Welcome to Meadowsfoot Class! We are an EYFS class. Our teacher is Miss Gilberthorpe. We are supported by Mrs Readey, Mrs Josee and Mrs Broadheard. 

This week we went on our first Forest School adventure. We all had a great time exploring the woods and talking about the things we observed. We used soil, tights and grass seeds to make our own grass people! We will watch the grass grow over the coming weeks. We are expecting some crazy hairstyles as the grass grows! We are already very excited about the adventures we will go on in the coming weeks. 

We had even more excitement this week as our 5 caterpillars began to emerge from their cocoons. We thought it might be a little cold for them in our classroom so we made the decision to move them in with Mrs Penhallurick. We are learning to make observations with our eyes and talk about what we see. Once we think they are ready, we will release them into the wild for them to have their own adventures! I wonder what they will see?

It has been wonderful to welcome the children back to school this week and hear about their adventures. Everyone was keen to share what they had been up to at home. It sounded like everyone had a great time and are ready to enjoy the summer term! The children kicked off our topic 'Mary, Mary Quite Contrary' on Monday by discussing everything they already know about growing plants and the things they are keen to find out about. Everyone is excited about growing our own plants and observing their growth over the term. 

In maths, the children have been learning about numbers above 10. They have been investigating the patterns of numbers between 10-14 and using a range of images and structures to showcase their understanding. I think we have a class of mathematicians! 

As we wave goodbye to another term it’s a really good chance for us to look back at our learning. On Tuesday, we enjoyed looking at our floor book and the photos we have taken on the iPad. We made comments about how much taller we looked and all the things we have achieved since the photos were taken. We reminisced about our African dance workshop, the songs we have sung and the topics we have learnt about. 

When we return, we are excited to start our topic ‘Mary Mary Quite Contrary’ where we will be planting seeds and bulbs and observing their growth. 

Have a wonderful Easter. 

We are all eagerly awaiting the transformation of our caterpillars and butterflies. We are hoping to see some big changes in the next few days. 

We have been talking this week about our special places and how our bodies feel when we go to these places. We had wonderful conversations and realised that we have such a wide variety of special places. Some of us like the beach or being at home where our bodies feel calm and relaxed, whilst some of us love theme parks and swimming pools where our bodies feel excited. We also looked at some buildings other people feel are special such as churches, mosques and temples. We noticed that some have very ornate decorations and others are less extravagant. 

This week the children have been everything from scientists, to engineers, to high flying mathematicians as we celebrated British science week. On Wednesday, the children worked as a team to build their own water park. They thought carefully about how to make the slide steep enough for the thrill seekers amongst them and built their own ticket office. 

Next week we are looking forward to beginning our Easter celebrations. We look forward to you joining us on Friday afternoon at our Easter Bonnet workshop! 

This week we’ve continued to watch our caterpillars and tadpoles grow as they quickly approach the next stage of their life cycle. We have been carefully observing both creatures and sharing the changes we see through discussion and drawing. On Tuesday, we were blessed with beautiful spring sunshine so headed outside to check for signs of spring. We noticed buds on the trees and the gentle breeze on our skin as we relaxed in the sunshine. 

In phonics, we are practising reading and writing longer words. Miss Gilberthorpe is so happy to see so many of us reading at home. No wonder we are all making such great progress! 

This week saw the arrival of tadpoles and caterpillars! We have been closely observing them and talking about what we can see. We used our knowledge of mixing paints to paint our own tadpoles and a giant butterfly you will soon see on display near the hall! Over the next few weeks, we will keep a close eye on them to see how they change. We continue to read our 'Favourite Five' stories. We are starting to join in with key parts of the story, add expression when we read and learn about unknown words that we are able to use in conversations with our friends! 

We got straight to work on our return to school this week with our new topic Bugs, Butterflies and Bunnies. We headed to the park on Tuesday to spot signs of spring. We observed the world around us and noticed that the trees were bare which meant they had no leaves on them. We discussed that some of the trees had leaves and that these are called evergreen trees and they keep their leaves all year. We returned to the classroom to record our observations using pictures and words. We will continue to make observations in the park and notice how the world around us changes throughout the year. 

On Wednesday, we talked about our friends and what makes them 'good’ friends. We realised that we are all very lucky to have such good friends in our class. We made paper dolls to represent our friends and enjoyed reading the story 'Paper Dolls'.

This week there has been love all around! We love being in school, we love learning and we love our friends. This week, we have been busy writing love letters to our friends and family, mending ‘broken hearts’ and talking about our favourite stories! We discovered that we all really love books by Jill Murphy so set to work to find as many as we could in the library to add to our book corner in our classroom. 

On Wednesday, we had a pancake party with the most delicious looking pancakes ever! We were keen to have chocolate on our pancakes. We chatted about how the chocolate went from solid bricks to silky smooth liquid. 

Next half term, we will be learning all about bugs, butterflies and bunnies! We can’t wait. 

This week we have been enjoying learning all about birds to celebrate RSPB Bird Watch. We have spent time researching different birds, spotting them in our local area and making our own bird hide. We had great fun developing our drawing skills by following videos on how to draw birds. Once we learned the skill, we spent time creating our own colourful birds.  In maths we have been learning about the numbers 6, 7 and 8. We have been closing our eyes and imagining what it will look like on a tens frame before explaining how we know.  Next week, we will be celebrating all things love and pancakes!! What a way to end the half term! 

This week we have enjoyed exploring mass. We have been using the balance scales to measure and compare the mass of different classroom objects. We know we can use the words heavier and lighter to explain how one object compares to another and that the heavier object makes the bucket on the scale go down. We have had lots of fun thinking of things that might be heavier than us! 

Each afternoon, we have been talking about what makes our homes special. We shared that we all have special bedrooms with lots of special cuddly toys. Next week, we are going to use junk modelling objects to build and design our own homes!

This week, we have been very busy mathematicians! We have been using counters and the five frames to find as many different ways to make five! We used the language of parts and wholes to describe what we could see on our five frames. We know that the whole doesn't change even when the parts do! On Tuesday, we represented our counters by printing with our fingers. Next week, we are looking forward to learning about mass and capacity. 

It is full steam ahead with our phonics and reading practice lessons! We are impressing all adults in our school with our wonderful reading skills. This week, we will bring home our new reading book to read to you. We have read it 3 times with Miss Gilberthorpe and know that we can sound out each letter and blend it together! Don’t forget to write in our red link books when we read to you at home! Miss Gilberthorpe gets very excited! 

This week we have continued to retell the story of The Three Little Pigs. We have created our own puppets to help retell the story and thought of some interesting questions we would like to ask the Big Bad Wolf! On Friday, we set to work making our own houses to keep the Three Little Pigs safe from the Big Bad Wolf. We used a hairdryer to test their strength! 

We are all working very hard in phonics. Most afternoons you will find us on Miss Gilberthorpe's chair teaching our friends and teachers the new sounds! Keep an eye out for our new reading books coming home soon! 

It has been wonderful welcoming everyone back into class this week after what sounds like a wonderful Christmas holiday. We have spent the week catching up with our friends and enjoying sharing news of our adventures and time spent with family.

We had a great time on Tuesday afternoon as we took part in our first swimming lesson. We are all very confident in the water and keen to show our swimming teacher all our skills! We are all very good at splashing and jumping in! We can’t wait for next week! 

What a fun final week of our first term at school. We have spent the week singing songs, searching for Santa and celebrating with our friends. On Friday afternoon, we enjoyed a tasty hot chocolate as we cuddled down to watch a Christmas film. 

We have all worked so hard this term and we are making wonderful progress in our learning. We can’t wait for some time with our families before returning to school for even more fun. 

This week we have all been very busy perfecting our Carol service and nativity ready to spread the festive cheer. Whilst in class, we have been hard at work creating our own phones to keep in contact with our friends, recreating the story of the first Christmas with puppets and learning the all-important game of 4 in a row! So far Violet is our reigning champion! 

We can’t wait to celebrate the final week of the autumn term and all the wonderful progress everyone has made next week. 

We have enjoyed reading our new story 'The Grumpy Badger.' Before we read the story, we thought about why the badger might have been grumpy. We came up with lots of ideas and drew on our knowledge of stories we have read this term such as ‘The Squirrels who Squabbled' and our life experiences. We made predictions about what might happen in the story before cuddling down and enjoying it with our friends. During our independent learning time, we built a new home for badger and learnt more about why animals hibernate over the winter. We had the best time on Thursday morning as we played in the unexpected snow! We were so excited by the snow that we came in and created some snowflakes to hang in our classroom. 

This week we have been learning that the whole is made up of different parts. We enjoyed singing ‘heads, shoulders, knees and toes’ and talked about our body being made up of different parts. We used stem sentences to help us explain our understanding. To move our learning on we looked at the parts of our bikes which gave us the idea to make our very own Meadowsfoot Mechanics! We set to work straight away fixing the different parts of the bikes before testing them out on our purpose-built race track. 

Meadowsfoot class has been a blaze of colour and song this week as we celebrated the Hindu festival of Diwali. The children have loved learning about the story of Rama and Sita. They have made their own puppets and masks to re-enact the story. After watching a video about how people celebrate Diwali, they were keen to decorate our classroom with colourful lanterns and paper chains. You might have noticed some beautiful rangoli patterns on the playground too! 

Happy Diwali, Meadowsfoot!

This week, we have been learning all about Remembrance and why people wear poppies. We enjoyed learning about the lives of war heroes of the past and of people who are still serving in the armed forces. We enjoyed creating our own poppies using a range of craft materials and watching videos and listening to stories about people's experiences of Remembrance Day. 

We continue to unlock the magic skills of reading and writing as we learn even more letter sounds. You could challenge us to read and write new words to you at home! We think you will be very impressed! 

This term our topic is ‘Let’s Celebrate!’ We kicked off our topic with celebrating Halloween with spooky potions and scary skeletons before enjoying a group art session where we investigated different techniques to create our own firework picture. We used paintbrushes, sponges and tea bags to create the masterpiece, all whilst listening to Orchestral music! We can’t wait for the rest of the term and to learn about other key festivals around the world. 

As we come to the end of our first half term together, there are so many things to celebrate, such as birthdays, harvests and unlocking the magical skill of reading and writing! I am so proud of all the children and the remarkable progress they have made this term. They are most definitely 'Marvellous Meadowsfoot'. 

I hope you enjoyed the wonderful signing on Thursday at our Harvest Festival. You might have spotted our fabulous 'Big Blue Tractor'. The children worked hard to create the tractor, thinking carefully about the features a tractor needed and a suitable name for it. After a vote, it was decided it was called 'Spiderman'. 

I am so excited for our next half term topic of 'What do we celebrate?' 

I hope you all have a wonderful half term. Please update Tapestry with any exciting adventures! 

This week we have enjoyed our daily cycling sessions. We have listened so well and have incredible knowledge of bikes. Throughout the week, we have grown in confidence as we learnt to take our feet off the floor and glide! 

In English, we have been listening to and beginning to join in with retelling the story 'The Squirrels Who Squabbled'. On Friday, we created our very own great nut race maps for Cyril and Brue to follow! Stay tuned for the video of us retelling it! 

After enjoying learning to retell the story, ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’, we were inspired to create our very own story, ‘We’re going on a fairy hunt’. We set out on our hunt. We weren’t scared. It was such a beautiful day until we came across a series of obstacles. A cloud of fairy dust, magic traffic and a sea full of sharks. Angry, snapping sharks!! We finally came to a tall, old tree and saw… a fairy!! We raced back to class to create a map of our adventure to help us retell the sorry to you all! 

We have also been learning about our school values and how they can help us to be successful learners. We spoke about what each value meant and what it looks like in action! 

This week we have been enjoying reading, retelling and acting out the story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. We loved making our own bears with two big googly eyes and one wet nose! On Tuesday, we added actions to the story. This helps us to remember the most important words so we can retell it all by ourselves! 

We have also been learning why it is important to follow our schools Golden Rules! Our teachers made us Golden Rule detectives. This means it’s our job to spot all our friends following our Golden Rules! 

If you walk into Meadowsfoot class you would think that the children have been at school far longer than 3 weeks. They know and demonstrate 'The Meadowsfoot way' in everything they do from holding their pencils to their wonderful manners to their friends around the school. 

This week we have continued to learn even more letter sounds in our daily phonic session. We had a great time on Friday when we realised, we can put our sounds together to make our own words for others to read. We continue to enjoy exploring our classroom and learning more about our friends and teachers. We had the best day on Wednesday when we joined the rest of the school to celebrate French Day. We tasted different French snacks as we listened to French nursery rhymes! 

We have come to the end of our first full week and what a great week we have had. On Monday, we enjoyed our first phonics lesson. We loved singing the alphabet song. Some of us even spotted the letters in our names! We are already very busy practising how to hold our pencil the 'Meadowsfoot way', as this will help us to form our letters accurately. We tested out our pencil grip by writing lots of hidden messages! We have enjoyed lots of songs, rhymes and stories throughout the week. We have been sharing our favourite ones with our new friends! Turns out we love lots of them. 

It may have only been a short week but we have already had so much fun. I was blown away with how well the children all came into school on Wednesday. It was wonderful to be greeted with such big smiles and so much excitement about starting school. This week has all been about getting to know the people in our classroom and learning the Meadowsfoot way of doing things! Next week, we will begin our first topic 'All about me'. I can't wait to learn more about each and every one of our fabulous new class family!