8th April 2019

We have been reading the story Bear Under the Stairs, which prompted the children to ask about food and how it rots. We sealed some of the foods thrown to the bear, in pong-proof pouches and studied what they looked like each day this week. We're going to check them again when we get back from holiday. We will not be opening any of the heat sealed pouches!

Using our new bead strings we have been concentrating on improving numerical skills. The ten and twenty strings are a great resource for the younger children to fully understand foundational maths concepts. They love them.

As Spring is definitely here now, we have had a very 'eggy' week, decorating ones with different collage material to practise snipping and cutting skills, vital fine motor skills.

Lots of children have had the chance to join a balance bike programme this week. All have improved their balance and confidence on bikes and many have learnt to ride without stabilisers for the first time. Well done everyone. We very much hope to repeat this project in the future.

Outside the loose parts carwash has been open. Lots of soapy fun, developing gross motor skills and team work.

Many of the children have finished the week, participating in the Easter Bonnet parade. Many thanks to families who helped make such incredible hats. You are very talented. 

Happy Holidays to everyone and Happy Easter to those celebrating.  

WK Beginning  1st^s April

The week started with a mysterious video message from Bob the Teddy, lost for three days on the school grounds. He asked us to find him and to bring a survival kit. We made a list of items we needed, searched the video for clues to Bob’s whereabouts then set off to look for him in the school grounds. We found him, tired and a little damp, in the Forest School. We carried him back to the class and made him comfortable after giving him some food and drink.

We cared for Bob and made him a map to make sure he didn’t get lost again. We showed him our survival kit so he would know what to take the next time he went for a wander.

We have made massive maps of Wales, using blocks. We’ve marked: landmarks, buildings of interest, forests and rivers on our massive maps.

We’ve searched for animals in Forest School – and we made a map of Forest School too.

We have been making and continuing patterns, trying to reach our targets of creating two and three colour/size/shape patterns.

Wk beginning 18th March 2019

Vets

We have been talking about how vets help keep our pets and other animals healthy, We have found out that they can give us advice about how to look after our pets, what to feed them and how to take special care of them if they are poorly. We have set up a role play vets on numerous occasions during the week, making lists of what we need and adding to the list as we discovered more. We even had hydro therapy pools! We have thought of some questions to ask a vet in a letter or email.

Ball Skills

We have been practising and perfecting our ball skills in our garden area. Keeping our eye on the person we are throwing to, making sure we don't throw it to hard etc. have been some of the top tips we have suggested.

Coding

We have been using J2easy on Hwb to learn how to code. We have really enjoyed this activity and some have used downloadable apps to practise their new skills on the iPads.

Lego

It's been a big Lego week- we've made pet carriers from Lego and arks. We tested our arks to see if they floated. Some did.

Wk beginning 11th March 2019

Pets

AS part of our living world topic we have been talking about pets this week: pets we own, pets we would like to have and pets we have lost. We have drawn different types of pet, made pets with play dough, created poems about pets ( the children’s Kennings poem about dogs is very funny). We have had the chance to complete dot to dots of pets and followed instructions to draw a dog.

Challenge Zone

We get to choose from lots of interesting resources in the challenge zone and we are able to say what we all want to see included in the areas. (The older FP children have started work on re-organising the malleable area and next week all FP pupils will be asked to say what they think about the changes and what else they would like to add.)  New construction materials are a massive hit with everyone and the incredible designs just keep on coming.

Outdoors

We have been out when it has been safe to do so this week. When there were weather warnings we have lots of activities to choose from in the hall.

What a very busy week! World Book Day and our St.David's Day celebrations. We have been reading and enjoying a lot of stories and singing a lot of Welsh songs.

We have also been practising our number recognition and formation, going on a number hunt around the school to find places with numbers and places that could do with some numbers.

We have been enjoying  Disgo gyda Do ( Dough Disco) strengthening our fingers whilst learning lots of Welsh commands.

We have been collecting objects and sorting them into groups, giving reasons for our groups.

Outside we have had fun in the puddles! And we have been testing out how different liquids move.

We have been allowed to choose what sort of activities we want to do and a lot of us have asked for opportunities to put on shows. We love doing a show in the classroom. We have been building lots of different things with our new construction materials. We've been learning how to upload our pictures to our class Seesaw account and to make a Pic Collage of our photographs.  

Thank you to all the families who have competed the homework : pictures to follow. For more information please scroll down this page.

15th February

This week we enjoyed an impromptu wedding! There was a lot of love in the air with bouquets being made and cards, all prompted by the children.

They have all loved planting more seeds and are very excited to see that some are already growing from last week.

Building obstacle courses and playing hockey outside are very popular and the pirate small world toys in the sand have been helping the children make up their own stories. The new construction resources are a huge hit with our mini engineers who have created lots of interesting designs with them.

Many of the children are able to lead the animal games in Welsh independently.

We have been singing a lot of Welsh songs, getting ready for Dydd Dewi Sant.

Reception have made sandwiches this week after planning their perfect sandwich.

8th February 2019

The children have been very busy this week:

- learning lots of new Welsh words for food and animals

-  playing with our role play farm

- gardening, looking after our seedlings

- setting up role play picnics and cafes

-playing card games

- doing yoga

- and our school eCadets taught us all to be aware of staying safe on line and making sure we are lind too

and learning through lots and lots of play.

1st February 2019

As promised, many of the children were able to plant seeds this week. We hope they will grow into runner bean plants. There will be more opportunities for all Dosbarth Yr Aran to spend time gardening in the future.

We have focused on healthy eating this week,  a special visitor came to see reception to help us understand which foods we need to eat frequently, to help keep us healthy -and which foods are for treats; not for every day.  The children will be sharing their knowledge with the nursery and possibly other classes.

We have been tasting different raw vegetables. Broccoli and carrots were the favourites.  We will be designing and making our own sandwiches next week.

We set up a café Cymraeg to practise our Welsh food words and will extend this activity as our focus on food continues.  

Family Homework

As our project area is the Living World, we would like you as a family to create either a collage, painting or model of any living thing ( maybe your  pet or a favourite animal)  -or to grow a plant.  (Take pictures of your plant as it grows and email the photographs to the school email address).

Homework (if its a painting, collage or model) is to be completed by the Friday after half term. (Please keep plants at home).

Thank you

( Please do not feel any pressure to complete homework.)

25th January 2019

This week we have been exploring, using our senses and discovering the smells, textures and sounds in and around our school. Next week we will be looking carefully around our environment, and exploring different flavours.

We have made plans to plant seeds next week. The smell of chewing gum and toothpaste came top of our favourite smells poll so we thought we would try growing some mint ourselves.

Some of the children have been creating visual number sentences with items around the classroom. They made arrays with beads and learnt how this can help them with adding ( and in the future will help with multiplying).

We have acted out part of the story of St. Dwynwen and some have chosen to make cards for people they love.

There's been lots of free, creative play this week with many children choosing to make dens in various places around the main classroom. There was a lot of problem solving, talking through ideas and re-designing going on.

The class Christmas present has been a big hit with many children trying to design the best marble run. Lots of problem solving, communication and sharing resources.

Phonics

Many of the children are making excellent progress with their phonic knowledge. We use the Jolly Phonic resources to support their learning. The songs they sing can be found on the internet.

Living World (18/01/19)

We have been exploring our school environment this week, especially outside, looking for living things. We've found lots of different plants and birds but the children were surprised that we couldn't find a lot of insects. They suggested it is because it is winter. We've written poems about some animals, we've sorted and grouped types of animals and counted them.

In our garden area the children have created some amazing obstacle courses with the loose parts. They have had a lot of fun designing and testing out their creations.

Reading books and Records for Reception

Thank you to everyone who is reading with their child at home. Children benefit massively from this special time. Thank you to everyone who is commenting on their child's progress and enjoyment, in the home reading record ; your input is invaluable. Please feel free to include books you have at home and your child is able to read or enjoys listening to.

In school, the children read with a group of their peers, discussing the group book, learning how to read and spell high frequency words, make predictions, talk about characters, discuss authors and illustrators etc. The staff make notes which are contained in the group reading file. The groups are reviewed half termly.  

Happy New Year!

As we start a new term and a new year, the children have been sharing their stories of the holidays and special days with their family and friends. We have started a new project/topic area- LIVING WORLD- which has led to discussions about what it means to be 'living'. The children came up with some fabulous ideas and suggestions. We have  planned together and can look forward to lots of exciting learning experiences in the coming weeks.

Party Time! 19th December 2018

This week has been full of fun: the pantomime  Aladdin has been to visit, we have had our Christmas parties, Christmas dinner and we have been producing winter/ Christmas craft. We have also been decorating more snow people, speaking in Welsh ( describing cars), tasting different porridge combinations, playing in all the different areas, and saying goodbye to our class rocket ( which has been very popular).

This Christmas I have decided to pool all the money I usually spend on each child and buy some new resources for our class. Hopefully, the children will love there new construction toys and play with them all year through.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all the staff team.

12 th December

I hope you enjoy looking at some of the many experiences your children have shared over the last few weeks. As part of our 'Journeys' project we have been talking a lot about moving around in winter. This led to discussions about: temperature, polar regions, animals, clothes, getting poorly, getting better, snow and ice, as well as sledging, ice skating and sliding.

Friday 30th November

It’s been brilliant to be back in class! The children have loved telling me all about the solar system and its planets, showing me their rocket and space art work.

As the cold weather and dark early evenings have arrived, we have been discussing winter a lot. We linked this to their knowledge of space, the sun and earth. We’ve designed winter outfits, sorted clothes into a Venn diagram (some clothes you can wear in winter and in summer!) We have discussed how we could travel in snow or ice conditions and it’s been decided that we will turn one of our sofas into a role play sledge. We had a role play doctors set up early in the week after talking about temperature. In our doctors we discovered that most of the ‘patients’ were 36 degrees Celsius when the ‘doctor’ checked their temperature with a forehead thermometer. We talked about temperature being a measurement of how warm/ cold you are. Together we have talked a lot about the weather, learning and revisiting lots of Welsh vocabulary too. Also this week, the majority of the children have enjoyed practising for the Christmas play. Dosbarth y Aran have been performing well and some children have been stand out stars during their stage time.

Friday 5th Oct:

The children of Dosbarth yr Aran have had a lovely week. There have been lots of learning opportunities in all of the Foundation areas. As staff we try to encourage the children to suggest ideas and share their likes and hobbies with us. Many of the activities are instigated by the children and developed through play. For instance, we were dancing and singing Jambori songs in our classroom, when one of the children suggested we dress up as the songs are so jolly. The dressing up led to the suggestion of a show. The children moved the furniture and set themselves up a little theatre. One person used a torch as a spot light and another sang a solo to start the show. Someone 'sold' fruit to the audience from their mobile shop. Audience members brought their 'babies' to see the performances. (Dolls and teddy bears). The performers used puppets, toys and masks to deliver their play from behind our puppet theatre set.  All child led, packed full of learning and fun, this activity was a joy!

There are lots of wonderful moments in every day and soon we will be able to share photographs of the children's experiences as well as a short report. 

Books we have read this week include :

The Train Ride-June Crebbin

Leaf Man -Lois Ehlert

Popular songs this week include:

Five Little Ducks

Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer

Dawnsio Rwsia

Mi Welais Jac y do

Jolly Phonic Sounds this week included:

ai, g, j, b, and oa. 

Message from Ms Pritchard-Jones

The children have been impressing all of the teachers and support staff this week with their determination and eagerness to learn. They've all been keen to  experience lots of learning opportunities in all the areas of the Foundation Phase.

This week they have been exploring shapes and making shape pictures, labelling pictures of journeys, making patterns, singing Welsh songs, playing Welsh games, investigating in the sand and water as well as creating interesting structures in the construction areas inside and out.

To help you share the experiences your children enjoy in school, here are some helpful questions that might lead to an interesting chat about their day.

Nursery & Reception

Tell me about the funniest thing that happened today?

Who made you smile the most today?  Why?

Did you learn any new words/ songs in English or Welsh?

Did you hear any stories you'd like to hear again? Can you tell me the story?

What are you most proud of today?

Did you share toys or play games with anyone today?

What have you enjoyed doing in the ...

-garden

- Challenge Zone

-classroom

-home area

today?

Have you played with…

-the sand

-the water

-the construction/ building blocks

-play dough

-junk modelling? What did you discover/ learn/ make/ create?

Reception
Can you tell me a new sound you've learnt in phonics?

What are the actions in Talk for Writing ‘The Train Ride’?

Did you make a stage for Helicopter Stories? Was it your turn to tell a story?

Did you help act out someone else’s story?