The children have been learning all about Growing. They have been learning new vocabulary such as growing, age, change, same, different, big and small, little and tall. The children have been learning about growing and things changing through stories such as The Enormous turnip and The Hungry Caterpillar. Families shared baby photos of their child so that we could talk about how they have changed. The children planted a bean and have been watching this grow at home. We will be returning our beans to discuss how they have changed. The children are growing in their own communication skills with the adults and friends around them.

Through our stories the children have been learning to sequence what happens next. They were able to order the characters pulling out the turnip as well as ordering what the caterpillar ate throughout the day. The children enjoyed listening to Jack and the Beanstalk using Now, Press, Play. This supports their understanding of language and being able to follow simple instructions to act out the story.

The children have been learning new nursery rhymes to encourage their number understanding. We have introduced number of the week, learning about a new number each week in different ways. They are beginning to use some number names and recite in order. In their play they can recognise some numerals in the environment. The children are working well as a team to act out the story and count the characters. It has been a very eventful term for the children and they have too been thriving in their own development.

The Spring 1 term has flown by with lots of new stories for the children to listen to and learn. This term our theme is “Stories for us.” We have been exploring our reading area and have enjoyed visiting Curwen library. Next term we will be visiting Plaistow Library with our parents.  The children have discovered new stories and rhymes; they have been identifying the pictures and the writing in a range of reading materials.  We have been introducing and modelling new vocabulary for the children and transferring this into their play when acting out the stories or visiting our Gingerbread café outside.

The children have enjoyed sharing their favourite story book during Show and Tell and have learnt new words and phrases, such as front cover, back cover, pages, author and title. Children have been very busy using their imagination and role-playing pretending to be their favourite characters particularly the Big Bad Wolf. The children have work individually and together to build houses and settings for the characters using different media and materials.

Summer 1 has been an extremely quick term full of lots of learning for the children.