Welcome to Lemon and Lime class!

Term 1

Here at St Mary’s we know that play is the most vital component for your child’s development, as it creates the conditions for your child to test the world, to make sense of it, to grow the skills they need to communicate, to negotiate and express themselves.

What happens in the early years lasts for a lifetime and the EYFS team can’t wait to welcome all our wonderful new families and children.

In term 1 we will be exploring our new environment and getting to know each other. Through our play we will be introducing the children to the Message Centre. This soon becomes the heartbeat of the classroom. Your children will quickly realise that mark making is fun and joyous and it quickly becomes something they want to do again and again. There is nothing more exciting than discovering a hidden message in your shoe or hiding one for someone else to discover!

We have created a language rich environment for your children to enjoy. Your children will be learning a poem with actions each week so that they quickly build up a wonderful bank of poems to share and enjoy. We will also be introducing your children to Story Dough followed by Drawing Club. This is when we immerse the children in the world of story and unearth their imaginations. We embark upon story dreaming and we show the children the possibility of learning through modelled drawings and then we show them how much we value their own dreams and encourage them to make or draw with us. It is simply magical!

Our value this term is ‘Peace’ and our Global Curriculum link is ‘Peace and Conflict’. We will be exploring some Bible stories that will help us understand what the word ‘Peace’ actually means and we will be thinking about how our own actions can impact upon others. We will explore some ways to avoid, manage and resolve conflict through role play and stories. The children will be encouraged to consider ways in which we can all get along and help when something goes wrong. We will be asking the children to think about how they can use their Brave Changemaker skills, such as making decisions and communicating in a peaceful and respectful way. Our Product outcome will involve making and sharing a video based on our class and school rules with our school community.

In our Jigsaw lessons we will be exploring feelings and emotions. The children will have the space and time to consider what it feels like to belong and how we look after each other.  The concept of ‘Calm Me’ time will also be introduced. Jigsaw is a mindful approach and Calm Me time is designed to teach children techniques to relax their bodies and calm their minds. Our school will be taking part in World Mental Health Day on Thursday 10^th October. The theme for 2024, set by the World Foundation of Mental Health, is 'It is time to prioritise mental health in the workplace'. We will be exploring activities that will help the children understand that we need a variety of things in our lives to maintain our mental and physical health. We will be creating a mental health toolkit for the classroom to help the children when their emotions feel overwhelming.

The children will be making their first visit to St Mary’s church this term to celebrate Harvest. We will be thinking about where the Harvest celebrations originate and how the machinery used to collect the crops have evolved and changed over the years. As part of the celebrations we will be talking to the children about showing compassion by providing for the needs of others through the donations of food we will leave at the church.

We have an exciting term ahead of us and really can’t wait to become part of your children’s learning journey.

Term 2

Our value this term is ‘Forgiveness’. We will be exploring some Bible stories that will help us understand what the word ‘Forgiveness’ means alongside other thought provoking books which include ‘I am extremely actually boiling’ by Lauren Child and ‘The Squirrels who squabbled’ by Rachel Bright . Through the magic of Drawing Club, we will explore how we all make mistakes, as it is part of being human. We will go on to explore that sometimes mistakes hurt others and we need to say sorry and sometimes mistakes made by others hurt us. When this happens we need to be able to forgive and move on. Our journey in the snow with the books Penguin and Polar Bear Island will raise important questions that we will endeavour to find the answers to. Can Polar Bear find it within himself to open up his island to new visitors and say sorry for his past mistakes? Can the penguins find it in their hearts to forgive Polar Bear? What does it feel like to live on an island where all are now welcome?

We will be asking the children to think about how they can use their Brave Changemaker skills, such as self-awareness/ reflection and communication to ensure they are able to regulate their emotions and resolve friendship issues in a positive way.

Our Global Curriculum link is ‘Identity and Diversity’ and we will be considering what it is that makes us special. One of our favourite authors is Linda Kranz and we will be sharing many of her books including Only One You and You Be You. These books will help us to think about all the things that make us unique and special and highlight the importance of being ourselves. They will also encourage us to be in the moment, to pause and look up in order to notice and appreciate the beauty of all the nature around us. 

These themes and ideas will be explored further in our Jigsaw sessions and we will be using the character ‘Jerrie Cat’ to help the children to develop their awareness and their capacity to be mindful human beings.

Remembrance day is an important date in our calendar for this term and we will spend time learning about its meaning. This type of learning is a very important part of our Personal, Social and Emotional Development and our Bristish Values curriculum, as well as helping the children to have a deeper knowledge and understanding of the world and important events in history. We will talk about the many people that helped to keep us safe a long time ago and the gratitude we have for them. The children will have the opportunity to watch a video about symbolic nature of the poppy and make their own special poppies.

We will be learning about the festival of Diwali through videos, photos and books. Finding out about Festivals and celebrations can help to support the children’s learning and development in every area of learning, and through them we can support the children in beginning to understand the commonalities of human values that are shared by all cultures and religions.  The children will learn that Diwali is the festival of lights and is a very special time for some people around the world. The children will have the opportunity to look at the special traditional clothes that people wear to celebrate, watch the fantastic firework displays, see the beautiful mendhi hand patterns, learn about the delicious food and dance to the traditional music.

As we move into December our setting becomes a hive of activity! The children will able to explore the Christmas story through arts and crafts, stories and tales, role play and rehearsals for the performance. Through these experiences, the children will develop an understanding of the real meaning of Christmas: being together, cherishing the love of family and friends and celebrating belonging. The children will walk to the town centre with the rest of the school to sing carols to our families, friends and members of the local community. This is always such a lovely way to help the children make connections and links with their local community and the memories stay with them forever. Our term will end with our Christmas Production. We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible to celebrate your unique and wonderful children.

Term 3

In term 3 we will be answering our Big Question: How do our actions make other feel? We will be thinking about who helps us in our local community and the responsibilities they have. This links with our Global Theme: Rights and Responsibilities.

One of our key texts when thinking about the responsibilities we have within our school community is Teach Your Dragon Manners by Steve Herman. This book helps to remind us to be polite and respectful when interacting with others.  We are really excited to explore, through Drawing Club, a selection of books written by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, two of our favourite authors. These books will encourage us to think about the impact of our actions and the amazing people in our community who go above and beyond to help us and keep us safe.  We will spend time using our writing skills to create questions to use in an interview with a retired police officer to gain further information about the duties carried out by the police.

Our value this term is responsibility which we will explore through texts including It Wasn’t Me, Goldilocks and Just One Bear as well as No David.

We will be thinking about our dreams and goals as part of our Jigsaw learning each week.  Jigsaw Calm Time and Mindful Minutes each day will support the children to become reflective, focussed learners.

What an exciting term the children have ahead of them!