EYFS
Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
Welcome to all our Cedar Park children and their families.
We look forward to an action packed half-term full of fun learning.
Please see a member of staff if you have any questions.
Mrs Franek and Mrs Van
The EYFS Team:
Mrs Franek - Nursery teacher, Forest School and Early Years Lead
Mrs Van - Reception teacher
and our fantastic teaching assistants:
Nursery based
Miss Moore (Monday-Friday)
Miss Calam (Monday-Friday)
Reception based
Mrs Warner TA and EYFS PPA teacher cover
Mrs Crocker (Wednesday morning / Thursday - all day)
Miss Wilson (Friday - all day)
Our Summer 2 topic is:
‘Adventures’
We are looking forward to an action-packed half-term full of fun learning.
Week 1: Under the Sea Adventures.
Which animals live under the sea? Can you describe a dolphin? What do dolphins eat? Do sharks live in parks or somewhere else? What is an ocean? Why is the sea salty? What do we need water for? Can you name different types of water sources, for example, a lake?
Key texts:
Nursery: Shark in the Park, by Nick Sharratt
Reception: The Storm Whale, by Benji Davies (for the next few weeks) with additional picture book during shared reading activities.
Further learning:
Can you draw a picture of your favourite sea creature and label it? Can you find out some information about sharks – one or two facts?
Weeks 2 and 3: Pirate Adventures!
Do you know any pirate songs or rhymes? What is a bandana and cutlass?
Can you draw a pirate ship’s flag, and do you know what it’s called? Can you make-up a pirate's song or rhyme?
Key texts: Various picture story books, poems and rhymes.
Further learning:
Can you make a treasure map? Can you make a treasure box using junk materials? What would you put inside it? Can you write one or two sentences about a pirate adventure, for example, finding treasure on an island or travelling on a stormy sea?
Father's Day celebration (16th June)
Week 4: Keeping Fit and Sports Day (Wednesday 26th June) during the morning for EYFS and KS1.
What does it mean to 'keep fit'? Which parts of our bodies do we use when we jump, hop, skip, climb. run? Which schoolhouse are you in? What does it mean to be part of a team? What does 'compete' mean?
Further learning:
Which house won the cup in KS2 last year? And KS1 / EYFS?
Weeks 5 and 6:
Superhero Adventures:
What is a superhero? Can you name some superhero characters? What sort of power would you like to have and why? Do you know how to be safe when you’re near water - what are the rules? Be a brilliant superhero and find out some important facts about staying safe when you’re near any type of water. What power could you have using water? How strong are you? What sort of super things can you do, for example ride a bike, skip, run fast and change directions, jump, hop, set the table, wash-up, make your bed etc?
Further learning:
Can anyone be a superhero? Can you name some water sports? Are you learning to swim? What do you need to do to work as part of a team?
Key texts:
Nursery: Max, by Bob Graham / Super Daisy, by Kes Gray
Reception: TBC
Further learning:
Can you write a message to a superhero to find out more about them? Or write a sentence about your favourite superhero character and share it with our class? You could draw your superhero and add a speech bubble with some action words, for example Pow! And Zap!
Week 7: New Adventures and moving on (new class).
What is an adventure? Can you talk about one of your favourite adventures? Who was with you and what exciting things did you do?
Key texts: various picture book stories and non-fiction books
Further learning:
Try making some of the following things:
1. A map or journey to your favourite place
2. A travel page of your favourite place, then add some labels. For example, a beach scene and label it ‘rock pool’ / ‘sandcastle’ / ‘beach hut’ / ‘crab’ / ‘picnic food’ etc.
3. A holiday travel ticket or voucher – don’t forget to add you name and how much the ticket cost
4. A water safety poster - what would you include?
Look out for our EYFS Newsletter, which has additional information about our learning.
Please feel free to add any learning on to Tapestry and we can show the class.
We wish you an all enjoyable half-term break, and fingers crossed for some warm sunshine!
Mrs Franek and Mrs Van
EYFS Phonics:
We follow Supersonic Phonics Friends:
https://www.supersonicphonicfriends.co.uk/
Nursery:
Maths
https://masterthecurriculum.co.uk/nursery-maths-scheme/
Reception:
Power Maths
https://www.pearson.com/international-schools/british-curriculum/primary-curriculum/power-maths.html
Read to Write
https://www.literacycounts.co.uk/readtowrite
Other schemes we use in EYFS:
3D PSHE
https://dimensionscurriculum.co.uk/product/3d-pshe-early-y
Art
https://www.accessart.org.uk/primary-art-curriculum/
Developing Experts (Science) - EYFS planning overview will be available shortly
https://www.developingexperts.com/
Music
PE
https://pe.getset4education.co.uk/
https://pe.getset4education.co.uk/lesson/eyfs/introduction-to-pe-unit-1?years=1006,1007
Further information about the EYFS can be found on 'Parent Zone' - 'Information for EYFS Parents'.
A weekly guide:
Wednesday (return day)
Reading and shared (wordless) books, reading records and library books:
These need to be returned so they can be changed and ready to go home every Friday.
Nursery children will not have a shared (wordless) book until after half-term.
Friday (going home day)
Reading and shared (wordless) books and reading records:
Books go home. Please make a short comment about your child's reading and interest in their book/s. If you have any queries, please come and see us.
Reading books and records should be kept in your child's book bag every day as they may be shared with an adult in school (see above for return details).
Reception children - books will not be sent home until week 4 (29.09.23)
Library:
We have a fantastic school library with an excellent range of picture books for our EYFS children to enjoy choosing from and to share with their family at home.
We plan to visit the library every Friday to select one book to bring home every week. Please make sure that your child's library book is returned after five days (the following Wednesday morning). Unfortunately, we are not able to issue a new book unless the previous one has been returned.
PE:
Children wear their PE kit to school for the day. They can wear shorts or their usual jogging bottoms with their House T-shirt.
General Information:
Our Philosophy
At Cedar Park School, our philosophy is to value every child as a unique individual, who enjoys learning and thinking for him or herself. Our aim within the Early Years Foundation Stage is to provide a happy, safe and stimulating environment, which allows all children to feel secure and valued and therefore ready and eager to learn. We provide a supportive and secure environment in which every child can flourish and learn at their own pace and in their own individual way. Our role is to stimulate and encourage their development and enjoyment of learning through a variety of different activities, both adult directed and child initiated in secure indoor and outdoor situations.
We believe the relationships which the children develop in the Early Years, with each other and with our staff, are central to their happiness and will lay the best possible foundation for them to become independent lifelong learners.
Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum Intent
Children in our Early Years phase follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, which consists of seven areas of learning. We teach children by ensuring challenging, playful opportunities across both the prime and specific areas of learning. We recognise that all children develop and learn at different rates and so our EYFS curriculum is designed flexibly to meet the needs of all individuals. We support individual learning through our skilful interactions and observations which lead to detailed next step planning. The Characteristics of Effective Learning underpin our curriculum and pupils learning, through an enabling and well-planned environment we ensure we provide meaningful opportunities for playing and learning, active learning and creating and thinking critically. As children utilise and develop these characteristics, they become effective and motivated learners who demonstrate high levels of well-being and involvement.
Characteristics of Effective Learning
The characteristics of effective learning underpin our pupils learning within the Early Years Foundation Stage. The ways in which they engage with others and their environment – playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically – underpin learning and development across all areas and support children to remain effective and motivated learners. We make judgements about a child's demonstration of the Characteristics of Effective Learning at their particular age / stage of development and whether or not the learning behaviours defined within these characteristics describes the child.
Leuven Scales of Well Being and Involvement and Well Being
The Leuven Scales acknowledge the critical importance of a child’s emotional well-being on the quality and depth of learning. We use the Leuven Scales to indicate a child's level of Well-Being and Involvement at the time of assessment (low, medium or high level).
Well-being is defined as ‘the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy’. Involvement is defined as ‘the fact of being involved with or participating in something’. The Leuven Scales support accurate and authentic summative assessment of a child’s knowledge, skills, understanding and learning behaviours.
Tapestry
We use Tapestry to record children’s knowledge, skills and learning dispositions in individual Learning Journals, and to assess the characteristics of effective learning. It is a consistent and reliable way of demonstrating progress through the EYFS.
Through daily observation and interaction, we can build a rich and accurate understanding of each child across all aspects of learning and development. Observations are shared with families. You can share all the wonderful things you do with your child at home using Tapestry, by uploading via the website or App.
Whilst we would love to show you all the wonderful things your child has been doing throughout the day, it is not practical as we value the importance of being with the children and not always having a tablet in between us. Therefore, some weeks you will have more observations than others because we have been engaging and playing and didn’t want to stop the flow to take a photograph or video clip. Our observations are then used to support our ongoing assessments on Target Tracker.
Assessments are meaningful and impact on our children’s learning and development as we use them to inform next steps, which are personalised and challenging.
At the end of Reception, Learning Journals can be downloaded for you to keep and treasure.
Forest School at Cedar Park
Forest School is a magical place....
Forest School is an inspirational process that offers all learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a natural environment with trees.
Principles Of Forest School:
Forest school....
Takes place in a woodland setting on site which children cannot access during break times; this supports the development of a relationship between the learner and the natural world.
Uses a range of learner-centred processes to create a community for development and learning.
Aims to promote the holistic development of all those involved, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners.
Offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves.
Thank you for your support.
Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.
Mrs Franek (Forest School Lead)
Further information about the EYFS can be found on 'Parent Zone' - 'Information for EYFS Parents' and on Tapestry.
- EYFS Profile 2023 Handbook
- Development Matters (Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage)
- Booktrust
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/tips-and-advice/reading-tips/
Being Safe Online: