Hello and welcome to our class page!
Hedgehog class is part of Reception in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). You have two teachers: Mrs Norton and Miss Martin
Mrs Norton will teach you every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Miss Martin will teach you every Thursday and Friday. We also have our lovely teaching assistants: Mrs Hardy, Mrs Homer and Miss Austin who will work with us at different times during the week.
We also have our lovely Hagrid the Hedgehog who is looking for a 'Star of the Week' to take him and our weekend scrapbook home for weekend adventures.
On our webpage, you will find updates on our learning each term and useful information. Alongside our webpage, please see our class ‘Dojo’ for our regularly updated class stories and any new messages. Through Dojo, we will continually update yourselves on any key dates, events, reminders, or important information, therefore, please check daily. You will also be able to access observations of your child’s learning on Dojo. Just a reminder, the messages you send on Dojo will go to all our EYFS staff. Please place the name of the teacher on the message, if the message is for their attention.
You will also receive weekly newsletters via dojo to keep you up to date with our weekly learning, star of the week recipients and reading raffle winners.
Please also keep visiting the 'Parents' tab regularly, to view Mrs Houseman’s new updates and information.
If you have any questions or any concerns, you are very welcome to message through 'Dojo' or via our school emails:
mnorton@dovedale.derbyshire.sch.uk
jmartin@dovedale.derbyshire.sch.uk
We are really excited to begin our learning journey with you!
Mrs Norton and Miss Martin
Hello and welcome to the Summer term. This half term our knowledge block will be based around the question ‘Land or Sea, Where will the animal be?’
During this we will be focussing on the stories What the Ladybird heard, The Rainbow fish, Popeye the sailor man, The Lost Leopard and Mr Benn – The Zoo. In our drawing club lessons we will now be trying to write our own sentences to explain what happens when we say the password and passcode for our stories.
In maths we will be counting to 20 and beyond and continuing to look at adding and subtracting numbers. We will be following the White Rose scheme and also continuing to recap on 3D shapes as this is still a weaker area for a majority of the children.
During our Understanding the world sessions we will be looking at the life cycle of a butterfly, using maps to find our way around, focussing on how boats have changed over time and also looking at observational drawing and experimenting with materials.
For our computing Barefoot sessions, we will be looking at boats in more details and hopefully building some small ones and testing if they will float or sink at the end and discuss why we might think this has happened.
Thursday 25th April - Hedgehog Class assembly - 9:10 - 9:30am
Bank Holiday - Monday 6th May
Each week we focus on a story for our Drawing Club lesson. We love making up our own characters and settings and creating our own story. These are the stories and animations that we will be looking at this half term which will let us explore further 'Land, Sea, where will the animal be?
This half term we are looking at the theme 'Get set, Grow!'. The children will be looking at growing plants and animal lifecycles of creatures like caterpillars, ducks and people.
We are hoping to bring some caterpillars and ducklings into the classroom for the children to have a first hand experience of growing and looking after animals and living things.
In maths we will be continuing white rose to learn about making numbers to 8 and recognising when this is shown with objects. We will also be learning about doubles of numbers and combining two groups of numbers to create a total. We will also look at mass, capacity, length, height and time.
In literacy we will continue with our Drawing Club around the knowledge block of growing. Stories will include, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Little Red Hen, Farmer Duck and The Giant Jam Sandwich. We will continue to look at phrases and children will extend their knowledge of sounds to create the passwords for their writing, as well as learn new vocabulary each week.
In our Understanding the world and expressive arts we will be looking at Van Gogh to draw flowers using a variety of media and we will be learning about special places in people's lives and the Easter story.
We will also continue with our Charanga music curriculum and our TLG PE curriculum for this half term.
We have a busy, exciting adventure ahead.
In Drawing Club we will be reading the following books and basing our writing on them...
This half term we will be focussing on the celebrations of Mother's day and Easter
Hello and welcome to Spring 1.
We hope you have had a lovely Christmas break. Our theme for this half term will be 'Dinosaur's and Fantasy'. We will be looking at books and animations with this theme in mind such as Tyrannosaurus Drip, Nat the fantastic, Trapdoor, Hansel and Gretel and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
In our mathematics lessons we will be looking at making 4 and 5 in a variety of ways. Learning to subitise numbers up to and past 5 and also look at shapes in different orientations and sizes. We will be continuing to follow the White Rose Maths and have further opportunities within continuous provision.
We will be looking at changes in state, countries around the world and what we see there, people who help us and Mary Anning.
We will also be working on our production of 'There's a Sunflower in my Supper'. This will be an excellent opportunity for the children to practice their speaking and listening skills, along with their ability to remember songs and perform to an audience.
We look forward to sharing this with you at the end of the half term.
We have all enjoyed Drawing Club and creating our own stories and ideas from those we have shared in class. Here are the books and animations we will be reading this half term. We look forward to sharing with you our own stories and ideas on Class Dojo.
Celebrations that we will be learning about this half term are Chinese New Year and Valentine's day.
Welcome back to Autumn 2. This half term our theme will be based around... In a Land Far away. The children will be accessing Drawing club and having time together with the teacher to use their imagination writing passwords and passcodes to make things happen in their picture. We will be looking at animations, stories and traditional tales. This term they will include - Wacky races, What's in the Witch's kitchen, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Bat Fink, Penguin, The Gingerbread man and Roadrunner.
In maths we will be learning about the numbers 1, 2 and 3 using white rose maths and the children will experiment with creating the number in different ways, knowing one more and one less and learning more about shapes.
For our understanding of the world and being imaginative and expressive (alongside the events) we will be learning about materials, weather and seasons, changes over time, and special places to me.
We will also enjoy watching KS1 do their Nativity so that we know what to do for our production at the end of the Spring half term.
We are so excited for all of the things that we are going to do.
Mrs Norton and Mrs Kittens.
We will be looking at a range of events including Remembrance day, Diwali, Children in Need, anti-bullying week, bonfire night and Christmas.
Monday 6th November Inset day
Tuesday 7th November – Back to school
28th November – Flu vaccinations
29th November – Individual school photos
Friday 22nd December – Last day of term
- Monday 4th September – Inset Day (no children in school)
- Tuesday 5th September – First day in EYFS
- Friday 29th September - EYFS Welcome PTA Party
- Friday 27th October – Break up for half term.
- Monday 6th November – Inset Day (no children in school)
- Tuesday 7th November – Back to school for start of Autumn 2
For the first few weeks, our main priority is to ensure all the children settle happily into school routines and form good relationships and friendships within the class. The children will also be finding out about our routines and 'REACH’ superhero values: Respect, Enjoyment, Achievement, Challenge and Health. We will model how this looks within the school environment. We will be also focussing on developing the children's personal, social and emotional skills which will support the children's independence and emotional well-being, positivity about themselves and their learning and grow their social skills.
All the children will also be completing a range of activities which enable us to identify their current knowledge and understanding which will take place through our own school Baseline and a Government Baseline.
The children will be introduced to Read Write Inc (RWI) phonics by exploring and becoming familiar with set 1 sounds and how to form these letters. The children will be learning to blend these sounds in cvc words.
The children will also begin exploring numbers in depth and some friendly
characters from ‘Numberblocks’ will be helping us to do this! We will also begin learning about matching and sorting shapes and exploring pattern.
We will be learning all about ourselves, our families, and our friendships through a range of quality and engaging texts which can be seen below. We will be developing our understanding about what makes us unique from others and that's what makes us SUPER! We will share the story of 'The Colour Monster' to understand our emotions and feelings in depth and strategies to help us with some emotions.
Our PE day will be every Thursday. Please see below for information regarding PE kits. The children will be developing their gross motor skills and exploring dance through the theme 'All about Me'.
On the 4th of October, World Space Week begins! So, we will get our space suits on and shoot into space in our rockets to explore the amazing solar system!
We are looking forward to continually getting to know your lovely children and yourselves further over the next few weeks!
Please keep checking Dojo to see updates and the fantastic learning your children undertake!
Our School Day
The school day starts from 9:00 am - 3:15pm with the gates opening at 8:50am.
In the morning, please drop off your child at the main gates so they can independently walk to their classroom. Familiar staff will be at the gate to support this.
On collection, if you wait outside our classroom (on the playground) and your child will be in the line to come out to you. Please give us a wave and try and stand in a similar spot each day to aid with getting the children out quickly and safely - especially in the wetter months.
Water Bottles
We encourage all children to bring their own water bottles into the classrooms everyday with their full name clearly labelled on the side. Children are provided access to their own water bottles throughout the day to ensure hydration. Please could you ensure that only water is put into them and not juice! This will be returned each day to be washed and refilled for the next school day.
Book bags
The children will be given book bags. Please could these be named clearly and brought into school each day and checked every evening for any new letters. Please could we ask these are the only bags brought into school as we have limited space in the cloakrooms.
PE day
Our PE day will be every Thursday.
Please can the children bring in their PE kit in a named small bag and this will stay on the children's pegs through the term. This will be sent home at the end of each half-term to be washed. PE will include alternating both indoors and outdoors. Please could you ensure both indoor and outdoor kit is placed in the children's PE kit bags at the beginning of each term.
Please note the PE kit should be: a plain red t-shirt with or without the school logo, plain black sports jacket/zip-up jacket, plain black or navy joggers/shorts and trainers. Please can you ensure all PE clothing and footwear is labelled with your child’s full name.
Medical
Any children who require any medical support such as inhalers, EPI pens and medication will need a form to be completed, which can be collected from the school office. This will then be signed once administered by staff. Inhalers and EPI pens if needed, should remain in school.
School Money
You will shortly receive a text message /email about joining 'School Money'. This is our system on paying for things in school as we do not handle cash. This will include things like school milk, trips wrap-around club etc. Any questions please Dojo, email or ring the school office.
Milk
While the children are 4 years old, they will receive milk for free. Once your child turns 5 years old, unfortunately they will no longer receive it. If you wish for your child to continue to have milk at school, please visit: www.coolmilk.com
Birthdays
To celebrate this special day, the birthday boy or girl can come dressed in their own clothes for the school day. If their birthday is on the weekend, they are welcome to pick the closest day to come in non-uniform!
Jewellery and Hair
To ensure the safety of your child our school policy regarding jewellery, hair and nails is as follows:-
- No jewellery other than stud earrings and watches.
- We recommend that children who have long hair (below their shoulders) should tie their hair back for school; however, it is essential that it is tied back for PE lessons.
- Appropriate hair bobbles of size and design.
- Nail varnish should be removed for the school week.