Swing Gate Infant School and Nursery

         Welcome to our Reception Classes

Teaching Team

Miss Oliver

Mrs Fitzgerald

Mrs Paynter

 

Support Staff

Miss Hardwick

Miss Shaw

Mrs Gardener

Mrs Edwards

Miss Draper

Week beginning: 12th May 2025

Squirrels Class weekly theme

Fierce Animals

Free Lion Feline photo and picture

Many children in Squirrels class love dinosaurs and telling us about their sharp teeth and how dangerous they were! Alfie and Maccy are our dinosaur experts! This week, inspired by this we will create a new theme of animals, in particular fierce animals. Using the story Dear Zoo we will begin to think about the characteristics of different animals and discuss how they compare. 

Owls Class weekly theme

We are all artists! 

 

The owls children have all been discussing art with our visit to the Berkhamsted Art exhibition. Arthur’s favourite artist is Henri Rousseau and his favourite painting is surprised - we shared it altogether. We love that Henri used his imagination to create his works of art and used bright colours. Max told us about the bright colours and patterns he saw in an ‘art museum’ he went to in Spain.

 

Our Learning this week includes:

Literacy - This week we use ‘Dear Zoo’ by Rod Campbell to inspire us to write our own letters to request a pet. What will we choose? Will it fit in our house? Will we have a big enough bath to keep it in? Children will independently create their own booklets or labelled pictures of their favourite animals.  We focus on the following skills:

  • Write simple sentences using finger spaces between words.
  • Use developing phonic knowledge to spell words which match their spoken sounds.
  • To write some letters correctly using correct starting points. 
  • Re-read what they have written to check that it makes sense
  • Enjoy creating texts to communicate meaning for an increasingly wide range of purposes, such as making greetings cards, tickets, lists, invitations and creating own stories and books with images, and sometimes with words in print and digital forms.


Maths - This week, the children will review the composition of the numbers 6 to 9 using the ‘5 and a bit’ structure, and then begin to explore how 10 can be composed. They will also develop a sense of the ‘ten-ness of 10’ by making their own collections and pictorial representations of 10 objects.

When exploring how 10 can be composed of 2 parts, the focus is on developing the children’s ability to subitise the parts in structured arrangements. A key representation to support this will be the double five dice frame. The children will be encouraged to recognise a larger part of 10 when it is presented in the ‘5 and a bit’ structure, and then subitise the smaller part. They will also be encouraged to see how finger patterns can be used to represent 2 parts of 10, using the ‘fingers up and fingers down’ approach that was used when exploring the composition of 5.

Expressive Art and Design - This week we will become artists and look at the work of Andy Goldsworthy. We will discuss some of his art pieces, talking about how we think he achieved them, what we like and what we don't like. We will then go outside to find some natural materials to create our own masterpieces! The opportunities are endless! We will make sure we take photos of our work so that we can display them in the classroom, whilst leaving all the natural materials outside. 

 

Bike Coaching will be on Wednesday again this week, the children enjoyed their first session last week and we hope they're keen for another go! SuperStar sports will also be coaching a session on Friday. 
 

Phonics focus of the week Song of the week Words of the week

Poem of the week

Short vowels CVCC 10 fat sausages enclosure, predator, prey

I have a little frog 

 

Our termly Class letter is viewable here

 

What the children say... 

In our EYFS unit we plan according to the children's interests. We spend time talking to the children, asking them what they already know and what they would like to find out.

 Our weekly themes are led by the children. Each week we share ideas and then pick a theme for the coming week.

Our PE days for both classes are:

  • Wednesday (am)
  • Friday (am) 

 

RE learning 

In Religious Education, we will be learning about different celebrations and festivals which link to the heritage of some of the children. 

Swing Gate Lane, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire HP4 2LJ

01442 863913

admin@swinggate.herts.sch.uk