Week beginning 10th March

The children in Year R have been very busy learning all about caterpillars and butterflies! The caterpillars arrived in each classroom for us to look after, and we have been checking them to see how much they have grown. We have been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly, and used different pasta shapes to show each stage of the cycle. We added a title, and some arrows to show the whole life cycle. 

Week beginning: 3rd March 2025

This week in Year R it's been all about the chicks! We have been reading non-fiction books, drawing and writing about what chicks can do and making moving models with split pins.

On World Book day the chicks were treated to visits from story book characters who enjoyed holding and carefully stroking them.

World Book Day 2025

Well done to all of the children who came to school dressed as their favourite book character on World Book Day. It was lovely to hear all of the conversations about books and the stories being shared.

A big thank you to our staff who looked fabulous in their character costumes.

A big thank to local author Liam White for visiting Year R on World Book Day. We all enjoyed listening to you read Hugo the hungry horse.

Week Beginning 24th February

We had some special visitors arrive at Hazel Wood on Monday and the children were all very excited to meet them. Ten adorable, fluffy chicks hatched from their eggs throughout the day and we have been helping to look after them. Year R were lucky enough to stroke one of the chicks and then built a little run for them to have a bit of exercise. We are looking forward to seeing how much they grow over the next week.

To start our new topic, ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’, we went on a welly walk around the school ground looking for signs of Spring. It was lovely to see daffodils, snowdrops and blossom on the trees. After that everyone had lots of fun exploring the garden centre role play. The children learnt how to use the till, take phone messages, write order forms and how to speak politely to customers.

Week beginning 10th February 

Careers day fun in Year R !

The 'helping hands ' theme in year R has proved very popular. The children have been excited to find out about different people that help us and loved a wide range of opportunities to engage in job themed small world and role play. On Thursday they all came to school looking amazing, dressed as their chosen job role. A big thank you to all the parents for providing the fantastic 'career costumes'! They certainly look proud and happy in their work ..

We wonder if their career dreams will come true ?!  

Week beginning 10th February 

  Year R all had a fantastic time taking part in a drama workshop delivered by, 'Jack, the firefighter', from 'Perform'. In the engaging 'helping hands' themed session we used our creativity to explore a range of actions and ideas related to different jobs. It was great to see everyone joining in enthusiastically, developing their drama skills and confidence. A lot of fun was had by all. Well done everyone and thank you, Jack!     

Week Beginning 3rd February

Year R have had a very busy week at school! We have continued our topic of 'Helping Hands', and completed challenges in our outside area relating to different jobs! We worked as a team to create and label a map of a town with all the different places for the people who help to work. We have talked about being healthy, and how to make sure we have a balanced diet with a variety of food and lots of water! We also worked as a team to create an obstacle course, using different equipment outside. What a fabulous week! 🙂 

Week beginning: 27th January 2025

Helping hands

Thank you to our three visitors who came to school to talk to Year R about their jobs and how they help people. We spoke to a vet, a nurse that works with tiny babies and a fire fighter.

We asked questions to find out about what they do, what they wear and what they most like about their work.

Year R are keen to learn more about the people who help us every day.

Another busy week for the year R children starting with our helping hands visitors, then measuring how tall we are with bricks, and pretending to be vets. We have also thought about how Chinese New Year can be celebrated and we had a go at creating a dragon dance.

Week Beginning 20th January 2025

Winter Explorers

The Polar Bear, Polar Bear story inspired us to make masks of our favourite animals. We painted our masks then added feathers, pom poms, sequins and paper and to decorate them. Can you guess what animals they are?

This week the children collected natural objects from around the playground. They put them into shallow containers filled with water. String was then placed across them all and left over night. In the morning the water had frozen, and we had made beautiful Ice Mobiles!

Week beginning 6th January

Winter Explorers

This week, Year R have been very busy with their new topic - Winter Explorers! We have been out on a welly walk, looking for signs of winter. We noticed lots of changes to the environment - like all the spring flowering bulbs that are starting to make an appearance! We found beautiful purple crocus that have already started flowering - very exciting! We have been looking at different animals and the different climates in which they live, and used non-fiction books to find out interesting facts. We have really enjoyed frosty mornings in our outside area also, and especially loved playing skittles with some 'snowballs'!.  The children loved competing with their friends to score as many points as possible! A super week of learning from Year R. 

Week Beginning 9th December 2024

Away in a Manger Nativity

A huge well done to all of Year R for a fantastic performance of their Nativity. The children all sang beautifully and with big smiles on their faces!

Week Beginning 2nd December 2024

The Stickman

Year R have had lots of fun taking part in Stickman activities this week. They travelled over and under obstacles on a Stickman journey. Created maps for the Stickman to follow to get back home again. Made their own Stickmen from Clay and used their imagination to make sticks into different objects. They also worked hard to write words from the Stickman story. What a busy week! 

Making lanterns for the Totton lantern parade.

Year R would like to say a big thank you to the artists who visited us in school this week to teach us how to make lanterns.

These lanterns are currently drying but they will be coming home soon in time for the Totton lantern parade.

Week beginning: 18.11.24

Supertato, snow and lanterns

What an exciting week for our Year R children! We had great fun playing in the falling snow, and discovering ice in our tough trays. We have been very busy creating super vegetables, exploring five frames and making lanterns.

Week Beginning 11th November 2024

Children in Need

Year R enjoyed celebrating Children in Need with lots of fun activities. We decorated biscuits, played games and did Pudsey colouring. Thankyou to everyone that made a donation to the charity!

Maths

This week we have learnt how to subitise and represent numbers to 5. We all worked hard to recognise up to 5 objects placed in different ways, without having to count them.

Writing

We are all progressing well with our phonics and enjoyed the challenge of an outdoor word hunt this week. The children found pictures dotted around the Year R playground and used their phonics knowledge to sound out and write each 3 letter word. Well done everyone!

Week beginning: 14th October 2024

Making bread in Year R

"Who will help us bake the bread?"asked the little red hen. 

Year R have been sharing the traditional tale The Little Red Hen and exploring how bread is made. They enjoyed measuring, mixing, kneading and shaping bread rolls. The best bit was smelling and eating the delicious bread.

Year R had a visitor called Claire this week who works as the community champion at  Morrisons. She talked to us about how bread is made and the different types of bread they make in the bakery. She also very kindly brought in a range of breads for us to try.

Thank you Claire and the kind donations from Morrisons.

Welcome to the Year R website page 2024-2025

Week Beginning Monday 7th October

Year R have loved reading ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. They started the week by making their own porridge and testing different toppings. The children chose their most and least favourite and shared their views with their class. They then made ‘Teddy Bear toast’, which was great fun and delicious! The children have also enjoyed singing the Goldilocks song, retelling the story in the role play, making 3 bears from playdough or tapping shapes and creating drawings of all the characters. What a busy week!

In Maths this week we have sung lots of number songs, counted forwards and backwards to 10 and practised recognising numerals and ordering number cards to 5. We then introduced finding 1 more than a number to 5 by adding 1 more toy or taking one more jump on a number line. Everyone has worked very hard and had lots of fun!

Week Beginning 30th September

This week in year R we have enjoyed listening and responding to 'The Gingerbread Man' story. We've designed some of our own gingerbread characters and had fun making gingerbread people out of play dough. We've learnt the first four letter sounds, m, a, s and d and tried hard to write these using Hazel wood handwriting. Well done everyone!

Week beginning: 16th September 2024

This week has seen the Year R children staying for lunch and then from Wednesday for the whole day. They have impressed their teachers with their independence and resilience learning many new routines.  

They have enjoyed painting self portraits by looking closely in the mirror at their eye and hair colour.

We have been singing number rhymes and looking at some pictures cards that will help us to learn the sounds in phonics.

Week Beginning Monday 9^th September

We are all very proud of how the children have settled into school life. They are quickly learning the rules and routines and are all coming into school happily. The children have confidently explored their classrooms and the Year R outdoor area. They have made new friends and enjoyed playing with all the exciting resources!