EYFS Starfish

Welcome to EYFS

Our Topic is

The Little Red Hen

What we have been learning at school this week

This is our weekly update on what we have been learning about in school and how to help your child at home. Please scroll down for important messages, our photo gallery and other information.

Important key messages (updated 2.2.26)

-Please read our information below (scroll down) on how to help your child with reading, speech and fine motor at home

-Please check cardigans/jumpers are clearly named.

-Please bring named book bag, reading book, Reading Record, water bottle and coat to school every day and spare change for any toilet accidents.

-Please do not bring toys from home into school or store water bottles in book bags.

-With the wet weather, please can children have their own supply of spare clothes to hang on their peg. This will need to include underwear, tights/socks. Unfortunately our school supply is running low. It also supports children to be able to change themselves, if they need to. If your child has borrowed any spare clothes from school, please can these be washed and returned to school.

- P.E is Thursday and/or Fridays. Please ensure PE shoes remain in school and children have suitable shoes that they can put on with limited support. Children are offered daily opportunities in provision to develop their fine and gross motor skills.

Here is a small photo snapshot of our recent learning (updated 2.2.26)

How your child's progress is assessed

Your child's progress is tracked against the Early Learning Goals. These are a set of developmental benchmarks for children at the end of their Reception year (around age 5). There are 17 goals covering 7 learning areas.

Please speak to us for further information on how we can support you.

The ELGs

How you can support your child at home: Reading

All children have been given a plastic wallet containing their Reading Record and Phonics Reading Book. Children should bring their Phonics book and Reading Record to school every day. We also place any of their creations, letters or additional resources in their book bags. Please empty book bags daily.

To help build confidence and fluency, it is recommended that your child reads at least 4 times per week at home. Please use 1 page of your Reading Record per week to record your child’s reading at home. There should be at least 4 home entries in their Reading Record per week. (This could be a date and a tick/initial or a comment about their reading). We will only change books if we can see they have been read at home. All children have been allocated a book changing day. This is recorded on their Reading Record.

Scroll down our page to see videos of the speech sounds to help support you!

All children will be regularly given a printed yellow list of Harder to Read and Spell Words (HRSW). Please support your child to recognise these words on sight (not sound out).

Children also choose a book from the Library Bus to share at home. This does not need to be recorded in their Reading Record. Library Bus Books will be changed on near the start of the week. Please re-read and talk about a book more than once as the repetition of language and familiarisation of stories and characters helps support their understanding and enjoyment of books.

When reading a phonics books with your child, please gauge how much you wish them to read dependent on how they are feeling. This could 2-3 pages to the whole book, it can vary each time. We want to help support you in giving your child positive reading experiences as much as possible.

How you can support your child at home: speech (talking)

Encouraging your child to speak in full sentences. Reminding adults in your household to re-say sentences and phrases your child says to allow them to hear correct examples of speech.

For more information to support your child's speech please visit:

https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/help-for-families/ages-and-stages/3-4-years/ and https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/help-for-families/ages-and-stages/4-5-years/

How you can support your child at home: fine motor

Fine motor skills are the coordination of small muscles—specifically in the hands, wrists, and fingers.

Please support your child to develop their finger and wrist strength and hand eye co-ordination skills through everyday activities such as:

- zipping and buttoning their own coats

- using child scissors at home

- using cutlery and helping to cut, mix and prepare food

- opening containers, bottles

- colouring with pencils and pens

How you can support your child at home: gross motor

Gross motor skills involve using large muscle groups in the arms, legs, and torso to perform whole-body movements like crawling, running, jumping, and climbing.

Getting outdoors, using play parks, climbing hills and trees, riding a bike, balancing along walls etc all can help support your child’s gross motor development, which will also heavily support their fine motor development too.

Three areas of gross motor are:

Core Strength & Stability: Involves muscles in the back and abdomen for maintaining posture.
Coordination & Balance: Enables complex movements like riding a bike, dancing, or jumping.
Body Awareness: Helps individuals understand where their body is in space.

Below contains additional information on how to support your child at home with their learning in school.

Reading

Please see below some recommended reads for home!

50 Recommended Reads - EYFS

Ideas For Reading and Writing at Home

Handwriting

Letter Formation

Lower case alphabet

Upper case alphabet

ELS - Phonics

Please scroll to view the videos below on how to pronounce the sounds when reading and practising with your child. The order of sounds we work through is also detailed below.

The Sound Mats and Word Mats we use in class are also available below.