Autumn 1 - 2024
What a fantastic start we’ve had to our school year! The children have settled into our school family with such ease, quickly adapting to their new environment. Their enthusiasm for learning has been wonderful to witness.
In our first half-term, we focused on the topic "Wonderful Me" and Our Bible Quote is taken from Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me". The children have worked hard exploring what makes each of them unique. Through various activities—art, storytelling, and discussions—they’ve learned to celebrate their differences and build confidence in sharing their thoughts.
This topic has also provided opportunities to develop social skills, as the children learn to listen, share ideas, and express themselves. These early steps are creating a caring and supportive community where each child feels valued.
It’s been incredibly rewarding, and I look forward to seeing how the children continue to flourish as we move into the next half-term.
Summer 2 - 2024
Wow! I cannot believe that we have reached the end of the Summer term. This year has gone so fast! What a busy half term we have had. We have had our class trip, sports day, transition morning and a super Spirituality Day.
This half term our topic has been 'Animal Kingdom' and our main book has been 'What the Ladybird Heard' by Julia Donaldson. Our Bible quote for this half term is taken from Job 12: 7-10. "In his hand is the life of every creature."
We have enjoyed reading the book together and linking lots of different activities within the Continuous Provision.
On Friday 28th June we enjoyed our trip to Pendle Heritage Centre gardens and Fairy Woods. Just look at the photographs to see that we had a great time. We were also very lucky with the weather!! Thank you to Peter and Emma for showing our class round.
After all the bad weather we have been having the sun shone for our Sports Day on Friday 5th July. We all went up to the field and enjoyed taking part in lots of different sporting activities such as javelin, hurdles, obstacle course, long jump and running with our school team. At the end of this we had a running race for EYFS girls and then boys. Well done to you all. Here are just a few photographs of the morning.
On Friday 12th July we celebrated a Spirituality Day in school. We took part in a variety of activities throughout the day with visitors to our class too. The day started with a Collective Worship and then we had some music with Mrs Tomlinson. She was very impressd with our singing and ideas. Next Mrs Jordan visited our classroom and spoke about 'prayers', we watched a little clip and then discussed it. Mrs Kirk an artist came next and we made people praying out of clay. Some of these are now being displayed in our entrance way. Finally in the afternoon we went to the Polytunnel and Mr Forkgen helped the class to plant a strawberry plant and talked about all the new plants growing in our plant beds. What a busy day. I hope your plants are growing well?
Summer 1 - 2024
This half term our topic is 'Green Fingers'. Our Bible Quote is taken from Genesis 1 v 11: Then God said, "Let the Earth produce vegetation , seed bearing plants and fruit trees."
The main book we focused upon this half term is 'Jasper's Beanstalk' by Mick Inkpen. We enjoyed reading the story together, sequencing the story and the days of the week. A lot of the activities in the continuous provision have been linked to the book. The children enjoyed making beanstalks out of the different construction kits and finding a way to make them stay vertical and to be taller than them!! The children used their creative skills by painting beanstalks, making them out of variety of craft materials and they even used play dough. Very creative!! This half term the children have enjoyed their class challenges and the children wrote about what they would find at the top of Jasper's Beanstalk. Some children even measured the Giant's feet using beans!!
The children have been thinking about 'growing' with this topic. We discussed that fruit and vegetables start off as a seed. The children found out all about the different stages plants go through and we talked about life cycles. The children used their investigative skills to find the seeds in the different fruits and vegetables. After finding out what seeds need to grow we then planted some runner beans.
These started to germinate through the holidays and we now have some shoots!!
Spring 2 - 2024
This half term our topic is 'On the Move!' Our Bible Quote is taken from Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."
When we returned to school we celebrated the Lunar New Year - The Year of the Dragon. We discussed how people around the world celebrate the New Year and had fun listening to and acting out the story of the Zodiac. We even held our own animal races!! Throughout the week we enjoyed lots of different activities linked to the Lunar New Year.
The books that we have read this half term are The Train Ride and The Snail and the Whale all linked to our topic of 'On the Move!' We have enjoyed our role play area being changed into a train station and we have gone on many journeys, including all the way to Iceland!!! The children have made trains using shapes and our junk modelling. We also had fun to see how long we could make some train tracks out of matchstick and lolly sticks!! it stretched half way across the room!!
We celebrated World Book day this half term and we enjoyed dressing up as our favourite book characters. Can you guess who we are from the photographs?
To finish our half term we performed our Spring time play of Tickle Me Prickles. We worked very hard to learn all the songs, actions and our lines. A big well done to you all, the audience thought you were all amazing!! Here are a few photographs of the different parts we played.
Spring 1 - 2024
This half term our topic is 'Superheroes- People Who Help Us'. Our Bible Quote - "Be Strong and Courageous" comes from Joshua 1:9.
Our Stay and Play sessions have started again and it has been super to parents/grandparents back in the EYFS setting.
In RE we have been listening to stories Jesus heard, such as Daniel and the Lions and Jonah and the Whale. We have been thinking about our own favourite stories and where we like to listen to them. We brought our favourite book into school and talked about it in front of the class.
We have been thinking about our planet and how we can look after it. We have read the book Michael Recycle and have been finding out about the 3 R's - Reduce, Recycle and Reuse.
Autumn 2 - 2023-2024
This half term our topic will be 'Whatever the Weather'. We will be looking at the four seasons of the year and hot and cold places. Our main book for the half term will be Stickman by Julia Donaldson.
Following the publishing of our Outstanding Ofsted Report we had a celebration day. On this day we looked at the traditions of November 5th. Throughout the day the children made different fireworks.
We have been enjoying our class book 'Stick Man' by Julia Donaldson. We know the story very well and we love to join in with all the repeating parts of the book. Our writing skills are developing all the time and we have produced different pieces if writing linked to the story. We had lots of fun making Stick Man too.
On Monday 13th November we came to school in our Odd Socks to mark the beginning of Anti-Bullying week.
Autumn 1 - 2023-2024
What a fantastic start to our school year. The children have settled into our school family amazingly. They have worked very hard over the first half term on our Topic Wonderful Me. The EYFS team were so proud to be deemed 'Outstanding' in our recent Ofsted. A large pat on the back Class 1.
STAY AND PLAY
The team and children have thoroughly enjoyed our Friday morning 'Stay and Play' sessions this half term. These visits have been a great opportunity to show and share all the fantastic things your children have been working on this half term. It has been a positive experience and I know parents/grandparents enjoy this time and look forward to seeing all the photographs of our busy weeks in school.
The next 'Stay and Play' sessions will be in the Spring 2024 Term.
Here are a few photographs highlighting Stay and Play. Sorry if I missed anyone out on the photographs!!
Our topic this half term has been 'Wonderful Me'. We have been sharing the books The Colour Monster' and 'Once we were Giants'. After reading these books we have focused upon our families and our 5 senses.
On Tuesday 26th September we all took part in the Sponsored Run on our running track. Mrs Lahey and Mrs Jackson were amazed at how far we could run!! Some children even managed to run 10 laps!!! Fantastic!!
Finally we finished the half term with a 'When I Grow Up Day'. All the children came dressed as what they would like to be when they grow up. Can you tell what we would like to do by our photographs???
Summer 2 - 2022 & 2023
Wow! We have reached the end of the year!! How did that happen so quick??
This half term our topic has been 'On the Move'. We have been very fortunate to have 2 out of school visits this half term, first to the Walled Herb Garden at Pendle Heritage Centre and secondly to Hothersall Lodge for a Bear Hunt!!
At the Heritage Centre we enjoyed trying all the different edible herbs and finding out all about the plants that grow there. We were very lucky to even spot a dragonfly resting on a flower nearby.
It was a lovely hot day and after a quick snack break we explored the Fairy Woods behind the centre. We saw lots of doors to the fairies and pixies homes. Can you remember your favourite one? Thank you Mr Forkgen for recommending this visit, I know that a few children have visited the Fairy Woods since.
Fairy Woods
Our book this half term has been 'The Train Ride' by June Crebbin. We have enjoyed the story and have linked some of our writing to the story. We have also been finding out about transport and creating some fantastic models and art work. All our art work is displayed on our corridor board.
Summer 1 - 2022 & 2023
I cannot believe that we are already in the Summer Term! It was lovely to hear that the children had a super Easter Holiday which included lots of Easter Egg Hunts!!
This half term our topic is 'Animal Kingdom'. Our main book will be 'What the Ladybird Heard' by Julia Donaldson. We will also be reading Rosie's Walk and Farmer Duck.
It was lovely to have a visit from Mr Forkgen who came to show what has happened to all our apple pips that we collected before Christmas. He told the children about them being kept in the fridge and then when the pips cracked open and sprouted a root he then planted them.
Just look at the amazing results! Mr Forkgen even said we might be able to take them home later in the term if we wish!! ( Spoiler alert - they won't grow apples for about 7-10 years!!)
We have enjoyed the story of 'What the Ladybird Heard' by Julia Donaldson. A lot of our activities in our classroom provision have been linked to the book. We have made ladybirds and discussed the life cycle. We have painted the farm animals from the story. In the malleable area the children have been making different mini-beasts following some instructions. We have been making our own maps just like Lanky Len and Hefty Hugh. Just look at the super story maps we have made.
AS you can see we have been enjoying our Bug Lab in our outdoor area. We also talked about mini-beast habitats and then we went on a Bug Hunt around the EYFS outdoor area. Can you identify any of the bugs we found???
We have been set a few STEM challenges this half term linked to our topic. We enjoy investigating with magnets around the room, discovering the objects that were magnetic and not magnetic. We read the story The Very Busy Spider and then we made our own spider webs to catch the flies. This was quite tricky but we rose to the challenge, persevered and had lots of fun throwing the flies to stick on to the web!! We have been learning about Jesus and his friends (the disciples) in RE and our final challenge was to make a boat for Jesus and his friends to sail on.
Spring 2 - 2022 & 2023
Welcome to the Spring 2 term in Class 1. This half term our topic will be 'Green Fingers'. We will be looking at the book Jasper's Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen. As the topic heading suggests we will be finding out about things that grow and to be nature detectives by spotting all the signs of Spring on a walk around the school grounds and our local area.
We have already been busy in our first week back. We have found out all about Shrove Tuesday and enjoyed making and tasting pancakes!! We attended an Ash Wednesday service in church to mark the beginning of Lent.
We enjoyed celebrating World Book Day together in school. Can you tell which character we have chosen?
As part of our Easter topic in our Religious Education lessons we enjoyed a surprise (just like Clever Cub) of chocolate eggs and hot cross buns.
We were Spring Detectives as we went searching around the school grounds for signs of Spring!!
Our half term came to a fantastic end with our class Spring Production of Tickle Me Prickles. All the children have worked hard to remember all their lines, songs and actions. The children performed amazingly for both their families and in front of the whole school. A huge clap for you all.
Spring 1 - 2022 & 2023
I cannot believe that another half term has come to an end! What a fantastic start to 2023. Keep up all the hard work Class 1.
This half term our topic has been 'Superheroes- People Who Helps Us. We have enjoyed reading together 'Supertato' by Paul Linnet and Sue Hendra and also 'Michael Recycle' by Ellie Bethel. We also had an unexpected visitor in our room that left a big mess in our Cafe!! We discovered it was the Evil Pea!! We have all had fun since, building traps both inside and out to keep him away from trouble!!
In RE we have been looking at 'Stories that Jesus Heard'. We learnt that these stories are found in the Old Testament of The Bible and we particularly enjoyed the story of Daniel and the Lions and Jonah and the Big Fish. With finding out all about the stories Jesus heard we brought in our favourite books from home that we enjoy listening to. Can you spot your favourite one?
We have been thinking about how people who help us are Superheroes. To celebrate all the hard work these people do we decided to hold a Superhero Day and raise more for our Class Charity- Cash for Kids. We had a 'super' day dressed as our favourite Superheroes, with our own special capes on that we designed and made. It was a very busy day; making our own masks and building obstacle courses for the superheroes to go round and rescue people. In the afternoon, we made our own edible Superhero Crispy Cake and learnt a new Superhero song and dance. The EYFS team were exhausted by the end of the day! I hope you enjoyed your Crispy Cakes?? Here are just a few photographs of the busy day and the build up.
In our final week of half term we have been extremely lucky to have 2 visits from some local Superheroes. The first visitor was our local PSCO - Alan Fielding. He visited our class on Monday and talk about his important job in our local community and how he helps the people of Barrowford. Alan talked about his uniform and all the equipment that goes with it. We enjoyed looking at his special vest and hat. Some of the children even got to try it on! Mrs Jackson said it was heavy but the children disagreed. (Super strong) We are looking forward to another visit from PSCO Fielding in a few weeks time when he said he would bring a police car for the class to look round. How exciting.
Our second visitors were 3 firefighters from the local fire station in Nelson. They talked to the children about all the different ways they help people and that it is not just putting fires out. Firefighter Ollie came dressed in all his fire safety clothes. Firefighter Mick talked and showed all the essential equipment and clothing needed to attend to a fire. The children enjoyed looking at the T.I.C- (thermal imaging camera) and the helmet. We even played a game where Mrs Lahey had to get into all the safety uniform in 30 seconds because that is the time the firefighters have. The children helped count to 30!! I think I just about made it. The uniform was very hot and heavy. I think they are superheroes!!
Finally we went outside to see the Fire Engine. It was very big and noisy. The children were all lucky enough to have a go at squirting the hose pipe. We all had a great time and learnt a lot of information about these Superheroes. Thank you for visiting our class.
Autumn 2 - 2022 & 2023
Another busy half term has flown by in Class 1! Our topic this half term has been 'Whatever the Weather' and I think we have experienced all the different types of weather over the past few weeks. We have particularly enjoyed the last few frosty days exploring all the wonders of nature outside. Can you spot the wonderful webs we found?? Louis discovered the pans from the mud kitchen would not pull apart because of the ice!!
We have been exploring all about Pumpkins. We have scooped out the middle of the pumpkin! We have talked about all the different parts of a pumpkin. We have painted and drawn some pumpkins. We used balance scales to find out which pumpkin was the heaviest and the lightest one. We have measured them with cubes. Finally we found out whether the pumpkins floated or sank. We were very surprised that even the largest pumpkin floated!!
Over the last few weeks Class 1 have been very lucky to do some super gardening under our canopy with Mr Forkgen. They have planted some mini daffodils, tulip bulbs, herbs, lavender and even some strawberry plants!! We are looking forward to watching them grow. Thank you Mr Forkgen for all your time, the children have loved learning all about planting. See you in the New Year to plant our apple pips!!
Autumn 1 - 2022 & 2023
The EYFS team cannot believe that the new reception children have been in school almost a full half term. All the children have settled in amazingly and have become an important part in the school family at St. Thomas'.
STAY AND PLAY
It has been wonderful to start our Stay and Play sessions again after the pandemic. The team and children have thoroughly enjoyed these visits and it has been a great opportunity to show and share all the fantastic things your children have been working on this half term. It has been a positive experience and I know parents/grandparents enjoy this time and look forward to seeing all the photographs of our busy weeks in school.
Here are a few photographs highlighting Stay and Play. Sorry if I missed anyone out on the photographs!!
Our topic this half term is 'Wonderful Me'. We have been sharing the books 'Funnybones' and 'Once we were Giants'. After reading these books we have focused upon our families and our 5 senses. We had a fun day out at Eureka in Halifax including a fantastic Senses Show by Darren.
Eureka visit- Thursday 6th October 2022
Summer 2 - 2022
Wow! Where has the time gone!! What a busy term we have had! This half term our topic has been 'On the Move'. We have enjoyed a variety of books to do with this topic. Our main books have been The Train Ride by June Crebbin and The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson. We have also acted out and had a school visit to Hothersall Lodge connected to the book- We are going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen.
In this busy term we have also had a visit into Class 2 to prepare for our Big Move into Year 1 in September.
Linked to PSED we had a week focusing upon Road Safety. We worked through the Lancashire County Council Right Start Scheme. We learnt all about how to Stop, Look and Listen. We put all of this into practise outside.
Summer 1 - 2022
I cannot believe that another half term has just flown by already!! Our topic this half term has been 'Animal Kingdom'. We have enjoyed a variety of books to do with farm animals and minibeasts, but our main class book has been 'What the ladybird heard' by Julia Donaldson and Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins. These two books have helped the class to focus upon more geographical and DT work such as making maps and windmills.
We have been lucky to have The Animal Club visit school. Amy brought in lots of different animals, such as a bearded dragon, a corn snake, a Giant African snail, 2 rabbits and 2 guinea pigs. The children found out some information about each animal and they could touch/stroke them if they liked or DARED!!!
Spring 2 - 2022
Wow, another 6 weeks has just flown by in Class 1!! Our topic this half term has been 'Green Fingers'. Together we have enjoyed the book Jasper's Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen. We have had lots of fun retelling the story and making beanstalks of our own out of Lego, various construction kits and our large construction kits outside too.
We have all been 'Green Fingered' this half term, trying to grow our own beanstalks!! Up in the Polytunnel, we enjoyed finding out what had happened to the seeds we planted in Autumn. In our CoolTime we have also been experimenting and learning how to plant seeds in our 'Potting Shed'.
We have also been like Jasper in the story and planted our own beans!! Fingers crossed they will grow. Look at the results so far!!
In our role play area the children said the would like a dentist room. We have had lots of fun in here and we have been learning how to look after our teeth. We were very lucky to have a dentist visit our class and talk some more about what happens at the dentist. Thank you to Teo's Dad in class 3.
Whilst it was lovely weather we all enjoyed a walk down to Barrowford park looking for the different signs of Spring. Class 1 were super Spring Detectives and we found shoots growing, daffodils, buds growing on trees, birds making their nests and lots of spring flowers in the village. Well done, Class 1 and a big thank you for Mr. Marshall for accompanying us.
Finally, Class 1 have performed a super Spring Time show to all their parents and enjoyed sharing some Easter treats together.
Photographs to follow.....
Spring 1 2022
I cannot believe we have completed another half term. This half term we focused upon Superheroes. We have been very busy learning through play. Together we enjoyed the book 'Supertato' by Paul Linnet and Sue Hendra. We even had a visit by the Evil Pea who made a mess of our Class Shop!!
We celebrated The Lunar New Year by listening to the story and having races. We also found out about the way people around the world celebrate this time.
To celebrate the end of our Superhero topic we held a Superhero day.
Autumn 2 2021
Well, it has been another busy half term in Class 1. In November we welcomed Mrs Jackson, our new TA3 and she has quickly settled into classroom life in Class 1. She has already been busy transforming our outdoor wooden house into a calm, relaxing and inviting 'Reading Shed'. Thank you Mrs Jackson.
Whatever the Weather
Our topic has been Whatever the Weather this half term and I think we have just about experienced all the different types of weather the British Climate can throw at us!!
Look at all the fun we had playing and finding out about Snow and Ice.
Class 1 - New Beginnings - September 2021
Autumn 1 2021 - Wonderful Me
Wow! What a super start the Reception children have made to their school life. All the children have settled in very well and making new relationships with all members of the class. We have all been very busy in our COOL Time (Choosing our own Learning) as you can see from the photographs below.
We had fun finding out all out our senses and all things Autumn.
Summer 1 - Space - Alien Invasion
Over the Summer 1 term we focused upon Space. We enjoyed reading the class book 'Whatever Next' by Jill Murphy. We had lots of fun using the paint package 2Paint to create our own aliens. We used lots of our creative skills to create planets using collage, chalk and even play dough. We also learnt how to program a Beebot. On the last day of term we had lots of fun making a balloon rocket go whizz across the classroom!!!
Class 1 news and photos
What have we been doing in autumn 1 2020
Enjoy our Photo-story for autumn 1!
Autumn 2 - 2020
This half term we have been focusing upon the book 'Stick Man' by Julia Donaldson.
Below are some photographs of all the different activities that we have done linked to the story. We have had a lot of fun with Sticks!!!
We started off with a stick hunt within the grounds of the school.
Just look at all the sticks we found!!!
We had lots of fun making all sorts of different things with our sticks!! We made shapes, numbers, animals and dens. We discovered that it was hard to make a den inside so we went and made some outside.
In class we have been enjoying the story of Stick Man and with a partner we had a try at making a 2D Stick Man. We found it a little tricky but we persevered.
After making our 2D Stick Man we thought we would try and make a 3D one. For this to work we had to try different ways of connecting the sticks together. We tried sellotape, glue, string, wool and white tac. Oh dear, it was very tricky but we didn't give up!! Look at all our experimenting!!
Look at what we managed to do with persevering.
Just look what Rory and Will achieved when using the sticks in Continuous Provision. They worked as a team and finally managed to make a den for our class puppet. Well done boys.
We took some of our sticks outside and used them to measure different objects. We used the mathematical language 'shorter than' and 'longer than' each time we measured an object with our stick.
