Langland Road, Netherfield, Milton Keynes, MK6 4HA

01908 670 712

Langland Community School

Be Our Best to Achieve Our Best!

Early Years

 Take a look at what Early Years have been doing so far this term. 

Maple class' PE day is a Tuesday

Berry Class (Nursery) Summer 1

Berry class have dived into learning about our story, The Tiger Who came to Tea. We have been talking about the characters in the story and have discussed the tiger’s appearance. We learned about the words big and stripy.



We have been busy practising our cutting skills and making different character masks at the creative table. Then we had lots of fun wearing them and acting out the story.


 


 In Maths we looked at numerals and subitising indoors and out. We placed the numerals in order on the washing line. . 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


This week Berry class looked at 1953 photographs of the Queen’s Coronation. We then talked about the King’s Coronation happening this weekend. We all worked together to start preparing the classroom with bunting and made crowns to wear.


 






In Maths, we have been working on recognising numerals 0 - 10, and ordering them on the number line. We have also been learning and singing some counting nursery rhymes.


 


We finished off the week by celebrating the King’s Coronation and had some chocolate cake with our teddy bears.


In Berry class this week we have continued to learn about our story of The Tiger Who Came to Tea. 



We have been retelling the story using the dressing up clothes, masks and small world resources. We have also been counting the sandwiches in the kitchen ready for the tiger's lunch!



We have been making the most of the sunny weather this week. We have been scooting, peddling, jumping, reaching and balancing in the outside area.

This week, Berry class had a discussion about the King’s Coronation. We looked at the photographs from the Coronation and talked about the Orb, Sceptre and the Crown.



We have all worked to gather items to go onto the ‘Purple’ colour table.


 


We were busy copying the patterns in the foam, sand, chalk board, clipboards and the electronic board to help develop our fine motor control.




In maths, we have been working on shape and placing them on the shape line. Then looking around to spot the shapes in the classroom. We have also been learning ‘One, two, there, four, five once I caught a fish alive’ and singing some counting nursery rhymes.


 




Berry Class (Nursery) Spring 2

This week, Berry class have been very musical. We enjoyed singing our favourite nursery rhymes and explored with different musical instruments. 




The children have been very creative and painting some bear faces using toothbrushes. We learned how to make strokes using the toothbrush.



Berry class have also been practising the Kinetic patterns in different places indoors and outdoors. 


 
In maths, we have been Subitising to 4 and looking at the numerals. We have also been sorting objects by colour.






This week Berry class have been busy exploring the activities. We have been practising the beginning of the text map to our story. We also talked about the difference between the bear’s bowls, chairs and the beds.



We had fun taking part in the World Book day and meeting the Bears and the Goldilocks.




We have continued to practise Kinetics patterns and the Penguin stand. This week our colour table is Grey and we have been learning the Phonics Sounds. 


 


The children have been very creative painting Goldilocks, making chairs with play dough and building with Lego bricks.

In maths, we counted to ten and then beyond ten. We were learning ‘big, medium and little’.


 


 

Berry have come back after half term refreshed and ready to learn. 


We have noticed a new story book, ‘Goldilocks and The Three Bears’ in the classroom. The children have been looking at the characters in the story and learning how Goldilocks got her name. Berry have been learning the vocabulary from the story and using the words at the different activities in the classroom. 


 


The children learned different words Goldilocks used to describe things from the story, such as the porridge in the bowls, how the beds appeared to be and how the bears chairs when Goldilocks sat in them. 


 


In maths, we counted the dots on the bowls, on the chairs and on the beds before pairing them together. We also ordered the bowls by size.

Berry Class (Nursery) Spring 1

This week Berry class have been busy practicing the beginning of the text map of our story 'The Three Little Pigs’. We have also been talking about the different materials the pigs use to build their house.


 




We have enjoyed making puppets using the resources to support this.



We worked together to gather the colour 'Pink' on the colour table.



  


We built houses for the pigs from Lego and while outside, we were using construction bricks to build the pig's house.




In Maths we have been learning how to subtilising to 1 object and then 2 objects.

Berry class this week, have been learning about the Chinese New Year. We have been engaged in different Chinese New Year activities.



We have been sharing and talking about the characters in the story book 'the Three Little Pigs' with our friends in the class.


We have enjoyed copying the patterns around the classroom on paper, on the board, and in the sand. 



In Maths, Berry class children have been involved in counting to 10, looking at the numerals and putting them in order on the number line.


This week Berry class have been looking and feeling the different materials that The Three Little Pigs used in the story to build their houses. We discussed how each material felt and why the wolf couldn't blow away the brick house. The children discovered that the brick was the heaviest material out of straw, stick and brick.
 


We have been busy building pigs houses from difficult construction materials and drawing the houses too using colourful crayons.



We also drew around the shapes to make pig faces and practising our scissors control.




In maths, we have been practicing Subitising to 3, chanting to 10 and then carrying on and counting objects on the table.

Berry Class (Nursery) Autumn 2

We are all back after our half term break and ready to learn. Berry class will be learning about our new story, 'Rosie's Walk'. We have been working very hard and collecting all the resources to go into our class small world tuff tray to help us retell the story. We have a windmill, hen house and lots of Autumn things. 



Whilst exploring the story, Rosie's Walk, the children will be learning about positional language. For the next few weeks, our focus will be under and over. 



Our colour focus is the colour orange. We have collected lots of things from around the classroom that are orange. What can you find in your home that's orange?


This week Berry have been looking at the vocabulary and practising the phases from our story 'Rosie's Walk'.


 


We have been using the small world tuff tray to support us to use our newly learned vocabulary and phrases and act out our story with our friends. We have used finger puppets characters to help us do this.


 


We're have been practising our Kinetic Letters animal positions this weeks, such as; sitting like a bear and standing like a penguin. 


This week we have looked at the characters from our story, Rosie's Walk. We talked about the hen, who has a beak, two legs, wings, has feathers and lays eggs and the fox who has four legs, a bushy tail, fur, pointy ears and nose.



We have also been working hard to learn and repeat phases from the story.


In maths we have been singing counting nursery rhymes and using positional language 'on and off'.


Berry class have been very arty and created some hens using paper plates, pipe cleaners and tissue paper.



Between Christmas performance practice, we have been getting up to lots of different things in Berry Class this week. 


We have continued to explore our Talk for Writing story, Rosie's Walk. We have been learning about the words beehive, haycock, pond and the windmill and using these words when retelling the story in our tuff tray with the stick puppets. We know the story really well now and have been using the book to retell the story to each other. 



In maths, we have been exploring shapes. We have been using insert puzzles to match each shape to the correct hole.



We have continued to learn about positional language. Our word this week is, through. We have been using this in all areas of the classroom and in the outside area when driving our cars; I can drive THROUGH the mud, I drive THROUGH the woods and so on. 


Berry Class (Nursery) Autumn 1

Welcome to Berry Class. 


The children have settled in really well this week and have been working on learning the new routines in their class such as carpet time and washing hands before snack and lunch. 


Our story focus for this half term is Little Read Riding Hood. This week the children have been exploring activities to help them to find out more about the story and the characters.



We have had another busy week in Berry. We have been focusing on practising our scissors skills; making sure that we use scissors safely and carefully. We are also learning how to share the activities around the classroom and outdoors. 

This week in Berry, we have been remembering the Queen and thinking about our new King and the crown that he might wear. We used paints to decorate crowns to show what we think the King's crown might look like. We have also been strengthening our hands and using are creative skills to mould and manipulate playdough into different shapes. Whilst outside enjoying the garden, we have been negotiating space when having races using the cars and bikes and exploring our new play house. 

This week, Berry class have continued to focus on the story of The Little Red Riding Hood and we have been looking at and talking about, what the Little Red Riding Hood may have in her basket for Grandma. At the activity table, we have created a basket of our own with different foods in that we would like to take to Grandma. 


Our focus number of the week has been the number 5. We have been explored the number 5 in all areas of our classroom and in the garden. 


For snack this week, along with our usual selection of fruit, we have enjoyed some apple picked from Mrs Patel's very own apple tree. Mrs Patel has worked hard all year to care for her apple tree and was very excited to share the green, juicy apples with Berry Class. 

This week we have been focusing on learning our Kinetic animal positions 'Bear and Penguin'. Can you practise these positions at home with your family?



We have been continuing to explore the story of The Little Read Riding Hoof and we have been making bread with dough for Little Red Riding Hood to take to her Grandma's cottage.


 

If you go down to the woods today... you will find Berry Class!


We took a little walk down to the wooded area of the school playground and took Little Red Riding Hood's basket along with us! We spent time looking at the trees and plants that we could see and even spotted a squirrel! We put some scrummy cakes in the basket to enjoy in the woods.                                                               




Also this week in Berry Class, we have been counting up to 5 and working on recognising numerals up to 5. 

It is the Hindu festival of Diwali next week and in Berry Class we have been enjoying lots of activities about Diwali. We painted rangoli patterns and made diva lamp cards. We really enjoyed using the glitter!



Also this week, we have been continuing to learn all about Little Red Hiding Hood and the characters in the story. In maths, we have been looking at numerals to 5 and chanting to 10 together at carpet time. 

Maple Class (Reception) Summer 1

In Maple, we have enjoyed learning all about the story of Farmer Duck and have been retelling the story in lots of different ways. We have been using small world toys, puppets and acting out the story our selves. 


During our maths lessons this week, we have continued to learn all about the number 10 and the different ways that 10 can be made and broken apart. We have used the song, 10 green bottles, to help us look at the different ways that 10 can be broken apart. 



We have been working really hard since returning from the Easter holidays on our sentence writing and how we can use our 'Fred Fingers' to help us to spell words. 




To help us with our writing, we have been practising our letter formation in the sand. This week we have focused on the letter e. 


We have been busy getting ready of the King's Coronation this week. We have been learning all about the colour and meaning on the Union Jack flag and have made our own. We have used scissors, glue and decorative resources to make our own crowns. 




In math, we have been learning about repeating patterns and have used the peg boards, Numicon, cubes and natural resources in the classroom to make our own patterns. 



In Talk for Writing, we have been thinking about the farm animals in our story, Farmer Duck. We have been exploring adjectives to do with touch to describe them.

Maple Class have been enjoying their outside area this week! We have been crawling under our new outdoor net, reaching up high and grabbing the blossom from the tree. These big physical movements also help us to strengthen our bodies to help us improve our handwriting. 



In maths, we have been learning about counting on and have been practising this using stepping stones. 



We have been applying our phonic knowledge to our writing this week by writing simple captions and sentences to match images. 

In Talk for Writing this week, we have been thinking about what the duck in the story of Farmer Duck might have said instead of "Quack". We said our sentences aloud, clapping our hands for each word. We then used our phonic knowledge to help us segment the words for spelling. 



During our maths sessions, we have been learning about counting on and counting back. We have been playing games with dice and stepping stones to practise 'jumping' forwards or backwards on a number track. 



In PE, we have been using Play Zone to strengthen our bodies through climbing, jumping and balancing. We have been racing each other around the equipment to see who would finish 1st, 2nd and 3rd. 

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Maple Class (Reception) Spring 1

We have really enjoyed being back at school and have had a lovely time catching up with our friends about our Christmas break. 


We have started to learn a new story, The Sleepy Bumblebee. The story is all about a sleepy bee who just wants to go to sleep but things keep getting in the way of that!


We have explored lots of different activities linked to the story. 


We have retold the story using props. 



Learned about different types of bees and how honey is made.



Built a home for the bee to help him sleep. 



Tasted honey. We thought that is was sticky and sweet!


 


 


And used our art skills to paint pictures of bees. Buzz buzz!


We have continued with the theme of bees this week and we are still enjoying exploring our story of The Sleepy Bumblebee. 


We have been using our phonics skills to write all about bees in the writing area.


 



Some of the children used the Smart board to draw pictures of bees collecting pollen and making honey.



We have been using a variety of tools in the playdough area. We making the muscles in our hands stronger and stronger everyday through playing with playdough and using different tools. 



This week, it is Chinese New Year and we have been learning all about the Great Race! This year is the year of the Rabbit.



We made Chinese inspired fans and tried to copy some Chinese writing. 



We created beautiful necklaces by carefully threading beads onto string. 



In maths, we have been learning about the number 8,9 and 10. We have been using ten frames and counters to show 8,9 and 10. 



In the enquiry area, we have been looking at books all about Chinese New Year and decorating dragon faces using the books to help us know which colours to use. 


Maple Class (Reception) Autumn 2

Welcome back Maple Class!


We have hit the ground running after the half term break. This week we have started to explore our new Talk for Writing story, The Little Red Hen. We have read the story and joined in with the repeated phrase, "No, not I!". We have enjoyed investigating the wheat, flour and bread that the Little Red Hen works hard to grow, make and bake in the story and we have also had a go at making our own red hens. 



In PE with Miss Jones, we have continued to develop our balancing, jumping and climbing skills. We have been practising how to climb and land safely and to use the equipment carefully. 



On Friday, we celebrated Bonfire night by using our artistic skills to create firework pictures using chalks and cardboard tubes to make 3D fireworks. We also enjoyed a lovely, yummy treat of hot chocolate, cream and biscuits whilst learning all about how different people celebrate Bonfire night all around the UK. 



In our outside area, we have been creating our own opportunities to balance, climb and jump inspired by Miss Jones, using our wooden blocks, foam bricks and slide. We worked together as a team to set out the equipment and enjoyed using it together; taking turns to balance and jump. 


What a fantastic week we have had in Maple Class. 


We have enjoyed continuing to explore our Talk for Writing story, The Little Red Hen. This week we have made bread, just like the hen in the story. 


The adults had to do a little research to learn how to make bread and to find out what ingredients were needed. 


First, we measured out the salt, flour, yeast and water and added them to the mixing bowl.


Next, we mixed and mixed and mixed. 



Then, we kneaded the dough and put it on the baking tray. 



The bread was baked in the oven and once it had cooled... we ate and ate and ate the bread. 



Also this week, we have been learning about Remembrance Day and making lots of poppies. We have made 3D poppies using sticks and tissue paper, play dough poppies and abstract painted poppies using sponges. 

Christmas has started early in Maple Class as this week we started to rehearse for our Christmas performance. We will be sending home the songs next week for children to practise so please check reading folders. 


This week we created yummy chocolatey nests using cornflakes and melted chocolate and used skittles as tiny eggs. We enjoyed mixing the melted chocolate together with the cornflakes! 



In maths, we have started learning all about 3D shapes and how they are 'fat' not 'flat'. We have explored 3D shapes by building and constructing them. We have also hunted around the classroom to see which 3D shapes we could find. 




Whilst enjoying the playdough activities this week, we have been thinking about using words to describe what we are doing. We have been squashing, moulding, shaping and rolling. 

We have been rehearsing lots in Early Years ready for our Christmas Performance next week. We have been learning songs, dance moves and practising in our costumes. We are so excited for you to come and see it next week!!


In between lots of practising, we have been exploring the new layout of our reading area. We have snuggled under the blankets and shared stories and read magazines. We have also been doing our research about germs and how to avoid them!



We have enjoyed wearing different outfits this week and exploring how we can use boxes in different ways in our role play. We have been keeping detailed records in the Maple Police Station of any criminal activity. So far, PC E.L  has record 2 incidents of dropping rubbish and 1 incident of forgetting to flush the toilet! 


Boxes have been cars, buses and trains. The children also collected their babies from nursery and went to the McDonalds drive through to get a Happy Meal. 



We have been applying our phonic knowledge in lots of different ways this week. We have been identify letters in the sand tray, labelling the animals on the farm and writing words to match the pictures. Well done Maple Class.


Maple Class (Reception) Autumn 1

Welcome to Maple Class!


We have enjoyed a great first week together in Maple Class. We have been settling into new routines and exploring new areas of the classroom. This week we have really enjoyed playing outside, using scissors and tape to create models and developing our fine motor skills using tweezers. 


Week 2 already!


We have been busy bees in Maple this week. We have started our phonics sessions and we have now learned m,d,s,a and t. On Friday we sent home flashcards for the sounds we have learned in school, please practise these with your child. 


We have really enjoyed learning outside and we are making the most the nice weather whilst it's still here. We have been riding bikes and scooters around the garden and practising our throwing and catching skills using different sized balls. 

This week in Maple Class, we have started learning our first Talk for Writing story, The Gingerbread Man. The children have really enjoyed joining in with the story, shouting in their loudest voices, "Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!".  We have explored ginger using our senses through gingerbread playdough and have made our own gingerbread-shaped people. 


Maple Class have been doing lots of mark making and writing this week and have been using the sounds that they have been taught during our phonics lessons in their writing.


Each week we will send home a copy of the sounds that we have been learning at school for you to practise at home together with you child. Please click on the links below to watch a short clip for each of the sounds learned this week. 


i- https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/9IeC9xZP/YdO2e8st


n- https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/8ChLJW5B/ShXYFIbT


p- https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/dYl9PP67/EiH6yNnE


g- https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/r4Sxp9K8/MJTjouqW


We have been busy bees in Maple Class this week. 


In maths, we have been learning about all things 3. We have been on a hunt around our classroom and in the garden and have found dice with 3 dots, Numicon pieces with 3 parts, 3 pebbles, 3 jumps, 3 hops and 3 fingers. 


In Talk for Writing, we have been continuing to explore our story, The Gingerbread Man. We have looked at the vocabulary in the story and have investigated the words gobble and ginger. We smelled some fresh stem ginger and gobbled up some yummy Gingerbread man biscuits. We have also used our phonic knowledge to label pictures of the Gingerbread man. 


We would like to say a big THANK YOU to Morrisons CMK for their donation of messy play resources this week. We have used some of the flour to make our own playdough using Mrs Patel's Perfect Playdough recipe. 




The Child have been working really hard this week during their phonics lessons and their new sound cards have been added to their reading folders. Please use the links below to remind your children of the sounds that they have learned this week. 


o- https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/xZnyevwx/YxAekM1R


c- https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/zVLVzuF2/TwVCDF13


k- https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/wYY7uhol/yaQJO7iX


u- https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/jgg2lrXc/1S3EDxZE


b- https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/k6349sY7/XgcNmXFB


Maple Class took a trip to our school library this week. We explored the non-fiction and fiction sections of the library and shred stories together. 



In PE, we have been working on our ball skills and had a go at dribbling the football between the cones. 



Whilst playing outside, we have been using our all-weather suits to explore the mud! we have made mud cake, mud soup and a lovely mud pizza. Yum, yum! 


We have also been using our large wooden construction pieces to make ramps for our bikes and scooters. 


This week in Maple class, we have enjoyed doing lots of writing! We have been writing on paper, card, chalk boards, whiteboards and very long pieces of paper. Outside we have been writing on the floor and walls with chalk, on clipboards and also on our outside easel. 



In maths, we have been learning all about the number 5. We looked at our 5 fingers and toes and what other things we could find in 5s. 



We had a go at making our own gingerbread person using junk modelling and lots of glue and tape.



In PE with Miss Jones, we had our first gymnastics lesson. We really enjoyed balancing and jumping safely off the equipment. 



Maple Class have been learning all about the Hindu festival of Diwali this week and have enjoyed creating rangoli patterns, mendi and Diwali cards. 


Our outside area has been a busy place this week. We have been riding bikes and scooters, counting how many jumps we can do in muddy puddles, creating assault courses and finding creepy crawlies! 



     


Miss Jones treated us to some pumpkin carving today (Thursday). We helped to carve the pumpkin and to scoop out the slimy seeds.