Page 14 - PLP December 2022 Primary

14 Classroom Close-ups December 2022 Primary Classroom Close-ups
EYFS at P5 Nessie –
Learning in the
outdoor environment
Here at Nessie we love exploring our garden and nature nooke no matter what the weather. The children are encour- aged to be outside whenever they can as long as they all have suitable clothing. The outdoor environment is a wonderful place to learn about the natural world. The children have particularly enjoyed investigating the trees, both picking
fruit and climbing on these in the nature nooke. It is also a time for us to look at bugs and other living things such as plants, learning how to care for them.
The outdoor environment also encourages the children to develop their gross motor skills riding bikes, climbing on the climb- ing frame, stacking and moving crates not to mention digging in the sand. We have
a wonderful time in our outdoor learning environment.
Mrs Dawn
EYFS at Sibeliova – Great Books Build the Imagination.
Here at Sibeliova we are lucky enough to have a small, but rather special library. Our library is full of exciting books, pup- pets, resources and rhyming activities. The layout is simple but effective for our Early Years Children. One side of the library
is full of fiction books, including famous authors such as Julia Donaldson, Tradi- tional Tales and Rhymes. The other side has non-fiction books which are grouped together in genres such as Our Body or Dinosaurs. We are also lucky enough to have a small selection of Czech books. One rather unique section of the library focuses on PIE CORBETTS Reading Spine. Each section of the Reading Spine is separated into age categories and is used as perma- nent texts during our Library sessions. Pie Corbett describes these books (Reading Spine) as ‘essential reads’. They are almost all, very repetitive, rather like songs. This makes them easier for children to join in with, so that the experience of reading becomes interactive and the children begin to learn the story as they are read to. In each book, there is much to discuss to help the children understand the vocab- ulary, as well as what is happening. All of the books have pictures, which support the text but also complement and add to it. It is important to discuss the pictures and what is happening in them, as much as the text. After a while, the children get to know each story word for word, which can give great confidence to early readers in terms of fluency when reading.
Year 1 Fine Motor
Skills
In Year 1 the pupils have been working
on their Key Skills during their lessons. They have different “tuff trays” in their classrooms and they have been develop- ing their fine motor skills. These trays include: tweezer challenges, collage mon- sters, play-dough number formation and comparing numbers using manipulatives. These activities help develop important muscles in the hand, promote concentra- tion, help hand-eye coordination, promote correct formation of numbers and recog- nising and creating patterns.
Miss Zoe