Back in November 2020 I applied to the Woodland Trust for free saplings to develop our forest school site. The application was successful and the saplings arrived at school yesterday.  Today (Thursday 29th April 2021) the children in Butterfly 1 class started to plant the first of the new tree saplings on our Forest School site aptly named 'Leafy Woods'. Over the next few weeks the children will be encouraged to identify the trees by their buds and leaves and how to care for them. It is really important that as a school we promote and teach the children how to look after our planet. If you have some spare time please take a look at the Woodland Trust website with your child and see how you can help the planet yourselves at home.

Alba, Harriett and Alfred did a fantastic job of planting the first two trees on the site.

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Parents please read the following information prior to carrying out  Phonics and Maths for home learning.

We are providing you with different levels of work for you to help teach your child at home. If your child is still not consistent with their phase 2 phonemes (letter sounds) then we would suggest that alongside learning the new phase 3 sounds (two a week) then you continue to work on phase 2 as much as possible. Dip back into the PowerPoints and resource sheets from the previous weeks. Choose the phonic activity that is most appropriate to your child's ability and current level. We do not expect your child to do all the activities that we post, be selective.

With the maths if your child is still not consistent at counting consistently a range of objects up to 10 and they do not yet recognise them all please continue to learn numbers 0 to 10 when you can. If your child is confident and able, then move on to the teen numbers.

Hi Everyone

One of the most important aspects of children's learning is developing their reading skills. Mrs McKenzie is reading a weekly story to the nursery Butterflies and presents two phonic lessons each week on a Monday and Wednesday to the Reception Butterflies. We want to do everything we can to ensure that the children are still able to continue to practise their reading at home. Mr Thorne does phonics is a really good resource on YouTube that the children enjoy.

The virtual library posts up a different book each week that you and your child can access together. They are chapter books but they often have an audio version if children are interested in listening to the story.

The National Trust and Suffolk County Council have pulled together a wide range of resources all designed to help make learning and teaching that little bit easier throughout lockdown.

If you type 'National Literacy Trust' into your internet search bar then you will be able to access their website.

Please take a look at the resources below that Premier Education have put together. It is a weekly timetable with 3 activities for the children to complete each day. You click on each activity and it takes you to a YouTube channel where the coaches talk you through and demonstrate what to do. 

Resources for home learning

Websites that you can access with your child.

• Phonics Play
• Top Marks - number activities
• Letters and Sounds
• Twinkl - huge resource site covering all areas of learning (may be a subscription fee)
• You Tube - Jolly Phonics - for correct pronunciation of sounds     

                              - Mr Thorne does phonics (Geraldine Giraffe) 

                      - Just Dance - Gummy Bears / Mario

                      - Joe Wicks

The children have enjoyed the story of 'Meesha Makes Friends' this half term and this has encouraged them to form positive friendships with their peers in school.

Reception Butterflies did really well making their own friends as Meesha did in the story. They displayed lots of skills such as selecting their own resources, using various tools and having a go at joining materials.

We think they did an amazing job.

Well done Butterflies!

September 23rd 2020

Dear Parents

We would like to say a big ‘well done’ to both our Nursery and Reception children for settling in to School life so quickly. It has been fabulous to get to know all of our new children and to see them so happy and confident in their new environment.

We would also like to extend a warm welcome to all the new parents that have joined Early Years this September. In just a couple of days they all seem to have settled well into their new classes and it has been lovely to see our Reception children showing the new Nursery children the ropes! We are looking forward to working with your children and building their confidence so that they can enjoy a busy and fun packed Autumn term.

Our topic for this half term is ‘New Friends’ which is relevant to the children as they start school. An overview of this term as well as the year ahead can be found on the Early Years page on our school website.

The children in Reception do not have set homework. Over the first few weeks of term they will be bringing a book home to share with you. Initially the book will probably have no text. The purpose here is to extend and develop your child’s language skills by getting them to retell the story through the pictures. This can be done by encouraging the children to use complete sentences rather than single words, using descriptive language and maybe introduce storytelling language such as ‘Once upon a time’. When the children start school full time they do get very tired so it is just as valuable for you to simply read stories to your children and simply enjoy sharing books together.

As the children progress with their phonics in school we will then send them home with the relevant level reading book. We know that phonics can be quite daunting for parents who may not have come across this method of teaching reading so we will explain what we are doing in their reading diary and then should you have any queries please feel free to message us through our Dojo system.

Later on in the term the children will be given a Home Journal. This will go home with them on a Friday for the weekend and then returned on the Monday. Each week there will be a brief recap inside on what we have been learning about that week and then a small task for them to do over the weekend linked to this. This allows us to keep you informed on what your child has been focusing on each week as well as providing an opportunity for you to work on something together and hear about the exciting things they have learnt!

Lastly just a few things to help make life easier for your child in school:

• Please make sure you are signed up to our Dojo system. Due to the current situation, this is a communication link to enable us to stay in touch and answer any queries or concerns you may have.
• All paperwork that was given in your Early Years pack needs to be returned. This gives us important information such as who is collecting your child and permission regarding having your child’s photograph taken for the website /media.
• Please could you make sure all items of clothing including shoes and PE kit are named.This will encourage your child to be more independent in that they can find their own clothes and obviously prevents them getting distressed when items get misplaced such as PE time.
• PE for Butterflies 1 and 2 will be on a Tuesday. We will send PE bags home on a Friday so that kit can be washed and returned the following week.
• Please provide your child with a named water bottle each day. The children are not allowed Juice/squash, just water please.
• A waterproof coat is needed as the children will be outside at times in light rain.
• Could Nursery children please keep a pair of soft shoes and Wellingtons in school as well as a change of clothes for when needed.
• Book bags need to come into school every day please. Your child will be heard read once a week and this will be written in their Reading Diary. This is a communication book so please feel free to comment in it and let us know how your reading is going at home.

Finally and most importantly, we are working together to give your child the very best opportunities and ensure that they are happy during their time in school. If you have any concerns or worries about anything please do request a phone call or a socially distanced meeting with a member of staff. We are available to do this before or after school or if more urgent we can always telephone you at some point during the day.

We hope this information has been helpful and we look forward to a busy and exciting time ahead.

An Introduction to the Nursery and Early Years at Capel St Mary CEVC Primary School - 2020

Welcome to Butterflies

(Nursery and Reception)

The Early Years staff are looking forward to meeting you all in September.

We enjoy getting to know all of the children and help them become fantastic members of Capel St Mary Primary School. Butterflies EYFS class is a creative, fun and warm environment where the children can explore and learn. Learning new skills is so important in Nursery and Reception, however, we do a lot of our learning through continuous provision and child initiated activities. We support the children to develop new language skills, friendships, follow structures and routines and become independent learners.

Butterfly 1 children who attended school on Monday and Tuesday had lots of fun on their minibeast hunt around the school grounds. The weather was not brilliant but they were very keen to search. On the Tuesday we did an indoor minibeast hunt using pictures. This helped the children to learn how to tally.

Friday 1st May 2020.

Parents please see the attached booklet for guidance on phonics.

Nursery Parents

Should you require resources for your child during this time please look at our suggested activities for  children in butterflies on the link above.

These are just ideas but we would encourage you to read and share stories as much as possible at home with your children. Sing number songs and nursery rhymes. 

Stay safe, hopefully see you all soon.

The EYFS team.

Welcome to our Early Years pages

We are going to use these pages to tell you all about what we are doing. You will be able to see galleries with pictures as well as exciting information.

Come back regularly to see what we are getting up to.

Wow!

Whilst out on playground duty this afternoon Mrs Spilsted and a group of children wandered over to the school pond. They couldn't believe their eyes! The pond was full of frogs and frog spawn. The children wanted a closer look, so Mrs Dix caught some frogs and put them in a big bucket and the children took it in turns to come and take a look. A few frogs attempted to escape and there were lots of giggles when they tried to jump out of Mrs Dix's hands. They were all safely returned to their home after the children had looked.

The Butterflies enjoyed learning about camouflage last week with our topic of patterns. For homework they were asked to take a photo of themselves in camouflage.

Thank you to all the children who carried out the homework. From the sound of it lots of parents had fun too!

Mrs Dix also joined in the fun, can you spot her below?

Whole School Mustard Seed Day - 30.1.20

Please visit the Religious Education page in the News and Events section of the website to find out what the children did on Thursday.

We had a fabulous week of celebrating Chinese New Year.

Monday - Dance in the hall. We put together movements of being a dragon, a fan, fireworks and a lion. We then got into groups and moved around the hall as Chinese dragons.

Tuesday - We learnt the story of 'The Great Race' and then retold the story in our own words using toy animals.

Wednesday - Lots of wonderful craft and maths activities. Some of the children made Chinese lanterns, while others enjoyed making their own cherry blossom tree. We even carried out mathematics by using the balancing scales to find out which animals were the heaviest and lightest. Writing Chinese numbers in the rice was fun and making our own fortune cookies out of card was tricky but we persevered.

Thursday - First we went out on the big playground and to the sound of a beating drum and tambourine we moved once again like Chinese dragons.Then we shared a feast of Chinese food and even had a go at using real chopsticks.

Friday - We finished decorating our lanterns and we all took home our own fortune cookies to enjoy. 

Bog Baby

We have really enjoyed the story of the Bog Baby this half term. We used our imagination to design and create our own fabulous Bog Babies out of play-dough. We used the i-pads to take photos of our work, which are displayed in school.

We think you will agree that our display in our classroom looks amazing! You will get to see lots of the children's work when you attend parents evening.