Welcome to St Mary's 2018-2019!
Welcome to St Mary's class! We are an energetic, wonderful bunch of children who love to explore. On our class page, you find lots of class updates, news and photographs!
Below, you will find up-to-date information, with the most recent information listed at the top!
Thanks for visiting!
Our trip to Hampstead Heath!
Take a look at our photos from our trip yesterday. Thank you to all the families for making the trip such a success! The children loved playing in the playground and having their picnic.
Hampstead Heath trip
We are planning a special “End of Reception and Nursery” trip for St-Joseph and St. Mary to celebrate all their hard work and achievements this year. We have decided to take the children to Hampstead Heath
on Tuesday 16th July.
The plan is to leave school at 9:15 am and walk to the Heath, where we will have a picnic. We will return to school around 1:00 pm. We will visit the playground and have a summer picnic.
All children will need to bring along a healthy packed lunch for the day. As you know, all Reception and Nursery children are entitled to a hot lunch at school. When we are out of school on a trip, the catering staff will prepare a packed lunch for each child and we’ll bring this with us on the trip. If you prefer to send in your own packed lunch for your child please let us know. Please provide a sun hat, appropriate food wear, and complete the consent form below.
We also need parent volunteers to make this trip possible so please sign up to join us in our end of the year trip
New Reception Parent Meeting
On Tuesday 9th July (2.15pm), there will be a welcome meeting and classroom visit for children starting Reception in September.
Nursery Sports Day!
We had lots of fun at our sports day this morning. We have worked very hard at practicing and working as a team.
Thanks to all the families for coming and joining in with our parent’s race!
Where The Wild Things Are
Next week, we will be reading "Where the Wild Things Are" as part of our "Tell Me a Story" topic. We will be doing lots of activities based around the story, including designing our own monsters!
Reminder - Nursery Sports Day is next Wednesday at 9.00 on the KS1 playground!
"The Church."
In RE this half term, we are learning about the Church. To start off the topic, we spoke about St Dominic's Priory. Here's what some of the children said about the Church.
Mason (on when we visited last summer) - "we saw a picture of a snake and a lion."
Krystal - "there's lots of chairs."
Lola - "Kyla went there for her Communion."
Kassidy - "there's candles at the top of the stage (the altar.)"
Lexynne - "I haven't been to that Church but I've been to a big, big Church!"
Summer 2 topic.
Our Summer 2 topic is "Tell Me a Story." We will be reading lots of different stories that have been taking the children's interest!
This week, we have been reading "We're Going on a Beat Hunt" because we love this story! We have been doing lots of things based on the story, including:
Our butterflies!
Our butterflies came out of their cocoons during half term! We set them free outside and we were very excited!
Dejah - "they put their cocoon (to the top of the net)."
Lexynne - "they turned into butterflies."
Mason - "when the caterpillars are lots of food, they turned into a cocoon."
Millie (on The Very Hungry Caterpillar): "the caterpillar are lots of food and he got a belly ache!"
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Monday 27th May – Friday 31st May - Half Term
Monday 3rd June – INSET day. School closed to children. Children return to school on Tuesday 4th June 2019
Wednesday 19th June (9am) – Nursery Sports Day in KS1 playground.
Butterflies
Using the money we raised from our fundraiser last term, we bought caterpillars for Nursery and Reception. The links with our "minibeasts" topic. Both class have already read stories about butterflies, including "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."
We were very excited to see the caterpillars! We helped put the caterpillars and food into vials and we have put them into a safe place to grow.
We made playdough!
This morning, we made playdough. We mixed all the ingredients together in a bowl and played with the finished playdough in our builder's tray. We took turns in adding the ingredients and mixing it altogether with wooden spoons.
We did lots of things the playdough, including:
We have been planting seeds!
This week, we planted some sweetcorn and pea seeds (thanks for the donation Dejah's mum!)
We also cut up some tomatoes we had in school and squeezed the seeds into some soil.
We have planted them inside but will move them outside to our planting area once they start to grow!
We are very excited to see how they grow!
Mason: "we put the mud in the pot.
Lexynne: "I put the tomato (seeds) in."
Kassidy: "We put more soil in."
Melanie: "we had to put the water in."
Science Experiment!
This week in Nursery, we are reading "Yucky Worms!"
We are also doing some Science experiments. Today, we made predictions about what would happen if we put raisins in lemonade. Here are some of our predictions:
Vinnie - "it's going to go like a beanstalk!"
Melanie - "it's going to fizz!"
Arielle - "it's going to go like a wriggly worm."
Michelle - "it's going to grow."
Dejah - "it's going to splot!"
Alfie - "it's going to blast out!"
We then put the raisins in and looked closely at what happened! The raisins made lots of bubbles and some of them started floating to the top of the bottle!
Spinderella.
We have started putting up some work based on our story of the week. We:
Summer 1 begins!
Welcome back from the Easter holidays! We hope you all had lots of fun!
Our Summer 1 topic is "Minibeasts." This week, we have been reading Spinderella, which is a book about a spider who loves counting and numbers.
We have been doing work based around the story, including:
Stay and Play sessions
We previously had Stay and Play sessions on a Thursday morning. However, starting this term, we will be doing Stay and Play sessions on Wednesdays at the same time (8.40 - 9.15). We hope lots of you can still make it!
Summer 1 Curriculum Newsletter
Please find below a copy of our Summer Term curriculum newsletter.
Palm Sunday Assembly
Thank you to all the families for coming to the EYFS Palm Sunday assembly and our Easter Stay and Play afterwards!
Easter Fundraiser
This Thursday (4th April), Nursery and Reception will be doing an Easter fundraiser to help buy consumable resources for the classroom (e.g. flour for playdough and paper plates for masks!).
We will be selling lots of sweet treats, including “Jolly Jars” with lots sweets inside. The jars cost £1 for a small jar and £2 for a big jar. There will also be other tasty treats to buy!
The fundraiser will be held outside the EYFS classrooms during home time on Thursday!
Many Thanks
EYFS staff
Mother’s Day
We made cards for Mother’s Day. Take a look!
Palm Sunday Assembly
Our EYFS Palm Sunday assembly is next Tuesday (2nd) April at 9.15 in the hall. All parents and carers are welcome to come. The assembly will be held in the hall.
We will be having our stay and play session straight after the assembly instead of our usual Thursday slot. We will be doing lots of Easter crafts in the classroom, so please do come If you can!
Story maps!
During our "Traditional Tales" topic, we have been retelling the stories using story maps and actions. Take a look at our Little Red Riding Hood story map below.
Little Red Riding Hood
Next week, we are reading Little Red Riding Hood! We will be doing lots of activities based the story, including doing colour mixing to make colour charts. We will be mixing black and white paint with green paint to make different shades of green (to link with leaves on trees in the forest!)
The Gingerbread Man
This week, we are reading "The Gingerbread Man." We have been doing things based around the story, including making stick puppets (based on the characters in the story) and drawing four dots & writing the number four on gingerbread men (at the Maths Challenge Table).
Here's what we have said about the story so far:
Alfie: "the fox ate the gingerbread man because he was hungry."
Dejah: "the fox wanted to eat the gingerbread man."
Michelle: "the old lady was catching the gingerbread man."
Millie: "the fox ate the gingerbread man when he flipped in air and munching."
Lola: "the fox ate up the gingerbread men."
Kassidy: "the gingerbread man was running away from the old lady, man, pig, cow and fox."
Upcoming Dates for your Diary
Tuesday 2nd April: Palm Sunday Assembly 9.15am (St Joseph and St. Mary). The Assembly will take place in the hall. Parents and carers are welcome to come!
Friday 5th April 2019: Last Day of Term for Pupils. School closes at 1.30pm
Friday 19th April 2019: Good Friday:
Monday 22nd April 2019: Easter Monday
Tuesday 23rd April 2019: First Day of Summer Term for all pupils.
PSHE & Cooking
As part of our PHSE curriculum, we made vegetable fajitas and spoke about healthy eating.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
This week, we are reading "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" as part of our "Traditional Tales" topic. We have been doing lots of things based around the story, including:
World Book Day
Today is World Book Day! We dressed up as book characters. We had an EYFS assembly, where we showed each other our lovely outfits! We also selected a winner for the two children (one from each class) who had the best outfits! We also read "Peace At Last" together. It was lots of fun!
Thank you to everyone for making such a wonderful effort with your children's costumes!
Pie Corbett
During out "Traditional Tales" topic, we will be using Pie Corbett's "Talk for Writing" method to retell the stories. The method uses actions and story maps to support children in remembering the words to the story.
Take a look at the video below, which shows us retelling part of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" story.
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
This week, we are reading "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." We made trolls using paint in sauce bottles. First, we put paint on one half of our paper and then folded the paper in half. Then we opened them up so they looked like blotto trolls! After they were dry, we added some 2D shapes to make features on our trolls. We told Miss Javed and Miss McInerney which shapes we knew.
Here's what some of the children said about the story:
Arielle: “The troll's got a big belly and he said he's going to eat them up!"
Bonnie: "Billy Goats crossed the bridge and the monster said "get off my bridge!""
Krystal: "The goats climbed over the bridge."
Lexynne: "The goats were running onto the bridge."
Michelle: "Baby goat said "don't eat me!""
Vinnie: "Troll came up on the bridge and gonna gobble up!"
Our Learning Journey
This week, we have been reading “The Three Little Pigs.” We have been doing lots of things based on the story, including:
We have also been lots of other fun things, including:
World Book Day!
On Thursday 7th March, it is going to be World Book Day. Everyone can come to school dressed up as a book character.
Dressing up is not compulsory. If your child doesn't come to school dressed as a book character, they should come to school wearing school uniform.
Spring 2 topic: Traditional Tales!
Our Spring 2 topic is going to be "Traditional Tales." We will be reading "The Three Little Pigs" during the week after half term. Other stories we will be reading include:
Have a lovely February half term!
Valentine's Day
Today, we made Valentine's Day cards for our families and the people we love! Happy Valentine's Day!
Chinese New Year
This week, we have been learning about Chinese New Year. We have been playing in our Chinese themed Sensory Area this week!
The Rainbow Fish
This week, we are reading "The Rainbow Fish." We made our own fish collages and spoke about the story. Here's what some of the children said:
Alfie: "Fishes live in the water and play with their friends."
Kassidy: "The Rainbow Fish has got a lot of shiny stuff on it."
Krystal: "Fish live in the sea!"
Mason: "Fish live in the jellyfish house. I saw it on "Finding Nemo.""
Michelle: "Fish is swimming."
Dejah: "I'm colouring the Rainbow Fish different colours."
Jackson Pollock
During stay and Play this week, we made some paintings based on Jackson Pollock's artwork.
Donations
We are trying to develop our home corner (inside and outside). We would love it if you had any resources at home that you could donate. We are looking for things like:
Thank you!
Whatever Next!
As part of our Fantasy topic, we are reading "Whatever Next", which is a story about a bear that visits the moon. We have been doing activities based around the story, including:
Biscuit Bear
This week, we are reading "Biscuit Bear" as part of our new "Fantasy" topic. It is about a bear that comes alive and joins the circus with his friends. At the end of the story, he escapes and becomes a member of a local shop display! We made our very own biscuit bears this morning. Take a look!
Spring Term Newsletter
Below you'll find a copy of our Spring Term News letter.
Outdoor Learning
We have been doing lots of learning in our outdoor area this week, which has included counting with the Numicon, building models and making superhero capes (linking with our "Fantasy" topic and our book of the week "Eliot, Midnight Superhero.").
Naughty Bus
Our Spring 1 topic is "Fantasy." This week, we are reading the story "Naughty Bus", which is a story about a bus that drives through someone's dinner! He make a big mess driving through all the beans. In the Sensory Area this week, we have been exploring beans, glitter and transport!
Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year's! Our new Spring 1 topic is "Fantasy" and we will be reading stories like "Naughty Bus" and "Biscuit Bear."
In the Autumn Term, Nursery learnt to play and explore different instruments and sounds with Mr Gamage. Have a look at our learning below.
Peter Pan!
This morning, we were lucky to see a Peter Pan pantomime! It was lots of fun!
Christmas dinner!
Today, in addition to dressing up as a Christmas character AND seeing Santa, we had a lovely Christmas dinner together in the dinner hall. It was really yummy and we even had crackers to pull!
Santa came to visit!
It has been an exciting day. We came to school dressed as our favourite Christmas character and Santa came to visit this morning! It was very exciting and we were very lucky to get a present each!
Nativity play!
Thank you to all the families that came to see Nursery and Reception act out the Nativity Story! They all did an amazing job of remembering their lines, the songs and the actions to the songs! It was lovely to see you all in the classroom afterwards enjoying mince pies, squash and biscuits!
Christmas Jumper Day!
It is Christmas Jumper Day at St Dominic's! Have a look at us in our jumpers practicing our EYFS Nativity!
Christmas is Coming
This week, we have begun doing lots of work around the Nativity story and Christmas! We have been making Christmas trees, adding four pom poms to our Christmas trees at the Maths Challenge Table, and wrapping Numicon in Christmas wrapping paper.
We have also been practicing our Nativity and the songs!
Here are some upcoming dates for you below:
Piet Mondrian
Every week, we will be learning about a different artist. This week, we learnt about Mondrian and made our own geometric paintings!
Christmas Nativity Update!
Our Christmas Nativity is next Friday (14th December) at 9.30. Tickets are available to buy in the office.
For the Nativity, please bring in one T shirt which is one of the following colours: black, brown and white. Please write your child's name on the inside label so they don't get mixed up.
Emotions & Feeling Good.
This week, during Circle Time, we spoke about our feelings and things that make us and our families feel good.
Here are some of the ways we make us and our families feel good:
Hannukah
Hannuak, a religious holiday for Jewish people, begins on Sunday 2nd December. Today, we learnt about the story of Hannukah and we made our own Menorahs! We had lots of fun counting out nine candles!
EYFS Nativity Play
Friday 14th December – 9.30am EYFS joint Nursery/Reception Nativity for Parents followed by mince pies and Christmas crafts. Tickets will be 50p and on sale in the school office from Monday 3rd December. Two tickets are available per child and money raised will be donated to our Advent fundraising appeal.
Vets
Next week, we will be learning about Vets as part of our "People Who Help Us" topic. We will be reading "Mog and the Vet" and learning about how Vets take care of animals.
Kadinksy's Concentric Circles.
This week, we have been making lots of patterns in the Creative Area. We also made our own versions of Kadinsky's Concentric Circles.
Stay and Play
Thanks to all the families that came to our "Stay and Play" this week. We had lots of fun making Zen Patterns and Gruffalos!
Our Favourite Books
This week, we visited the book fair. As an adult focus activity, we spoke about our favourite books! Have a look at the pictures!
The Book Fair has come to visit!
This week (week beginning 26th November), the Book Fair has come to visit St Dominic's. Today, as a whole class, we went to look at the books they have for sale. We then took a book back to class and read it together! We got excited looking at all the lovely books up for sale. They are available to buy after school every day this week, so please go if you have the chance!
Patterns
This week, we are reading "The Tiger Who Came to Tea."
We have been doing lots of different activities around the story, including:
Fatima says the tiger "ate all the food and drink all the drink!"
Lola says "he eated the cupcakes!"
Dejah says "he drink all the water!"
Book Fair & our favourite books!
Next week (week beginning 26.11.2016), the book fair are visiting the school and you will get the chance to go and buy some books with your children. Nursery will be going together to have a look at the books too.
To link with the book fair, we will be talking about our favourite books on Wednesday. Please bring in your child's favourite book for us to talk about! We will write your child's name on the book and keep them in a safe place!
The Tiger Who Came to Tea!
Next week, we will be learning about families as part of our "People Who Help Us" topic and we will be talking about all the helpful things our families do!
We will be doing lots of things around the story, including: making animal patterns using paint, making our own books based on the story and making patterns using the peg boards!
Autumn 2 dates for your diary!
Monday 26th to Friday 30th November – Book Week and the Book Fair after-school each evening. More details to follow....
Friday 14th December – 9.30am EYFS joint Nursery/Reception Nativity for Parents followed by mince pies and Christmas crafts. Tickets will be 50p and on sale in the school office from Monday 3rd December. Two tickets are available per child and money raised will be donated to our Advent fundraising appeal.
Wednesday 19th December - Christmas Dinner for the whole school. A letter with details will be sent out shortly.
Friday 21st December - school closes at 1.30pm for Christmas holidays.
Nursery & Reception Open Events.
If you are considering applying for a September 2019 place in our Nursery or Reception classes, please come and join us at the Open Events for prospective parents which are taking place soon. The dates for the events are as follows:
Friday 23rd November 9.00am
Thursday 29th November 2.00pm
Thursday 6th December 9.00am
Friday 13th December 2.00pm
CLC visit!
The CLC (Camden Learning Centre) came to visit today to teach us how to use simple interactive websites and software on the iPads. We played different games on the iPads. This links in with our "Technology" part of our "Understanding the World" curriculum! It was lots of fun!
Our Learning Journey this week....
This week, we have been doing lots of fun things around firefighters, including:
Firefighters
Thank you to all the parents, families and carers that came to our first "Stay and Play" this week! Was lovely to see you all there. We will continue to do "Stay and Play" every Thursday between 8.40 - 9.15.
Next week, we are reading "Charlie the Firefighter" and we are learning about firefighters as part of our "People Who Help Us" topic.
We will be doing lots of activities based around firefighters including:
Patterns
Last week, we were learning about Diwali and Rangoli patterns. This week, as a focus activity, we have been making our own patterned pictures!
Our learning journey this week!
This week, we have been doing lots of work around farm animals and farmers (linking to our topic "People Who Help Us").
Take a look at some of our week from this week so far....
We have also been learning about Autumn and the changes that have come this season!
At the Maths Challenge Table, we drew on spot on our ladybirds and wrote the number one.
As an adult focus activity, we made our own ladybirds.
We are playing with the farms animals, lentils and cutlery. By scooping up the lentils, we are developing our fine motor skills and we are developing our communication language skills through talking about the animals!
The Dentist came to visit!
Today, the dentist came today to put fluoride on our teeth! We were very brave and got a sticker for our bravery!
We will be doing some work on dentists as this links in nicely with our topic of "People Who Help Us!"
PSHE & Healthy Eating
Linking to our Topic and story of the week ("People Who Help Us" and "Supertato"), we made soup and spoke about healthy eating. We used:
Mason says vegetables "give you strong muscles!"
Parents Evening & Stay and Play
Thank you to all the parents who made it to Parent's Evening this week. It was lovely to catch up about how your children have settled into the Nursery!
As mentioned, we will be introducing a weekly Stay and Play session from next Thursday (15th November) between 8.40 - 9.15. It is a chance for you to come in and do some activities based on what your child has been learning about during the week. Later on, we will be doing Stay and Play sessions based on specific topics, e.g. phonics or maths, which will give you the opportunity to see how different subjects are taught in the school.
Farmers
Next week, as part of our "People Who Help Us" Topic, we will be learning about farmers and how they help us. Our book of the week will be "What the Ladybird Heard" by Julia Donaldson. Its about Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len, who are two crafty robbers with a cunning plan to steal the farmer’s fine prize cow. However, the ladybird helps the other animals stop the robbers from stealing the cow with a cunning plan of her own.
We are Special.
This week, as a PSHE lesson, we discussed what makes us all special and things we are good at! It was lovely to hear the children's ideas. Here's what some of the children said:
Lola: "I am special because I love my mummy and daddy."
Mason: "I am special because I like to make friends."
Alfie: "I am special because I like to ride bikes outside with Melanie."
Bonnie: "I am special because I'm good at drawing."
Kassidy: "I am special because I can climb on the monkey bars by myself."
Supertato crafts.
Linking with our Topic of "People Who Help Us", we have been learning about Chefs, healthy eating and we have been reading "Supertato." It's a book about an evil pea who is mean to all the other vegetables! Take a look at our large scale Supertatoes!
Parent's Evening
Parent's evening will be taking place after school on Wednesday 8th November and Thursday 9th November. Please sign up for your slot with either Miss McInerney or Miss Javed.
Bonfire Night.
In addition to our topic "People who Help Us", we have been learning about Bonfire Night. We used the 2Simple software to make our very own fireworks!
Supertato
Our topic is "People Who Help Us." This week, we are learning about Chefs. To link with the theme of food, we have been reading about Supertato! It's a story about an evil pea who escapes from the freezer and is mean to all the other vegetables!
The children have been enjoying the story. Here is what some of the children have been saying:
Mason says "the pea says "I'm going to turn you into mashed potato!""
Krystal says "the potato knocked the pea on the floor!"
Doctors!
Our Autumn 2 Topic is "People Who Help Us." This week, we have been learning about the role of doctors and nurses. We've learnt lots about doctor's surgery and hospitals. Take a look at some of the work we have done, which can be found on our working wall.
Next week, we will be learning about chefs. We will be making vegetable soup next Friday and talking about how vegetables make us healthy and strong.
Fundraising events
This week, we had an odd socks to day to help fund raise some money to buy resources for the classroom (such as ingredients for cooking and resources for the sensory table).
We also baked some shortbread biscuits to be sold at our cake sale! We spoke about how to make our shortbread, including discussing the ingredients we need and how to mix the ingredients!
Alfie said that we were "mixing flour, sugar (and) butter."
Melanie commented that "we've lots of flour and (the bag) is heavy!"
Kassidy knew that "we do the ingredients first."
Welcome to Autumn 2!
This half term, our topic is "People Who Help Us." We will be learning about lots of different jobs, including learning about doctors and nurses.
Remember, this week we have two fundraising events! We have odd socks day on Wednesday 31st October and a cake sale on Friday 1st November. Please make a donation of 50p or £1 for each event! The cake sale will be happening outside the classroom at home time.
You Choose!
This week, we are reading "You Choose" by Pippa Goodhart. Have a look at some of the activities we have been doing in the different areas of learning!
Nursery Coffee Morning
Our Nursery coffee morning is on Thursday 11th October between 9.00 - 9.45. We will start off in the hub and you will get the chance to come down to class to do activities with your child!
Autumn 1 Topic
Our Autumn 1 Topic is "Ourselves."
In English this week, we have been reading "Giraffes Can't Dance" which is a story about a giraffe who loves to dance! We are drawing pictures of things we are good at too!
In Maths this week, we are doing lots of counting and are beginning to recognise some numbers.
We will be doing lots of other fun activities, including painting safari scenes, painting animal patterns and cutting and sticking safari animals.