News & Photos
Our new EYFS outdoor area
Acorns Foundation Stage had so much fun in our lovely new EYFS play area today. They enjoyed cycling and scooting around the new road, crossing the zebra crossings, visiting the mechanics garage and using the hopscotch.
As it was a rainy start to the day, the children also enjoyed playing under our new canopy roof.
We are excited to continue to develop this area with the fence still to be painted, a new gate allowing access onto the grass area being installed and the new equipment is still to arrive (sand tray, mud kitchen, water tables and tunnel).
Palm Sunday Assembly- Holy Week 2022
Shrove Tuesday - Celebrating Pancake Day!
Acorns really enjoyed celebrating Shrove Tuesday in school today. They helped Mrs Webber to cook some pancakes, all taking a turn to whisk the batter so there were no lumps. They then enjoyed tasting the plain pancakes they had made.
After lunch. Acorns took part in some traditional pancake races, racing through the classroom and outdoor area, balancing their pancakes on their frying pans (tennis racquets!). They were great at balancing them and trying not to drop them!
We ended the day with a special snack- the children enjoyed selecting, spreading and chopping their toppings before rolling their pancakes and then eating them!
Chinese New Year 2022- Acorns Dragon Parade
Gymnastics- January 2022- Acorns enjoyed learning to use their bodies to create different shapes. They made star, pencil and tuck shapes and experimented with making these on the floor, upright or on one side. They practiced these shapes many times and improved their body positions through the session. Then they worked in pairs to create shapes together. Well done gymnastics superstars!
Our new Big Acorns - September 2021
Children ln Acorns and Year 1 donned their red clothing and red noses to help raise money for Comic Relief today. The school are selling the red Comic Relief wristbands and pupils are enjoying wearing these and making their donations online. The children also watched Ethan's story (Comic Relief's story online) to see how the money they are helping to raise is supporting children like Ethan, in England and across the world.
Our return to school. We had a lovely first day back at school and were so excited to see our friends and the adults. We had missed them lots! We shared our home learning with our friends and enjoyed talking about our favourite learning. We also enjoyed a fun yoga session and showed our great yoga poses.
After every storm there’s a rainbow. 🌈🌈🌈🌈 ~ Our beautiful welcome back to school display. Acorns and Year 1 have been exploring ways of showing their friends that they care without being able to hug after reading the story ‘Whilst We Can’t Hug’
Spring has sprung in EYFS. Look at our beautiful daffodil painting, drawing and creations.
Nativity 2019 - Everyone Loves a Baby!
Children in Need 2019 - Spots and Stripes!
Laudato Si - Acorns enjoyed spending time looking at Pope Francis' letter 'Laudato Si' in which he asks us to care for the world. Acorns decided to explore how they could care for our school environment. A range of environmental activities were undertaken by the children including creating and designing bird feeders, a school grounds litter pick, creating posters for children to follow around school (e.g. saving water, energy, picking up litter, recycling), creating plastic eco bricks and investigating birds and minibeasts that live around our school environment.
Preschool and Reception class hosted the first PTA supported Cake Sale, raising money to buy new equipment for the Foundation Stage children. The children enjoyed baking and icing their own cakes and then helping to sell them to the older children and parents at both snack time and after school. The children raised £122 and will vote on what to spend the money on as part of their British Values lessons after half term.
Dear Parents
Welcome to Acorns Foundation Stage
(Little Acorns – Preschool and Big Acorns - Reception Class)
Autumn Term 2018
We hope that you all had a lovely summer holidays and enjoyed some family time with your children. We are very excited to welcome you all back and a big welcome to all our new families and children who will begin with us this term.
We welcome: Riley, Jessica, Noah, Luxton and Jacob into Little Acorns and Lola, Aria and Julian into Big Acorns.
Staffing
The classes will be taught by Mrs Claire Webber (Early Years Leader), with Mrs Catherine Yeandle covering Mrs Webber’s leadership release time on Wednesday and Thursday mornings and one hour on Thursday afternoons. Mrs Webber will be the key person for all the children in the Foundation Class.
Mrs Helen Hewson, Miss Layla Hill, Mrs Sarah Pearce, Mrs Tina Hill and Mrs Sue West will support the class teacher in their roles as Early Years Teaching Assistants.
Curriculum
This term, our learning will focus around the theme - ‘Inside the Toy Box’. Attached is a copy of the planning for the first half of term. This can also be viewed on our Foundation Stage page, on the school website www.stjohnstiverton.co.uk.
This plan details the curriculum areas of your child’s learning and some of the activities that they will be doing this half term. As the children in Foundation Stage work on the same Early Years curriculum, this can be differentiated to meet the needs of all ages from 2-5 and all activities planned to meet the developmental needs of all the children within the class, ensuring the challenge and pace is right for all ages and developmental stages.
Reading
During this first week, your child will be issued with a reading book (Reception Class) or library book (Preschool). These can be changed when your child has read them, when you enter the classroom each morning. There will be a book changing table for you and your child to select their new book from the correct box.
Please try to share your child’s reading book with them daily and write in their reading diary when you have read at home. Reception Children will receive acknowledgment in our achievers assembly if they have read at least 3 times in the previous week. We will also be running a reading workshop for parents in the next couple of weeks – more information to follow.
Forest School
Forest school will take place on a Monday afternoon throughout September and October. All children (Big and Little Acorns in on a Monday afternoon) will need to ensure they have wellington boots (we have some spares), a waterproof coat, long sleeved top and trousers and socks on their peg each Monday. If your child has an all in one waterproof suit please also bring this in.
Outdoor Learning
The children will be going out into the school environment in all weathers.. Please ensure that they always have a waterproof coat (with a hood), sun hat and sun-cream kept in school. As the weather gets colder, please provide your child with a warm hat and gloves. Please ensure all items are named clearly, so they can be returned if lost.
PE
Your child will not need PE kit. For PE, the children will simply remove their jumpers/ties and shoe/socks. Reception Children only will require PE kit in the Summer Term (after Easter). Reminders will be sent nearer the time.
Snack
Children need to bring a full drinks bottle to school every day. We provide one fruit snack each day, or children may bring in their own healthy snack to eat at snack time. Drinks bottles can be refilled in school, during the day, if needed. Water and Milk is available for the children at snack times. Reception class children can also purchase a daily snack for 30p from the snack shed, by making a termly advance payment to the school office – please pop in and speak to Mrs. Heard about this.
School Lunches - Hot Meals and packed lunches options
We are fortunate to have an excellent school cook, who can provide hot meals or packed lunches for children at lunchtime. These are free under the Government’s Universal Free School Meals initiative for Reception children but must be paid for and ordered in advance for Preschool Children. Menus can be located in the school office. Children in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium may also be entitled to free school meals at preschool – please speak to Mrs Webber about this.
Spare Clothes
We only have a limited supply of spare clothes for children, so please ensure that your child has a spare set of clothes (pants, trousers/skirt, t-shirt, tights or socks) kept on their peg, in case they need changing during the day.
Parent Helpers
We are always extremely grateful of any parent support in the classroom or on trips. We would value however much time you could spare to either the children read, accompany us on adventures outdoors or around the local area. Please let us know if you think you could spare any time to help us.
Website – www.stjohnstiverton.co.uk
We try to keep our Foundation Stage page of the class website updates, so please spend time looking at our news feed to see photographs and stories of what the children have been up to.
Lastly, we operate a very open door policy, so please come and speak to us at any time if you have any questions or queries. I can also be emailed on cwebber@stjohnstiverton.co.uk or contacted via the messaging app on Class Dojo which we will set up over the next week and you will receive an invitation to join this private messaging group and more information explaining its use.
Many Thanks
Claire Webber
Early Years Foundation Stage Leader
Little Acorns - Forest School Fun. Little Acorns enjoyed exploring the school woodland area. During their time in the forest, they used climbing, balancing, jumping and sliding to move around the forest, went on an adventure through the woodland tracks and looked for signs of Spring. Mostly they had great fun, exploring and imagining in their play and managing their own risks.
Visit from a Paramedic - Today, Acorns enjoyed a visit from Rachel (Freddie's mum) who is a paramedic. She talked to the children about her job as a paramedic, showed the children all of her emergency kit and talked with them about how to contact help in an emergency. She brought her ambulance response car and the children enjoyed looking at all the medical kit inside and were treated to listening to the emergency siren and lights.
People Who Help Us: Today we had a visit from a Police Sergeant who talked to us about his job and showed us some of the tools and equipment that he uses in his role. We also had a tour of his police van, saw the lights flashing and heard the siren. Children had the opportunity to sit in the cell in the back of the van.
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Follow the link below to see St John's Big Acorns class.
We are about 30 seconds into the video
http://www.devonlive.com/news/local-news/celebrating-new-intake-devon-live-561440
Acorns Music Time
Acorns Music Time
Planting
The children have been busy planting potatoes this week as part of a competition set by the organisers of the Mid Devon Show. The children will enjoy looking after the potatoes and hopefully accumulate more! A big thank you to Heard and Sendells for supplying all the materials for us to be able to do this.
People who help us.
Did someone call 999? - Emergency! This week, Acorns have enjoyed visits from PC Rob and PC Mel with their police van and then Paramedics Simon and Rachel with their ambulance.
PC Rob and PC Mel talked to the children about their role as police officers and read the children a police story. The children were able to explore their uniform,handcuffs, radios - even speaking to the Exeter Control centre and the children especially enjoyed climbing in the police van, listening to the siren and seeing the flashing beacons.
When the ambulance paramedics visited, Acorns had the opportunity to explore the paramedics kit bag, with children being bandaged, having their blood pressure and oxygen levels taken and listening to the paramedics talking on their radios. The children then went outside to explore the ambulance, riding on the stretcher lift, trying on paramedic uniform and listening to the ambulance siren.
What an exciting week!!
Challenge Week
This week, has been challenge week in the Foundation Stage and the children have really enjoyed taking part in a range of science and critical thinking activities. They have shown amazing perseverance and used their prediction skills to test their knowledge and understanding of how and why things happen.
Climbing through spiders webs, testing magnetic forces, investigating dissolving and working as a team have been some of the challenges they have faced and there's still more to come!
Spider Web Challenge
World Book Day
Acorns celebrated World Book Day, by dressing up as their favorite book characters. The children came dressed as a range of story characters including Fairytale Princesses, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Three Little Pigs, Superheroes, Animal characters, Old McDonald, Pirates and many other favorite story characters.
The children enjoyed a day of story based activities, creating their own puppet shows, story masks and listening to some of their favorite stories they had brought in from home.
The day culminated in a parade of costumes, with winners being awarded a storybook to take home and read. It was a really fun day and the children all looked brilliant!
Acorns enjoyed creating their own home learning projects 'Black, White and Colour'. We were so impressed with the projects that the children brought in and have created a wonderful display for them to admire each others' work.
Well Done Acorns!
The children in the Foundation Stage have enjoyed learning all about Chinese New Year. On Wednesday the children had fun sharing their learning with the whole school and visitors during their assembly. The children enjoyed singing and dancing as well as acting out the story of the Chinese Zodiac. Acorn children displayed their craft of hats, fans, dragons and lanterns for all to see.
Well done to all the Acorn children, you were all brilliant! Thank you to everyone that came along today. It was great to see so many of you there. We hope you enjoyed it!
Chinese New Year
Children in the Foundation Stage have really enjoyed learning about how Chinese New Year is celebrated.