Week beginning 25th March 2024
Early Years have been learning all about Easter and what happened to Jesus on the lead up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We have made an Easter Garden and decorated it with crosses we have made.
We’ve also created some art pieces, drawing our own Van Gogh inspired sunflowers, and cutting out and collaging our own flowers, naming the different parts.
Thank you to the parents who came to our Easter Craft session on Monday – the children loved having you in class taking part in the activities.
We hope you all have a happy, Holy and safe Easter break.
Week beginning 18th March 2024
Chef James came to bake with us again in Early Years this week. He taught us how to make Easter themed shortbread. We mixed flour, sugar and butter together, rolled the dough and used the rabbit and carrot cutters to make the shortbread. Once they were cooked in the oven, we decorated them with icing sugar and Easter chicks. They were delicious!
We performed our Palm Sunday Assembly to the whole school and our parents/carers this week too. We sang with enthusiasm and said our lines perfectly! Great job Early Years!
Easter Shortbread Recipe
Ingredients:
150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
100g butter, chilled and cubed
50g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling
Method:
• STEP 1 - Heat the oven 170C/150C fan/gas 3. Put the flour, butter and sugar into a mixing bowl. Use your hands to combine the ingredients until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, then squeeze until it comes together as a dough.
• STEP 2 - On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to ½ cm thick. Cut the dough into fingers and place on a lined baking tray. Use a fork to create imprints, then sprinkle with the remaining caster sugar.
• STEP 3 - Chill the dough in the fridge for 20 mins, then bake for 15-20 mins until golden brown. Remove the shortbread fingers from the oven and leave to cool on the tray for 10 mins.
Week beginning 11th March
This week in Early Years, we have loved role playing Jack and the Beanstalk. We have made masks and story puppets and transformed into each character! We have used our imaginative and creative skills to build castles using different construction materials.
Update on our plant in the dark experiment - we discovered that it had grown but it was very tall and yellow as it was looking for the sun!
Week beginning 4th March 2024
This week is STEAM week. Reception enjoyed watching the Year 5/6 assembly to explain what this was and then Early Years participated in some STEAM themed activities. This linked in with our new RE topic of growing. We have planted cress seeds and are going to watch them grow over the next few days. We know the seeds need water and sunlight to help them grow so are doing an experiment to see if the seeds we put into a dark cupboard will grow or not.
We also went to visit the new school library. We absolutely love it and enjoyed listening to a story sat on the story cushions. We can’t wait to go back!
Week beginning 26th February 2024
In Early Years, our topic this half term is New Life. We have read Jack and the Beanstalk, planted seeds and talked about different plants that grow. We have collaged our own beanstalks and played in the Role Play Garden Centre. We have used the different construction blocks outdoors, to see if we can build a tower into the clouds just like the beanstalk!
We also loved our first Piccolo Music session of the year.
