Merlins Blog

Monday 13th - Friday 17th January 2025

This week we have continued with lots more 'Brum brum, beep beep' fun!

Our learning this week has included:

• developing confidence with using the 'part-part-whole' model to represent the parts of a whole number
• discussing different types of 'vehicles' and their features. For example, we talked about why a car needs a boot or wipers and why wheels are round
• weaving our own wheels! 
• more recognising, continuing and creating our own patterns
• more phonics sounds and writing short simple sentences
• 'car journeys' with friends in our role play
• learning about the Christian Creation story and discussing what God created on each day
• plenty of vehicle models!

* Reminder *

Please can all parents remember to login to Tapestry to see what your children have been getting up to!

Have a wonderful weekend Merlins :)

Tuesday 7th - Friday 10th January 2025

Happy New Year!!

This week we began our new topic 'Brum brum, beep beep' and the Merlins have been absolutely loving it!

Our learning this week has included:

• making vehicle pictures using 2D shapes
• looking at the art work of Henri Matisse and his 'collages'. We talked about the way he 'overlapped' pieces in the collages and the different shapes he used.
• thinking about the composition of numbers 2,3 and 4
• our first look at the 'part-part-whole' model to represent the parts of a whole number
• discussing different types of 'vehicles' and which ones we may use for a variety of journeys 
• recognising, continuing and creating our own patterns
• more phonics sounds and writing short simple sentences

Well done on your first week back at school Merlins :)

Monday 13th December - Friday 20th December

This week we:

wrote letters to Santa and all our family and friends

enjoyed lots of Christmas crafts, including making cards, calendars and baubles! 

sang Christmas carols

explored 10 and made marks to represent the number

enjoyed a Christmas cinema treat 

Well done on your first term at school everyone!

Have the best Christmas team Merlins :)

Monday 9th December - Friday 13th December

This week we:

shared the story of The Jolly Christmas Postman.

introduced Merlins own post office and post box. 

learnt about letters, placing them in envelopes, writing the address on them and adding a stamp.

began exploring number 10

wrote our tricky words
our Christmas lunch!

performed our Christmas play to our parents/carers and gave a brilliant performance of sheep and twinkly stars!

Enjoy your weekend Merlins :)

Monday 2nd December - Friday 6th December

This week we:

• retold the story of We're going on a bear hunt
• explored maps and talked about our local area. We learnt new vocabulary 'birds eye view' and 'route'.
• we gave directions orally to each other and our teddy bears
• we planned our route to the local park
• and of course followed our maps and went on a walk to the park!
• played at the park, took turns and helped each other
• explored number 9 and did lots of counting
• learnt and wrote lots more tricky words
• lots of role play and casting spells  
• thought about the season of Winter and the signs we may see
• decorated our class Christmas tree - it is stunning!

Enjoy your weekend Merlins :)

Monday 24th - Friday 29th November 

This week we:

• listened to the story of The Little Red Hen and thought about different types of bread. We talked about pizza bases and decided to make our own pizzas!
• enjoyed lots of 'pizza play' with our own Merlins pizza restaurant
• taste tested our toppings, tried new foods and described the different tastes
• designed our pizzas
• made our pizzas
• most importantly ATE the pizzas!
• looked at the work of artist Van Gogh and created our own class version of the painting 'Starry Night' together. For this we painted on to tin foil to give it that extra shine!
• used numicon support us with our counting to 8
• engaged in talk about the various letter names and letter sounds

Enjoy your weekend Merlins :)

Monday 18th - Friday 22nd November 

This week we:

• listened to the story of The Little Red Hen which led to lots of discussion about whether it was right to not share the bread
• 'hot seated' the main character, The Little Red Hen and asked her questions
• talked about the different ways we can represent the number 8
• introduced ten-frames and used cubes to show 8 in various ways
• explored the snow and ice we found in our outdoor area. The children made a collection and watched what happened to it throughout the day, leading on to us talking about the melting process we saw taking place
• continued creating 'firework' pictures on the IWB, working on our gross and fine motor skills
• thought more about what school was in the past and had Granny Jo and Granny Diane in to visit so we could question them about their childhoods! We were able to see toys from the past and look at lots of black and white photos they bought in too!
• learnt about a Christian Baptism and some children chose to use a doll in the water tray to recreate pouring the water on the babies head and making the sign of the cross
• completed some wonderful independent writing 

Well done Merlins :)

Monday 11th November - Friday 15th November

This week we:

learnt about why people wear poppies at this time of the year

retold the story of Room on the Broom with actions we created

played '7 or not 7'

created 'firework' pictures on the IWB, working on our gross and fine motor skills

started to think about what school is like now (in the present), compared to in the past

continued and created 3-step, 4-step... and even 10-step repeating patterns!!

we used pipettes to make our own potions (and mix colours, discussing the lighter and darker shades of colours we made as we went!) 

worked as a team on making dens/houses, including all sorts of important features like a bathroom and toilet!

Well done team Merlins - have the best weekend! :)

Monday 4th November - Friday 8th November

This week we :

read and discussed the story of The Room on the Broom

engaged in lots of Room on the Broom role play using props

learnt about the Hindu festival of lights 'Diwali' and made Diwali cards, Rangoli patterns and firework paintings!

looked at Louis' family photos of their Diwali celebrations

listened to the story of Rama and Sita and learnt that the lights guided them home

listened to instructions and joined in a 'firework dance' 

continued and created repeating patterns

used the chalks on the playground to create 'pattern-land' 

We have made a brilliant start to this half term - well done team Merlins :)

Monday 21st October - Friday 25th October

This week we :

• retold the story of Funnybones
• drew around our friends on large paper and labelled their body parts
• made 'moving' skeleton characters
• began thinking about Van Gogh and discussing what a 'self-portrait' is
• went on a 'six hunt'!
• represented number 6 with objects of all shapes and sizes, in various positions
• wrote some new 'tricky words' 
• discussed what we can do now that we could not do when we were a babies
• followed instructions and did some yoga together

 
Well done for making a fantastic start at school this term Merlins! Have a lovely break and see you after half term :)

Monday 14th October - Friday 18th October

This week we enjoyed:

• listening to Funnybones and learning about a 'title' and 'author'
• learning about our body parts and lots of new vocabulary, eg, collar bone, ankles, ribs, skull
• making playdough skeletons and skulls
• hospital role play with lots of plasters, bandages and face masks!
• junk modelling some houses for our own 'dark dark street'
• looking at baby photos of us all and thinking about the similarities and differences between then and now
• thinking lots about the number 6 and 'showing 6' in different ways
• learning some new 'tricky words' and writing them down
• discussing what makes a good friend 
   

See you on Monday team Merlins :) 

Monday 7th October - Friday 11th October 

This week we enjoyed:

• having even more surprises with some very 'indestructible', 'odd' and magical balloons!!
• representing number 5 in a variety of ways using dots, lines and other marks
• learning even more new sounds in phonics and listening out for sounds we can hear in words
• writing our names
• talking about harvest and the foods that need harvesting
• colour mixing in the water tray
• learning about Autumn and going on an 'Autumn Hunt' in our big playground
• discussing what we can do if someone wants to play with the same things and we need to take turns 
   

See you after the weekend Merlins :) 

Monday 30th September - Friday 4th October 

This week we enjoyed:

• retelling the story of The Blue Balloon
• talking about lots of new vocabulary, such as 'indestructible' and 'odd' 
• finding the blue balloon from the story IN OUR CLASSROOM!!
• counting not only objects we can touch but also sounds that we can hear and actions we see happening 
• recording how many jumps our friends did by making marks
• learning new sounds in phonics and listening out for initial sounds in words
• learning about WHY it is our birthday on our birthday
• talking about balloons and birthday celebrations
• discussing who are the people who can help us if we have a problem

See you on Monday lovely Merlins :) 

Monday 23rd September - Friday 27th September 

This week we enjoyed:

• retelling the story of Elmer
• talking about how we are each 'unique'
• thinking all about the number 5 and 'showing 5' in different ways
• writing our new phonic sounds in the colourful sand 
• junk modelling different types of homes, eg, castles, flats and caravans
• using stickers to decorate our own elephants like Elmer!

Have a lovely weekend Merlins :) 

Monday 16th September - Friday 20th September 

This week was the children's first full week at school! We have all been settling into our new classroom and learning our new routines. We have been enjoying playing with all the resources at school and meeting new friends too!

Well done to all the children making a brilliant start at school - we are super proud of you! :) 

Goodbye Merlins 2023-2024!

It has been BLOOMING MARVELLOUS watching you all grow! 

Enjoy your holidays! We will all miss you!

Love Mrs McCaughey and the rest of the EYFS team :) 

Monday 8th July - Friday 11th July

This week we loved celebrating our 'Come dine with me' enrichment week!

Our learning this week has included:

• learning about the origins of some of the foods we like to eat
• we sampled new foods and a variety of cuisines, including; Japanese, Korean and Mexican
• discussing the tastes and our likes and dislikes
• setting up own our 'Pippins cafe' in Merlins for lots of role play! We had chefs, customers and waiters and waitresses on hand!
• we looked at food magazines and created our own food collages

One week to go!! See you on Monday!! :)

Monday 24th June - Friday 5th July

This crazily busy term shows no signs of slowing down!!

Our learning this week has included:

• reading and learning new vocabulary from Handa's Surprise
• finding out about African animals
• discussing the features of different animals and why they have them
• comparing an African village to Stroud
• observing the growing cress hair!
• observing our class butterflies emerge and watching them fly away for new adventures!
• number bonds to 5 and to 10
• OUR TRIP TO COTSWOLD WILDLIFE PARK!! We met the meerkats, penguins, giraffes, zebras, otters and much more! We also met the 'Lion expert' to learn more about these incredible creatures!

Have a wonderful weekend everybody :)

Monday 10th June - Friday 21st June

We have been SUPER busy!

Our learning this week has also included:

• learning all about different minibeasts
• observing our class caterpillar pets growing bigger and bigger
• adding and subtracting using concrete objects and dots
• innovating our class text and changing the caterpillar character to a tadpole in our own version of 'The very hungry tadpole'
• our first sports day!!
• designing and creating our own minibeast with clay
• looking at the art work of Egon Schiele and painting our own flowers
• learning about observational drawings and drawing what we can see
• learning about the frog life cycle and creating our own slimy pond
• naming different parts of a flower, eg, petals, stem, leaves and exploring them... with scissors!! 

Have a wonderful weekend everybody :)

Friday 14th June

Good Morning everyone,

Below are the online lessons that the children should complete today please. 

Click the links below and watch the videos.

I look forward to seeing/hearing about the work you complete on Monday.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs McCaughey :)

Literacy

Maths

Phonics (tricky words) song

Monday 3rd June - Friday 7th June

Our topic of 'Our Wild World' has taken a new direction this week, as we started to think about different animals and their life cycles! 

Our learning this week has also included:

retelling 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' story during continuous provision and putting on lots of 'puppet shows' for us all!

more doubling numbers, using the cubes

completing addition number sentences, using a variety of objects 

'relay races' in PE 
reading and writing longer cvcc/ccvc/ccvcc words and revisiting previous sounds and tricky (high frequency) words!
a visit from the police to tell us all about how to keep ourselves safe online 
 

Have a wonderful weekend everybody :)

Monday 13th May - Friday 17th May

Our learning has included:

• odd and even numbers and recognising patterns in numbers
• beginning to think about doubling numbers and printing 'doubles' with the numicon and paint!
• thinking about the key 'ingredients' of a story and creating our own recipes and stories
• following recipes in the mud kitchen
• learning even more Tricky Words (high frequency words)!
• engaging in role play with our babies as we keep them healthy by washing them, feeding them, putting them to sleep, etc

Have a wonderful weekend from Mrs McCaughey and the rest of the EYFS team :) 

Tuesday 7th May - Friday 10th May

Our learning has included:

• odd and even numbers and sorting numicon into 'odd' and 'even' teams!
• listening to our class book 'Recipe for a story' and thinking about the key 'ingredients' of a story
• creating and telling our own stories 
• plenty of small world dinosaur, collaborative den-building and 'schools' role-play!
• continuing to explore further ways of keeping our minds healthy
• rotating and manipulating shapes as we completed our own tangram puzzles! 

Enjoy the sunshine everyone :) 

Monday 29th April - Friday 3rd May

Another full-on week in the wonderful world of Merlins!

Our learning has included:

• exploring the composition of number 10 and number bonds songs 
• retelling the story of 'Dinosaurs Love Socks' and writing parts of the story for ourselves
• plenty of turn-taking and sharing
• discussions about keeping your mind healthy and mindfulness 
• designing and creating our own dinosaur sock puppets!
• lots of throwing and aiming games in PE 

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend everybody!

Monday 22nd April - Friday 26th April

What a busy busy week!

Our learning has included:

• exploring the composition of number 9
• retelling the story of 'Dinosaurs Love Underpants' and discussing series and collections of books by the same author 
• innovating the story as a class and creating the new version, 'Dinosaurs Love Socks' 
• discussions about healthy eating and the importance of a 'varied diet'. We talked about the ways that different food can help our bodies.
• role playing in the 'healthy food shop' 
• learning about printing with the paint and some healthy vegetables! This led to lots of fabulous conversations about colour mixing and creating new colours.

Enjoy your weekend everybody!