Summer 2, Week 6 – 11/07/2025
Another busy couple of weeks in Cygnets, and we cannot believe that the children are getting ready to move to Year 1! We are very proud of all that they have achieved!
Over the last 2 weeks, we have spent time preparing further to be Year 1s and enjoyed our transition day, and spending more time in the Year 1 classroom.
A highlight of the last 2 weeks (and possibly the year!) was our trip to Tumblestone Hollow. After reading the story ‘The Legend of Tumblestone Hollow’ we enjoyed visiting the setting of the magical tale, seeing the stones that we had read about in the story. We used clues that were around to figure out which of the magical stones were missing – great detective work! We also enjoyed the playground – climbing high in the trees, balancing carefully and having lots of fun on the slide – even Mrs French had a go! We also enjoyed a delicious ice cream treat too! All of the children behaved beautifully and with lots of exclamations that it was ‘the best day ever’ we think it was a success!!
After the trip, we thought about the stones that were missing and designed our own versions of them. We created forest sprites that might live in Tumblestone Hollow and the adventures they may go on.
Summer 2, Week 4 – 27/06/2025
Another two weeks flies by in Cygnets. After our wonderful trip to Warwick castle Cygnets used this as a springboard into learning more about castles. We looked at how and where they were bult, as well as who would have lived in a castle. We learned about turrets, battlements and the portcullis. We wrote some lovely sentences about castles using the sentence starter ‘In the past’.
In preparation for transition day next week, we have been practising being Year 1s. At the end of our phonics session, we read a sentence. Then, we try and write it independently. All of the Cygnets have been trying their hardest – and are doing brilliantly!
With the arrival of warmer weather, Cygnets have been enjoying time outside in our garden. We have been making and mixing potions in the mud kitchen, building racing cars from the blocks and making (sand) ice-creams! We also have been investigating how we can make the solar powered fountain turn on and off again using our shadows. When it was hot last week, we were lucky enough to have a paddling pool that we could cool our feet in whilst reading a book!
Some of the Cygnets have enjoyed using the camera function on the class iPad – you can see some of the pictures below!
Summer 2, Week 2 – 13/06/2025
Our final half term of Cygnets has begun brilliantly! We have jumped into our new topic of ‘Terrific Tales’, part of which involves looking at the settings of where fairy tales might take place. We have turned our roleplay area into ‘Cropredy Castle’. Last week we looked at what you might find in a castle, such as coats of arms and portraits. We looked at portraits of King Charles, and then drew our own self portraits to adorn the walls of our castle. We have loved enjoying a banquet and sitting in the throne!
Our amazing trip to Warwick Castle this week has also helped us understand more about castles. After a ride on the double-decker bus (a definite highlight of the day!),we loved exploring the castle grounds, seeing Zog, as well as cheering for the Red Rose at the war of the roses. Miss Godsell, Mrs French and Ms Hampson are very proud of all of the Cygnets – not only were they impeccably behaved, but every single one of them climbed all the way to the top of the Guy’s Tower and back down! Whilst some found this a bit scary (teachers too!) they persevered and had a wonderful day!
This week in maths we have been using a resource called a rekenrek. It is an abacus with just 2 rows. We have been practising our subitising and representing numbers. Finally this week we completed a writing task, that all the Reception classes in the EPA trust do too. Miss Godsell then met with lots of other teachers to moderate our writing, and the other teachers were very impressed by Cygnets writing – their application of phonics, their letter formation and their super sentences!
Summer 1, Week 4 – 16/05/2025
Another fantastic two weeks passes in Cygnets with lots of lovely learning happening. It is so wonderful to see more and more independent writing happening in the classroom too!
Last week we read the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar. We enjoyed counting all the different foods that the caterpillar ate, and how he turned into a beautiful butterfly. During in English, we sequenced the story, showing that we had understood what we had read. This week the Cygnets enjoyed making hungry caterpillar hats in our craft area. We have also sequenced the lifecycle of a butterfly, looking at how it turns from an egg to a caterpillar, to a chrysalis and then into a butterfly. Even though these are some tricky words, the children have been amazing at applying their phonics to label each part if the lifecycle.
This week, we have been planting some seeds. In English, we first followed Miss Godsell’s instructions to plant a seed – which weren’t very good! After planting our own seeds, we then wrote our own instructions, making sure they were clear enough to follow. All the children did a fantastic job of their instructions, and we are hoping for some bean plants to start growing very soon! We also planted cress seeds and are seeing where it will grow best – in the sunlight or in the cupboard, with or without water. We have made some predictions and we are looking forward to seeing if they come true!
In Maths, we are looking at our number bonds to 5. We have been hiding blocks from our friends and seeing if they can guess how many are left. If we know our number bonds to 5, it really helps us with Maths for life!
Summer 1, Week 2 – 02/05/2025
Who can believe that we are into the Summer term already! The Cygnets have returned from the Easter break, ready and raring to go!
In PE over the last two weeks we have perfected our Maypole and Colour Dance. All of the children have worked so hard, and we are very proud of every single one of them! We cannot wait to share it with you!
Our new topic for this half term is “How Does Your Garden Grow?”. Last week we went on a walk around the garden to look for some signs of Spring. We added to our season trees, drawing blossom and new leaves. This week, we looked at the word ‘grow’ and thought about what it means. The children came up with some fantastic ideas such as grow means things getting bigger, or things being born and becoming older. In English, we wrote lists of items that grow and then items that don’t grow. It is a pleasure to see how well the children are applying their phonics now, making plausible attempts at spelling some really tricky words!
With the return of lovely warm weather, we have enjoyed being outside in out garden more, and we are seeing such creative learning. On the path, the children are enjoying drawing their own roads, building ramps and jumps for the cars. Children are also enjoying junk modelling, making some wonderful creations from what they can find.
We are very excited for another fun filled term ahead of us. If you would like to read our class letter and overview, you can access it here.
Spring 2, Week 6 – 4/4/2025
Another busy term comes to a spectacular end in Cygnets.
Last week we went on a trip to The Living Rainforest. We all ad a wonderful time, spotting so many different creatures! Amongst stingrays and scorpions, toucans and tarantulas, we loved spotting Cinnamon the Sloth, who was very well camouflaged, as well as the Blue Dart Frogs. When we got back to school, we wrote some fantastic describing sentences about the things that we had seen. We also learned the word
‘adaptation’ and thought about why it is good for different animals to live in certain environments. A polar bear has warm fur, so couldn’t live in a desert. A seal couldn’t climb a tree in a rainforest! Cygnets were fantastic detectives and thought carefully about where the animals will live.
This week has been lots of Easter fun. We really enjoyed going to St Mary’s church and hearing the story of Easter. It was great to do it with our buddies. We also loved doing an Easter Egg hunt on the field with our buddies, searching high and low for all the clues! We worked hard making some Easter cards, and we hope that all of the Cygnets families have a very Happy Easter!
Spring 2, Week 4 – 21/03/2025
Cygnets have continued to explore lots of different habitats including the polar regions and African savannahs. We learned that if we went to the North Pole, even though it is cold, we wouldn’t see any penguins as they only live in the South Pole. We learned about the African Savannah animals and that they can live where it is hot. We completed an activity, sorting the animals into the right habitats. Next up we will be learning about the Rainforest, starting with our trip on Monday – and we can’t wait!
This week in English, we learned all about verbs which we now know as action words! We thought about how we can describe different animals moving, using words like climb, slide, run, slither and stomp. We played a game where we acted out different animal actions and had our friends guess!
We have been busy learning about adding two numbers together in Maths. We have been exploring number 7 and making sure that we know lots of different ways to make 7, like 6 and 1, 3 and 4, 5 and 2. We have also played peekaboo with the numberblocks, hiding numbers behind other numbers and figuring out who is missing and where they could be hiding!
Finally in PE, we are really enjoying learning our dances to share with you soon! Mr Pemble is always impressed by our amazing maypole dancing and how quickly we have picked up the steps. We are also working hard on our colour dance, Purple People Eater and having lots of fun learning the steps!
Spring 2, Week 2 – 07/03/2025
We are off to a flying start this half term and as always have been ready, respectful and responsible learners!
Last week we started our new topic ‘Habitats of the World’. To make some links in our learning to last half term, we compared Australia and the United Kingdom, by looking at the kinds of animals that live in Australia. We learned about kangaroos, koalas, emus, echidnas and the platypus. Using describing words, we wrote sentences about the animals, making sure to try and include capital letters, finger spaces and full stops too!
In RE we have started to learn the Easter Story. We learned about Shrove Tuesday and the beginning of Lent. We heard that Shrove Tuesday is also known as ‘Pancake Tuesday’. We practised our measuring and mixing on Monday to make some pancakes for snack on Tuesday! We enjoyed some delicious pancakes and then made some so promises for Lent, such as ‘tidying my toys away’ and ‘helping my little brother’.
This week we have loved getting back outside with the drier and sunnier weather. We have been in the garden building lots of challenging obstacle courses, tackling the rope climbing and enjoying rolling down the hill. Forest School in the sun was much more enjoyable than the rain too!
On Thursday this week we all loved dressing up as colourful and creative book characters for World Book Day! In the morning we shared our costumes telling each other which book character we were and which book we were from. After hearing Miss Godsell and Mrs French’s favourite stories, we made some lovely bookmarks and enjoyed sharing stories with our family to end the day.
Spring 1, Week 6 – 14/02/2025
Another fun and learning filled half term draws to a close in Cygnets! One of the highlights this half term (possibly this school year!) was our walk around Cropredy! Last Thursday we ventured along Station Road into the village. We saw lots of different things that make our village unique. Some of the things we saw were the canal, the shop, Cropredy bridge, the Cropredy Shield, the Church, the Cup & Saucer and lots of houses and cars. We stopped at the Mulberry café for a delicious cake and a drink. Then we visited the playground. After thinking lots about what we had seen in the village, we read the book ‘In The City’. We thought of different things that you might see in a city, but might not see in a village. We wrote some sentences about what you might find in a city.
Our writing stamina and skill is continuing to grow, with some amazing letters, words and sentences being constructed independently. Now we have learned all of our sounds, we are enjoying the challenge of reading and writing them.
In PSHE with Mrs French we have been thinking about persevering – making sure we try even when things are tough. We put this to the test in Forest School this week. Using some maps that Mr Pemble drew, we practised following them, making sure that they were orientated the right way, and persevering when it wasn’t quite right!
Yesterday we were also lucky enough to have a visit from the PCSO’s. We loved spending time chatting to them and playing playdough with them too!
Spring 1, Week 4 – 31/01/2025
Another busy few weeks in Cygnets! We have been digging further into our book ‘The Great Explorer’. After thinking about the things that we needed, we also thought about how we might go on a journey. We learned about the different kinds of transport we know about. We drew pictures of the transport we would like to go on. After making a story map, we also showed how well we know the story and sequenced some of the events that happen in the story.
Another thing explorers need are maps, and this week we have been thinking all about maps. We had a go at drawing our own maps too – of school, of the classroom and pretend treasure maps! Using this as inspiration we also made origami pirate hats, and made our fingers strong in the finger gym by looking for buried treasure!
In Maths, we have been looking at the composition of number 5 and beginning to learn our number bonds to 5. Using the song ‘5 Little Speckled Frogs’ we found out that if we had 2 on the log and 3 in the pond, we still have 5 altogether. We are looking forward to sharing with you how we learn in maths next week.
Finally, as part of our RE and topic learning, we explored Chinese New Year. We listened to the Great Race story, and the order that the animals finished. We learned that this year is the Year of the Snake, so we made some beautiful snakes and followed this up with some lanterns
Spring 1, Week 2 – 17/01/2025
All the Cygnets children have returned to school with such enthusiasm! It has been lovely to see them settle back into our classroom routines quickly, welcoming new children and jumping into new learning!
In Phonics we have moved on to learning ‘blue’ (Phase 3) sounds which mostly consist of digraphs and trigraphs. The children are enjoying the challenge of trickier sounds, and it is fantastic to see them identifying these around our classroom and applying them in reading and writing (you can see some amazing examples below!)
With an icy start to term, we thought about the signs of Winter that we can see around us. We compared these with the signs of Autumn that we might see. We made our Winter trees, and thought about the clothing that we need to wear in Winter too.
We have started our new topic ‘Let’s Explore’! After reading ‘The Great Explorer’ by Chris Judge, we thought about what an explorer was – someone who goes to new places and might find new things – and what an explorer might need to take with them. From binoculars to sleeping bags, torches to sandwiches, there were lots of great ideas. We then used our phonics to write lists of what to pack an explorer’s bag. Next week we will be thinking about how an explorer might go on their journey – exploring different modes of transport.