KEY DATES

Apr 22nd

Summer

enrichment clubs

start 3:10-

4:15pm

May 8th

Grandparents

gardening and

tea party

May 8th Maypole

dancing

(details to follow)

May 22nd RA

class assembly

2:30-3:10pm

O U R N E W T O P I C - ‘TH E L A N D B E F O R E T I M E ’

Please see below for what Nursery & Reception will be covering this half

term;

Week Beg: Theme Books

1. 14.04.15 Who were the

dinosaurs?

Dinosaur Farm by Frann Preston-

Gannon

Non- fiction dinosaur books

What if a dinosaur series

2. 20.04.15 Carnivores The Dirty Great Dinosaur by Martin

Waddell

Non-fiction dinosaur books

3. 27.04.15 Herbivores N – Dinosaur Roar! By Paul Stickland

N&R – Stomp Stomp by Kaye

Umansky

Dinosaurs love underpants

4. 04.05.15 High in the Sky Can I bring my pterodactol to school

Ms Johnson? By Lois Grambling

The Dinosaurs Diary by Julia

Donaldson

5. 11.05.15 Under the Sea Harry and the bucketful of dinosaurs

series by Ian Wybrow

6. 18.05.15 Digging Up the

Dinosaurs

Digging up dinosaurs

Monster stones

We hope you all enjoyed the fantastic weather that we had over the Easter

break. We are really excited about our new topic all about Dinosaurs this half-

term and it has been aptly named ‘The Land Before Time’. The children have

come back eager and excited to learn and we are looking forward to a busy,

fun filled term!

Apri l 2015

EY NEWSLETTER

As teachers, we want to teach your children the skills they need to be critical thinkers. Instead of

simply memorizing facts and ideas, children need to engage in higher levels of thinking to reach their

fullest potential. Practicing Higher Order Thinking (HOT) skills outside of school will give children the

tools that they need to understand, infer, connect, categorize, synthesize, evaluate, and apply the

information they know to find solutions to new and existing problems.

What To Do

We can all play a significant role in encouraging higher order thinking with your children. Asking open-

ended questions that don’t have one “right” answer gives children confidence to respond in creative

ways without being afraid of being “wrong.” After reading a book together, a parent might ask their

child a question such as: “If you were that character, what would you think, feel…..etc.?” rather than

something like “What was the main character’s name in the book?”

Below are more examples of questions to ask your child to spark discussion, make them think

critically, and encourage higher order thinking.

When reading a book:

“What do you think might happen next?”

“Does this remind you of anything from your life?”

“Can you tell me about what you read today?”

“Why did he/she act that way?”

Page 2

W AY S T O S U P P O R T Q U E S T I O N I N G AT H O M E :

EY Newsletter

I N T E R V I E W W I T H O U R V E R Y O W N D I N O S A U R E X P E R T—F R E D D I E L O N S D A L E F R O M M O R N I N G N U R S E R Y !

One person in Morning Nursery is particularly excited about our new topic on Dinosaurs and that is Freddie. He

was recently interviewed by Mrs Patel and shared his knowledge on the topic.

Mrs P: ‘What’s your favourite dinosaur Freddie?’

Freddie: ‘Erm…..T Rex! Because it’s got sharp teeth!’

Mrs P: ‘Can you tell me which dinosaurs were the biggest?’

Freddie: ‘…Brachiosaurus and Brontosaurus’

Mrs P: ‘Which dinosaur is the scariest?’

Freddie: ‘T Rex! It can eat you up!’

Mrs P: ‘Which dinosaur can move really fast on two legs?’

Freddie: ‘That’s the velociraptor and it’s green too’

Mrs P: ‘What else do you know about dinosaurs?’

Freddie: ‘They can eat you if they are hungry...if they want food. But some of them

eat leaves from the trees...so they don’t eat us. They go raaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr!’

Mrs P: ‘Thank you Freddie!’

Nursery Classes

As most sunscreens provide at least 4 hour sun protection it

will not be necessary for you to send in a bottle of sunscreen

to re-apply at school. An application of sunscreen before

coming to Nursery will be sufficient to last for the whole

session.

S O M E R E M I N D E R S !

Wow Board

R ecept ion parents,

please don’t forget to add

any achievements your

child has made to our

wow board. We really

want to celebrate the

steps they have made at

home and at school.

Healthy Lunchbox

At Berryfields we operate a Healthy

Eating Policy and encourage all

children to have healthy school

lunches. Please support us with

this by NOT sending in fizzy drinks,

sweets or chocolate bars.

EY Newsletter Page 3

RE CE P T I ON : OP P O RT U N IT IE S F O R C H AL L E N G E

HOT A N D S U N N Y W E A T H E R….

We are now entering our final term of the year. Our aim in Reception is to

make sure each and everyone of your children has the best possible

foundation to their learning in their first year at Berryfields. This means

that we will be starting to shift the balance between adult led activities

(those which are more directly taught) and child initiated activities (those

which are chosen by the child and often more play-based). Much of the

adult-led groups will take place during the morning sessions and will allow

us to tailor the teaching to each child’s or group of children’s needs. This

will help us to give each child the best opportunity to achieve their full

potential. You may hear your child talking about being in an animal group

and having group leaders for these sessions in the day. We are confident

that this will be a fantastic learning experience for them.

Please do not hesitate to come and speak to the reception staff about this

further if you have any questions about this.

We are hoping that this glorious weather continues throughout this term.

With this in mind, please remember to put sun cream on your children

before coming to school in the morning and provide a named sun hat in

their book bag. The children will have continuous access to water and will

be encouraged to drink plenty of water throughout their day at school.

Philosophy for Children

P4C

During the summer

term, Reception will be

introducing the children

into having specific

group time focusing on

this. During this time we

will be developing their

speaking and listening

skills as well as

developing their ability

to think deeply and form

their own opinions.

Please check your

child’s book back for

their learning logs where

we will be sending out

some information and

questions for you to

discuss with your child

at home.

Page 4

W E B L I N K S

Dino addition colouring

http://

www.enchantedlearnin

g.com/subjects/

dinosaurs/activities/

mathcolor/

Dinosaur skeleton

challenge

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

sn/prehistoric_life/

games/

skeleton_jigsaw/

skeletal_jigsaws/

index.shtml

How big were

dinosaurs?

http://

www.enchantedlearnin

g.com/subjects/

dinosaurs/activities/

math/size.shtml

Dino quiz

http://

www.zoomdinosaurs.co

m/subjects/dinosaurs/

activities/findit/

gr2a.shtml

Unscramble the words

http://

www.enchantedlearnin

g.com/subjects/

dinosaurs/activities/

unscramble/

Dino listening/

colouring activity

http://

www.enchantedlearnin

g.com/subjects/

dinosaurs/activities/

checklist/

Trextriactivity.shtml

EY Newsletter

F U N F A C T S A B O U T . . . The word dinosaur comes from the Greek language

and means ‘terrible lizard’. The word was coined by

English paleontologist Richard Owen in 1842 and

was meant to refer to Dinosaurs impressive size rather than their scary appearance.

Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for over 160 million years, from the Triassic period around

230 million years ago through the Jurassic period and until the end of the Cretaceous

period around 65 million years ago.

It is believed that dinosaurs lived on Earth until around 65 million years ago when a

mass extinction occurred.

The first dinosaur to be formally named was the Megalosaurus, back in 1824.

A person who studies dinosaurs is known as a paleontologist.

Rather than being carnivores (meat eaters), the largest dinosaurs such as the

Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus were actually herbivores (plant eaters).

To help fight meat eaters such as the Allosaurus or Spinosaurus, many plant eaters had

natural weapons at their disposal. Examples of this include the spikes on the tail of the

Stegosaurus and the three horns attached to the front of the Triceratops’s head shield.

Pterodactyls are not dinosaurs, they were flying reptiles that

lived during the age of dinosaurs but by definition they do not fall

into the same category.

H E L P Y O U R C H I L D L E A R N T H E N A M E S O F T H E S E D I N O S A U R S A N D I D E N T I F Y T H E M :

Hot weather

Please provide a

named sun hat in

their bag and apply

sunscreen before

coming in the

morning. As most

sunscreens provide

at least 4 hour sun

protection it will not

be necessary for

you to send in a

bottle of sunscreen

to re-apply at

BerryBeebies.

Help your child by reading the books , look at the pictures and talk about them, ask them

questions about the pictures such as ‘ Why did the Gingerbread man not want to cross

the river?’ , ‘Which is big bear?’, ‘How did Goldilocks feel when she saw the bears?’. Talk

about the different materials that the pigs houses are made off and look for examples of

bricks , sticks and straw.

Berry Beebies this term will be learning through some favourite

books

Week Beg: Book

1. 14.04.15 The Gingerbread man

2. 20.04.15 The Gingerbread man

3. 27.04.15 Goldilocks and the three bears

4. 04.05.15 Goldilocks and the three bears

5. 11.05.15 The three little pigs

6. 18.05.15 The three little pigs

BERRYBEEBIES