Explorers Class

Welcome to Explorers Class

Children start their learning journey at Sleights in Explorers Class. Our hardworking and dedicated team is made up of Mrs Bland, Mrs Wharrick and Miss Idle, our Pre-School leader. Explorers children enjoy activities that stimulate and engage children’s interests and lead to spontaneous play.

Practitioners know the children and their strengths and areas for development. It is this excellent knowledge that enables children to establish excellent foundations for their time at Sleights.

Explorers Class is open from 8.50am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday during term time. We are very flexible at accommodating sessions to suit all families. This can include mornings, afternoons, or all day. Lunch is also offered for children.

In September 2022, we excitedly opened our brand new, purpose built, Early Years unit. 

We are proud to be able to offer 2 year old provision for children in Explorers class. We are able to offer both private and funded places for children when they turn 2. 

The term after their 3rd birthday, all children become eligible for government funding, this allows them to access 15 hours free childcare a week, or 30 hours for qualifying working families.  It is possible to share funding between two different childcare settings and if you would like to do so please inform a member of staff.

Wherever possible, we are happy to admit children after their 2nd or 3rd birthday prior to the funding commencing. However, this is dependent on the availability of spaces at the time.

Clothes

We hope that children in Explorers Class will enjoy a variety of play – some of it messy! With this in mind, we ask families to consider the clothes that children in Explorers wear during sessions.

Key Worker

Each child in Explorers is allocated a key worker. The aim of this role is to oversee your child’s learning and development journey throughout their time in Explorers. This key worker will share key learning activities with children and report strengths and target areas to parents and families.

 

 

 

What’s the time Mr Wolf?

This week we are looking at time and routines. Our story book is called What’s the time Mr Wolf? The wolf has a very busy day doing lots of different things. Listen to the story as Miss Idle reads it and we will begin today by making a clock. Do you have one around the house you can look at? Try and copy the numbers yourself. Do you recognise any of the numerals when you look at them?

The Gingerbread Man

This week in Explorers we are reading ‘The gingerbread man’.We are looking at ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ this week so this morning with the children that have been in, we have looked at all the different ingredients used to make gingerbread. The children had a feel of the dry ingredients before we added the wet ones to bind it all together. The children then used the rolling pin and cutter to cut their gingerbread man out and once cooked, we are going to decorate them. We also have some gingerbread dough in the kitchen with some of the dry ingredients in pots so the children can make their own creations. 

Trying new food

This morning we read Handa’s Surprise and looked at all of the fruits in our basket. Just before snack we took the basket of fruits to the table. Miss Idle took each one out and we looked at them to see if we could remember what they were called. We then had a guess of what colour the fruits may be inside. We passed each fruit around the circle to feel the texture and once Miss Idle had cut them in half we all smelt the fruits. After we had done that we had a taste of the delicious fruits at snack time. Today we tried banana, orange,passion fruit, pineapple, avocado, tangerines and mango. All of the children tried everything which was fantastic. We even had some empty plates and some children who asked for more!

People who help us

In Explorers Class we are talking about people who help us. Our week began talking about how Mummy and daddy help us at home. We then spoke about different jobs and people who help us. We have added some dressing up of different occupations to our role play area, such as firemen, policemen, nurses, doctors and we have already had lots of fire fighters this week! The children have looked at pictures of a person and a vehicle which are of a different occupation and have matched them together. The children have also picked an occupation they would like to be and made a hat to use during more imaginary play. For the final week of term we will change the role play equipment to different job types, so wait to see who we will be next week! 

Thursday’s Learning Suggestion – Plastic Bottle Bird Feeder

Good Morning everybody,
 
The beautiful sunshine has been smiling at us this week, and after spending lots of time outdoors, I thought you might like to create a bird feeder. This will give you something wonderful to watch, as you look out of your window, or eat your lunch in the garden.
 
This bird feeder is very simple to create, and requires few materials. It also allows us to do some recycling: using any plastic bottles that are around the home. 
 
 
Here is the link to the video, which explains how to make the feeder, and exactly what you need. 
 
I have also included a written document, as you may find this easier to follow. 
 
 
Send us pictures of your bird feeders, and see if you can capture any birds in action. 
 
Have a wonderful day,
 
See you at story time
 
Mrs Taylor 

Wednesday 8th April – Teddy Bear’s Picnic

Good morning everyone.

The sun is shining again – what a beautiful day!

What a perfect day to have a Teddy Bear’s Picnic. Take your favourite toys out into the fresh air, put down a blanket and share some snacks. You could even have a go making a Teddy Bear Sandwich (See Tapestry for more details).

While your outside, look around, what do you see? What is the weather doing today? Are there many clouds today?

Maybe, take some paper and colouring pencils outside and draw things you see, the sky, some flowers, trees or birds.

Sing the Teddy Bear’s Picnic Song while you’re enjoying the sunshine! – see link. Be warned once you start singing it, you cant stop!

https://youtu.be/D4HrxzG1WDM

Have fun and don’t forget to send us your videos, pictures and messages on Tapestry  and let us know whatever it is you’re doing today!

Look out for tonight’s story on Tapestry – 6pm don’t be late!

Keep smiling – Team Sleights