Welcome to Evans Class

  Classroom Teacher: Mrs Farrow

    Classroom Teaching Assistant: Mrs West 

        Classroom Teaching Assistant: Miss Palmer

Evans Class (nursery) at Aston and Cote Primary School aim to develop creative, imaginative and independent lifelong learners through a play-based approach. We pride ourselves on catering for the individual needs of all our children and carefully plan play based learning opportunities through observing the children’s interests. Our classroom and separate garden offer year round opportunities for learning.

At Aston and Cote Primary School and Nursery we prepare children for the move to Primary School in many different ways. Our Phonics lessons are designed to develop children’s listening, vocabulary and speaking skills. Throughout early phonics children will have the opportunity to have fun with sounds, listen carefully, and learn new songs and rhymes. They will begin to explore aspects such as rhythm and rhyme, alliteration and oral blending and segmenting. This approach lays the foundation for Read Write Inc. Phonics, which the children start in their last term of Nursery. 

We believe in the importance of reading daily in class and encourage parents or family members to read regularly at home. Children in Evans Class love stories and it is a great way to spend some time together.

We have three intakes per year for nursery children, September, January and April. We currently offer a 32-place nursery and these places are offered in sessions as follows:

2.5 year olds – mornings only (9 - 12)

3+ 15 hours (5 mornings or Monday and Tuesday all day and Wednesday morning or Wednesday afternoon, all day Thursday, Friday)

30 hours full time (9 - 3)

Parents can purchase extra sessions if there is availability. 

Nursery children have the opportunity to use our wrap around care which runs from 7.40am until 5.10pm.

Our Learning Journey

In Evans class we aim to provide children with many opportunities for learning and as such offer a two year topic plan so that all children can experience new ideas, resources and stories, whether they are with us for one year or two. The topics are used only a guide as we take our cues from what the children are interested in.  

Our topic this term is Grow a Little Seed.

growing plants and seeds. What do plants need to grow? Can you grow a seed? We will explore seeds, plants and fruit and vegetables. We will be learning about healthy and unhealthy foods and naming parts of the plants. We will read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, Ten Seeds, Oliver's Vegetables and The Gigantic Turnip. We also have Book Week this term. What will our book be this year?

Week 1 

We enjoyed the sunshine! We did some big jumping in the garden and dug in the sand pit. We read the story The Tiny Seed. We talked about long and short and measured the height of the plants. We also did some role playing of restaurants. 

Week 2 - Book Week

Our school book was Flashlight. We explored different scenes and landscapes with our torches. We dressed up as our favourite book characters, watched a puppet show and enjoyed stories around the school with a delicious hot chocolate. We also made some pictures by printing using cutters.

Week 3 

Oliver's Vegetables. We read the story and explored different vegetables. We tried some digging and planting and played role play in the shop. We have been thinking about healthy and unhealthy foods and we sorted them into the correct groups after finding different foods hidden in the garden.

Our topic last term is Perfect Pets and Roar-some Dinosaurs!

We will learn about different pets and think about what makes a good pet. We will also look at the role of a Vet and what they do. We will be learning the names of some dinosaurs and think about the way they might have moved. We will also be looking for those first signs of Spring and learning about New Year across the world with stories from China and Persia.

Our important texts this term are: The Rabbit, The Biscuit Tin and the Dark, Mog and the Vee Eee Tee, Not That Pet, The Girl and the Dinosaur, There are Dinosaurs in Our School and Gigantosaurus.

Week 1 - Happy New Year 

We learned how New Year in celebrated in England. We talked about what the children knew about New Year and then we watched the fireworks from London. We had fun counting down from 10. We cheered and danced at pretend midnight and said "Happy New Year". We read The Rabbit, The Biscuit Tin and The dark and learnt about the importance of sleep for keeping up happy and healthy. It was chilly outside but we had fun exploring the ice! Brr!

Week 2

We tried some different fruits. We thought about how they smelt and what what they tasted like. We have also been thinking about healthy bodies and what we need to stay healthy. We found out that sleep is important as well as exercise. We explored the frosty school grounds and made some ice pictures.                          

Week 3 

We found out about Chinese New Year. We watched a video about how people celebrate Lunar New Year. We used the dancing scarves to have a special parade to celebrate. We read Mog and the Vee Eee Tee and played in a vet's surgery. 

Week 4 

We have explored windy weather this week. The weather was very windy! We made some wind socks using cardboard rolls and tissue paper. We made some obstacle courses and tried some tricky balances. We also started looking at dinosaurs. 

Week 5 

A big T-Rex came to visit us this week. He was friendly and left some footprints for us to follow. We used cubes to measure the size of his head and made a big dinosaur with a wide mouth. We read the girl and the dinosaur and thought about our own dreams. 

Week 6 

We continued to look at dinosaurs. We made some prints in the sand using dinosaur feet. We played a dinosaur counting game. As it was the last week of term, we had some bubbles out and made dinosaur cookies.

Our topic before Christmas was Awesome Autumn and Cracking Christmas.

We learnt about seasonal changes by looking at the trees and leaves and describing the weather. We also learnt about nocturnal and hibernating animals. We listened to the Christmas story and thought about the act of giving. Our text Little Robin Red Vest supported this value.

Our Key Texts were: Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert, Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper, The Scarecrows' Wedding by Julia Donaldson, Little Goose's Autumn by Elli Woollard and Briony May Smith. Our Christmas Texts are Little Robin Red Vest, Snowflake by Benji Davis and Stickman by Julia Donaldson.

Week 1- Leaf Man

We explored the leaves and seeds that had fallen off the trees. We made some leaf trifles in the mud kitchen. We looked at different leaves and found out how they were the same and different and sorted them onto our 5 frames. Which had more? Which had less?

Week 2 - Pumpkin Soup

We explored pumpkins and looked at the seeds inside. It was Remembrance Day and we watched a beautiful animation video about poppies growing.

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/poppies

Week 3 - The Scarecrows' Wedding

We went for a walk around school and saw lots of leaves. We listened to the crunchy sounds that they made and we saw how the trees were changing. We sang Dingle Dangle Scarecrow and made some scarecrow pictures. 

Week 4 - Little Goose's Autumn 

We were very busy this week. There was a lot of ice on the ground and we froze some ice sculptures. We made apple flapjacks and worked together to make sounds and patterns. We read the story The Shepherd Girl of Bethlehem and pretended to be sheep that kept on escaping!