Hello, I'm Miss Eastwood.

I am a qualified teacher who has experience in Key Stage 1 and Early Years. I have a passion for learning through play, and I love creating an inspiring environment that children love to explore. You will often find me recycling and upcycling to create interesting ‘treasures’ for our classroom.    

When I am not at school, I am a busy mum-of-two who enjoys family days out; beach combing or walking through our spectacular local woods. I am particularly excited to notice seasonal changes with your children and explore why this might happen, through stories and play, ultimately, allowing the children to follow their interests. 

A day in Ducklings might include:

              

Bucket time: Engaging and sustaining children focus on an adult-led activity. It is high-energy and exciting, in which the teacher pulls interesting objects from a bucket. 

Sensology: Learning through all our senses; children will taste, smell, hear, see and touch their learning. Our theme this term is linked to our maths around colours. For example, Week 1 is all about the colour red, so we taste strawberries, smell a red flower, hear red beads drop on a drum, and watch a red lava lamp. 

Dough Disco: Building our finger muscles to music, using playdough. This is an upbeat session where children enjoy developing their fine motor skills. 

Calm Time: Usually after lunch, children will lie and listen to calm music and watch real bubbles float all around them. We discuss how to relax each part of their body and listen carefully to different parts of the music. 

Music: Nursery rhyme time! We are learning traditional songs and actions. 

Discovery Time: A time for children to direct their own learning, enabling them to enact and cement their 'newly' learnt knowledge, develop social skills, acquire 'new' knowledge from others and develop their creativity and confidence. 

Story Time: This might be a well-known book with practised actions, a story bag with objects to enhance the storytelling, or a book selected by the children. 

Squiggle Whilst you Wiggle: It's as good as it sounds! We are working on our gross-motor skills in a progressive style through stretching and dancing to music. 

Maths: Exploring colours, numbers, patterns and shapes, using songs and everyday objects to bring the concepts to life!

Phonics: Beginning the year with Phase 1, including distinguishing between everyday sounds, then continuing with Phase 2 in terms 5 and 6, including recognising the graphemes and producing the phonemes. 

Supervised Toothbrushing: In accordance with advice from Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, funded by Kent County Council, we take part in supervised toothbrushing. 

 

Term 2:

Super Seasons – Autumn
Let’s Celebrate!

This term we will be going on talking about changes in the natural world and the impact of seasons on our clothing and activities. We will be using our senses to enjoy exploring and finding out about the immediate local area. This will all be leading up to learning about, and celebrating, Christmas. 

 

Our focus texts are:

The Three Little Pigs – traditional tale 

If It’s Christmas and You Know It by Charman 

 

Our focus nursery rhymes are:

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star 

Baa Baa Black Sheep 

Rain, Rain, Go Away 

The Wheels on the Bus 

 

Be ready for learning! In Ducklings, your child will need to have these items in school: 

• Small bag – change of clothes/ nappies if needed 

• Lunchbox (if not having school meal) 

• Wellington boots (to leave in school) 

• Coat (weather appropriate) 

Everything you send to school MUST be labelled clearly with your child’s name. Lost property will be available for parents to access daily on the school premises should anything go missing. 

 

Highlights of our learning so far this year