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: Stage 1 is engaging children's attention with a high-energy and exciting activity, whereby the teacher pulls objects from a bucket. Stage 2 is elongating children's attention to a different adult-led activity. Stage 3 is developing turn-taking skills and re-engaging them by allowing some children to take part in an interesting activity. 

Sensology: Learning through all our senses; children will taste, smell, hear, see and touch their learning. For example, in week 1, term 1, we are learning about colours, so it is all about the colour red. We taste strawberries, smell a red flower, hear red beads dropped on a drum, and see 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 lie down, 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. We will enjoy a variety of genres, live and recorded music, and explore a variety of instruments, learning to maintain a beat. 

Discovery Time: A time for children to direct their 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 develop our fine motor skills by incorporating dance, music and large movements to help children develop the fine muscle control they need for writing.  They will learn a new gross motor movement to a piece of music while holding 'flappers' (bits of fabric). The children then transfer these movements to floor level and swap their flappers for writing tools (crayons/pens, etc) to make marks. This could be in foam, on paper, in sand, etc. 

Maths: Exploring colours, numbers, patterns and shapes, using songs and everyday objects to bring the concepts to life! We follow the 'Master the Curriculum' along with the rest of the school, which allows for a consistent approach. 

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: Following advice from Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, funded by Kent County Council, we take part in supervised toothbrushing. 

Forest School: Using our school field, it's a time for children to develop newly acquired skills and knowledge learnt in the classroom in a 'new' environment. It supports play, exploration and risk-taking. It develops confidence and self-esteem through learner-inspired, hands-on experiences in a natural setting.

 

Term 6: 

Summer; Ready, Steady, Go

This term, we are learning to take on responsibilities independently, whether it's putting on/taking off our coat and shoes, or using the toilet, wiping independently, and washing our hands. We will be making sure the children recognise their basic emotions, and know what to do next, whether it's finding a 'whose turn is it' board, breathing exercises to calm our bodies, or asking for help.

We also have some exciting activities planned, like our first trip to the Canterbury Library, making savoury biscuits, and sports day. In order for a smoother transition to Reception, we will be visiting them during some Discovery Times, reading stories together, and joining them for lunch in the dinner hall. 

 

Our focus texts are:

Dinosaur’s Day Out by Micheal Rosen 

Chu’s First Day at School by Neil Gaiman

 

Our focus nursery rhymes are:

London Bridge 

This Little Piggy 

Five Fine Bumble Bees 

Two Little Dickie Birds 

 

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

• Small bag – change of clothes/ nappies if needed 

• Lunch box with healthy food options (if not having a school meal) 

• Wellington boots (to leave at school) 

• Coat (weather dependent)

• Sun lotion (weather-dependent). Please apply before attending the nursery, and we will reapply if they are attending a full day.

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. 

 

Important dates:

Monday 16th July onwards - Eating in the lunch hall

Tuesday 1st July or Friday 4th July (depending on your child's nursery day) - Trip to Canterbury Library

Monday 7th July or Friday 11th July (depending on your child's nursery day) - Nursery Graduation 

 

Highlights of our learning so far this year