EYFS Explorers

‘Happy to be Me’ is a unit focused on smooth transition and celebrating each individual’s unique self. The children will listen to others and role play familiar events.  They might nurture and grow plants in our growing area; make family members on wooden spoons; see which household items float and sink; create a puzzle of themselves; make a meal for a friend; or even dress up as builders and construct a home as they learn how important listening is.

‘Jurassic Park’ launches children back in time to when dinosaurs roamed the planet.  Here the children will love playing ‘What time is it Mr T-Rex?’; collecting delicious leaves for a plant eating dinosaurs and becoming paleontologists who looks for bones buried in the sand.  They might need to record some of their observations by printing dinosaur feet or making models to share their expertise. What will we discover?

‘The Spirit of Christmas’ gets everyone in the festive mood as they create Santa’s workshop.  Gift wrapping skills are essential as presents are wrapped and put on Santa’s sleigh ready for the big day! Decorations need to be made and tinsel needs to be sorted by length and by colour.  Can we create a delicious treat for Rudolph and his friends or rescue characters from the snow-storm of shaving foam before Christmas?

‘Under the Sea’ you will find our deep sea divers on an adventure with their friends.  These explorers are searching for sea creatures.  During their voyage the children might sail across the sea in their various modes of transport; or recreate a beach with wet and dry sand; be careful counting shark teeth – they could be sharp! Using tweezers to pick out shells from shaving foam will help us strengthen our writing muscles even further.

‘Blast Off!’ is a space themed unit which allows children’s learning to be out of this world! Children might be able to create rockets and launch them into the sky; spend time star-gazing; turn sand into moon-dust; design a new space suit; create space juice or even create musical sounds that they might hear in space.  Don’t forget your wellies – space boots are essential for this mission!

‘No Place Like Home’ promotes responsibility and encourages children to look after things as we would at home. Mud kitchens are great at making mess, can we organise our resources and make sure others can use them too? Children might enjoy role playing experiences they have at home such as a barbeque or camping. Wind chimes may be heard as the children construct musical instruments from household equipment.

‘Animal Crackers’ enables children to immerse themselves fully learning about a variety of animals from minibeast to farm animals; ocean creatures to pets at home. The children will investigate different tracks that animals leave and even make their own; they might role play as farmers and investigate minibeasts using magnifying glasses.  Children might discover arctic animals frozen inside ice or venture into the jungle under the table.

‘Let’s Play’ focuses on sharing and taking turns. Planning for a picnic can be thirsty work as the children work out how many items they need on their toy picnic.  Using small world blocks and figures, the children can create a whole town to play in, or perhaps a fairy village, or a zoo! There might need to be a toy shop set up to sell the new toys or a den built for new adventures. Maybe the characters from Toy Story could help us?

‘Happy to be me’ is a thematic unit which encourages children to learn about their amazing, unique selves. They learn about the parts of their body, develop their understanding of emotions, create wonderful artwork and enjoy a range of stories, songs and rhymes. The children will investigate using different resources and show their curious minds.  They will also develop their understanding of belonging and the positive connections they have to others. What does it mean to be ‘me’?

‘Jurassic Park’ launches children back in time to when dinosaurs roamed the planet.  Here the children will love exploring what they can do with just sticks and stones like they had in the Stone Age! The children might set up a cave and draw pictures to go inside or move around like hunters/gatherers.  Perhaps they might like to make a model of Stonehenge or practise their bow and arrow skills! What will we discover?

‘Come and join the celebration’ explores what a celebration is.  The children will set up a party and work out how many guests will be attending, how many tables/plates etc they need. Can they make sand pies for everyone? What about some decorations? This will be a wonderful celebration of cultures as the children look for similarities and differences amongst celebrations that link us all together.  Come and join the party!

‘Come fly with me – Asia’ is a whirlwind tour of some of the wonderful countries in Asia. Children will say, ‘Hello,’ to China as they celebrate Chinese New year and, ‘Hello’ to India as they learn to move and create music in the Chinese dragon dance or Bollywood dancing.  Children will explore writing from different languages and try to create these themselves.  The children will love learning about the Chinese and Indian cultures before flying by to Russia and Egypt to finish their tour of Asia.

‘Food Glorious Food’ is a delicious exploration of different foods. Children will get to taste and describe a variety of foods and even turn their hand to a spot of gardening.  All their learning will culminate is a food festival with food themed songs and dances. Will the children make scarecrows to protect their new crops or create their own soup? Perhaps they will set up a café or use the mud kitchen to practise their new skills!

‘What on Earth…?’ is about showing respect for the world we live in.  As a net-zero school, sustainability is really important to us that everyone understands how we can look after our planet. Children will study living things in our locality and in other habitats such as the ocean. Children will describe what they see and may enjoy setting up their own garden centre or deep sea diving to the depths of our oceans. Using different materials, tools and techniques, the children can experiment and share their creations. Do the birds outside need feeding? That’s not a problem for our nurturing children!

‘If You Go Down to the Woods…’ you’ll be familiar with this popular song and fairy tale but this learning explores deeper than just the tale.  The children will learn about the material of wood and its many purposes, as well as learning about things that grow in woodlands and which creatures live there.  Who is the tree-man and what does he do? What can we make out of wood? Children can continue to learn about growing as they work together on their class garden. Does the garden need a gnome? Clay skills might be needed to bring their garden even more to life!

‘Help is at Hand’ focuses on sharing and caring as we prepare for our transition into Key Stage 1. Who are the wonderful people in our world that can help us? What do they do? Children will look at different people that help us in our local community starting with those who helps us at home, before moving on to look at who helps us in school and then learn all about the emergency services.  The children will look at how they can help others; this will include a link with the Layston Care Home in Buntingford where they will run an inter-generational project.