Welcome to the Ducklings webpage! 

There are two Year R classes in the Ducklings unit; Feathers and Paddlers.

The Feathers class teachers are Mrs Roberts (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) and Mrs. Rodriguez (Thursday and Friday) and Mrs. James and Mrs. Maslin are the teaching assistants.

The Paddlers class teacher is Mrs. Kennedy, and the teaching assistants are Mrs. Usher and Mrs. Maslin.

Useful information

Tuesday - sharing books are sent home

Thursday is PE day - please ensure your child has a PE in school from October half term

Friday - phonics books are sent home and collected the following Thursday

Friday - newsletters and homework challenges are sent home

Please remember we have children with severe nut allergies and are therefore a strictly nut-free school. Any item in a lunch box containing traces of nuts will be sent home unopened. Thank you for your understanding and support. 

Welcome to Term 5!

This term our theme is 'Outside we go!'. We will be learning outdoors as much as possible, and making use of our lovely school grounds. We will plant a tree and then help it to grow, and will plant flower and vegetable seeds in our garden. We will create a bee friendly garden and will make our own wormeries. We will also be watching tadpoles grow and develop into tiny frogs. We will also be going on our school trip in May! As always we will be using wonderful books to support our learning, and this term will use a range of fiction and non-fiction books!

In Maths we will be learning to add and subtract within 10, and will consolidate our knowledge of number bonds to 5. We will learn to halve and double, and to find patterns between numbers. We will learn to recognise and use numbers 10-20, and will be using maths in our everyday learning!

In Phonics we will move onto Phase 4 of our Little Wandle phonics scheme and will learn to read words containing adjacent consonants, such as tent, frog, splash, split, scrunch and blink. We will also learn to read longer words, such as blossom and blanket, and compound words, such as sandpit and windmill. We will also learn the tricky words said, so, have, like, some, come, love, do, were, here, little, says, there, when, what, one, out and today. All children will continue to read three times a week at school, and will bring home a phonics book and a sharing book each week.

We have so much to look forward to this term!

Welcome to Term 4!

This term our theme is Terrific Tales! We will have lots of fun learning about traditional tales, and hearing different versions of the same story. Our role play areas will be set up as a shoe shop, a cottage and a flower shop, and all children will have the opportunity to learn in these areas. We will also make pancakes and learn about how Easter is celebrated by Christians, and learn about the Hindu Spring festival of Holi! These are the traditional tales we will base our learning on this term;

In Phonics we will consolidate our knowledge of Phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs - ai, ee, oo, oo, igh, ar, or, oi, ear, air, ur and er. We will also learn to read words containing double letters (e.g. butter, hammer, rubber) and words containing two or more digraphs (e.g. powder, torch, corner). We will read words ending in 'ing' (looking, chatting, singing) and compound words (e.g. bedroom, carpark, farmyard). Each day we will read and write words, and learn how to form our letters correctly.

In Maths we will be combining two groups and writing number sentences, and also learning how to add two numbers together to make 10. We will be naming and describing 2D and 3D shapes, and making patterns.

This term we hope to learn outside as much as possible, and to find signs of Spring - we have lots to look forward to!

Welcome to Term 3!

This term we will be learning all about 'Amazing Animals'! We will base our learning on lots of wonderful stories with animals in, and will also use non-fiction books to find out more about animals from around the world. We will learn about different habitats, and how some animals camouflage themselves with their surroundings. We will look back in time at the dinosaurs, and learn about mythical Chinese creatures and Chinese New Year Hopefully we will get to meet some real animals too!

These are the books we will read this term;

In Phonics we will revise all of the phonemes we have already learnt, and practice blending them together to read words. We will then learn the digraphs ai, ee, oa, oo (as in look), oo (as in room), ar, or, ur, ow, oi and er, and also the trigraphs igh and ear. We will also learn how to read words with the double letters dd mm tt bb rr gg pp ff, such as rubber and ladder. We will also be learning more tricky words and how to write words.

In Maths we will be learn that 0 is a number, and we will learn how to count amounts up to 10. We will learn how numbers up to 10 can be represented and how to recognise each numeral. We will be learning which two numbers can be added together to make each number. We will also be learning to subitise, which means to know how many there are in a group without having to count them. We will compare groups of different objects. We will work practically in Maths, using lots of different resources, both indoors and outdoors!

We will visit Lydd Library and our own school library regularly, and we will also learn how Chinese New Year is celebrated!

We have lots to look forward to this term!

Welcome to Term 2!

This term our theme is 'Ticket to Ride'! We will base our learning on lots of wonderful stories involving travel and journeys, and will learn where Lydd is on a map. We will learn how we can travel to other places, and also about space travel and how Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the Moon. As we approach Christmas we will listen to the Christmas story and learn about the journey that Mary and Joseph made long ago. We will also practice songs and dances for our Christmas play and look forward to inviting parents and carers into school for the Decorations Afternoon too! 

These are some of the books we will read this term!

In Phonics we will revise all of the phonemes we have already learnt, and practice blending them together to read words. We will then learn the GPCs ff, ll, ss, j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu and then ch, sh, th, ng and nk. We will also learn how to read words with 's' on the end, such as bags and sits. We will also be learning more tricky words and how to write words.

In Maths we will be deepening our knowledge of the numbers 1-5, and will be learning which two numbers can be added together to make each number. We will also be learning to subitise, which means to know how many there are in a group without having to count them. We will compare groups of objects and learn how to add one more and one less. We will work practically in Maths, using lots of different resources!

This term we will learn about Bonfire Night and also Remembrance, and will visit the Lydd War Memorial.

Welcome to Term 1!

This term out theme will be 'Me and My World' and we will be talking about all of the amazing things we can do! We will be talking about things we like and dislike, and how our families are all special. We will learn to name different parts of our bodies and learn how we explore our world with our five senses. Later on in the term we will observe signs of Autumn and take part in a Harvest Festival. We will read lots of books at school, including 'The Paper Dolls', 'In Every House on Every Street', 'The Little Read Hen', 'So Much', 'My five Senses' and 'Funnybones'. We will be learning outdoors as much as possible, and will visit Lydd Library and the school library  .

In phonics, we are learning our first set of Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs):

s  a  t  p  i  n  m  d  g  o  c  k  ck  e  u  r  h  b  f  l

and we will learn to blend these sounds together to read words and learn to segment them to spell words.

We are working hard on our number recognition and gaining a full understanding of numbers, and improving our shape knowledge and descriptors too.

We are doing amazingly with collecting our lunches in the hall and playing on the big playground with our KS1 friends, and will begin attending our first KS1 assemblies towards the end of this term.

Every day children will have the opportunity to choose their own learning in 'Busy Ducklings', and will be able to choose whether they learn inside or outside. There will be plenty of opportunities for the two classes to learn together and children will become very familiar with Feathers and Paddlers rooms.

The first term is busy and a lot of hard work for all these new little Ducklings, but we are very proud of how well they are settling in.

This website will be regularly updated with photos and newsletters so keep checking!