We have reached the end of our first half term together and are so impressed with the way the children have settled and bonded as a cohort and within their individual classes. As Autumn sets in we have been enjoying exploring the beauty of this season, collecting leaves, creating autumn images and reading our story Rosie’s Walk which is illustrated with beautiful autumn colours. We also celebrated Diwali on Wednesday and loved creating our own Diwali patterns and learning about this festival of light.
In Group Time: We have been enjoying retelling and acting out the story of Rosie’s Walk with the children using props. We have also learnt about Diwali and how it is celebrated.
In Phonics: The children have learnt the i (as in insect, igloo, itchy) and n (as in net, notebook and nest) sounds this week and have been practicing forming these letters on the whiteboard. See if you can do them at home using the special ditty we provided in last week’s blog. It’s important to go in the correct direction when forming these letters. Some children may have difficulty in the future differentiating between the j and i sound so it’s important now that they start recognising the i sound in signs and reading materials around them.
In Maths: We have been focusing on cardinality, helping our class puppet to count out the correct amount of objects and knowing when to stop.
In the Rainbow Challenges: This week we have had three rainbow challenges this week focusing on maths, writing and being imaginative. The children have been eagerly attempting these challenges and we hope you enjoyed looking at them on Family Friday.
As we enter into the next half term there will be some big changes afoot and we hope the children will be as excited about them as we are!
In Group Time: We will be reading the story of ‘Meg and Mog’ and talking about making our own potions using spooky objects such as spiders, bats and beetles.
In Phonics: our sounds will be m (as in map, man and mop) and d (dog, dinosaur, doll) – we will be practicing reading and writing some simple CVC words as well.
In Maths: We will continue practicing our counting, this time extending it to finding the total of two groups of objects by counting out the collection.
Rainbow Challenges: We will have all the rainbow challenges available from the first week back so it’s time to get excited about all the different activities they will be able to try.
Orange (Adult-led): CVC word-making through a hubble bubble game.
Purple: Using large construction to create a party scene for the witches – can they make tables, chairs etc.?
Blue: To follow a recipe to add ingredients for the potion, finding the total by counting out all the ingredients.
Yellow: To go on an initial sound hunt, exploring the classroom and drawing something beginning with s/a/t/p/i/n/m/d.
Red: To weave ribbon into the spider web on the tuff spot, developing our fine motor control within this activity.
Green: To move like a witch to music and perform this for their friends.
- For PE we will begin to change into our PE kits completely before our sessions on Thursday, please make sure children have their PE Kits in school when we return after the holidays.
A Gentle Reminder
We strongly urge that our parent community Whatsapp groups are used a safe space and supportive platform for parents to share communication about school events, arranging play dates and discussing day-to-day routines. Whatsapp is not managed by the school and staff do not see these messages. Therefore, if any concerns about your child in school arise, please contact your class teacher directly to enable school to investigate, support and address these appropriately.