This week we launched our new Project ‘All Creatures Great and Small’.
We were very lucky to receive a shiny new selection of books funded by the money raised at the Diwali and Christmas events. Thank you again for you ongoing support with these events. It is wonderful seeing the impact that they are having on the children and their learning.
Throughout the week, the children have discussed their pets and farm animals. We enjoyed messy play creating muddy farm yards and wrote sentences about pets that we would like when we grow up.
Next week, our focus texts are ‘Night Animals’ and ‘Packs: Strength in Numbers’. We will be learning about animals that come out at night and groups of animals. Hopefully, we will come home sharing lots of facts and information.
Phonics:
This week we have started to work on Unit 9. During Unit 9 we do not introduce any new sounds, we recap our previous sounds and use them to create CCVC words (consonant, consonant, vowel consonant). Being able to hear all the consonants in each words is tricky but so important to develop those spelling skills.
At home, you could continue to read and write the words-
crab, grab, plan, trap, skip, slip and swim.
We all wrote the sentence ‘Dan must stop the frogs.’. If you would like to revisit and recap this learning at home we would love to see it on Monday.
Try writing the sounds or words onto onto post it notes so that your child can see all of the letters/words that they need and then arrange them in the correct order.
If you would like to, you might also want to download the SoundsWrite App (available on Ipad only) which is called Initial Code. Please note that there is a charge for this app. Some children have started to use the app in school for additional phonics support and already we are seeing additional progress.
Maths:
In Maths, we have explored the concept of ‘Five and a bit’ to create the numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9. We looked at spots on ladybirds to see which numbers we can subitise and combine to find the total. For example, ‘I see 5 and 2 more… 7 spots on the ladybird!’.
We reviewed and recapped our understanding constantly during these sessions challenging children to explain their thinking. ‘How do you know…’ ‘Can you show me…?’.
The children love exploring numbers so lots of these number skills are used constantly throughout our playful learning.
PSHCE-
In PSHCE we began our unit of work focussed on our bodies. The children labelled body parts and thought about what we can and cannot yet do with our bodies.
PE-
From week 3, we will be doing PE outside. Please could you send your child with a named outdoor PE kit (trousers/leggings, a hoodie/suitable jacket and some outdoor PE shoes.). Until then, we will continue to do PE inside and if the weather is particularly bad we might move indoors so please ensure both kits are at school.
Following parent feedback on the communication survey, we will now be posting a brief blog each week and then a group Tapestry post for each class. The Tapestry post will feature photographs from throughout the week so that your child can tell you all about their adventures throughout the week.
This week, we have also posted some information about PSHCE on Tapestry. Please see this post for more information and a request from the Reception team.
Have a wonderful weekend,
The Reception Team