Zoom zoom zoon, we’re going to the moon!

This week got off to a BLAST (off) as we read about Baby Bear’s trip to the moon for a picnic in the story Whatever Next. We learnt some basic facts about the moon and the first ever moon landing in 1969. In our guided group learning we thought about what we would like to take with us for a picnic on the moon and practised using our phonics skills to carefully sound out and write our lists.

In Maths we have been deepening our learning about shapes by looking closely at 3D shapes and thinking about how they are different to each other. We have noticed 2D shapes in them, such as a cone has a point but also a flat circle face at the other end. In our playful learning we have been building rockets out of 3D shapes and going on shape walks to spot shapes in our school environment.

World Cup fever has certainly reached fever pitch in Reception. We have been hearing lots about a football tournament and have enjoyed finding out what it means and how we could use it for our learning. So far we have been looking at the countries flags, trying to read their names and even make our own. On Friday we were even able to take part in a penalty shootout in our outside area. We built our own goals using the building blocks and enjoyed challenging ourselves to aim the ball into the goal.

Next weeks story: Aliens love Underpants

Maths focus: addition and subtraction

Orange (adult led guided group): use fine brush strokes to paint a detailed portrait of an alien.

Red: sewing alien underpants!

Green: experimenting which ingredients make the best alien slime.

Yellow: write an alien story.

Blue: make their own 3D shapes out of play dough

Purple: create their own PE game outside.

It’s that time of year when the school calendar starts to look towards preparations for the new Autumn term. We will share the new Year One classes and teachers at the end of this month.

Please note two dates for your diaries…

Tuesday 10th July- Current Reception and new Reception teddy bears picnic. 1:30- 2:30.

Thursday 12th July- Current reception and current year one (transition to year one – you’ll get to meet the new teacher’s and classes at this event) picnic.

Online safety and PREVENT

Talk to your child about online safety, explain the dangers, and make sure their social media accounts are secure. Install parental controls so you can monitor what they access.

The NSPCC has produced the following helpful suggestions to help keep your child safe:

• Speak with your child about what they do online
• Ask them to show you some of their favourite sites
• Show an interest in who their friends are online
• Ask them how they decide who to be friends with
• Try and get them to friend you online too
• Agree the amount of time they spend online and the sites they visit
• Think about installing parental controls on their devices
• Raise the issue of inappropriate content. Have they seen any?
• Make sure they know how to report abuse online

Children don’t think of people they have met online through social networking and online games as strangers – they are just online friends. Point out that it’s a lot easier for people to lie online than it is in real life. Ideally be friends with your child on social media, but if they resist, ask a friend or family member you both trust to try.

Take an interest in your child’s online activities in the same way you do with their offline activities. What is their criteria for choosing friends? How come they have so many? Don’t be afraid to ask, as it’s important to discuss online safety with them.

Agree on some ground rules together. Consider the amount of time they are allowed to spend online, the websites they visit and the activities they take part in.

Internet service providers (ISPs), such as Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Sky or BT, provide parental controls for laptops, phones, tablets, game consoles and other devices that connect to the internet. Parental controls help you filter or restrict what your child can see online.

Check the privacy settings on your child’s social media accounts to keep personal information private. Talk to them about what to do if they see worrying or upsetting content or if someone contacts them and makes them feel anxious or uncomfortable.

Many websites have tools to report abuse – make sure they know about these too.

There are some great websites to help you learn more about child online safety, such as Internet Matters, Safer Internet and Childnet. If you are concerned about something, you can call the NSPCC’s online safety helpline on 0808 800 5002.