This week the children enjoyed using their phoneme knowledge to write firework words. The children talked about fireworks they had seen at the weekend and we watched a clip of fireworks and talked about the sounds we could hear- 'whizz, bang, zoom, boom, wheeee, fizz, pop, crackle, shshshs, rrrrr, pppp, ccc, hushsh'.
The children then worked with the teacher in a small group writing their words. The remainder of the group worked on cutting skills, firework pictures, colouring and practising words on a white board.
Link to fireworks: Fireworks
Here are some of the words the children wrote:
In order for the children to understand why we have fireworks on the 5th November we told them the story of Guy Fawkes. We explained that we have fireworks and a bonfire on November the 5th to celebrate the fact that Guy Fawkes did not manage to blow up the King and the Houses of Parliament.
We used pictures form the story to make a story board.
The children then acted the story out as we retold it. We asked them questions such as: Who is the main character in the story? What other characters are there? How does the story start? What happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story? Is this book a fiction/story book or an information book? Perhaps you could ask your child some of these questions.
The children have also focused on handwriting skills this week. We are now following the Penpals handwriting scheme. There are four letter families - one armed robot letters, long ladder letters, curly caterpillar letters and zig zag monster.
This week we focused on some of the curly caterpillar letters. The children practised forming each letter in the air and on the floor and on each others backs. As they formed the letters we said the phrase:
c-follow the curve
a-make a curve, go up to the top, come back down and flick.
o-make a curve all the way round.
d- make a curve go all the way up, come back down and flick.
The children worked in a small group with an adult to ensure their formation was correct while the rest of the children completed other fine-motor activities.
Robins and Ducks continued their creative work based on Gail Bartel this week. She is an artist who paints natural objects using a variety of techniques. We looked at an example of her work and discussed what tools she may have used and how she made her picture. We demonstrated how we were going to make the trunk of the tree using ink and a straw, blowing it with the straw to spread the ink across the page. The children then used a variety of objects to print the leaves using Autumn colours to do this.
Here is some of their work:
We have had five maths activities this week. These have all focused on the number 6. The children started each maths session by listening and counting patterns made with instruments. They have completed counting activities where they need to find the pictures of 6 things. They went on a hunt sorting items into the correct hoop. Each time the children added an item to the hoop we checked the number of items and talked about how many more we needed to get to 6. We also compared the number of items in each hoop using language such as more/fewer. The children also looked at patterns on dominoes and sorted the dominoes into those with 6 dots. The final activity was a game. The children sat in a circle rolling a large dice. They had to shout out the number they rolled. They took turns to roll and if they rolled a 6 they had to jump up and run around the circle back to their place.They loved playing this!
This week in phonics the children have focused on the phonemes: n,m,d,and g
Ask your child whether they can use their phoneme fingers to sound out the words and blend them back together. These are some of the words they have been learning: net, pin, Mum, mug, mat, mop, dog, dig, dug, Dad, grab, get, ..
In ChIL this week the children have continued to paint their Diva lamps.
Photos of ChIL
What you can do with your child....
- Practise this weeks letters and recap last weeks: s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d,g,
- Count 6, ask how many more are needed to make 6.
- play board games
Reminders...
If you ordered Christmas cards from APFS they will be sent home next week. Please let Mrs Parkin know if there are any items missing.
Next Friday is Children in Need. The children have to bring in a bear covered in spots in return for a donation of £1.
Warning: Friday 24th November is an Occasional Day and School will be closed.
Have a lovely weekend.
The Year R Team
