Friday 28th September

Useful information and requests:

• Next week is Book Week- Mrs Roberson is running a competition. Please can your child bring in a rhyming book on Monday (which they will share with the class or with their partner) and tell us an 'awesome word' that you and your child have identified in the book. Please write the awesome word on a post-it and stick in on the book. For example: 'ear-splitting' is an awesome word we found in 'Room on the Broom' describing the shriek from the bird.
• We would be extremely grateful if you have any small card board boxes, egg boxes, tubes, yogurt pots etc that we could have for junk modelling.
• The children are spilling their water on the carpet fairly frequently.We would be very grateful if you could ensure that your child's bottle does not have too large an opening to stop such spillages.
• Things to do...
• Read books to your child and talk about any rhyming words you come across. See if your child can continue rhyming strings.
• Encourage your child to practise taking their shoes and socks off and putting them back on ready for PE on Monday. 
• We are continuing to ensure that the children can follow instructions at school. Please can you practise with your child at home by giving them 2 or 3 instructions at a time.

Thank you to those of you who attended the Macmillan coffee afternoon today. 

In Adult Directed this week the children have rotated around four activities:

Maths: The children have focused on the number 2. The children counted body parts on the bear. He had one head, one neck, one tummy. He had two arms, two legs, two eyes, two hands and two feet. The children each had to dress a bear finding the correct item of clothes, counting in 1 or 2 of each item. We also talked about a semi circle. If we cut a circle in half we found we had two pieces and the children learnt that this new shape was called a semi-circle and a semi-circle has two sides. The children should know that a semi-circle is a 2d shape. 

Expressive Arts and Design: The children have been learning about primary colours and how we can make secondary colours from mixing these three colours. They used the colours they made on a circular piece of paper.

Understanding of the World: The children went on a hunt in the playground for pictures of animals. Once the children had an animal they discussed similarities and differences. They responded to the following instructions: 

·         Put your hand up if your animal is furry,

·         Put your hand up if your animal has four legs

·         Put your hand up if it has horns

·         Put your hand up if it has feathers

·         Put your hand up if your animal has a tail

·         Put your hand up if your animal has a beak

·         Put your hand up if your animal has a mane

The children then had to match the baby animal to their parent. We talked about the names of these animals and how the baby and parent may have different names and look different: calf and cow, puppy and dog, foal and horse, kitten and cat, kitten and rabbit. Some children would benefit from further discussion around this subject.

Literacy: In Literacy the children focused on rhyming words. The children put their wellies on and went down to the Robin Hood Trail. The children all went on a hunt and found objects. The teacher then got her cauldron and said ' Izzie, wizzie, let's get busy, what can I see? Lots of things in the cauldron, just for me!'. She then took one thing out of the cauldron at a time and asked the children who had an object that rhymed with it. eg. can and man. The teacher read the story of 'Room on the Broom'. When they reached the part that said 'find something everyone throw some thing in', the children had to put the items in the cauldron. 

In phonics this week we have continued to focus on rhyming words and rhythm- the children are doing really well with these. They took part in several different activities.

We sang a rhyming song to the tune of 'The Farmer's in the Dell' for example: 'The dog in the fog on the log, the dog in the fog on the log, A, E, I, O, U the dog in the fog on the log'. We then listed all the words we could think of that rhymed with dog. We repeated this with different rhyming words:

The cat with a hat on a mat......

The pin and the bin made of tin.....

The slug in the jug on a rug...

Each time we listed all the words we could think of in each rhyming string. 

The teacher clapped a pattern and the children had to copy the pattern. The pattern started with clapping and then developed to include stamping, tapping and instruments. Some of the patterns were passed around the circle.

The children played 'Tambour Names': The children sit in a circle and pass around a tambour and chant ' Some names are short, some names are long, please tell us your name after this song. Whoever has the tambour then beats out their name into syllables.

Listen to the beat- the children used a variety of percussion instruments to play different rhythms. They were also encouraged to move  to the beat- initially the beat was simple and slow and the children marched, they then moved on to  faster beats and skipped and galloped . 

Playing with words: We had a range of toys with different numbers of syllables eg dinosaur, goat, horse, chicken etc the children had to clap the number of syllables in each toy.

The children have enjoyed playing in the sunshine this week. ChIL has been lots of fun.

Enjoy the weekend,

The Year R Team

Friday 21st September

Useful information and requests:

• If you were unable to attend the 'Welcome to Reception meeting' the power point is available to read on the school website. You can also see the power point for the phonics, reading and writing Early Years presentation.
• We would be extremely grateful if you have any small card board boxes we could have for junk modelling.
• Things to do...
• Read books to your child and talk about any rhyming words you come across. See if your child can continue rhyming strings.
• Encourage your child to practise taking their shoes and socks off and putting them back on ready for PE on Monday. 
• Please can you ensure that your child has a pair of wellies to be kept at school and brings in a coat for outdoor play.
• We have been focusing on following instructions at school. Please can you practise with your child at home by giving them 2 or 3 instructions at a time.

This week the children completed 4 adult directed activities these were:

Expressive Arts and Design: The children were taught to overlap coloured papers as part of a design for their Christmas cards. These are then sent off to a company that make them into cards available for you to buy. Look out for the information coming soon.

Maths: The children have been learning about the oneness of '1', They were introduced to one circle which has one curved side, the numicon tile for '1', a 1p coin and they counted on and back in 1s. They found 1 item and we talked about 1 more and 1 less.

Literacy: We have been focusing on rhyming strings. The children were each given an object and then had to find other children with an object which rhymed for example: rat, cat, mat and hat. The children then came up with other rhyming words in this string and together we thought of sentences for example: The bat sat on the cat. The rat went splat on the mat. 

Other combinations included: 

dog, log, frog

bone, stone, phone,

clock, sock, lock, rock,

rug, slug, jug,

chair, bear, square

Nonsense words that rhyme are also fine.

Understanding the World: Getting to know the school grounds. The children went on a walk around the school and found the kitchen, library, Mrs Pattrick's office, the staff room, the school office, Year 1, Year 2 and the sensory garden. 

We have also focused on phonics each day. This week we have focused on sounds.

These were the activities:

1.The children explored animal sounds. The teacher described an animal and the children had to make the sound and name the animal. 

2. The teacher had a collection of objects that all made different sounds eg bells, keys, squeaky toy, clock etc. The teacher showed the children and they listened to the sounds they made. The teacher then hid the toys and the children identified them by the sound they made.

3. The children used claves to drum on different materials around the classroom/outside. We talked about the different sounds they made. The children then repeated patterns tapped out and explored making loud and quiet sounds with the claves.

4. The children were introduced to a variety of instruments and taught their names. They then guessed the instrument from the sound.

5. The teacher placed some objects with varying sounds in a box and sang 'Mrs.... has a box ee i ee i o and in the box she has a ...' STOP and get the children to listen to the sound. 

In ChIL the children have continued to explore all the areas playing inside and outside. They've enjoyed making things in the creative area,  exploring the maths equipment, playing games and finger strong activities. They've enjoyed using the mud kitchen and the big bricks, musical instruments, bikes and the car track. They have also had construction Chil where they have focused on making something specific.

Have a super weekend, 

The Year R Team

Friday 14th September

Useful information and requests:

• The 'Welcome to Reception meeting' will be repeated next Tuesday 18th September if you were unable to attend this week. Thank you to those of you who have already attended.
• There is a 'Reading, Writing and Maths' workshop on Wednesday 19th September at 7.30pm which gives a great incite into helping your child learn to read, write and learn maths.
• The children will have their individual school photos taken next Thursday 20th.
• The children will have PE next Monday. They will need bare feet so if they find removing tights tricky this may be a good day to wear socks!
• Things to do...
• Read books to your child and talk about any rhyming words you come across.
• Encourage your child to practise taking their shoes and socks off and putting them back on ready for PE on Monday. 

The children have done very well this week, although many of them are very tired! 

The children have been split into groups of 15 for adult directed activities. This week they have rotated around the four areas inside the classroom and learnt how to use the resources available and tidy away. They visited the maths and small world areas, creative area, writing and role play area and fine motor activity area.

Here they are exploring the different areas:

The children have been on a sound walk, learning how to listen and identify sounds in the environment. They have also listened to a range of sounds on a cd identifying what they could hear- this included animal sounds, instruments, thunder, fireworks, skipping, tap dancing amongst other sounds. It is very important that children learn to listen as this will help the children to listen to the phonemes in words and learn to write.

The children have had lots of fun in ChIL (Child initiated Learning).

We have also been singing many number rhymes including: 5 little men in a flying saucer, 10 green bottles, 5 little ducks. Please sing lots of number rhymes with your child at home.

The office will email the lunch menu as requested at this mornings meeting. Please discuss lunch options with your child each morning if possible.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Year R Team