Crabtree Infants' Reception: Friday 16th October

Requests and reminders:
We look forward to seeing the remaining parents for consultations on Monday 19th October. Two parents are allowed to attend but in order to keep everyone safe, please arrive on time for your appointment and not too early! Please wear a mask. We are cleaning the table and chairs between parents.
We are in need of conkers and pine cones for our woodland learning activities. We would be very grateful for any you find. I'm sure the children would love a walk to hunt for some this weekend!
We now have plenty of junk modelling materials for the moment. Thank you for all your contributions. We are running out of storage space but will be asking again in a few weeks.
This week we sent home some folders for you to keep. These have some activities that can be completed with your child. You may like to use the folder to protect your child's home school book if you haven't already covered it.

Things to do...

Just a reminder to please cover your child's home school book or place it in a small plastic wallet. Please also make sure it is in your child's book bag everyday.
Your child has the opportunity to change their reading books during 5 minute warning. We will remind them everyday. If they are not changing their book, please send them back into school to change it if necessary.
Read to your child every day. Talk about rhyming words. You can also talk about alliteration and play games such as I spy using initial sounds with your child.
Play maths games with dice.
Count everything. For example: ask them to lay the table with 4 forks, 4 knives etc, point out numbers and shapes in the environment.
Recap the phonics activities your child completed this week. See below.
Talk about the number 5.
At parent consultations, you have either already received/or will receive your child's name sheet. This is in order to encourage your child to write their name with the correct formation, letter orientation and correct letter sizing. It is also important that the children write their names in lower case letters apart from the initial sound. We would be very grateful if you help your child practise. Many thanks.

Thank you to all the parents who have already attended parent consultations. It has been super meeting you and we look forward to meeting the rest of you next week.

This week started with a fabulous 'Witches and Wizards' day. The children all looked fantastic in their costumes. Thank you for going to the effort of dressing them up. The children had a super day and have really enjoyed learning about the story 'The Room on the Broom'. The children made masks from the story. They made spiders using their fine motor skills to concertina the legs and they scrunched tissue paper to make the body. They rolled paper to make wands. The children have been making their own spells in the mud kitchen. They made observational drawings of pumpkins and they've been counting spiders legs! During guided writing the children were given some pictures including 'bat', 'sock' 'hat' 'frog' (images related to our topic) and the children had to sound out the words and find the letters on the alphabet card and write the words or initial sounds. They did so well with this, we were extremely impressed.

In maths this week the children have been learning about the number 5.

Session 1: We introduced the number 5. You child may like to watch this episode of number blocks and sing along to the song.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4sYesKx0b4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6OM_nSyod0 (5 song)

Session 2: WALT: count accurately and find different ways of making 5

The children were introduced to the part, part whole model. They had to count out 5 counters and place them in the ‘whole’ circle, and then they had to split the counters between the two ‘part’ circles. We discussed the different combinations they had made and we modelled how to record them. For example 4 + 1=5

Session 3: WALT: find different ways to make 5. The children had to take 5 multilink cubes and join their cubes together. Together we looked at all the different ways the cubes had been joined. For example in a straight line or an ‘L’ shape. We asked them questions, Do they all have 5 cubes even though they have been joined in different ways? How many different ways have we joined them. Ask them to see if they can take another 5 cubes and make another shape with them. We talked about how they have made 5- eg 2 red cubes, 2 blue cubes and 1 green cube. We then asked them to verbalise this and demonstrate how to write it as a number sentence on the board.

Session 4:WALT: find different ways to make 5

We recapped 1, 2, 3, 4 Numicon pieces and introduced 5 – we asked them 'how do you know its 5?'

Each child took a 5 Numicon and a strip of paper. They used a variety of Numicon pieces e.g. one, two, three and four to make five in different ways

They were asked to verbalise the ways they had made 5.

In phonics the children played lots of fun games. You may like to play some of them at home.

Activity 1: Which instrument?

This activity uses two identical sets of instruments. Give the children the opportunity to play one set to introduce the sounds each instrument makes and name them all. Then one child hides behind a screen and chooses one instrument from the identical set to play. The other children have to identify which instrument has been played. Develop the activity by playing a simple rhythm or by adding a song to accompany the instrument (e.g. There is a music man. Clap your hands) while the hidden instrument is played. This time the listening children have to concentrate very carefully, discriminating between their own singing and the instrument being played.

Activity 2: Metal Mike

Encourage a small group of children to sit in a circle or facing the front so they can see you and Metal Mike (a toy robot computer). Have ready a bag of pictures of objects (e.g. cat, dog, mug, sock) and sound out and blend the phonemes in their names. Ask each child in turn to take out a picture or an object from a bag. Hold it up and tell the group that Metal Mike is a computer and so he talks with a robot voice. Ask the children to name the object as Metal Mike would and demonstrate it for them in a robotic voice (e.g. ‘c-a-t’). Feed the object or picture into Metal Mike and encourage the group first to listen to you and then join in as you say the word exaggerating the sound of each phoneme, followed by blending the phonemes to make the word.

Activity 3:Have a Bowl mixing spoon, Four sets of objects that begin with the same sound

Silly soup ( to the tune of pop goes the weasel)

I’m making lots of silly soup

I’m making soup that’s silly

I’m going to put it in the fridge

To make it nice and chilly (Ask a child to select an object )

In goes a snake

Repeat song and ask a child to select something that starts with the same sound

Say the sounds

Activity 4: Oral segmenting and blending

When the children are used to hearing the toy say words in sound-talk and blending the individual sounds to make words, you may be able to ask some children to see whether they can speak in sound-talk. Choose some objects with three-phoneme names that you are sure the children know and hide them in a box or bag. Allow one of the children to see an object, and then ask them to try to say the separate sounds in the name of the object, just like the toy does (e.g. d-u-ck). The other children then blend the sounds together to make the word. The child can then reveal the object to show whether the other children are right.

The children have continued to have lots of fun during ChIL with lots of the activities being related to our witches and wizards theme.