Useful information and requests:
- The children are invited to dress as pirates for our Pirate workshop on Monday 22nd January. Please do not send your child in with a sword.
- We would be very grateful for any donations of lentils, rice and pasta (it doesn't matter if these are out of date). They will be using in it our trays outside for sieving and pouring.
- As always we will gratefully accept junk modelling, including boxes, tubes and plastic tubs such as yoghurt pots and very clean meat trays.
- We are also in need of some cereal boxes and 500ml plastic bottles for a pirate activity next week- as many as possible please.
Things to do....
- Recap this weeks sounds-w, x and y
- Read with your child
- Recap adding 2 small amounts together. Encourage your child to put the larger number in their head and count on. Or if they are not ready for this yet use objects and push the two parts together and ask your child to count the total.
- Go on a Winter walk and discuss the signs of winter.
- Ask your child to retell the story of 'Ridiculous'
The children have been writing winter poems. We started by discussing winter and together made a mind map about everything the children could think of about winter. The teacher modelled writing sentences about winter. Reminding the children about using a capital letter at the beginning of each line and using finger spaces and a full-stop.
The teacher then read some winter poems and asked the children what they noticed. Some of them had rhyme, some did not but they were all about winter! While each small group worked with an adult the other children worked on independent tasks such as looking at books about winter and seasons, drawing winter pictures and cutting winter shapes. The children working with the adult then wrote either sentences starting 'Winter is......' making a 5 line poem. Or they continued the sentence on a strip of paper which was started for them with 'Winter is.... and then the groups work was put together to make a poem.
The second Literacy activity was based on the story of 'Ridiculous' . The children listened to the story and then made a story map using nine boxes showing what happened in the story. As we made the story map we discussed who the characters were and what was happening at the beginning, middle and end of the story. We then used the story map to retell the story as a whole class. Different children were chosen to explain what was happening in each box. Then as a whole class we stepped the story in a circle acting out what happened. The children then told the story to their learning partners. See if your child can tell the story to you using the story map below:
In EAD the children have been using their observational skills to draw the characters from the story of Ridiculous.
We talked about the different media we have used before and what might be good to use now and why some media might be better than others for example paint may not allow us to give enough detail.
The children then decided to use pastels in order to show some detail. The adult modelled how to look closely at the characters and demonstrated how to blend the colours together and use the flat part of the pastel as well as the tip.
To develop the children's understanding of the world the children went on a winter walk. We asked the children if they knew what season we were in and what we needed to do before going on a winter walk (put on our warm clothes- coats and wellies). We asked the children what we might see and hear and together made a mind map of our ideas. We discussed what we may find as signs of Winter and what might be different to when we went on an Autumn walk and what might be the same.
If you go on a winter walk with your child encourage them by asking the following key questions:
What would it look like in summer/autumn/spring?
How do you know that this is a sign of winter?
Why has that tree still got leaves?
Can you see any animals? Why?
Do animals live here? How do we know?
We then watched the following clip
We compared this clip to what was seen in school grounds. What was the same?
What was different? Why?
In phonics this week we started by looking at the letter 'w' again and writing related words and sentences. We also introduced the graphemes x, and y. Focusing on reading for the first day and writing on the second day for each sound. See if your child can use their phoneme fingers or robot arms to sound out these words and their blending arm to blend them back together.
They could then have a go at writing some of these words.
w: wax, wig, wag, well, web
x: wax, mix, fix, fox, box
y: yak, yum, yuck, yell, yap
We are teaching the children little rhymes to go with each letter-
w: The wombat wears a watch
x: X-men-ray vision have
y: My yoghurt tastes yummy!
We also practised the formation of these letters:
w- is a zig-zag monster letter. Down up, down up.
v- is a zig zag monster letter. Down, up.
y- is a long ladder letter. Start at the top, down and curve, down, down and curl.
Even though the weather has been rather damp and cold this week many of the children have enjoyed ChIL outside as well as indoors. In this weeks maths mystery box the children have been exploring repeating patterns. They have loved playing in our doctors/vets role play area and have also had fun playing board games.
Activity 1:
The teacher demonstrated by grabbing a handful of two sided counters and ‘throwing’ them onto the floor. Notice that some are yellow and some are red. We then verbalised the addition sentence e.g. I have 3 red and 4 yellow, asking the children 'how many do I have altogether? How could we record this?' The adult modelled their ideas on the board including using colour/ pictorial representation and using a number sentence. The children then had their own turns working with their learning partner using a white board to record.
Activity 2: The adult showed the children a strip of squares in 2 colours. Asking the children what they could say about the strip e.g. there are some red and some yellow squares. The teacher then demonstrated how to verbalise the strip. e.g. I have 3 red and 4 yellow, how many do I have altogether?Together we discussed how this could be recorded.
Activity 3: The children chose pictures of subitised numbers and glued them on a blank number sentence. They then found the total and could write the full number sentence below the pictorial number sentence.
Activity 4: The children took two numicon paper tiles and clued them onto a blank number sentence. They counted how many they had in total and wrote or drew the answer. They could then record the full sentence in numerals.
We welcomed an old friend back today who will be visiting us whenever she is well enough and is having a break from treatment. The children were really delighted to see her. Please can we remind you of the importance of ensuring that children are kept off school in adherence to the school policy regarding sickness as it is of paramount importance that we keep school as germ free as possible. We are really looking forward to her next visit.
We are can't wait for Pirate Day on Monday- it will be fantastic fun!
Have a super weekend.
The Year R Team
