- Next Thursday 10th May is our 'Fairytale Castle' workshop. We are very excited! Please can all children come dressed up. They can dress up as any character from a fairy tale or traditional tale or someone from a castle e.g. Cinderella, a knight, a princess, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Dick Whittington, Peter Pan, Snow White etc
- We are still looking for natural materials to be used in the mud kitchen including fir cones, small sticks, shells and stones.
- Now that the weather is improving please can we remind you to ensure that your child has a water bottle, a hat and please apply sun cream before school.
- Ducks have chosen to have a DVD while wearing their PJs as a ten apple treat. If they want to they can bring in their PJs and a teddy on Friday 11th May. Please look out for a message if Robins decide to do the same.
- Recap this weeks phonemes- 'ay' and 'ow' (snow) We then started recapping the phase 3 sounds. We also recapped v,j,x and w.
- Please read with your child. Encourage your child to first tell the story using the pictures, identify high frequency words on each page and then encourage your child to sound out and blend words together. Once your child has decoded a sentence it is important to encourage them to go back and re-read the sentence to gain fluency and work on expression.
- Ask your child to count on and back from any number up to 20. Ask them to tell you what is 1 more and 1 less. Encourage your child to have a go at counting in 2s or 5s or 10s.
- Please read fairy tales and traditional tales with/to your child.
On Monday we had a fabulous 'Science Day'. The children really enjoyed themselves. Thank you to those of you who provided them with a lab coat and accessories. During Science day the children started with a fantastic assembly. They were shown some exiting experiments.
In class they did a bubble experiment and made harmonicas. They used lollipop sticks, straws and an elastic band to make their harmonica. They learnt that they could make different sounds depending on where they placed the straws. They made bubble solution using water, sugar and washing up liquid. The challenge was to blow a bubble on a plate using a pipette and then blow another bubble inside the first bubble. The day was finished with another assembly during which children from each class shared the experiments they had done during the day. This week we have also looked at the growth of the children's cress seeds and sunflower seeds that were planted last week and the cress has been sent home. During the week they also had the opportunity to mix ingredients and make their own play dough of varying colours.
In adult directed activities this week we have focused on two maths sessions, a music session and a geography session.
In maths the children have been revisiting addition. The children were solving number sentences. Some children used the numicon to help them while others were able to put the largest number in their head and count on.
The children also revisited part-part- whole to make a range of amounts. The answer is written at the top (the whole) and then the two numbers that total the top number are written below. Some children used counters to help them and some recorded with dots or numerals.
Our music session was great fun. The children talked about a range of percussion instruments and were told their names of the instruments. We had claves, maracas, a cymbol, tamberines, bells etc. The children were given the opportunity to explore all the instruments and play them loudly, softly, slow and fast. We then read the story of 'Rosie's Walk' and talked about which instruments could be used for which part of the story. The teacher then read the story and the instruments were used to perform along side the story. We practised this several times until we perfected it. It was great fun!
The final group thought about the setting where Rosie's walk took place. The children then went on their own walk around the school grounds looking for the features around the school. We discussed how there are different features in different places. For example a school has classrooms and a playground. Using similar language to that used in Rosie's walk the children discussed the route they had taken. For example:
‘We went through the long grass’
‘We went under the play park’
‘We went past the shed’
When they we back in the classroom we discussed the features of our
outdoor area and how these features are different to the ones on the farm in 'Rosie's walk'. As a group we made a map of their journey through the different features.
During the ChIL this week the children loved making a cafe outside and buying their snack. They also enjoyed making their own play dough, playing with bubbles, playing with the dinosaurs and in the sandpit.
In phonics this week the children learnt to write 'ay words and read and write 'ow' as in snow. We also started to recap the phase 3 sounds. We started with reading words with v,w,x and j.
ay- play, stay, away, clay, tray, hay, may,
ow- snow, blow, bow, throw, glow, slow, window, crow, grow
v- vet, vat, vent,
w- wag, wet, web, wind
x- fix, mix, box, fox
j- jam, jet, jog
w- wag, wet, web, wind
x- fix, mix, box, fox
j- jam, jet, jog
They practised writing sentences such as : The clay is on the tray. The man was slow as he ran in the snow.
Enjoy the bank holiday weekend.
The Year R Team
