Friday 9th November

Useful information and requests:

• Don't forget the Crabtree Fireworks are this Saturday 10th November at 5.30-8pm. You can buy tickets via the school website - online sales close at 3pm on Saturday.
• The Christmas Fayre is on Saturday 1st December.
• Please could you bring in cardboard tubes. We need these for woodland learning and also for making rockets. We need tubes of all lengths please. The children are completing a junk modelling activity in adult directed next week so please can you bring in any junk - such as yogurt pots, small cardboard boxes  and tubes and lids.....
• If you old ordered Christmas cards you should find them in your child's book bag today. Please let Mrs Parkin know if there are any problems with your order.
• Reception Christmas play dates: Wednesday 19th December at 9.15 or Thursday 20th December at 10.15.
• There will be a celebration Assembly for Mrs Pattrick on Friday 21st December at 9.15am.
• Things to do...
• Listen to your child read everyday. Morning time is best! Don't forget to read to your child.
• This week the children have started phonics focusing on individual letter sounds. They have learnt the sound 's' See below for more information.

We hope that you have all had a restful half term break and are ready for the run up to Christmas. We have a very busy half term ahead of us.

The children have enjoyed four adult directed maths sessions this week based on the number 6. The children practised counting accurately. They started by counting the number of beats on the tambourine.They then coloured the boxes that had 6 fireworks. As they coloured the boxes we went around asking questions e.g. how many is in this box, how many more would you need to make 6, can you find two boxes that add up to 6?

Activity 2: There were hoops outside and a range of resources (6 of each item). The children were asked to go and find one object and put it into the correct hoop.  We then stopped the children to ask, how many do we have in each hoop? How many do we need to make 6? This was then repeated until we had 6 objects in each hoop.

Activity 3: The children had to find the dominoes that have 6. We asked 'how many spots are on your domino? How many more to make six? Is this one more or less than 6, etc'

Activity 4: Recognising dice patterns. The children sat in a circle, each child took their turn to roll a dice and say the number, if they threw a 6 they have to run around the circle and back to their place.

Other adult directed activities this week have included learning about Diwali and The Gunpowder Plot.

We started by recapping on the main points of Diwali. 

-       Hindu is a religion which celebrates this festival.

-       It is a festival of light

We asked the children to share their own experience of Diwali.  Do you celebrate Diwali?  What do you do at Diwali?

The children then watched a clip. Diwali introduction   After clicking on the link scroll down to find the clip titled 'Preparing for Diwali'.

We discussed how Diwali is celebrated as a festival of light. Light over dark – good over evil. 

The children were told they were going to make their own diva lamps. The clip showed how the Diwali pots are used in the celebrations. 

We modelled how to make a clay pot, using water, clay and their thumbs and fingers to make a thumb pot. We reminded the children that if the clay becomes sticky to add a small amount of water. 

Once the pots were the correct size, the children could use the clay tools to add some patterns and detail onto their pots. Next week the children will have the chance to paint their diva lamps and add some glitter.

We encouraged the children to hold the tools correctly and use different ways to manipulate the clay.

The children were shown the following clip. Mehndi patterns   This explained how  Mehndi is applied. The children needed to look carefully at the different patterns that were being used.

Once it has finished we discussed the patterns that have been used - dots, swirls, small or long lines, hatching patterns, any particular images (flowers).

 We modelled and explained to the children that they needed to design their own Mehndi pattern on the paper hand. They were encouraged to think carefully about the pattern that they were going to create.

We reminded the children of fireworks night/bonfire night – 5^th November

We asked them: What can you tell me about firework night? Does anyone know the reason we celebrate firework night? Has anyone heard of a man called Guy Fawkes?

We told the children the story of Guy Fawkes:

A long time ago – over 400 hundred years ago – the King of England was called King James 1. Some people didn’t like him and thought that it would be better if he wasn’t king any more. Guy Fawkes and his friends met together to decide how they could get rid of him - they were called the plotters. The Houses of Parliament is a very famous building in London where the King and all the important people go to. They decided that the best way to get rid of the King was to blow up the Houses of Parliament when he was there. Underneath the Houses of Parliament were some cellars and Guy Fawkes and the plotters decided to put 36 barrels of gunpowder in the cellar and blow them up when the King was there. But the King found out about the plot and sent his soldiers to search the Houses of Parliament. They found Guy Fawkes with the gunpowder. They captured him and threw him into the tower of London.

Every year on November 5^th we celebrate the fact that Guy Fawkes did not manage to blow up the King and the Houses of Parliament by having a bonfire and fireworks.

We retold the story again while the children role played it, acting out the main events and pretending to be the characters. We drew the story in pictures and then the children told the story to their partner. See if your child can retell the story of the Gunpowder Plot.

We asked the children: Who is the main character in the story? What other characters are there in the story? How does the story start? What happens at the beginning, middle and end of the story? Is this book a fiction/story book or an information book?

In phonics this week we have started to focus on individual letter sounds. This week the children learnt the sound 's'
s: s-i-t, s-u-n, s-o-ck, s-k-i-p. s-a-d
See the link below which tells you how to say the sounds   The children start by looking at words beginning with that sound and then learn to sound out and blend words that start with that sound. In the case of vowels the words we sound out may have the new sound in the middle.  See if your child can show you what we mean by phoneme fingers and the blending arm.

It is very important that the children learn the correct pronunciation of the sounds if you are unsure of these please watch this clip: articulation of letter sounds

The children have continued their learning in ChIL.

In woodland learning this week the children have looked at the Autumn colours and have been wool weaving their own leaf.

On Tuesday the children had a Sports for Schools morning. We had a visit from Amy Smith. The children were inspired by her hard work and dedication to swimming. She was a member of the national swimming team for a decade. In the 2012 Olympics she competed for Great Britain in the Women's 4 x 100m freesytle relay, finishing 5th place in the final. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she was part of the England 4 x 100m freestyle team that won the silver. She explained the importance of fitness training and the importance of a healthy lifestyle and inspired us to become great athletes too.
After the children learnt all about Amy they all took part in fitness circuits teaching them the importance of exercise and that it is worth persevering and they can achieve great things too! 

Enjoy the fireworks on Saturday and have a good weekend.
The Year R Team