Friday 6th December

Useful information and requests:

• Thank you to everyone who has put in a donation to the pound pot. 
• The Christmas play will take place on 18th December at 9.15am and 19th December at 10.15am. Tickets have been sent home in your child's book bag. 
• Please remember to bring in something for our reversed advent calendar. We have a box in each classroom to collect the donations. For more information please see the school bulletin.
• Children need to bring their costumes in for the Christmas play by Friday 13th December.
• On Thursday 19th December the children will be having a Christmas party in Reception.They do not need to bring anything for this.
• Next Friday is Christmas lunch.
• The children have a letter from the nurse in their book bags. Those who were absent will be seen by the nurse in 8 weeks when retests will also take place.
• Things to do...
• In phonics this week the children have focused on the phonemes e and u. See if your child can segment and blend some CVC words using the phonemes already taught- s,a,t,p,i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k and ck, e and u.
• If your child has lines for the Christmas play please help them practise.

On Monday Mr Pope led an assembly, we talked about why Christian's celebrate Christmas. All the children added a Christmas decoration to the school tree. The Duck and Robin classes put a bauble on the tree. They sang Christmas songs and got very excited.

This week we have started practising the Christmas play, learning lines, songs and the dances. Please can you send in the children's costumes by next Friday 13th December. If your child has lines in the play it would really help if you could practise with them.

In guided writing this week  the children have been writing words associated with Christmas. They had to say the word, sound the word and write the word. The children used the alphabet cards to help them write the phonemes correctly. They all had a really good go at writing the words red, hat, sack and sock and then moved on to have a go at writing some more complex words or write a sentence.One group used the construction straws, another was threading. One groups was using their cutting skills and the final group was practising their handwriting.

In maths we have been focusing on the number 9. Please encourage your child to make 9 in different ways. Ask your child to count and say how many more they need to make 9. 

In ChIL this week lots of the activities have been related to Christmas. The children have done Christmas colouring, made paper chains, dot to dots and cutting out Christmas trees and writing letters to Santa.

In Woodland Learning the children have been making decorative Christmas trees to hang in the classroom. They used ribbons and had to knot the ribbons around the willow stick. They look fab. For the children who couldn't tie knots, they stuck ribbons onto a Christmas tree shape.

Have a great week.
The Year R Team

Friday 29th November

Useful information and requests:

• The Christmas Fair is on the 30th November. Please remember to support the PTA. We hope to see you there.
• We will try again to put the box out for half termly £1 contributions next week! This is to help us buy resources and enhance your child's learning.Thank you very much for your contributions.
• The Christmas play will take place on 18th December at 9.15am and 19th December at 10.15am. Tickets have been sent home in your child's book bag. 
• We would be very grateful for any contributions of beige or green ribbon for a Christmas craft. 
• Things to do...
• In phonics this week the children have focused on the phonemes g,n,m,d. See if your child can segment and blend some CVC words using the phonemes already taught- s,a,t,p,i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k and ck.
• If your child has lines for the Christmas play please help them practise.

We have now started learning the songs and learning lines for the Christmas play. The children all chose whether they wanted a speaking part or dancing part. Your child should have come home with a letter this week telling you what they will need for a costume. If your child is 'a child' they can just wear their own clothes. We recommend a short sleeved t-shirt as it can get very hot in the hall during the performances. Please ask if you have any queries regarding their costumes. The children who have lines will be bringing them home. We would be grateful if you could please ensure that they practise using a loud clear voice and remind them not to rush their words!

In maths this week the children have been learning all about the number 8. They have rotated around 4 activities. These included problem solving using bears. For example 5 bears were delivered to the shop then another 3 arrived, how many bears are there altogether? They continued problem solving using fish swimming along in the sea.  They used part-part whole to explore different ways of making 8 and using the tens frames to make 8. The children also used an octopus and made 8 in different ways on each of the tentacles using reversible counters.

In phonics the children have learn't the sounds c,k and ck. Ask them to segment and blend the following words:

c: cat, cup, cot, cap, cub

k: kid, kit, king, kick, kiss

ck: sock, tick, lock, duck, rock, back, lick, kick

In guided writing the children have been practising writing animal CVC words. They had to segment the words and  use the alphabet card to find the phoneme so they could try to use the correct formation and then they wrote the word. They wrote dog, cat, pig and were then encouraged to think of their own e.g. bat,  rat, fish, frog. Some children wrote their words into a sentence e.g. The cat had a rat.

The other activities included cutting skills, threading and handwriting.

The children enjoyed a literacy ChIL a couple of times this week. They were very focused.

The children had a maths ChIL on Thursday afternoon.

They also enjoyed  normal ChIL both inside and outside.

The children had lots of fun using the parachute during PE.

Thank you to all the parents who came for our book look and ChIL this afternoon. 

Enjoy the fair!

The year R team.