Week Ending 26/10/23
Date: 20th Oct 2023 @ 4:29pm
Happy Friday! We made it! Can you believe we have already completed one half term? The time has whizzed by over the last eight weeks and the children have worked incredibly hard in their learning. We have been so impressed with how they have adapted to their new classroom, rules, routines and expectations of Reception already. They definitely deserve a break to have time to rest before we get stuck into the magic of Christmas next half term.
I have loved speaking to many of you over the week regarding the progress your child has made so far in their first term at school. Thank you for your continued support on your child’s learning journey. We greatly appreciate it.
Bringing in Toys
Please may I kindly ask that all toys (including notebooks, colouring pens, small figurines etc) are left at home next half term. We completely understand that they are a comfort from home but we are finding that some children are becoming quite upset when these things get broken or go missing. We have spoken with the children about leaving these things at home where they will be safe.
Dates for the Diary
- Stay and Play - Wednesday 8th November 2:30pm.Come and spend an hour in the day in the life of your 4/5 year old and enjoy some time choosing to learn. Please come to the main office and a member of staff will escort you through to the classroom. This will then finish at normal time (3:20pm).
- Imagine That Trip – Thursday 9th November.Please ensure your child wears comfortable shoes and leggings/trousers. They MUST bring their school jumpers/cardigans for identificaiton purposes. We still need one more parent volunteer to assist us on the day. Please let me know if you'd like to join us.
- Nativity Dress rehearsal – Tuesday 12th December. This is our final practice before the children get to show you. We will be performing in front of our buddies and the Done Room pre-school at 2pm. If you are in the village and would like to volunteer to walk us down to the church (or back) we would greatly appreciate it.
- Nativity – Wednesday 13th December at 2pm at St Helen’s Church. We will also need some parent walkers please!
EYFS Careers Week – Monday 6th – Friday 10th November
During the first week back, we will be hosting a careers week where we explore lots of different types of jobs. We want to inspire the children to dream big! If you would like to come in and share some information about your job/ read a story/ simply answer questions then please let us know ASAP. I will have my emails open until tomorrow at 3:20pm as I will be in school anyway.
Competition Time!
This week we were introduced to our Junior Safety Officers in school (some of our Year 6 buddies infact) who gave us some information regarding their October competition. In your child's book bag you will find a colouring sheet activity, which must be completed and returned to school by Monday 6th November. The top three will be awarded prizes by our JSOs in worship.
Little Wandle - Phonics
This week has been another ‘assess and review’ week where we make sure the children are remembering what we have learnt so far. There are no home learning sheets this week so please see previous blogs if you wish to practise these. This will start up again after half term. Please continue to use the grapheme information sheet to support the Phase 2 sounds we have learnt so far. All books have been exchanged and placed in their reading folders.
Reminder: Please can you ensure that you bring in your coloured reading folder on a Friday. These folders are there to maintain the condition of our new reading books incase of spillages etc. If the Little Wandle books are damaged then will be have to issue a £5 fine to go towards a replacement.
We also request that all sharing books are returned on a Friday too. These books make up a large part of our library which the rest of Key Stage 1 use so it is vital these are returned on a weekly basis. If two books are missing in a row, we will be unable to offer your child another sharing book until they have been returned. Thank you for your understanding. We do keep a log book, so if you need a reminder of your child's book then please let us know.
In Maths, we have been focussing on using the language of comparison to describe sets of objects we can see. As adults, we always model the language of 'more than' and 'fewer than' to describe how many objects there are in a set.
Suggested activities
- Set up a game of skittles, using empty plastic bottles or similar items, and allow the children to try knocking them down by rolling a large, soft ball. Ask the children: Who has knocked over more than […]? How do we know? Who has knocked over fewer than […]?
- Compare Fingers - who has more? Who has fewer? "Mummy has more than X and X has fewer than Mummy'
- Building two towers to compare (stack of books, Lego, Duplo, cups etc)
- Using two teddies and placing two different quantities on their plates.Use the stem sentence: [Teddy/Monkey] has fewer _____ than [Teddy/ Monkey]. [Teddy/Monkey] has more than [Teddy/Monkey]
On Monday, we finished off the story and completed the rest of our class story map. Story maps are so useful by using pictures to retell the main parts of the story.
On Tuesday, we conducted a science experiment! We asked the children to predict what will happen if the gingerbread man falls into water. We placed a real gingerbread man in water and observed what happened to it over time. To help the Gingerbread Man cross the water safely we made bridges to help him not get wet.
On Wednesday, we had our final session on the balance bikes and taught the children how to do ‘fairy legs’ which means lifting both legs off the ground to practise our balancing. The children also showed great perseverance in tackling the ramp to conclude our sessions this half term.
On Thursday, we learnt about movement maps as a way to express ourselves through moment. We allowed our pencil to 'finds it way' across the paper according to a particular movement. For example, walking in slow motion, rolling on the floor and even going up and down stairs. Every child created a unique piece of art work. We then tried to guess each other's movement map.
Congratulations to our Star of the half term, Yasmin!
We hope you have a relaxing and restful term break and get ready for the excitement that the next few months bring. Thank you for your continued support over this half term.
We look forward to seeing you all again soon.
Miss Selwyn
