Weekly Blog 09/02/24
Date: 27th Jan 2024 @ 6:56pm
Happy Friday! This week we implemented our Whole Class NELI programme which supports improving children's oral language skills and reading comprehension. I introduced the children to our friend called Ted who will be helping us with our listening skills. NELI Whole Class sesisons will be delivered in three 20-minute whole class sessions per week, focusing on two vocabulary and one narrative activity. Ted has some important rules to help us use our listening skills:
- Look
- Listen
- Sit Still
- Be quiet
At the end of this programme in the summer term, we will reassess the children using the same languagescreen we shared with you recently and look forward to seeing the progress each child has made.
Dates for the diary (Spring Term)
- Monday 12thFebruary and Wednesday 14th February – Parents Evening (face-to-face in school). This will be held in the classroom on Monday and the school hall on Wednesday. If you arrive early, please use the seats available outside of the classroom.
- Tuesday 13th February – Chester Zoo trip (Whole School)
- Thursday 7thMarch – World Book Day (You can dress up as your favourite book character or in your cosy bedtime pjs. Please bring along a book too!)
- Wednesday 27thMarch – Dormice class assembly (9am – school hall)
Parents Evening
Next week is our face-to-face pupil progress meeting. This time I will be giving you an idea of how on track they are to meet the Early Learning Goals across the 7 areas of learning at the end of the year. I will also give you an idea of their current short-term targets in reading, writing and maths. We have 10 minutes and I will be using a timer to make sure I get through everyone and stick to schedule. If you have concerns, I’ll give you a chance to raise these at the beginning of our conversation as a priority. If you have questions that are unanswered, we can schedule another meeting to discuss any points in more detail after half term.
Chester Zoo Trip
The children will need to bring a packed lunch. Please order a school packed lunch on ParentPay or tick packed lunch from home. All children will need to carry a small rucksack for their lunch and their water bottle. All children should wear full school uniform and comfortable footwear suitable for the weather. Please send them with warm coats, hats and gloves as we will be outside for most of the day.
We will be travelling by coach from the Community Centre and children should arrive at school at the normal time. We plan to return before the end of the school day.
Little Wandle – Phonics
This week we have moved on to decoding longer words with more than one syllable and compound words. We have been using the chunking method to sound-talk these words. Over time, children will be able to read words ending in /er/ without using the chunking method, as this will aid their fluency. Next week I will completing their Spring 1 phonics assessment based on the sounds and tricky words they have learnt this half term. Please use the grapheme information sheet given out last week to support your child in being able to read these sounds in new and unfamiliar words. Can they spot the digraph? Become a digraph detective!
The Chunking Method
To break up a longer word we need to read it one part (chunk) at a time, to avoid being overwhelmed and to ease the process of blending. Clapping out syllables or chunks in words and names can help with reading longer words: lett-er, fan-tas-tic or se-ven. We also introduce the children to compound words.These are two or more words that have been grouped together to create a new word that has a different, individual meaning. E.g. wind + mill = windmill or car + park = park.
In Maths, we have been exploring more complex patterns progressing from our simple alternating AB patterns to identifying different structures in the ‘unit of repeat’, such as ABB, ABC and ABBC. Patterns can be made with objects like coloured cubes, small toys, buttons and keys or even outdoor materials like pine cones or leaves as well as movements and sounds. We have been copying and continuing a pattern, making our own in choosing time and spotting an error and fixing it. Please encourage your child to say the pattern aloud and to create patterns around the edge of shapes as well as in straight lines.
Things do can do at home to support your child in this area:
- Building towers with different types of coloured patterns.
- Creating patterns with their toys e.g. car, ted, car, ted etc. Then you can create patterns with movements or sounds e.g. stomp, clap, stomp, clap or moo, baa, moo, baa etc. Always encourage them to talk about their pattern.
- Use the ideas above but make the patterns more complex e.g. ABC pattern (see above).
- Create a pattern with objects and ask your child to finish it e.g. cow, sheep, dog, cow, sheep...what is missing?
- Challenge your child to make an ABC pattern with their dolls and cars.
- Give your child a plastic/paper plate and encourage them to make a repeating pattern on it e.g. gummed shapes to create a repeating shape pattern e.g. square, triangle, square, triangle etc.
- Challenge your child to create their own patterned gift wrap paper - stampers are excellent for this, even shapes cut into vegetables are great.
- Listen to We Will Rock You by Queen and clap the pattern.
- Play Duck, Duck Goose!
On Monday, we loved learning all about Chinese New Year! The children learn about the different traditions surrounding the celebration, we researched where china was, located it on a map and learnt key facts about China.
On Tuesday, the children listened carefully to the story of the great race and how each year came to be named after an animal. We linked this to our maths and explored ordinal numbers such as first, second and third. We matched the number to where each animal finished in the race.
On Wednesday, we had another exciting gymnastics session with Mr Elton. We demonstrated control in movements, in particular tension, speed and levels when travelling.
On Thursday, we had fun completing some activities to help us with enhancing our knowledge of the different animals we will find at Chester Zoo next week.
On Friday, we learnt If You're Happy and You Know It and reflected on the different genres of nursery rhymes we have learnt this half term from a lovely lullaby to a quick and funky rap. We simply love our music lessons!
Congratulations to our Star of the Week, George T!
Our Mystery Reader this week was Atticus’ Mum. Thank you for coming to share a story with us!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Miss Selwyn
