Weekly Blog 20/10/23
Date: 15th Oct 2023 @ 7:57pm
Happy Friday! Well that was a very unexpected end to my week. I didn't think it'd be such a hard task getting home from work when I woke up this morning. My little car managed to pull through some of the floods as I drove back to North Wales this afternoon. I hope you all managed to safely get home too! From admiring the wonderful autumnal changes in our school grounds yesterday to Storm Babet today, it's safe to say nothing can dampen our spirits. We are Dazzling Dormice after all! Your amazing children just take everything in their stride and wished me well on my journey home.
Dates for the Diary:
- Pupil Progress Meetings (Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th Oct) – I will be discussing your child’s baseline assessment, how they’ve settled into Reception and the next steps in their learning.
- Careers Week (Monday 6th -10th November) - please see me if you would like to come into school to talk to the children about your profession!
- Stay and Play - Wednesday 8th November 2:30pm. In Reception we do not have books, instead we use Tapestry to update you on your child's progress each week through observations. Therefore, we are inviting you in to spend some time in your child's classroom and enjoy some time choosing to learn where they do each day. This will then finish at normal time (3:20pm).
- Imagine That Trip – Thursday 9th November. Please ensure you have given permission online. We still need two parent volunteers to assist us on the day. Please let me know if you'd like to join us.
Pupil Progress Meetings - NEXT WEEK
These will take place via School Cloud next Tuesday and Wednesday evening so please check your microphone and camera are working in advance. We have 10 minutes and I apologise now if we get cut off before we've really finished. If you have concerns, I'll give you a chance to raise them at the beginning of our conversation as that will be priority. Please come with any questions you may have and I'll be sure to answer them as best as I can. I will talk about how they have settled into 'big school' (socially and emotionally), their current academic learning and their next steps. I look forward to speaking with you all about your wonderful children then. If you wish to go into more detail about some of the points raised we can organise a meeting for after half term.
Little Wandle – Phonics
This week has been ‘assess and review’ week where we make sure the children are remembering what we have learnt so far. The children really impressed us with their blending, segmenting and grapheme recognition. There are no home learning sheets this week so please see previous blogs if you wish to practise these. Please continue to use the grapheme information sheet to support the Phase 2 sounds we have learnt so far.
Phonics Assessment
The children have really embraced phonics and love showing us (and you) what they know. You will find your child’s percentage of their phonics assessment in their reading records; 80% is on track where your child will be able to move onto the next set of books. In your reading record you will find two ticks and an arrow which will be the next step in their learning. Please keep reading with your child as often as possible to build up fluency and speak to me if you have concerns about their progress.
EDIT - Unfortunately, Storm Babet cut me off writing in your child's reading record before I could return them today, therefore I haven't been able to complete everyone's comment. I will make it my mission on Monday to ensure this information is recorded in preparation for our chat on Tuesday and Wednesday. I can only apologise for this.
In Maths, we have been focusing on the language of one 'more' and one 'less' than a number to 5. We made the numberblocks using the unifix and realised that they looked like stairs! Each time the numbers are getting one more, but if we can backwards then they are getting one less. We ordered the number tiles 1-5 and asked the children to stand on number 3. We took it in turns to roll a more/less dice (+ and -) and the children had to move one more/less using the language 'one more than 3 is 4" and similarly with one less. Vocabulary is such an important part of the Early Years Framework and maths is no different. Keep practising using the vocab 'more/less' in your daily activities. E.g. we would like 'more' sweets, but 'less' broccoli on our plates! Another great activity is singing lots of counting songs such as 5 Little Ducks, 5 current buns, 10 Green Bottles or 10 in the bed.
On Monday, we read some more of our book where the Gingerbread meets some new characters. We picked out some rhyming words from the text and played the game 'Silly Soup'. Rhyming is such an important skill for early reading so keep practising wherever possible!
On Tuesday, we read some more of our Gingerbread Man story. We found a letter from the Gingerbread Man who needed our help to find his buttons! We looked everywhere (including outside) and discovered that they had sounds that we had learnt on when we found them. We made some simple CVC words then went outside to put the buttons back on the Gingerbread man by drawing around each other in chalk.
On Wednesday, we finally got back on the balance bikes. Hooray! Today we reviewed our 'froggy legs' and introduced the children to 'giant leaps' to develop our balancing skills. We then played some games to build up speed, pright balancing and turning without having to actually shuffle the bike in the other direction.
On Thursday, we practised orally segmenting the sounds of some animals the Gingerbread Man meet on his journey. In small groups, we looked at different pictures and used the magnetic letters to make some CVC words such as dog, cat, hen and pig. Segmenting is the opposite of blending. For instance, man = m-a-n. We used blending for reading and segmenting for spelling. This will play a big part of next half term when we introduce the children to letter formation and writing.
On Friday, we had an energetic Wake Up Shake Up session in the hall. We also had our final reading practice session of the week. The children are becoming increasingly confident in reading our Little Wandle books. I know you're just as proud of their progress as we are.
Congratulations to our Star of the Week, Tristan!
Have a wonderful weekend! Just a reminder that we finish next Thursday as Friday 27th October is our INSET day.
Miss Selwyn
