Week Ending 11/11/22
Date: 8th Nov 2022 @ 3:52pm
Happy Friday! This week we have been busy being Artists and Historians, whilst learning about Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day is an important date in the calendar and we have been learning that we wear poppies to help us to remember the brave soldiers.
This week we have also been learning all about Diwali, which is the ‘Festival of Light’. Each of the children has made their own Diya lamp which they have brought home today. We had a special visit from X and participated in a traditional Diwali dance workshop. We held our very own Diwali party to kick start a week of celebrations in school. The children were able to try some yummy food, design their own henna hands and learn about the story of Rama and Sita.
This week in phonics we have started our Phase 3 journey by learning four new sounds; J, V, W and X. We have also learnt some harder to read and spell words: HE, SHE and BUSES. We will be setting new decodable books on Oxford Owl which closely match the first four sounds we will be learning (as per last half term).The children have applied the news sounds into their reading brilliantly but sometimes struggle to recognise harder to read and spell words in their books. A simple game to play with the online books is ‘I Spy’. Ask the children if they can find ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘buses’ on each page before you read, then go back and read the book together and see if they spot them without help! Another good game is 'splat'. Write the harder to read and spell words (incloude go, no, the, to and I) on post it notes and spread them out on the table. Someone shouts the word and the players need to tray and be the first to touch it with their hands. First person to 'splat' the harder to read and spell word wins!
In Kinetic Letters, we have finished forming all letters from the ‘Jumper Family’ (h, n, m, r, b, p) which follow the ‘down bump, back up, push over’ action. We always start our letters from one of two places; brave monkey branch (top of the line) or the ‘scared monkey branch’ (middle of the lines). No letter starts from the ground. Please encourage your child to hold their pen/pencil using their ‘three friends hold’ when forming their letters. In your child's book bag you will find a paper copy of the whiteboard we use in school that you may wish to practice the letters we have already learnt. An example of how the letter should look is at the beginning of each line. I have attached a teaching video to support practising these letters at home. Next week we are moving on to the Abracadabra Family!
In Maths, we have been focussing on how the Numberblocks 1-5 can make different shapes but still show the same number. We discovered that Number 5 could make the most shapes because it had the most blocks! We also found that number 1 could make all the different blocks. For example, Number 4 is made up of four ones and number 3 is made of three ones. This can be applied to any number! We have been using our number bonds to 5 to work out some subitising problems (say an amount to 5 without counting it). For example, a two dots on one side and two dots on the other side of the page. We would instantly recognise this as 4 because we know that 2 + 2 = 4. We've really been impressed with the language and reasoning skills the children have been using to explain how they know it is that number. I have uploaded a few activities should you want to practise having a go at home! Subitising can come in all forms not just on a dice which is a really important skill.
Parent's Book Viewing
As you may have seen on the latest Primary News, parents from across the school are invited in on Wednesday 30th November to look at their children's work in books e.g. Maths book, English book etc. However, in EYFS we do not have books, we use Tapestry to keep up updated weekly on your child's learning and progress. Therefore we will be holding a craft session for parents. You are invited to come in for the last hour of the day and make a Christmas card with your child. We look forward to seeing those that can make it.
On Monday, we started to learn about Diwali. We began to make our Diya lamps using clay and developed our fine motor skills as we manipulated the clay.
On Tuesday, we watched the Cbeebies animation 'Poppies' which inspired a conversation around the importance of Remembrance Day and the significance of the poppy. We then made our own Poppy art to be displayed in the classroom.
On Wednesday, through our collective worship we have been thinking about the word ‘generosity’. We read the story of King Soloman and the Queen of Sheba and thought about ways we can be kind. We also continued learning about Diwali through a story and talked about Rangoli patterns. Some of us even tried to create our own!
On Thursday, we participated in THE RAMAYANA: Diwali dance workshop. We had such a fun time learning new dance moves which has topped off a fantastic week of celebrations.
On Friday, the time of year has come again to start rehearsals for our Christmas Nativity. We went into the hall to practice our songs and listen to the different characters we will be playing.
REMINDER
Next week your child will find out what they will be in their first Nativity. The EYFS Nativity will be on Wednesday 7th December at 2pm at St Helens church. School provide the costumes but a note will be sent home in the next couple of weeks asking for a base layer for underneath. The children walk down to church for a 2pm start (dressed in costumes) and then we walk back to school to change back into uniform (we need the costumes back for the KS1 performance that evening!) and then they will be dismissed from school at 3:20pm as normal.
Our mystery readers this week were Isla’s Mum and Imogen’s Mum, thank you for coming to share a story with us! Please speak to your child’s class teacher to put a date in the diary if you would like to be mystery reader.
Congratulations to our Stars of the Week, Grace and Ophelia!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Miss Selwyn and Miss Nicholas
