Weekly Blog 06/09/24
Date: 6th Sep 2024 @ 3:37pm
We made it! Happy Friday and welcome to the first weekly blog of your child’s Reception year! The children have worked so hard this week and deserve a big rest over the weekend. They are starting to settle into our routine brilliantly and we are really proud of their enthusiasm and positive attitudes. The children have had lots of new routines to learn and have really impressed us with their increasing independence in school. To continue to develop this, please encourage them to put their own coat on, cut up their own food and manage their own personal hygiene.
I will be writing a Reception blog every Friday over the school year and it will give you an overview of the week as well as some ideas for continuing learning at home.
A few reminders:
- Label EVERYTHING!
- PE days - WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY EACH WEEK. Please come to school in your PE kit. I have attached the uniform policy for guidance.
- Each day your child will need their red book bag and a labelled water bottle (and a coat if needed).
- Please sit down with your child and look through the online menu and discuss what they would like to eat for lunch. If you do find your child is a fussy eater, you bring in a packed lunch from home.
- Please let us know of any medical needs (particularly if your child requires an inhaler to be left in school and administered by staff). All medication will need to be signed for at the school office.
- We always come into school via the community entrance door you have been accessing all week. Please ensure you arrive promptly to ensure there is no lost learning time. We will exit each day via our Orangery doors and come through the grey fence that leads to our outdoor area. Please make your way round to this gate (near the Teepee!) and wait until your child has been called.
- Please do give us time to learn all of your wonderful faces and excuse us if we don't get it right at first! It does take us a few days/pick ups.
- Tapestry is all set up and running for you. You will need to click on the activation link to set up your parent account to give you access to your child's learning journal. Please feel free to upload observations from home. We recommend anything that makes you say 'WOW'! I have used the top email we have in our records to set this up. If you require another email to be added to your child's account then please let me know.
- Any queries then please email admin@tarporleyce.cheshire.sch.uk where I will do my best to get back to you as soon as I can.
A date for your diary! We will be holding our 'Meet the Teacher' class talks on Tuesday at 4pm in Squirrels classroom. Due to restricted seating we will be moving our talk to Squirrels classroom. We will enter through the outside door which can be found closest to the main door at the front of school. This is an opportunity to meet myself and Mrs Line and find out about all things EYFS. If you are unable to make it, we will be uploading the presentation to our class page afterwards. We also have our class book which I have attached below.
EYFS NATIVITY - FRIDAY 13TH DECEMBER (2pm) St Helen's Church, Tarporley. Get it booked in now!
Little Wandle
At Tarporley, we use Little Wandle (Letters and Sounds Revised) as our systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme to teach early reading and spelling. I will go into more detail regarding phonics and how you can support your child’s reading at home in our class talk next Tuesday.
Cracking Oral Blending!
Oral blending is hearing sounds and being able to blend them to make the word. For example, I might say /b/-/a/-/t/, your child will listen, repeat the sounds, then blend them together and say the word ‘bat’. It is critical that pure sounds be used and that the schwa /uh/ is not added to the stop sound, as heard in ‘buh-a-tuh’ for ‘bat’. This is vital prerequisite skill for early reading and spelling. The opposite to this is segmenting by splitting up the word into its sounds. For example, I could say ‘tell me the sounds in bed’, your child would then say b-e-d = bed. Once we are confident at orally blending independently, we can begin to set books. The trick with oral blending is to practise, practise, practise! The more modelling from an adult, the easier it is for your child to pick it up. You can incorporate into your daily routine, on your walk to school or even round the dinner table. E.g. Please can you pass me the ‘c-u-p’.
If you would like to continue their learning at home, then focus practising blending words. There is an example in the video below to show you what this means and some ideas for games to play at home. Although we no longer use Essential Letters and Sounds, the idea of oral blending is exactly the same. This skill is really important for reading which we will be starting next week in phonics when we begin to learn our first four sounds S, A, T, P.
On Wednesday we created our first piece of artwork and drew family portraits. Miss Selwyn and Mrs Line have really enjoyed getting to know your children a little more and found out lots of fun facts!
On Thursday, we spent some time exploring the different areas of the classroom, Orangery and outdoor area. It has been so much fun learning through play and we can't wait to return on Monday.
On Friday, we created our own birthday cards for our next birthday! Each child has designed their own card and when they celebrate their birthday we give them their card signed from the class. Please remember that parents/carers are welcome to celebrate their child’s birthday by coming in for a special ‘Birthday Lunch’. If you would like to come and join us for their special day please book your meal through the office.
Mystery Reader
On a Friday, we invite a mystery reader into our class to come and read us a story at the end of the day (3pm).... we don't know who it is until they arrive! The children love it when our parents and family come and read us stories. Please speak to me or email the school office and we will aim to put a date in the diary if you would like to be mystery reader.
Have a fantastic weekend. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday at 8:40am!
Miss Selwyn and Mrs Line
