Weekly Blog 13/09/24
Date: 11th Sep 2024 @ 9:54am
Happy Friday! We made it to the end of our first full week in school. I think the adults are as tired as the children this week, but we couldn’t be prouder of all their efforts. This week we have been focusing on consolidating routines, behaviour expectations and getting to know each other more. We have done lots of playing and lots of practising of hands up for silence, lining up quietly and wonderful walking around the school showing off to all of the adults how grown up we are! This is to allow the children to understand how to be safe and ready to learn.
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the 'Meet the Teacher' class talk. It was lovely to see so many of you. For those of you who could not make it, I have uploaded the powerpoint presentation and class booklet to the bottom our class page to download. You can also view these on our class page on the website as well as the termly Burger Menu suggested activities. If you do complete something from the Burger Menu please be sure to upload it to Tapestry so we can give your child the housepoints they deserve.
Tapestry
As mentioned at the class talk, in Reception each child will have an online learning journey of their achievement and progress in the EYFS. Only EYFS staff can see all of the children's learning journeys but you can add to your child's with pictures or things they have done at home. Think of those moments that make you say 'WOW'! You will be able to download a copy of the learning journey at the end of the year.
From next week, each Monday we will be doing Show and Tell which is a lovely opportunity for your child to share what they have been getting up to at home with their peers. This could be something they’ve made or somewhere they’ve been or done. To try and limit the risk of bringing in something physical they have made, the easiest place for your child to share their news is via Tapestry. We have our interactive board so the children can talk using visual prompts and your comments. You are more than welcome to bring in a piece of work or memorabilia etc, just note this is at your own risk! We have lots of busy bodies running around a classroom so this may get damaged/lost as we are limited in areas to store it. Show and Tell will be each Monday at 2:50pm so feel free to add to Tapestry up until this point. Please title it 'Show and Tell'. We will never force children to speak in front of their peers if they do not wish, however we do encourage Show and Tell to support building confidence and support speech and language skills.
Phonics
This week we have started our Phase 2 journey where we have learnt our first four sounds (S, A, T, P). One of the most helpful things parents said last year was the weekly Little Wandle home learning sheets we uploaded each week to the blog. This gives you an exact overview of what we have been learning throughout the week. Please support your child to practise and reinforce the phonemes and graphemes we are learning in school. This will maximise your child's progress on their phonics journey.
We make a strong start teaching phonics in Reception so all children get to learn to read quickly. We teach oral blending in every lesson in every phase as we know it remains an important part of blending words to read. The initial phonics lessons are lively short lessons that take around 10 minutes. They help your children learn the routines and are full of fun. We play an oral blending game every day to start with. Please continue to practise oral blending and segmenting with your child daily to build their confidence to independently do this as soon as possible. Please do speak to me if you need further advice/support.
Every half term I will be carrying out a Little Wandle assessment after each block of teaching. These are one-to-one assessments and are designed to give us a clear indication of the progress of each child and inform you of how they are getting on and their next steps. The results of each assessment will be shared with you in your child's reading record.
This week we have also been looking at initial sounds and rhyming by playing games such as Odd One Odd. Initial sounds are equally as important as oral blending as this really helps knowing the first phoneme you can hear in a word. Each day we learn a new phoneme we pull an object/picture out of a box which corresponds with the sound we have learnt. For instance, if I pulled out a star, sun or snake I would ask the children 'what's the first phoneme you can hear in the word sun?'. They would say 'sssss' and so on for the other objects. Even by doing this, the children are understanding that the first phoneme in a word significantly supports blending the whole word.
As we have learnt S, A, T, P please ensure your child is saying the pure sound instead of /tuh/ or /puh/. We call this a schwar so it is vital we are correctly forming these letters. Have your child look into a mirror and practise saying these sounds...it really helps seeing how to place your tongue and teeth.
One last thing from me
Phoneme: how we say it
Grapheme: how we write it
For more information please click on the link https://www.tarporleyce.cheshire.sch.uk/page/little-wandle/3454
Reading Spine
I have attached our Pathways to Parents Reading Spine to our class page. In the Early Years, reading is split into two categories: word reading and comprehension. Understanding what you have read is just as important as decording the words on the page. Therefore, the Literacy Company has developed this helpful document to inspire and encourage a culture of reading for pleasure at home. These are age-appropriate books so please scroll down to 'Reception' where you will find ten books and a bank of questions (that can be used with other books) to support this element of reading. The most important thing is that your child enjoys what they read or have read to them. At Tarporley we want to inspire a life-long love of reading and this really does start at the very beginning of Reception.
I will be writing more about Little Wandle Reading Practice sessions in the next few weeks. We are only on week 1 after all! The best thing to do with your child right now if read to them and have a discussion around the book which we call 'book talk'. A previous parent set up a 'Book Club' for her child where the dog and teddies would come to hear the child read and discuss the book in detail with one another. I thought this was such a lovely idea so thought I'd share as inspiration.
On Monday, we had our first Pathways lesson, we received a letter from Charlie and Eddie asking us to help them find the monster. We went on a treasure hunt around our outdoor area which led us to our new book ‘We’re Going to Find a Monster.’
On Tuesday, we focused on the descriptive words from the story including 'grumpy, hungry, snappy and prickly'. We then looked at the meaning of some other adjectives and sorted them into whether it described the monster's personality or what he looked like.
On Wednesday, we had our very first PE lesson with Mr Elton. In the afternoon, we enjoyed our first music session and learnt Pat-A-Cake and how to find the beat and copy rhythms.
On Thursday, we continued reading where Charlie and Eddie go on their adventure to find the monster. They meet a wolf and try to soothe it. We thought about different nursery rhymes we could sing and practised them together. I then played some blending and segmenting games with the children.
On Friday, we had a great afternoon meeting our Year 6 buddies. The children absolutely loved getting to know their buddies and had fun in the sun with them.
Congratulations to our Star of the Week, Kasper!
PE
As we only have a certain number of balance bikes, we have to split the class into two groups. Myself and Mrs Line will take group 1 on the balance bikes whilst group 2 do bean bag skills with Mr Elton and then we swap over. Mr Elton is our external PE provider who works with the whole school on and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Throughout the year your child may come home with a special S4YC Star of the Week certificate which is awarded by Mr Elton each week. This is different to our class star of the week where you are invited to Celebration Assembly on a Friday.
> PE Days - Wednesday and Friday
Our first Mystery Reader of the year was Rose’s Mum! Thank you for coming to share your story with us! Mystery Reader is the highlight of our week because it opens the children up to a range of storytellers (that's you!) and an abundance of books. We want to ensure our children develop a love of reading so all you need is a book of your choice and yourselves! The EYFS staff really enjoy this time too because it opens up our eyes to books we may never have read before either. I can't tell you how many times over the years I've heard a story I've never read before...reading does really take you on so many adventures!
Please speak me if you would like to put a date in the diary if you would like to be mystery reader. Remember you can have other family members come and read a story too. These are the remaining dates for this half term…
Friday 11th October
Friday 18th October
Friday 25th October (now been taken)
Thank you for all your support. Have a wonderful weekend! Keep orally blending and segmenting!
Miss Selwyn
