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Mrs H's blogs

1st October

I often glory at the awe and wonder of being a 4 year old; how me saying 'It's not Tuesday, that was yesterday!' delivers howls of laughter and then introducing a new month creates ooh and ahhs! We have our first Hedgehog birthdays this month- including my own (34 again obviously). Talking about birthdays, you are welcome to come in for a birthday lunch (see Miss Cadnam in the office for details) and be as proud as I am of their behaviour in the lunch hall and how little wastage there is. As a healthy school, I am not going to encourage bringing birthday sweets or goodies in, especially as we have a few children unable to have them due to dietary needs. We will make a fuss of them in school, sing to them at least once and they will have a smashing time with you before and after I'm sure. (Unlike me who has staff meeting until 6 #eyeroll)

Our GPCs are coming in thick and fast. So far we have learnt: satipngocmnd. We practise them about 10 times a day to recognise the phoneme or the picture (o-o-o- octopus). I had about 8 children who consistently got them all right today so we will need a lot more practise! Pretty much everyone is now blending simple CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant eg cat/boat/men/lake) orally when I segment the words for them. We are still working on them reading a simple word using our known GPCs by blending independently.  As long as I have everyone doing this by November we'll be on track for my reading journey with them. 

We will start reading practice week 13th October all being well with staffing/children. I will put children into groups (these will be very flexible as their learning accelerates) and an adult will read with  them at least 3 times a week with the same Little Wandle book. I will then send these very precious books home for a week so you can practise and practise these books until they have memorised them. This is for confidence and self-belief and habit-forming. Remember to make sure they are being a reader (even it they know it off by heart) by getting them to look and point at each word. First will be no-word books. For these, the focus is on language acquisition. You wouldn't believe how few of them could tell me the name of the animal (zebra) last week. Use the pictures to tell a story with them. Feel free to use my classroom technique of 'my turn,  your turn' and if they mix up a past tense eg he eated the sandwich, ask them : eated or ate? They are just starting to realise it is always the second version!

I will give your child a coloured folder for their Little Wandle book (and library book if it will fit) so they stay in pristine condition. Please let me know if something happens to it as accidents do happen, and I'll let you know how to purchase a replacement. I will not be giving you a reading record this year though! We are using a digital (charitable) service which should make the recording of each read very easy and a few clicks. I will explain all about it next week in a paper letter so look in the book bags. I will launch it on the 6th (#busydaythatday!) so you can navigate it and we can iron out any problems before receiving your Little Wandle book a couple of weeks after. Please practise by recording that you have read to them as this is as crucial an activity as them reading to you (think vocab and comprehension). I will look at the data once a week and will give you notes of a target or general observation about their reading once a week. As with everything Hedgehogs, please keep any problems small and come sooner rather than later to iron them out.

A quick note about maths. We have started to subitise! This means when you see an amount and can 'see' it is 3 without counting even when the amount is moved around. Adults can generally subitise up to about 8-10. I'll be focusing on up to 6 over the course of the year (and beyond). Things you can do at home... play with dice. Can they recognise a 4 without having to count the dots?  Play around with objects: count them- 3. move them - still 3 right?  move them- still 3 right? If you fancy getting some paint out and painting 3 dots in lots of different ways, I offered housepoints for evidence!  Doesn't have to be paint of course, focus on that 3-friend hold and use pens/pencils/crayons/chalk.

Hope the Harvest festival is in your diary: Tuesday 7th October 9.30 school hall. We might go a bit shy in front of all of you so go easy on us! I will tell you that they don't seem at all shy in class with it!!

Here's to an awesome October

Mrs H

Thursday 18th September/blog 3

The hard-working Hedgehogs have been rising up to challenges again over the last 2 weeks. Our routines are established and I add a new element each day. We have not yet started reading practice or Friday PE but new this week has been two daily phonics lessons, full kinetic letters, hymn practice, Good News assembly, various play items, drawing club, harvest songs and it is only week 2 of full time!

Along with a confidence to cope with school challenges, often also comes a need to build resilience and/or  making good choices. We have worked a lot on- just because someone else is doing the wrong thing, you choose the right thing. This is - obviously- ongoing but I love how horrified they are when any older children run up/down the banks or use an outside voice in the corridor. I have to look solemn and nod and affirm that the Hedgehogs are wonderful at not doing that, whilst sharing a knowing look with Mrs Woods!

We have learnt the GPC (grapheme-phoneme correspondent) /s/, /t/, /a/, /p/ this week. And they will come thick and fast until spring. All the children have needed a lot of 'keep up' to remember the phoneme (sound) and they have to recall it as they exit/enter the classroom. The important thing for you to remember is: don't add 'uh' onto a sound and, although I am saying the grapheme (letter name), I am not focussing on it- yet.  Each GPC has a picture to aid memory so 'ssssssnake' for the picture, /s/ for the phoneme. We are not dealing with capitals yet so as to make sure children do not think writing in all capitals is accurate. We are not spending much time on writing the GPC yet due to concentration levels, time and our pencil control isn't ready. Kinetic letters teaching the GPCs in a different order to Little Wandle so there will be time for our hand muscles to catch up with our phonics consolidation soon. There is a link on our page to the Little Wandle website where you can see exactly how to pronounce each phoneme correctly. Oh and if you're child starts making noises and gurning (is that the right word?) into a mirror, it is because they have a mirror to copy the way my lips/mouth are when we have a new phoneme. When we have done most of the GPCs I will send home a copy for you to help practise with.

I am hoping to finish the new role play tomorrow... watch this space. The home corner has evolved into a variety of interestingly imaginative playing that half the time I can't quite fathom and moving their learning forward in this continuous provision is not happening.(Just because someone else is making a wrong choice, you make...) It will be a clothes shop. So there will be lots of dressing up, hopefully opportunities to draw creations and portraits and act out a shopping experience.  You could make them aware of the £ sign and notice how much clothes cost. This will help them understand the difference between pennies and pounds in real terms.#MartinLewisWillBeProud!

I will hopefully see you next Thursday for some simple family craft. Space is going to be very limited so siblings are best left at home (but not alone please haha). We will make an easy thing for a new display and then hopefully have time for you to see how well they behave in school for story and ray of the day. If we finish early, feel free to take them although many of you have other children to wait around for so we'll see how time goes. If none of the family can make it (and please no more than 1 adult per child), your child will work with wonderful Mrs Woods and we can see about putting more things like this on in the future (this is a new idea for our school that I am introducing).

In the meantime, lots of sleep please!

Mrs H

Thursday 4th September/blog 2

A colleague asked me today if I was enjoying being back in Reception and it took no time at all to consider my answer. YES!  I am not sure if they truly wanted the in-depth explanation I then threw at them but I have a lot to say about the gorgeousness of them all!

This week is all about them feeling happy and safe. They have already become so much more confident in who they play with, what toys they seek out and generally talking to us adults. The first few weeks could be nicknamed 'herding cats' and, as always for every teacher, you forget the amount of energy, resilience and bladder control needed in September! But here we are end of week 1 and they are mostly confident with:

finding their own peg name

putting their book bag in their own tray

getting their indoor and outdoor shoes on/off 

managing their own toileting

elbow bumping me at the door

the lunchtime routine- remembering their lunch order, waiting patiently, eating with little adult intervention, tidying up their tray and waiting to go to play.

using signing for 'Good Morning', 'help', 'done' and 'sit down'

I'm happy with that!  Next immediate steps are:

• coping with full time and its timetable- Kinetic letters, phonics, maths, English, drawing club, relax kids...
• PE (Wednesdays)
• sharing adult attention (I will be doing the Government's mandatory Baseline assessments next week so will be working with each child 1:1 for 15mins. So they will have to be patient and resilient to wait for Mrs Woods/Mrs Line if they want to chat.)
• speaking when spoken to by an adult eg in register or with instructions or help; we will add to our signing -  'toilet', 'thank you', 'ok'

I hope you can come to the classroom talk on Tuesday 9th 3.30 in Squirrels' class. I will send them out to you and then if you make your way round to the main entrance and I will let you in to the Squirrels' classroom (the one nearest to the office reception). The children will go with Mrs Murphy (Squirrelss' teacher) and play while I chat. I have to be out by 4pm for the next talk. I will give you some up-to-date information about life in Hedgehogs then we will go and let your child show you round the classroom (after they've tidied up from playing with Mrs Murphy!). I will try my best to answer as many questions as I can that you have. Just enjoy seeing their space and their confidence around it - already!

I hope this gives you a better insight to their exciting new school life. I will aim to do a blog every 2-3 weeks.

See you on Tuesday.

Mrs H

Monday 1st September/blog 1

It's finally here! Nerves mixed with excitement, right? Before you know it, it will all seem completely routine and normal ...and almost Christmas!

There will be a lot of communication from school probably over the next few days so here is the information I think you need re your Hedgehog.

1. Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd, doors open at 8:50 to try to avoid the crowd in the corridor. Pick up 12.30 same door. 
2. Thursday 4th & Friday 5th and beyond, doors open at 8:40 until 8:50.
3. Thursday and Friday pickup 12:30.
4. Snack- optional but we will have a specific circle time snack time every day so if you think your child might be fussy about the fruit/veg on offer (it changes most days and we have no choice about the free fruit we receive) please provide a small pot. (fruit and veg only please, no cheese string, salami, biscuits or breakfast bars)
5. PE will start Tuesday 9th Sept (come in PE kit).
6. Wellies- name and bring in by Monday 8th.
7. Slippers needed asap (named and rubber-soled please)
8. Look out for news about accessing your digital reading record.
9. Tapestry access also coming asap.
10. Check out website for diary dates/show n tell/blogs. Compass also an essential weekly check in to feel you know what is happening.
11. Week 8th September pick up 3:20pm from the Orangery doors round the back of the classroom. Access via the playground. More about full time in next blog (on Compass and class page, website).

We've worked hard throughout the summer to make the classroom areas beautiful learning spaces and will look forward to you seeing them all if you can come to our first ever parentcraft session (see diary dates).

Any questions please contact me via admin@tarporleyce.cheshire.sch.uk. I will aim to answer anything within 2 working days. My priority for the next couple of weeks is getting to know your Hedgehog as much and as soon as possible and planned the curriculum accordingly. I will not be able to speak at the coming in time but will try to be around for 10mins at the end of each school day, should you need me or Mrs Woods.

Right, back to the To Do list!

Mrs H