Hello from Reception, we hope you are all having a great week!
This week
This week the children have been learning about traditional tales. We read the story The Three Billy Goats Gruff, a story that involves three goats who need to outwit a troll to get over the bridge that leads to their feeding ground. After reading the story the children created a story map to retell it. They also learnt how to describe the different characters and looked at the language used in traditional tales.
We also read the book ‘You Choose – Fairy Tales’ by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt. The book allowed the children to imagine their very own fairy tale adventure where they chose what happens next. This included picking their own hero, their own fairy tale quest and adversary that they would like to meet.
In Maths, the children were learning about subtraction. We continued using the vocabulary first, then and now, but this time the children were learning about subtraction and used the story Kipper’s Toybox by Mick Inkpen to illustrate this. Kipper six favourite toys but Kipper is worried. Someone or something has been nibbling a hole in his toybox. Kipper empties all the toys from his toybox and begins to count them, although Kipper soon manages to get the right number of toys he notices that his favourite toy ‘Sock Thing’ has gone missing! Ask your children if they can retell the story and if they can remember what happened to Kipper’s favourite toy ‘Sock Thing.’
In Phonics, the children continued to apply their phonics knowledge by practising blending to read and write CCVC words. CCVC words are made up of consonants (C) and vowels (v) for example skip, stop and drop. We used the monster phonics story to practice this where the Tricky Witch hears about Miss Oh No’s dance class and wanted to have some fun of her own by casting a spell on the other monsters.
In Jigsaw, the children thought about ways to solve problems and how to stay friends with one another. They heard a story about a school where everyone was miserable and unhappy. The children explained that it was an unhappy school because people were not being kind and were not making friends. We thought about ways to help the children at the other school and thought about how to be friends.
It was lovely to see so many of you at our book sharing/borrowing session after school on Friday. We hope you enjoyed the opportunity to share a book with your child and look forward to seeing you at 2.55 next week.
The children were very excited to meet our book buddies on Friday. We enjoyed hearing the children talk about the stories that they had fun with. We look forward to seeing what the book buddies have got up to on their second week and will be ready to welcome them back to school on Monday.
We hope that your children are enjoying taking part in our reading challenge. Please can you upload any outstanding week 1 and week 2 observations, so that we can stamp your child’s reading record. As a reminder:
Week 1 – Read a book outside
Week 2 – Read anything but a book
This week is week 3 and the challenge is: To read a book and review it. We will be parent mailing out a book review template on Monday for you to use for this challenge.
Next week
- We will be learning about different artists, including Henri Matisse and Vincent van Gogh, to inspire our own artistic talents. To help us, we will enjoy the stories Matisse’s Magical Trail, Katie and the Sunflowers and Katie and the Starry Night.
- In Jigsaw, we will think about the impact of unkind words.
- In Phonics, we will continue applying our phonics knowledge by practising blending to read and write CVCC words and previously learned diagraphs.
- In Maths, we will continue learning about sharing and grouping amounts.
Supporting your child at home
- When listening to and talking about stories, talk with your child about the characters, the setting, the plot and the main problem in the story. This will help them to build familiarity and understanding of the stories they hear.
- Praise your child when you see their play involving sharing and cooperating with friends or other peers. By doing this, you will help them to build constructive and respectful relationships.
- Support your child to orally rehearse a complete sentence before writing. This will help your child to write short sentences with known sound-letter correspondences using a capital letter at the start, finger spaces between words and a full stop at the end.
- Reading with your child at home will significantly help them to develop their understanding of letters and sounds, as well become better readers and writers. The Monster Phonics books are designed to support the children with their learning and it is important that the children read these regularly however, additional books outside of Monster Phonics books will also help. Please write comments in your child’s reading record to let us know how your child has got on with their book.
- Model how you read and re-read your own writing to check it makes sense. This will encourage your child to re-read what they have written to check that it makes sense.
Any other information
- READING ACTIVITIES AFTERNOON – Friday 20th May – Please save the date for your diaries. We hope you’ll be able to join us in what will be a fun filled event for you to enjoy with your children to help promote their love of reading.
- WEEKLY READING CHALLENGE – Please don’t forget to upload the children’s weekly reading challenges to tapestry so we can see how they are getting on with the different tasks.
- WARM WEATHER – In warm weather children will need a named sun hat. If appropriate, please apply long lasting sun cream before they arrive at school. Please can you make sure that a named water bottle is in school every day.
We hope you have a fun filled weekend!
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers.
