Hello from Reception, we hope you are all having a superb week!
This week
This week the children read the story Paddington’s Post by Michael Bond. The story explores Paddington’s new life in London after travelling all the way from Darkest Peru and meeting Mr and Mrs Brown at Paddington station. We read letters and learnt about his new home, family and friends. The letters included Paddington’s first letter to Aunt Lucy, a half-price voucher for his favourite buns and a very special birthday card. The children then looked at the features of a letter and we then thought about other types of writing that were mentioned in the book including postcards, recipes, maps and leaflets. We also talked about London, where Paddington’s Post is set, and researched more about it. The children then compared Hitchin to London so that they could tell Paddington all about it.
In Maths, the children were learning about number bonds to five including the inverse operation. We started with revisiting the number bonds we had learnt before (e.g. 1+4 = 5), we then practised the inverse operation, for example if we had five toys and took away one away we are left with four. Why not help your children practice their number bonds to five in both addition and subtraction?
In Phonics, the children continued to apply their phonics knowledge by practising blending to read and write CVC+ words. We reviewed the Monster Phonics story ‘The Little Red Hen’ and throughout the story the children concentrated on the action words (bossy words) in the story including blink, stamp, grunt and sniff.
In Jigsaw, the children have been learning about ways to calm ourselves down when we feel angry. We talked about we may feel throughout the day and how sometimes we may feel angry. The children talked about how you may spot when someone else is feeling angry, for example they may not smiling, they may feel tense or say unkind words. The children thought of ways of helping themselves and other people feel calm by thinking about their breathing, counting to ten and thinking about what they are trying to say.
It was lovely to see so many of you at our Reading Activity afternoon at school on Friday. We hope you enjoyed the opportunity to share some story related activities with your child.
The children were very excited to see our book buddies again 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 third 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 observations from weeks 1 to 4, 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
Week 3 – Read a book and review it.
Week 4 – Listen to a story using technology.
This week is week 5 and the challenge is: Find something out from a book that your didn’t already know. Look up a fact in a non-fiction book and let us know what you have found out!
Next week
- We will be reading the book What the Ladybird Heard On Holiday.
- We will be finding out about the Queen, the royal family tree, wedding celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip and the Queen’s coronation.
- We will be preparing for Jubilee celebrations at the end of the week.
- In Jigsaw, we will be learning about how to be a good friend.
- In Phonics, we will continue applying our phonics knowledge by practising blending to read and write CCVCC words.
- In Maths, we will learning about number bonds to ten including the inverse operation.
Supporting your child at home
- To help your child explore the composition of numbers to 10, emphasise the parts within the whole number. For example: “There are 6 eggs in the egg box. 2 have spots and 4 have no spots.”
- Play hiding games with a number of objects in a box, under a cloth, in a tent etc. For example: “ 5 toys are in the box and I will take 3 out. I wonder how many are still there?” By doing this, you will help your child to automatically recall numbers for numbers 0-5 and some to 10.
- 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
- BOOK BORROWING – There will be no book borrowing this week (Friday 27th May) due to our Jubilee celebrations. The children will get the chance to choose a book in class instead.
- BOOK BUDDIES – We have really enjoyed hearing all about the books your children and their book buddies have been reading. Please can we remind you that they be returned to school each Monday.
- 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.
- WEATHER – The weather is very changeable at the moment. Even if it is lovely when you leave the house in the morning, please can children come to school with a jumper and rain coat. The children will go out to play, even if there are showers, and we had lots of children without coats on one particularly wet lunch time this week.
We hope you have a fun filled weekend!
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers.
