Hello from Lilac and Willow, what a terrific week we’ve had in Reception.
This week:
We continued learning about Autumn Festivals by starting our week finding out about Diwali. The children discovered that Diwali is a very important festival celebrated by many people all around the world. It is sometimes called the ‘festival of lights’ and is celebrated in October and November each year. Diwali is a time for people to remember the story of Prince Rama and Princess Sita. In the story, Rama and Sita were banished from their kingdom and during that time, Princess Sita was kidnapped by an evil king Ravana. Thankfully, Prince Rama is able to defeat the evil king and rescue his Princess Sita. Everybody lit lamps to guide Rama and Sita home and to this day, people still light lamps as part of the Diwali celebrations. They also celebrate with making Rangoli patterns, visiting the temple, preparing and eating family feasts and putting on fireworks shows. The children really enjoyed taking part in lots of activities associated with Diwali.
We also learned about Remembrance Day. The children heard about the origins of Remembrance Day and found out why we wear poppies today. They also brilliantly observed a 2minute silence at 11 o’clock – well done Reception!
We finished our week celebrating Children in Need. Thank you for your generous donations and all the effort made with your children’s clothes. It really was a BIG, BRIGHT and COLOURFUL yellow SPOTacular! The children heard a story about how Pudsey Bear and his friend Blush were trying to think of fundraising ideas. The story helped the children to understand why it is a good and kind thing to help other people, even if we aren’t able to donate money. Some of the activities children took part in included making their own Pudsey Bear ears, creating their own spotty patterned paintings and giving each other handmade cards.
This week, we have been learning the following sounds: i, n and m. In each session, the children are shown real life objects or photos of objects that contain the daily sound. They are then shown the grapheme (letter), taught how to pronounce the sound, learn an action to associate with the sound and then sing a song or say a sentence containing the daily sound. The children then practised making words using the sounds learnt this week. All of the adults are so proud of how hard the children are working and sounding out (segmenting) and blending the sounds – well done Reception!
In Maths this week, the children were learning to compare numbers 1, 2 and 3 and they were using the vocabulary of one more, one less and the same.
Next week:
- We will be celebrating National Nursery Rhyme Week by enjoying lots of Nursery Rhymes and ending our week dressing up as our favourite Nursery Rhyme characters.
- In Phonics we will be learning the new graphemes m, d and g as well as recapping the graphemes s, a, t, p, i, n and m learned previously.
- In Maths we will be learning about the composition of numbers 1, 2 and 3 and develop the idea that all numbers are made up of smaller numbers e.g. 3 = 1 + 2.
Supporting your child at home:
- Look for things around your house that begin with i, n and m and encourage your child to say the sound.
- Use your flash cards to check that your child remembers all of the graphemes we have taught so far.
- Talk about the things that you celebrate as a family. In what ways do you celebrate?
- Talk about what “charity” means. Perhaps there are some charities that are important to you that you could share with your children.
Any other information:
- JUNK MODELLING – Thank you so much for all of the junk you have provided to us, it is always very much appreciated. Please keep it coming!
- We are very much looking forward to seeing your child in their Nursery Rhyme character costume on Friday. Any problems at all please do not hesitate to get in tough with your child’s class teacher.
We hope you all have a pleasant weekend!
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers
