Hello from Lilac and Willow, what a great time we had this week.
This week:
We began by asking the children the question “What does the word rhyme mean?” The children remembered brilliantly from their phonics earlier in the year that rhyme means when two words have the same sound. The children are very good at singing nursery rhymes most days in Reception, the biggest difference between this week and any other week was that the children were taking part in National Nursery Rhyme Week. Each day as part of our continuous provision, we used a different nursery rhyme to stimulate the learning: The Wheels on the Bus, Hickory Dickory Dock, Miss Polly has a Dolly, Five currant buns in a baker’s shop and Old MacDonald had a farm. The children demonstrated their learning in lots of ways including junk model vehicles, building ramps to see how far cars can travel, making a clock and arranging the numbers in order, building a grandfather clock, taking care of dolls using medical equipment in role play, following a recipe to make currant buns and creating a small world with animals on the farm. On Friday, the children came dressed as an assortment of characters from various nursery rhymes. Not only did they look brilliant in their costumes they then performed the rhyme to go along with their costume. We were so impressed with how well the children attempted to perform their rhyme that the adults decided in was only right and fair that we perform Old MacDonald to Reception.
In Maths, the children were continuing to develop their counting skills and learning about the composition of numbers. In Reception we count using the 1:1 principle. This involves children assigning one number name to each object that is being counted. Children need to ensure that they count each object only once, consequently to avoid this we model moving each object as it is counted. To support the children’s learning, we use STEM sentences. As the children count, we would say with them “The final number you say when counting is the number you have in total.” We also thought about the idea that all numbers are made up of smaller numbers. We used lots of apparatus to support this concept, including Numicon and double sided counters.
As part of our Phonics this week, we have been learning the following sounds: d, g and o. In each session, the children revisit and review the previous graphemes they learnt. They are then 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, as well as those previously learnt
In Music, the children are practising very hard and are doing so well rehearsing their songs for the Nativity – The Sleepy Shepherd. The children have also enjoyed starting to use the balance bikes. In PE, the focus of our learning this week has been to explore different ways of using our hands to move with a ball and to explore different ways of bouncing a ball. Mr Smith has asked us to pass on a message to you about PE in Reception:
Next week:
- We will be reading the stories ‘Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers’ by Mairi Hedderwick and ‘Charlie and Lola: We completely must go to London’ by Lauren Child.
- We will be comparing life in a rural village to a busy city using places in Scotland and England.
- We will be learning about St Andrew; the patron Saint of Scotland in preparation for St. Andrew’s Day.
- In Phonics, we will be learning the new graphemes c, k, the digraph ck and e as well as recapping the graphemes s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g and o previously learned.
- In Maths we will be learning about the composition of the number 4 and continuing to develop the idea that all numbers are made up of smaller numbers e.g. 2 and 2 make 4.
Supporting your child at home:
- Look for things around your house that either begin with or contain the letters d. g and o 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.
- Ask your child to perform a Nursery Rhyme that they know. See if they are able to identify the rhyming words.
- Triangles are shapes that have 3 straight sides. Can you cut some triangle shapes out of paper? What pictures can you make using the shapes? Can you make a fish picture using 3 triangles?
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!
- NATIVITY: THE SLEEPY SHEPHERD – Please look out for a letter about nativity costumes.
- PICTURE BOOKS – Please can picture books be in school on Thursdays so that we can swap them.
Thank you for your continued support.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers.
