Hello from Lilac and Willow, what a great week we’ve had in Reception!
This week:
We started our week by reading the fantastic book ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ by Giles Andreae. At the start of the story, Gerald can’t dance like the other animals in the jungle. However as the story progresses, Gerald found a different way to dance that was right for him. In fact, Gerald became the best dancer in the jungle! We used this to help us in class and encouraged the children to say “I can’t do it…YET!” We are so proud of the children, they have been brilliant at adapting the growth mindset towards their learning. Why not ask your children about something they found difficult or couldn’t do when they started school but now feel able to do?
The children have been learning the new sounds o, c and k in Phonics as well as using the sounds they’ve learnt previously to help them sound out a growing range of words such as cap (c-a-p), pin (p-i-n), and mat (m-a-t). These are known as CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant) and are what we’re working towards as part of our reading. Why not practise reading some of these words with your children: it, in, at, sit, sat, nap, pan, pit, pat, pin, sip, tap, tan?
In maths, we’ve been going mad for the number 5. We were counting numbers up to 5. The children have been using the 1-to-1 principle of counting – this involves giving one number name to each object that is being counted. To support this, we’ve been encouraging the children to move each object as they count so as to ensure every object is counted correctly. We’ve used a new piece of maths equipment called a 5 frame to help with our counting (it is called a 5 frame because there are 5 squares that make up the frame). Why not draw a 5 frame and ask your child to count different real life objects from home (toys, leaves, food)?
In Music, Mrs Footer told us the story ‘Monkey and Me’ by Emily Gravett. In the story, the little girl takes Monkey to visit different animals. Mrs Footer helped us to learn about rhythm. We clapped out each syllable in every animal (mon-key, el-e-phant, pen-guin, bat, kan-ga-roos). Why not ask your children to clap the syllables for any other animals they can think of (pan-da, ko-a-la)?
Next week:
- In Phonics, we will be learning the following sounds: ck, e and u and continue to use previous sounds we’ve learnt to help us with our reading.
- We will be focusing on reading initial sounds in words, segmenting and blending.
- In maths, we will be looking at number and place value. In particular comparing identical and non-identical objects using words like more than, less than and equal to.
Any other information:
- THANK YOU – A big thank you for those who were able to attend our EYFS Phonics and Maths Information Evening. We really appreciate you taking the time to find out how to support your children’s learning as well as your feedback. Additional supporting information packs will be coming home with children this week.
- COATS/JUMPERS/CARDIGANS – As the weather is beginning to get colder and wetter, please could you make sure that your child has their coat and jumper or cardigan in school as we use our outdoor provision everyday.
- JUNK MODELLING – Across the whole year to help support the expressive art and design of the children’s learning, we rely upon very kind donations of items for junk modelling. The following items are greatly appreciated: cereal boxes or other food packaging, kitchen roll tubes, egg boxes, offcuts of material/wrapping paper or any similar items. Please could we not have: any packaging that has housed nuts, toilet roll tubes, dairy packaging such as milk cartons and packages that contained medicines or first aid items.
- TALK TIME – FRIDAY 18TH OCTOBER – PETER RABBIT
We hope you have a good weekend.
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
