Hello and welcome back from Reception! We hope you all had a restful and enjoyable Christmas and New Year! We would like to thank you all for the many cards and messages we received at the end of term and our lovely gifts. We very much appreciated it.
The children have settled back into school well after the Christmas break and have been enjoying our new topic; ‘Once upon a time.’
This week
We started the term off by reflecting on our experiences over the festive break. We were very keen to hear all about what the children got up to and encouraged them to share all of their news with us and their friends. We talked about how people celebrate New Year’s Eve around the world and that people often make New Year’s Resolutions. The children have all come up with their own New Year’s Resolutions, based on something they would like to achieve this year.
The focus book of the week has been The Three Little Pigs. We have got to know the story well and practised the repeated refrains such as “Little Pig, little pig, let me come in!” “Not by the hairs on my chinny, chin, chin.” “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!” We have enjoyed making up our own versions of the story as a class and individually. The children have also been learning about materials and their properties in relation to the story. We have learnt about how houses are made and what houses are made from to make them safe and strong. We looked at houses from around the world and how they are suited for the climate. We linked this to our previous learning about homes in the Victorian period and compared similarities and differences from the past and present.
Thank you to all those parents who have started the reading challenge already. It was lovely to see the photographs on Tapestry of the children enjoying reading ‘anything other than a book’ at home sharing their photographs and videos with the whole class. It would be great to have more on Tapestry to share next week. Please upload this week’s reading challenge if you haven’t done so already, so that we can stamp week 1 in your child’s reading record. If all of the challenges have been completed before the half term the children will receive a certificate and a sticker. If you have any questions regarding the reading challenge, please do talk to your child’s class teacher. We are keen to offer support to ensure all children are able to participate.
On Friday, we heard the story ‘Don’t Worry Hugless Douglas’ by David Melling. In the story, Douglas is given a wonderful new woolly hat by his Dad. As Douglas races outside to show it off he doesn’t realise that it’s unravelling! Douglas now has a problem and he’s not sure how to overcome his obstacle. Douglas’ friends have lots of ideas about how to put things right. In the end Douglas works out what the best thing to do it – he tells Mum and Dad what happened. They reassure him not to worry about they help him to overcome his problem. The children really enjoyed hearing this story and came up with some fantastic suggestions about how Douglas might be feeling as well as ideas for how to solve his problem. We shared this story with the children to mark the start of new topic in Jigsaw (RHSE) all about Dreams and Goals. The intention of sharing this story was to allow the children to understand that if they persevere, the can tackle any challenge they encounter, where at school or at home.
In Phonics this week we have learnt new Phase 3 digraph sounds ch, sh, th(v), th and ng. We continue to practice segmenting words and using the correct grapheme to represent the sounds they can hear. We will also be encouraging the children to apply this skill to writing captions and short sentences.
In Maths, we introduced children to the concept of zero (0) representing nothing. We used counting nursery rhymes and songs to help understand this more.
We have also been learning about making comparisons using words like more, less and equal. We had various amounts represented in different ways and the children had to count each group of objects and decide which had more or less or whether both groups of objects were equal. The children also spent some time consolidating their learning about the composition of numbers up to 5 and revisiting partitioning numbers to 5.
Next week
- We will be learning about Chinese New Year and our learning will be themed around this topic. Our story of the week will be about the Chinese Zodiac and we will learn about the Great Race.
- Next week we will continue The Three Little Pigs as our Talk for Writing story and more children will have the opportunity to act out their own versions.
- In Jigsaw (RSHE), we will continue our learning about Dreams and Goals and talk about a time the children didn’t give up until they achieved their goal.
Supporting your child at home
- Please listen to your child read their Monster Phonics book at least three times a week and record this in their reading record.
- Please complete week 2 of the reading challenge.
- Please encourage your child to recall the story of the three little pigs, using the repeated refrains “little pig, little pig, let me come in.” “Not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin I will not let you in!” ”Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down”
- Encourage your child to make a new version of the story. ie: The Three Little Spacemen and the Big Bad Alien. What will they build their house out of? What will happen at the end?
- Please support your child’s writing by giving them opportunities to write for a purpose such as a shopping list or an invitation. This will help them to find writing more meaningful and practice all of the skills that go into writing independently.
Any other information
COLD WEATHER – We continue to be outdoors as often as possible even during the colder weather. With this in mind, please could you ensure your child has a suitable coat and any additional clothing you may want to provide such as gloves and a hat.
Book buddies continue this week: Six children a week will come home on a Friday with a book buddy bag. This will contain a picture book and small cuddly toy. Over the weekend we would like you to share the book with the book buddy and your child. When your child returns the bag to school on Monday, they will have the opportunity to tell their friends about it. They might explain: What happened in the story. Who their favourite character was. What their favourite part of the story was. If they would recommend it to a friend. We would very much appreciate you supporting your child to become as independent as possible when putting on their coat – including zipping it up. As the weather continues to get colder supporting your child to put their gloves on as independently as possible would be much appreciated.
Upcoming dates: Carousel of reading activities: On the 3rd February at 1.30pm we would like to invite 1 parent per child into school to come and make a variety of resources that will help your child to retell and create stories at home. More details to follow but please save the date!
Cinderella’s ball: On Friday 10th February in the afternoon we will be finishing our “Once upon a time” topic in style with our own ball. Children can come to school in their party clothes. More details to follow nearer the timeWe hope you have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Fisher and Mrs Murrell
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers
