Hello everyone and welcome back, we hope you all had a happy Easter break. We have had a great first week back in Reception.
This week
As part of our main teaching this week the children heard the traditional tale Jack and The Beanstalk and as they listened, the children joined in with the repeated refrain “Fee! Fi! Fo! Fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!” Throughout the week the children created story maps to help retell their favourite part of the story, took part in hot seating activities pretending to be characters from the story and narrated the story using expression to change voices for the different characters. The week finished with the children imagining what other magical worlds could be at the top of a beanstalk if they could change the story. The children worked really hard throughout their learning to develop their understanding of the structure of stories. The children enjoyed lots of opportunities to explore the story further throughout their indoor and outdoor provision including a small world castle scene, building beanstalks using construction blocks, creating character puppets and props from the story, measuring beanstalks and planting broad beans in a pot of soil and watering it. We eagerly await to see how they grow.
In Phonics this week the children were introduced to two new sounds, /igh/ and /air/. Both of these are trigraphs (this is where three letters come together to make one sound). The children have been practising how to segment and blend to read words using phoneme frames and sound buttons. Phoneme frames are used for segmenting (or splitting up) the phonemes (sounds) of words, one phoneme per box. Sound buttons are spots that can be written underneath words and buttons represent each sound. The long button is used for digraphs and trigraphs to remind them that several letters come together to make one sound. The children then blend the sounds together in order to read the word.
In Maths the children have been building upon their prior learning of counting to 10 in order to investigate numbers beyond 10. To help the children we have been using STEM sentences to help us with our learning. As well as STEM sentences the children have been using tens frames, numicon and multilink cubes to support their learning and be able to recognise and make different representations of teens numbers.
Next week
- We will be reading the story ‘The Birthday Crown’ by Davide Cali.
- We will be celebrating the Queen’s Birthday and St. George’s Day.
- In Phonics we will be learning the sounds /oi/, /ear/ and /ure/.
- In Maths we will be further developing our understanding of number bonds to 5 and 10 and teens numbers.
Supporting your child at home
- Promote and model active listening skills e.g. “Have I got eyes looking, ears listening, lips closed and hands still so I can concentrate on what you’re saying?” This will help your child understand how to listen carefully. This will in turn help your child understand why listening is important to help us learn e.g. “I could tell you were going to say the right answer you were listening so carefully.”
- Use lots of new vocabulary throughout the day by modelling words that are relevant to what they have been learning about or related to their interests e.g. “I can see that you’re delighted with your new toy,” “It looks as if the sun has caused the puddles to evaporate,” “Have you ever heard such a booming voice?”
- Give children opportunities to develop the core strength and stability needed to support small motor skills e.g. encouraging and modelling tummy-crawling, crawling on all fours, climbing, pulling themselves up on a rope and hanging on monkey bars. By doing this, children will develop their small motor skills so that they can use a range of tools competently, safely and confidently. Small motor skills could include threading, sewing, planting and caring for plants, preparing food, dressing and undressing and playing with small world toys.
Any other information
- PARENTS EVENING – Wednesday 21st April 5-8pm and Thursday 22nd April 4-7pm. We look forward to speaking with you on Zoom.
- READING BOOKS – Please could book bags be in school each day.
- 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 hope you have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers
