Thursday 12 December 2019

Weekly News 12th December


We have had a lovely Christmassy week in Reception. The children have been enjoying all of the festive themed enhanced provision activities around the base and have been enjoying our Santa’s grotto and workshop role play.

On Tuesday the children enjoyed their Christmas lunch and had lots of fun pulling their Christmas crackers. they were served their lunch by Christmas elves!

On Thursday we learnt about Santa Lucia and the Scandinavian Catholic festival. We listened to the story of Hannah's Christmas and watched some videos of how they celebrate, the songs they sing and the clothes they wear. We tried some danish biscuits and enjoyed making leaf crowns and star hats like we had seen in the videos.

We are looking forward to seeing lots  of our parents at our Christmas craft morning tomorrow, we have some lovely activities and songs planned.







Wednesday 4 December 2019

weekly news 4th December


What an exciting way to start the week ! There were some rather large sparkly footprints in our classrooms coming from our doors......we had had a very special visitor all the way from the North Pole !



Then we found a letter from Father Christmas asking us to write him a list of presents that we would like for Christmas !

Mrs Theobald was very surprised to see our letter and we also told her that we had noticed an Elf in our classrooms too !
We all tried really hard to use the sounds we have been learning this term to write our lists ready for Father Christmas to collect when he comes to visit us at the Christmas Fayre on Friday evening.


We have also been learning about Advent and counting the days until Christmas with our special Advent calendars. We have been sequencing the special events which will be taking place at school up until the end of term.
We have been learning about the first Christmas by listening to the nativity story and we have been learning some songs which we will be singing to you at the end of the Christmas craft morning next Friday 13th December.  We are really looking forward to spending the morning in school with a member of our family, creating crafts and memories. 
We would be really grateful if all the reply slips could be sent in as soon as possible to help us with planning this event. Thank you
 If you are unable to attend may we suggest that you consider approaching another parent to support your child during the activities please ?

Home readers: hopefully you have all received the note that was sent home regarding the change in the books that your child brings home- the book bags certainly feel alot lighter now ! We will be reading/changing books with your child over the next week. Please continue to practice the sounds and tricky words over the holidays so that they do not forget them !
Don't forget to log on to Active learn and Education city so that your child can practice their reading and maths skills. Please see your child's teacher if you have problem accessing these sights.
Stars: we would love all the children to have something written on their 'star', on the board in the cloakroom, again before the end of term.
Looking forward to seeing you at the Christmas fayre !

Thursday 28 November 2019

weekly news 28th November

This week we have been learning the sounds l, f, b and j. We have also learnt the tricky words he and she. We have been reading the sounds we have leant so far in our sound books and we have learnt the tricky words he and she this week. Check the back of our sound books to see which sounds we know on the stickers we have been given. If your child has 4 or more stickers, we have sent home a word bag for them to practise segmenting and blending words which are made up from the sounds we have learnt so far. you can then change these bag yourself in the mornings once they are confident at reading the current bag.

We have been learning all about the numbers 19 and 20 and finding different ways to make these numbers. We have also practised ordering and making a number line from 1 to 20 and then playing a missing number game where our puppets Hattie, Ricky and Percy would turn over a card and we would look carefully to work out which number was missing by looking at the numbers either side to give us clues finding one more and one less. We then wrote the numbers down to practise our number formation using the number rhymes
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We have read some more of our ‘Power of Reading’ book ‘Owl Babies’ and have been writing wanted posters to try and find mummy owl as well as writing her a letter to ask her to come back to her babies.


















The children may be using the field at lunch times, If they fall over they may get wet so please make sure your child has a spare change of clothes in their bag in case we need to change them as we don’t have many spare trousers left. If your child has borrowed a pair, please can you send them back in once they have been washed and dried.

Request for unusual vehicles... our next topic is ‘Are we there yet?’ It focuses on different types of transport. We are having a vehicle launch week for our memorable experience on the week beginning 13th January. If you or a family member has an unusual type of transport such as a vintage car or tractor or anything else you think we would love to look at and you would be happy to bring in, we would be very grateful. Please have a word with one of the teachers to arrange a day that week.

Request for our making area.... We have some boxes in our creative area that are a bit empty at the moment. If you have anything to donate that you no longer need we would be very grateful. The children love making models and pictures with little treasures! For example wool, shiny papers we can chop up, bottle tops, fabric, etc

Wednesday 20 November 2019

weekly news 22nd November

This week we have been learning to hear and read the sounds h  e  r  and  u. We have been learning the tricky words no go and I. We have continued to create our own stories and increasingly we are using the sounds and tricky words when we write. We have been thinking about which characters we need in our story and have drawn simple pictures of them to remind us how many of our classmates we will need to help us act out our story. Several children have amazed us by wanting to do the writing for themselves this time ! Don't forget to take a look at your child's story on their display space.
In Maths this week our focus has been on the numbers 16,17 and 18. The children have been learning to recognise them, count the corresponding number of objects, find the numbers on a number line and in the environment and to write the number. We have also been encouraging the children to talk about what they know about each number eg. is it an odd or even number ? is it bigger or smaller than a certain number ? has it got 1 digit or more ? what is 1 more, or 1 less than the number ? how many different ways can we show the number with our fingers, with numicon, with cubes ? etc These sort of questions develop the children's powers of reasoning and understanding about the value of each number.
We have been continuing our 'Power of Reading' book 'Owl Babies' and trying to imagine what it mus have felt like when the owl babies woke up to find that their mother had gone. We encouraged the children to think about and express, times when they have felt worried, sad or alone.

Each week the children enjoy our 'Write Dance' sessions in the hall with Mrs.Sutcliffe. These lessons encourage the children to move in different ways which helps to develop their gross motor skills and also within these sessions the children draw large shapes and lines and pictures with both their hands. This helps the children with their fine motor skills too.






Thursday 14 November 2019

Weekly news 14th November





This week in Reception we have been learning the sounds g o c k and ck. We have also learnt to read the tricky words to and the which can’t be sounded out and please see if your child can spot these when reading books at home.  We have given the children their tricky word tag to keep in their book bags and to practise at home along with reading the sounds in their sounds book.  We have also continued writing stories with the children this week and they have been adding in the sounds they know and have enjoyed acting them out with friends.

The numbers we have learnt about this week are 13, 14 and 15. We have also been listening to some teen number songs to remind children that all teen numbers start with a 1. You may want to practise writing these down and seeing if your child can recognise them.

We have started our new Power of  Reading book, ‘Owl Babies’. The first session introduced the story by setting the scene in a darkened classroom and we handed out finger torches. We showed the children a picture from the story with no writing. The picture was of the three baby owls and the mummy owl in the background. The children had to think about what they could see in the picture, what is happening and where they owls were. They also thought about what the owls might think of the dark and how the owls might be feeling. This brought up a discussion about nocturnal animals.
We have been working with the children to make a shape owl on a dark background where the children have selected different coloured shapes and practised their cutting skills. They are looking fantastic and will be displayed.

We now do the shaker at 9am and therefore the gate will be locked by 9.05am. Please can we ask you to say goodbye to your child by the time we do the shaker so that you have time to get through the gate before it is locked.




Tuesday 5 November 2019

weekly news 6th November

This week in Letters and Sounds we have been learning to hear, read and write the letters i n m and d. We are starting to blend the sounds that we know to read simple words. We have been practising the sounds in our sound books with our teachers and if we are confident at reading the sounds we will be given a sound sticker. You will find this sticker on the back of your child's sound book if they have been given it. Please help your child to develop their reading skills by practising their sounds and looking out for them wherever you go ! 
During the next 2 weeks the children will be creating their next story with their teacher. We will encourage the children to write any sounds that they know in their story and the children are very keen to act out their story with their friends. Keep an eye out for your child's next story which will be pinned up on their display board.
In maths we have been continuing to learn all about the numbers to 20 and our focus this week has been the numbers 10, 11 and 12. Could you help your child to spot these numbers at home or when you are out and about ? Perhaps you could ask your child what they have learnt about these numbers.
We are very grateful to the relatives who have been teaching the children to do sewing. The children have been developing resilience whilst learning a simple running stitch. 

The other very useful skill that the children have been learning is woodwork. Mr.Boot one of our students, has started to teach all the children how to use a hammer and nails, a screwdriver and he will go on to teach the children how to use a simple saw.

 We would love to offer the children the chance to develop other skills so please do let us know if you are able/willing to come into school to help.





















It has been great to see so many parents and relatives at our 'Come and Play' sessions this week. The children have been very excited to show you the pot they have decorated and to plant a tulip or daffodil bulb to look after at home. The children enjoyed making cereal bird feeders to so let's hope we all get to see lots of birds in our garden's over the coming months.







Thursday 31 October 2019

Weekly News 31st October

This week in Reception we have enjoyed learning our first four sounds /s/a/t/p/ in phonics and the children have been given their new sounds books to practise at home. Please also help your child to look out for this week’s sounds when reading.  In Maths we have continued with our number of the day and we have learnt all about the numbers 7, 8 and 9. The children have enjoyed using the maths and sounds tables to continue to explore all about the number and letter of the day during enhanced provision.  

We have introduced the children to our new topic, ‘Why do Squirrels hide their nuts’ and explained that we will be learning all about their class animals. We look forward to hearing about the facts the children have found out about their class animals when we start our show and tell sessions next week.  

On Thursday we had an exciting visit from the Author Nick Butterworth who wrote the Percy and the Park Keeper series. He read us his first ever book called 'One Snowy Night' which was set in the park in Percy's hut. This fitted nicely with our new topic and he even signed a copy 'The Hedgehog' story from Hedgehogs reading garden.

We are pleased that our apprentice teacher Michelle Page will be taking the Hedgehogs class on Monday afternoons and is looking forward to meeting some of you at our first stay and play session on Monday 4th November at 2pm. The second stay and play session is next Thursday 8th October at 2pm. 

Now the children are settled in, we will be doing the shaker at 9am ready to start the school day so please ensure your child is in school on time. 







Thursday 17 October 2019

weekly news 17th October

We were very excited on Monday when we met our class bears for the first time ! Bertie Bear is Hedgehog's class toy and Cyril Squirrel is Squirrel's class toy. In our Letters and Sounds session we found out that our class bears like to play a game in which we all have to use 'Robot talk' ! We have to stretch out the sounds in each word and move our arms like robots. This game helps us to segment words and will be a very useful skill to enable us to spell and write words when we learn the phonic sounds. We helped our bears to get dressed by saying each item of clothing in 'Robot' talk eg  's  o  c k s'    and    'h  a  t'. 
Each child will have a turn to take their class bear home to stay for a week and we would love it if you could write about their adventures in the diary which will come home with the bears. If you could upload any photographs of your child's week with the bear on Tapestry that would be fantastic because then your child can show the photographs on our big screens so all their class can see what fun they had.
On Monday afternoon we were very happy to see some of our Pre school leaders who came for our tea party. We showed them around the base and then we enjoyed listening to the story they had brought whilst we shared the chocolate krispie cakes we had made.



In Maths we have been continuing to learn all about numbers and we have been focussing on 4, 5 and 6. The children are getting brilliant at remembering the little rhymes which help them to form the numerals correctly. Hopefully you can reinforce this learning at home by using the sheet of rhymes which we sent home last week.
This week we have been learning a new creative skill by using Modroc to cover a flowerpot. Modroc is like plaster of Paris and the children have dipped the strips of Modroc into water, squeezed them out and then wrapped them around their pot. It's quite a messy activity ! After half term the children will be decorating their pot ready to plant a bulb in during our 'Come and play' sessions on Monday 4th and Thursday 7th November from 2pm. Your child will be bringing home an invitation to invite you to one of these sessions.
In November we will be starting 'Show and tell' all about our class animal. Your child will bring home a picture to decorate and a speech bubble in which we would like you to help them to write a fact about their class animal. Each house group will have a different date to show their Hedgehog or Squirrel home learning.
Thank you very much to all the parents who have been uploading all the super learning that their child has been doing at home. These observations are great to see !

We hope that you all have a lovely half term break.

Thursday 10 October 2019

Weekly news Thursday 10th October



We have had a lovely week in reception and the children have really enjoyed exploring the woodland area outside. They have loved cooking in the mud kitchen and have been making some super comments about the textures of the meals they have created. They have also enjoyed the loose parts in our outdoor construction area.  

 In letters and sounds we have been learning about Alliteration. We played two games, one called ‘Bertha the bus where the bus travels around a zoo mat and see which animals begin with the same sound. The other was ‘Musical Corners’ where there are 4 baskets with a different letter in each one. The children practiced putting objects into the basket beginning with the same sound. In Maths this week we have been learning about the story of numbers 1, 2 and 3. Each day we focussed on a different number and learnt how the number is formed, how to count that number of items and how we write the number. We also used the numicon, a number line and dice to see how the number can be represented.  

We had a great time on our Autumn number walk around the village on Thursday. We spotted lots of numbers on cars, road signs, house numbers and shop signs. We also enjoyed looking for signs of autumn on our spotter sheets as we walked back across the commonThank you to all of the parents who came to help and we hope you enjoyed it too! 

We have now finished reading Grendel and have retold the story using a story map. On Friday we will have a discussion about chocolate and what it tastes like. We will discuss how we could melt it and then we will be making some chocolate rice krispie cakes. The children are making one to take home and one for our Pre- School leaders tea party which we are hosting on Monday. The children are very excited that their pre-school leaders will be coming in to see them. If your child is part time but would like to come to see their pre-school leaders, they can come back at 2 o’clock on Monday afternoon to join us. 

We would like to thank you for coming to our Reception information meeting on Wednesday. We hope you found this useful and it has helped you to understand how to help support your child with their learning at home. If you were unable to make it, your child should have brought home a pack with the slides from our PowerPoint as well as some information about Maths and letter formation. Do come and chat tus if there is anything else you would like to know. 

Wednesday 2 October 2019

weekly news 3rd October

This week we have started our 'Letters and Sounds' and 'Maths' sessions in our groups.
In 'Letters and Sounds' this week we have been learning about words which rhyme and we made some very 'silly soup' ! The ingredients which we added to our soup all had to rhyme-for example cat and bat. Can you ask your child if they can remember any of the other ingredients that we put in our silly soup ? Perhaps you could talk to your child about words which rhyme.
In 'Maths' this week we have started to learn all about 'Numicon'. The children have been learning to recognise each different shape and which number it represents and we have been putting the Numicon shapes in order to 10.
We have also started doing 'Dough Disco' on 4 mornings a week. Each child has a little pot of playdough and we are learning to do different 'moves' with our hands to squeeze, roll, pinch and flatten the dough in time to music. This is lots of fun and helps to develop the muscles in our hands and fingers which will help the children to use scissors, paint brushes, pencils, and all tools. The children are very excited to get stronger muscles !
Over the next week we will be showing the children how to use our Woodland area. They will be learning how to put their puddlesuit or trousers on and also their wellies. Up on our Woodland area we have a large mudpie kitchen, a bird watching area, a large construction area and a swing. Please feel free to take your child's puddlesuit home from time to time to wash it !
Thank you very much to all the parents who have returned the reply slip about the information meeting next Wednesday 9th starting at 2pm in the Lower School Hall. We will be explaining all about how we teach children to read and how you can support them with all their learning at home too.
If you have offered to help on our Autumn Number Hunt next Thursday morning please meet us by the parent's gate near the Doctor's surgery at 9:30am and we will bring the children to meet you. The walk will be around the village, across the Common and we aim to be back at school at 10:30am. Please wear suitable footwear and make sure that your child has a coat with a hood in case of rain.

Thursday 26 September 2019

weekly news 26th


This week in Reception we have enjoyed bringing in our favourite books from home and have shared lots with our classes already. The children have been brave, coming to the front of the class to talk about their favourite part of the story and why the like it. The teachers have then read the story to the class. We will continue to share these books next week so your child will still have time to bring one in if they haven’t yet. 
On Monday we played a pirate bingo game in Maths. The children showed us which numbers they could recognise up to 16 and enjoyed picking out pirate treasure from a chest to place over their numbers. 
We have been getting stuck into our Power of Reading story called Grendel: A cautionary Tale about Chocolate. This will be our focus story for the rest of the half term and we will be dipping in and out of it as we read a few pages at a time. So far we have found out that Grendel lives in a cave with his mum and he loves three things: his mum, his dog and chocolate! The children then shared the things they love and lots of children chose to draw pictures of these things on a heart which they then cut out themselves. We discussed what sort of character we think Grendel is when he snatches the chocolate off his mum and runs away to eat it. We recorded ideas on post it notes and are making a working wall of our learning. We have also had chocolate play dough out in our enhanced provision where the children have been creating their own chocolate worlds. 
On Wednesday the children enjoyed their second PE and Music sessions in the morning and in the afternoon, they had great fun using the bikes and scooters outside.  
This week we have also been learning to use our outside areas and lots of children have really enjoyed spending time in the different areas such as the Jurassic world, sand pit, builder’s area and exploring the cars with ramps.  
Please can all children have a rain coat in school every day and could we ask you to name your child’s lunch box on the outside so that the lunch time staff can help the children find their lunch boxes.  
You should have received your child’s login details for Education City and Active Learn. The school code for Active learn is 99kq. 
We will be leaving out green speech bubbles with a question on from time to time. Please can you spare a minute and write a comment on it with your child’s name and place it in the pot provided. 
Lots of the lovely learning we have been doing has been added to tapestry this week. Please take a look to see photos and observations of your child and add a ‘like’ or comment.