Weekly News 27th February

We have had a lovely start to the first week back after half term! We all spoke about our new dinosaur topic and the children discussed as a class what they would like to learn about.

In maths we have been learning about weight. We have been ordering dinosaurs in weight and comparing the weight of dinosaurs using balance scales. On Friday, the children will be weighing dinosaurs using balance scales and cubes and predicting how many cubes each dinosaur will weigh.

In phonics we have been learning the digraphs ‘ee’ and ‘or’. Please help your child to blend words with these digraphs in.

We have also been reading with the children this week. Some parents have been asking about when the words bags get changed, these are for you to change as often as you like. As they progress through the word bags it will help them to read the digraphs as one sound, for example, r ai n.

Next Thursday is world book day, please could your child come to school dressed as their favourite book character.

We are in need of egg boxes for an upcoming easter activity. If you have any, please give to a member of staff, thank you.

Weekly News 13th February

This week we have been learning the sounds ng and ai. Your child has also been working with an adult to complete a sounds, tricky word and blending assessment. We have found that some of the children are struggling to retain some of the digraphs – these can be very tricky to learn! They are best learnt through repetition. Although your child may be able to recognise the sounds in the sound book it is a different skill to recognise the digraphs in words, this is something we practise with the children in phonics sessions.

In maths we have been problem solving and sharing coins between Chinese money purses and corn between pigs – as it is year of the pig! The children have been working out how to share numbers equally and fairly.

We have a tennis roadshow on Wednesday afternoon where the children will be learning what tennis is and practising some sports and co-ordination skills.

Thank you very much to the parents that returned the Tapestry questionnaire. We found that there were several parents who were unsure about the sorts of things that would be useful to upload to Tapestry. We have decided that from now on, each week, we will be adding a suggestion about an observation that you could upload to Tapestry that will help us to gather evidence about your child. For example, this week, can your child find things in their home, in the environment, draw things, or make a list of words with the ng or ai sound in. This will help us to identify if your child is at the emerging, expected or exceeding level of development.

Weekly News 6th February

We have had a fantastic week so far learning all about Chinese New Year! Each child has a challenge booklet in their trays and they collect stickers when they complete challenges. If all of the challenges are completed by the end of the week they will receive a special prize!

The challenges include chinese food tasting and building the great wall of China. But we have also been making a lot of different things too: a Chinese New Year card, a dragon puppet, a fan, a Chinese drum, a Chinese money purse, a lucky fish, a lantern and a pig puppet – as it is the year of the pig!

On Monday we had a Music and Movement workshop! The children learnt all about Chinese New Year and how it is prepared for and celebrated through dance and got to dance with a dragon head at the end!

We have had a fantastic time learning about another culture and the children have been very excited to complete all of the challenges. Thank you to all of the parents that have helped us so far, we couldn’t have prepared so many activities for your children without your help!

Next week we will be reading with your children and completing a reading assessment where we will see which sounds and tricky words your children know and then assess their ability to blend.