I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a sincere and heart felt ‘Thank You’. The gifts, flowers, cards and generosity you have shown me has deeply moved me and words cannot express my gratitude.
I have throughly enjoyed getting to know the children and parents this year and I am sorry that I will not see the end of the year through. I will particularly miss seeing the children’s smiling faces every morning.
The children have already met Miss Davis who will be the Willow 1 Teacher for the remainder of the year and I am certain she is going to love getting to know the classes as much as I have.
Thank you once again for everything and I hope the children enjoy the rest of their time in Reception.
This week has been a bit of a mixed bag, due to the bank holiday and the polling day there has been less structure than usual. However we have still managed to have a fantastic week learning about the traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood. We have completed some brilliant writing and also learnt a little bit more about a 2D shapes and 3D shapes. This week unfortunately it has been impossible for us to read with all of the children and change their books to share. However this will be rectified next week so please bare with us.
This week we have also trialled splitting the classes into two classrooms. Over the last 2 weeks we have been lucky enough to have lots of new children join us. However, it has meant that there are now just too many children to teach as a whole class. The children have been split via register order. The children will still be taught by both class teachers, however it does mean that the children will come into a designated classroom in the mornings and afternoon to complete the register. Willow one which connects to the climbing frame garden is where Mrs Jones will be registering one half of the class and Willow Two connects to the larger concrete garden is where Mrs Coston will be registering the other half of the class. Mrs Williams will be running between both!!! The end of day arrangements have not changed and the children will be released from their usual doors. Please be reassured that the children are still able to free flow into both classrooms and which ever garden is open, therefore there is very little disturbance to their school day.
As the warmer weather is approaching, please, please, please send your child to school with weather appropriate clothing, such as a shower proof jacket, sun hat and no tights. As always please ensure these items of clothing are clearly labelled. Also please ensure that your child is bringing in a named water bottle to school everyday.
Finally, just a reminder. We are still waiting for payment for some children to attend the zoo lab session that we will be hosted in school on the morning of the 25th of May. This payment must be completed online and the consent form must be sent into school by no later than this coming Tuesday the 10th of May. Unfortunately on this occasion, if we do not receive enough payment the session will have to be cancelled and the money that has already been paid in will be returned.
Following on from last week, this week we have been reading the story ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’.
In this story the giant is kind and gives Jim a giant golden coin. For our big write this week, we thought about what we would spend a giant golden coin on if the giant gave us one. The children had some wonderful ideas, from a giant chocolate ice cream to a real cow so that they could have milk when ever they wanted!! We were able to get some brilliant writing this week.
The second half of the week focused on the Easter Story and why we celebrate Easter. They learned all about the celebration of Jesus and also the importance of the Easter egg.
The final day of term has been a really exciting one. This morning the children made some Easter egg baskets and then we had to follow the clues for an Easter egg hunt.
Just before lunch we also had an Easter Bonnet parade of all the wonderful bonnets that have been made. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the winner of the Easter Bonnet competition will come from our class!!! Here are the fabulous Bonnets entered into the competition;
Important information
Please see the April/May newsletter attached below with some important transition information about next term. A paper copy has been put in your child’s book bag.
Over the Easter holidays, there are several activities that you can be doing with your child. Here are some suggestions:
Read at least 3 times a week,
Continue to practice blending and segmenting words,
Encourage your child to tell you some Helicopter stories,
Practice their cutting skills,
Practicing ordering numbers from 0 – 20,
Practice letter and number formation,
Encourage your child to write as much as possible,
Perhaps make a diary of key events over the Easter holidays,
Practice getting dressed independently.
Next Term
As the weather is set to change and become warmer, please ensure that your child is bringing a labelled water bottle to school daily. They must also continue to bring in their book bags daily. Also please check all of your child’s clothing to ensure that it is clearly labelled as some of the names are becoming more difficult to read.
We hope you all have a fantastic Easter break and we look forward to seeing you all next term.
This week we have been learning all about number bonds to 10. The children have been using their fingers to help them work out their number bonds. Outside in the garden they were also using the large Lego blocks to help them work out their number bonds.
We have learnt this week that number bonds are fun! We have been singing this song to help us remember them.
Also this week to celebrate pancake day we have made and eaten pancakes. Here are some of the children enjoying their pancakes.
This week you will notice that there are not any labels with the sounds the children have been learning in their reading records. Unfortunately the label printer is out of action. However the children have been learning the following sounds:
Our focus has been on the Chinese New Year story, where the children learnt all about the animals in the race. If you want to read this story at home here is a link to the story that we have been using in class.
Here are some of the classroom activities that we have been doing this week based around the story of Chinese New Year;
Making lanterns
Making ribbons for a chinese ribbon dance.
Writing about our favourite character from the story.
Having races just like the animals in the story.
using chopsticks to pick up big and small items.
Here are some pictures from our week.
Within maths we have been learning all about repeating patterns and symmetry. We have been making some of our own repeating patterns.
As you probably know, Friday is our favourite day of the week in school, because we get to do PE! Yay! The children are becoming much quicker at dressing themselves independently.
Here are some pictures of us practcing our climbing and balancing skills in PE.
Also this week we have had another helicopter stories session. The children are becoming really confident at telling storys and acting them out. Here are some action shots of one story beign told.
This week in Reception we have been reading the story, ‘Where The Wild Things Are’. It is a story all about a naughty boy called Max who goes on an adventure and meets some wild things.
We have had a go at making some ‘wild things’ of our very own using clay and other reasources. What do you think to them?
On Monday we also did some writing where we pretended to be the dog in the story and we wrote about our feelings. As you can see, our writing is really coming along.
We are very excited in Reception because we have been introduced to a new story telling incentive within the Early Years. It is called ‘Helicopter Stories’. The previous two Tuesdays we have had special visitors who have taught and explained the concept of Helicopter stories to us.
What is a helicopter story?
Simply put, a ‘Helicopter Story’ is where a child tells an adult a story and it is written down word for word. The story is then acted out on a make shift stage by the child if they so wish and the other children within the class.
Helicopter stories allow children to see their ideas come to life in a fun way that involves and engages their peers. It allows children to grow in confidence with their story telling and eventually will encourage the children to write stories independently.
There is a parents workshop to bring “Helicopter stories’ into the home. There are 3 sessions
Come and watch story acting – Tuesday 9th February 11am
Workshop 1 for parents – Tuesday 23rd February 9 – 10.15am
Workshop 2 for parents – Wednesday 2nd March 9 – 10:15am
We are hoping that as many parents will be able to attend as possible, as we strongly belive this notion of story telling will help our children develop with their early literacy skills.
For more information on ‘Helicopter Stories’ please visit the following website:
Since we have been back from Christmas we have been learning lots and lots. Last week and this week our focus has been on the Antarctic because we have been reading the stories, ‘Penguin and the Pinecone’ and ‘Penguin Small’.
We started the week off learning all about the word ‘curious’ as the penguin found a curious object, which was in fact a pinecone. The children had a go at describing their own curious object by having some items in a feely bag and describing them to their friends. Their friends had to guess which curious object had been chosen.
The children then used the Ipads to investigate more about where the penguins lived. They used the app Google Earth and knew that they needed to find an area that was white as the penguins lived in an area covered in ice and snow. They were successfully able to navigate their way around Google earth and could find where the penguins lived, as well as looking at where they live within the world. They even wrote some facts about penguins.
Over the last two weeks the children have been learning to recognise and order the numbers from 0 – 20. They particularly enjoyed going on a number hunt. Within the garden there were 20 penguins with the numerals 0 – 20 on their tummies. The children then had to find all of the numbers and write them down when they had found them. The children loved exploring the garden looking for the numbers and they felt very grown up walking around with a clipboard and pencil writing down the numbers they had found. Perhaps they could try this activity at home?
Also outside in the garden, the children were practicing their balancing skills. They created their own obstacle course using lots of the outside equipment and made their way across this carefully. They are becoming very confident at moving in different ways and balancing on the apparatus.
We have learnt many new phonic sounds since the last time we posted. Unfortunately we have decided against using the children to give examples of our phonic sounds, as creating the videos takes a long time to do.
However Mr Thorne on youtube explains them wonderfully and we will post links of his videos up.
Here are the videos to the new sounds we have been learning;
n sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whLEI0ubdao
p sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjPC26xA_8M
g sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Utd2QjG4_8
o sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCwoLDKvee0
c sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuEu5ho39cU
k sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qQho8cF2gY
u sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC0XpKQoJOQ
b sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Rnfji6_64
f sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_njG5IyVbWM
e sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKyXo9rFVow
l sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k6QVgchvUY
h sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW__hIQj8Z4
sh sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHNTFlcuoDc
r sound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ3_f2thAwg
