Book week

This week we will be celebrating World Book Day and our learning will include watching authors on video links as they read their own books as well as a local author who is visiting us on Monday to share her stories. Naturally there will be dressing up opportunities throughout the week. 

I would like to invite you to read stories to the children from drop off on Tuesday until about 9.15. You may be reading to your own child or other children could join you. If you have a favourite book you like to share with your child at home it would be lovely if you could bring it in. Don't worry if you can't stay as there will be plenty of stories being shared. I am on an assessment and moderation course in the morning so Mrs Dix will be in charge of the class. I am also away from class on Wednesday and Thursday so you will see more of Mrs Dix.

Home learning is to keep on learning the tricky word spellings and tricky sight words. I sent home the spelling assessments I did last week. As we progress through EYFS it is important that children are starting to correctly spell certain words. This continues in every year group. We are now entering a more formal and independent phase of the learning process and expectations of independence are increasing. We have been doing lots of different reading in class not linked to the home readers. Please continue to read at least 4-5 times a week. It doesn't matter that it is the same book although there are several children in class who are becoming increasingly more confident and fluent and we will start trying to change books more frequently.

This week we have been doing lots of number and have introduced recorded number sentences. They are learning the importance of using different objects to support counting. What better objects than our fingers especially when working on number bonds to 10 eg. 5+5, 6+4, 3+7

 Understanding the +/= signs. We talk in terms of the answer balancing the sum so both sides of the = are the same

 Moving on to recording our own sentences.

 I am very lucky this year as I have two additional pairs of hands who can support your children. With only 22 in the class and three adults we are often able to work like this. Usually the ratio is 30 children to 1 teacher plus a teaching assistant.

Happy Holidays

I hope you all have a lovely holidays and some family time together. Home learning is to keep looking at the tricky word spellings and learning the sight vocabulary. I will be assessing in lots of different areas during the first week back to update my records and will share children's progress with you at parents evening. I will change books on the Monday and Tuesday as well as at the end of the week if needed but due to on going assessments I will not be hearing readers through the week although there will be lots of other reading opportunities.

Please remember to return PE kits. Look at all items of school clothes and foot ware and check that names are still visible. Please check that there are spare clothes plus carrier bags to put wet clothes in and if you know that your child may have more than one accident a day please add in a few more changes of clothes. Unfortunately we have very limited amounts of spare clothes which are sometimes shared with KS1 and they are often not returned.

As you will have noticed, I sent home the beanstalks on Friday. They surprised us all by growing so soon and so very quickly. It all happened since Monday. It would be great if you could take some photographs of the children with the beanstalks over the holidays and send them in to Sally Stevens  in the office or print them out and send them in as paper copies. i will then add these to the learning journals.

 Material rubbings.

 Our lovely handwriting which we try everyday

 Phonics- blending sounds to help us read the words.

 Introductions to simple recorded addition. Counting objects/ pictures and finding the total. The children are starting to understand that each side of the = has to balance/ make the same.

 Group phonics activity, rolling a dice and reading the word to match the number.

 Using ordinal numbers to sequence the story of the Chinese Zodiac

 Independent learning, measuring feet with cubes or a ruler and cm. A few children did choose the ruler and could accurately say how many cm. This is an exceeding example of measure.

 Sorting materials by property.

 Phonics- reading a simple sentence and matching to a picture.

 After watching a video clip about Chinese New Year celebrations, we wanted to make our own music for a dragon dance.

 In maths, we are trying to understand the value of coins; 1p, 2p and 5p. We are starting to understand that there is not a 3p nor a 4p coin but you can use different coins to make these amounts.

 Loving being able to read to the class. What super expression as well. 

 We are encouraging greater independence in writing by ensuring children have access to topic words, sound cards and tricky words.

 Looking for signs of Spring

 Independent/ child initiated learning; making Giants and measuring against their friends giants.