Reception Class News

Marvellous Maths Stay and Play

Thank you to those of you who were able to attend the ‘marvellous maths’ stay and play last week. It was great to see so many of you there and the children enjoyed sharing their learning with you.

The teacher taught part of the session focused on the number 8. We focus on numbers to twenty throughout the year to get a depth of understanding of what the numbers represent. We talked about what number 8 looks like – not just the numeral but also what it looks like in our environment. For example, 7 flowers and 1 tree – that makes eight!

The activities part of the session allowed the children to apply the skills practically. There are 6 counting principles which children must know in order to be able to count well.

Thank you for all the fantastic feedback. In response, please find some links below available to download and print to support learning at home.

Number formation , first, then, now – ten frame

If you were unable to attend, your child will be bringing home an information sheet with ideas of how to support your child at home. The children also enjoy watching number blocks – a great conversation starter about numbers!

Big Garden Bird Watch Home-link Challenge

This week, the children have enjoyed bird watching and looking for other signs of winter (ice, moss, snowdrops, spiders webs) in our outdoor garden. So far, they have spotted lots of magpies. They had fun recording their findings. Below, are a few comments from the children.

• “We have to be quiet.”
• “We have to hide and then they’ll come.”
• “We need to put some food out, they will smell it and come.”
• “They like worms.”

Home-link Challenge – 3 challenge cubes

This weekend, it is the big garden birdwatch. Can your child spot any birds/other signs of winter?

Birds to look out for: Blackbird, Blue tit and Chaffinch.

This week, we have also been exploring bird cakes. Making cakes for the birds is great, sticky fun and the mix of fat, seeds and mealworms is irresistible for many garden birds!

Why not try and make a bird cake at home to attract the birds to your garden?

What you will need:

Remember to take photos and maybe a photo or drawing of the birds flocking down to eat it!

Please email photos and comments from your child so we can share your sightings next week. This will support us in our assessment by providing evidence towards the Understanding the World strand of the EYFS. 

They make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes.

EasyPeasy! We are going live!

You should have received a letter and information booklet introducing you to the new and FREE educational app called ‘EasyPeasy’.

‘EasyPeasy’ is going live this Saturday 26th January. If you have not opted out you will receive a text message inviting you to access the many educational game ideas that you can do at home.

Each week, you will receive a text message with a new game that you can play in any location with everyday items that you’ll already have at home. EasyPeasy is designed to support learning through play!

This week the activity will be ‘stepping stones’. Let us know how you get on by commenting on the game. Look out for our comment with suggestions of how to adapt the game!

Pirate Pete and home-link challenge

We have had a very exciting two weeks so far with our Pirates topic. To begin, the children talked about what they already knew about pirates. They enjoyed writing words and sentences and drawing lots of pictures.

When the children went to the library on Wednesday, there was a special message waiting for them from Pirate Pete.

Pirate Pete had snuck into school and left them a message in a bottle along with a book – How to be a pirate. We read the book together and brought it back to class. The children enjoyed finding out lots of new pirate facts.

The children were so excited to get a message – they decided to write thank you letters to Pirate Pete. They also had lots of questions they wanted to ask too. They wanted to know how old he was and also what Port and Starboard meant (as they had heard it in a pirate song we had been listening to).

Dear Pirate Pete. Thank you for the book. 

To Pirate Pete. Port starboard – which is left and right?

Today, when the children came to school they found two more letters (one for Rainbow class and one for Sunshine class). Pirate Pete had also sent a book to read, which told them all about his adventures at sea.

We read the Pirate Pete story together and this left the children with so many more questions and things they wanted to find out:

• What does he eat?
• How did he get a hook on his hand and foot?
• What food does he like?
• How did the shark bite him?
• Does his parrot have a name? maybe it is Scurvy.
• “He is brave” commented a child.

The children then wrote back to Pirate Pete to ask him lots of new questions.

Here there are 3 examples of children’s writing

1: How can you eat? – In this example the child has written the initial sound for each word.

2: What do you drink? – In this example the child has used their phonic knowledge to segment the words.

3: How did the shark get you? – In this example the child is beginning to write sentences using some digraphs and the correct spelling for some tricky words.

Home-link – 3 challenge cubes

Can you support your child to use a laptop/ iPad to research and find out more about a pirates life or about some of the real life pirates?

Your child can record this however they like. Please bring it in to share with the class.

You can email any pictures of your child using an iPad/laptop to find information.  This will support us in our assessment by providing evidence towards the Technology strand of the EYFS.

‘Children recognise that a range of technology is used in
places such as homes and schools. They select and use
technology for particular purposes.’

Rocket word fun!

Here are some games to make learning the rocket words fun and engaging for your child.

BOO!

Preparation/Equipment:

Write the words on individual pieces of paper and fold into a cup.

Write the word BOO on some of the individual pieces of paper and fold into a cup.

How to play:

Take it in turns to pick a word out of the cup and read it.

If you get BOO put all your words back.

The winner is the person with the most words at the end of the game.

Splat!

Equipment:

Words on card/paper

Fly swatter

How to play:

Splat the words with the fly swatter and get your child to say the words OR

ask your child to splat the words as they read them.

Time to talk

We love hearing about what your child has been up to at the weekend during our time to talk sessions. It’s a great chance for your child to build their self-confidence by speaking in front of their peers. It’s also a valuable time to develop their communication and language skills.

If your child brings a time to talk sheet (which you can get from the parent partnership board in the classroom) on a Monday, they’ll be able to share their Monday news with their key worker group. You can also email pictures to support your child to remember what they did at the weekend.

As well as sharing time to talk sheets from home, your child gets the chance to draw a picture, label it (initial sound/word) or write a caption/sentence about their weekend. This is an opportunity for your child to write about something that is meaningful to them.

In this example the child has labelled her picture with the word red.

In this example the child has written a sentence – I went to a party.  

In this example the children enjoyed writing a list of jobs for the pirate crew – sweep the deck, walk the plank, fight the baddies, find the treasure.

When writing a sentence we encourage your child to think about their sentence, say their sentence aloud, count how many words are in their sentence and then write it. Finally, don’t forget to check it! Below is a picture prompt your child will be familiar with when writing a sentence.

Swimming dates (January-February)

Please see below your child’s swimming dates.

Christmas in F2

We have had a busy time in F2 so far…

Last week we introduced the children to ‘The Christmas Story’. Before reading the story we looked at the characters and the children were able to name most of them. The children then listened very carefully to the story about the very first Christmas.

• It’s Baby Jesus.
• Mary – Baby Jesus’ mummy.
• The 3 wise men, they gave presents to Jesus.
• Joseph and the shepherds.
• They are in a stable.

On Thursday, it was our Christmas dinner day. We all made a Christmas hat to wear into the hall.

So far this week, we have watched a Christmas pantomime. This was lots of fun but had an important message – how to keep safe on the road. Can your child tell you how to safely cross the road? (think, stop, look and listen).

We have also had a special visit from Father Christmas. He read us a special Christmas story and listened carefully when we told him what we would like for Christmas. We were all very lucky and received a present to put under our Christmas tree ready for Christmas morning.

All Stars cricket

Foundation and Key Stage 1 enjoyed a lively cricket assembly from Tom Bates (All Stars Cricket) today. The Year 1 and 2 classes then had a try playing some cricket skills games and a match, too!

Book People Book Fair

This week, we’ve a Book People book fair at school. The Book People are an online book shop, selling books at up to 70% off RRP prices. We’ve a great selection of individual books starting from £4 and a wide range of boxed books, too. Tomorrow is the last day we will be selling the books in school. We will open the book fair at 3.15pm for parents to buy and browse before the end of school. The fair is located in the main reception area.

Thank you to everyone who has already paid us a visit and bought a book.

The school earns money for the sales we make, which helps us replenish the school library, guided reading books and books for the children to enjoy in their classrooms.