What did the Greeks do for us?
We researched three topics in our history lessons this week:
- arts
- science
- sport
We made notes and then created posters about each subject.
Help at home: with support, continue the learning journey to research more about life in Ancient Greece. Visit the local library and read some more non-fiction books about Ancient Greece.
Bear Hunt
Bear Hunt
Our focus book has been We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. We have used a story map to retell the story. See if your children can retell it to you at home.
Phonics
We have been introduced to ‘s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u and r’ next week we will learn ‘h, b, f and l’. The children are all working really hard on their ‘blending’ skills. This is where they blend the phonemes (sounds) together in a word. For example we might ask; Can you point to the b-u-s?
Help at home; games like I spy are great for phonic awareness, can they name things that start with the right sound?
Reading
All e books are set up, please let us know if you can’t see this week’s book. After school is the best time to catch us as we have responsibility for the whole class first thing on a morning.
Finally, here’s a snapshot of some of our fantastic independent learning this week.
Reading: The tables have turned.
This week, we’ve been sharpening our retrieval skills in reading and becoming experts on a text all about ancient Egyptian tombs.
Using our R2s (read, scan, record, check), we’ve practised finding information in the text and checking our answers. Then, it was the children’s turn to become the teachers!
They crafted their own retrieval questions and wrote them directly onto their tables, turning them into giant whiteboards. They then challenged their classmates to come over, find the information in the text and write their answers on the table.
Our teachers did a brilliant job putting everyone’s knowledge to the test. There was lots of careful reading, thoughtful questioning and fun along the way.
That was until they had to clean the tables!
Help at home: Quiz your child on the R2s for retrieval.
Poetry – There was an old man with a beard by Edward Lear
1,2B recited our poem all together this week. We were very proud of ourselves!
Speaking and listening: poetry
Last week, our poem of the week was There was an Old Man with a Beard by Edward Lear. This poem is from The Book of Nonsense.
This poem was chosen as part of National Poetry Day.
Help at home by practising this poem with your child. Make sure to encourage expression and voice projection.
English: Vlad and the Great Fire of London
We’re linking some of our reading and writing to our history topic. Vlad and the Great Fire of London tells the story from the viewpoint of a flea!
We’ll be using our comprehension skills in reading and then writing sentences too.
Help at home by reading the book to your child again and discussing it.
Living and learning
Our living and learning statement has been about respecting others. We linked this to our knowledge of the protected characteristics.
There are nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act:
-
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
We use the DR GRAMPSS acronym to remember these characteristics. Our class discussions focused on respectful relationships, helping us to understand the importance of respect and tolerance.
Autumn time
There’s been lots of wonderful talking happening in nursery this week. We’ve been developing our communication and language skills by sharing our special autumn treasures with our friends during group time.
We’ve been practising how to wait for our turn to speak, use a voice that is loud enough for everyone to hear, and use words to describe what we can see.
We’ve heard some fantastic descriptive language as the children talked about their treasures, sharing their ideas and listening carefully to one another.
“This is a rainbow leaf red, brown, orange”
“A heart conker, it’s like a heart”
“The conker goes in here, this is spikey”
It’s been lovely to see the children becoming more confident communicators and enjoying sharing their experiences with their friends!
If you haven’t brought your autumn treasures back yet, don’t worry, we’ll be continuing to share and explore them next week.
Our autumn interests have continued throughout our provision too. We’ve explored rolling conkers, watching how they moved. We’ve discovered that, unlike apples, conkers don’t float in the water tray. They are also very tricky to catch with tweezers. In our painting area, we’ve been developing our arm and shoulder muscles by using rollers to create artwork.
Next week, we’ll continue to learn about autumn. We’ll be looking at artwork by Andy Goldsworthy and using natural materials to create our own artwork inspired by his work.
Next week
Our Nursery Rhyme of the week is Humpty Dumpty
Can you join in with this nursery rhyme?
We are continuing to explore “We’re going on a bear hunt” This week we’ll be joining in with the rhyme and adding our own sound effects.
Reminders
- Our individual photographs will take place on Tuesday 06 October.
- Don’t forget to send in your family photos to add to our display. The children are really enjoying talking about them. Send them to our email address scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
- We currently have a number of unnamed water bottles in nursery. Please could you ensure that your child’s water bottle is clearly labelled with their name to help us avoid any confusion and make sure everyone gets the right bottle
It’s been a wonderful week of exploring, talking, listening and learning together!
We’re going on a Bear Hunt
On Monday, we introduced our new focus text for the next two weeks. It’s one of our favourite stories – We’re going on a Bear Hunt.
The children loved listening to Michael Rosen re-telling the story. If you’d like to join in with the story together at home, here’s a link to the video.
(This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)
Phonics
This week, we’ve been working really hard on our oral blending skills. We’re also learning how to use our letter knowledge to say the sounds and blend them together to read words.
Here’s a Little Wandle video to give you more information about how we teach blending, as well as a video showing you how to say the pure sounds for each letter.
Help at home: Please use the ‘Learning at home’ sheet to regularly practise all of the letters and tricky words. Little and often works best!
This week’s letters:
This week’s Tricky word: is
What is a Tricky Word? Tricky words are words that children learn to read by sight because they don’t always follow the usual phonics rules. Learning these words helps children become more confident and fluent readers.
If you’d like to know more, here’s a short Little Wandle video explaining how tricky words are taught.
Poetry Basket
Each week, we learn a new poem and recite it together each day. Reciting poems helps children develop their listening skills, hear the sounds and rhythm of language and builds their confidence as readers.
This week’s poem is Breezy Weather.
Stay and Learn – Fine Motor
A big thank you to all the parents and carers who were able to join us on Tuesday for our Reception Fine Motor Skills Stay and Learn.
We hope you found the presentation informative and enjoyed taking part in some of the activities with your child. It was fantastic to see so many of you there and the children really enjoyed getting involved!
We hope you are able to use some of the ideas and activities from the session to further support and develop your child’s gross and fine motor skills at home.
If you have any questions following the session, please don’t hesitate to contact the Reception team.
The presentation from the session can be found here.
We would also really appreciate it if you could take 2 minutes to complete our feedback form. Your feedback helps us to plan future sessions and make sure they are useful for families.
Thank you again for your support.