The Great Big Book of Families
This week we’ve been reading The Great Big Book of Families. (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.) Through the book, we have explored and celebrated the variety of families. Children had lots of suggestions about what makes a family.
What is a family?
People who live in the same house.
People don’t have to live in the same house.
They love each other.
Grandma and Grandad because they can live in your house.
In the writing area, we drew our families and we used loose parts to make the faces of people in our families.
Help at home: Family photos
Thank you for sending your family photos. There’s still time to email one if you haven’t had the chance yet. Over the next few weeks, we will also be thinking about our homes. To help support our discussions and art project, please send in one picture of your front door. You can email photos to scholesreception@spherefederation.org
Maths
We’ve been using our subitising skills in maths this week. When subitising, we can say how many there are in a small group by ‘just looking’ and knowing without needing to count.
We used counters to create our own arrangements of 2 and 3 and sorted pictures into groups showing 1, 2 and 3.
Phonics
This week, we have learnt the phonemes (the sounds a letter makes) s,a,t and p.
During our phonics learning, we listened carefully to the initial sound in a word and sorted objects into those that started with ‘s’ and those that didn’t.
In Reception, we learn to say the pure sounds that letters make, so for ‘s’, we say ‘ssss’ rather than ‘suh’. To hear the pronunciation for each letter, you might like to watch this short video clip of the letters we’ll be learning this half term.
Help at home: Look out for a ‘learn at home’ sheet which recaps the phonics learning from the week. Please look at this with your child and complete the activities.
Poetry Picnic
Each week, we will learn a new poem and will recite this poem every day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Chop Chop.
Chop Chop
Chop, Chop, Choppity Chop.
Cut off the bottom and cut off the top.
What there is left, we put in the pot.
Chop, Chop, Choppity Chop
And here are a few other snap shots of our learning this week.
eBooks
Next week, you will be issued your first eBook to share with your child. Your login details and reading record will be sent home soon. Please let us know if you do not have access to a device to read at home, as we have iPads for loan at the school office.
Please read with your child each week. As teachers, we have access to reading reports. We will be giving out certificates in class to celebrate your child’s reading at home.
Reception Baseline Assessment
Within the first 6 weeks of Reception, your child will participate in the reception baseline assessment.
“The RBA is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school, using materials that most children of your child’s age will be familiar with. It became statutory for all schools from September 2021.”
Click here to find out more.
‘Welcome to Reception’ meeting
Thank you to those parents/carers who were able to attend our ‘Welcome to Reception’ presentation on Thursday evening. We hope you found it informative.
If you were unable to attend or would like to re-visit the subjects we discussed, please click here to be taken to a PDF version of the slides used in the presentation.
Week 3 in 2C
The children are settling into Year 2 fantastically. It has been brilliant to see how quickly the children have adapted and settled into their new routines.
Here’s an overview of what we have been up to this week!
Reading
In Reading lessons we have been looking at the book ‘Little Red’ by Bethan Woolvin. This is a story inspired by Little Red Riding Hood but it has a twist at the end. We have been reading different versions of Little Red Riding Hood and have been comparing, discussing similarities and differences.
Our Poem of the week this week has been ‘Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf’ by Roald Dahl. On the first day, we listened to the poet read the poem via audio. The next day we focussed on rhyming words and discussed what a rhyming word is. The following day, we started to look at the meaning of some tricky vocabulary in the poem and on Thursday we showed off our fluency and prosody. This poem will be sent home alongside homework Friday 20th.
Maths
We are continuing to learn about place value in Maths this half term. This week we have been learning about what each number represents within a two-digit number. For example in the number 24, the 2 represents two tens and the 4 represents 4 ones. See some of our learning below.
Science
In Science this week, the children have been learning about birds. This half term we will be learning all about different types of animals. Last week we learnt about mammals.
We know that all birds have a beak, wings, feathers and lay eggs. But all birds are not the same. Some birds cannot fly and only some birds can swim. During the lesson we went onto our school playground to see if we could spot any common birds. We saw several pigeons and 3 Kites!
History
During Topic lessons this week, the children have been learning all about houses in the past and why the fire spread so quickly back in 1666. We learnt that the fire spread quickly because the houses were made of wood and they were very close together. We also discussed that the ‘Great’ fire refers to the fire being big, spreading quickly and lasting 4 days. It was a significant historical event that happened a long time ago.
Here’s some other photographs showing what we have been up to this week!
Class News
Well done 3,4 C – what a great week of learning!
In our art skills lesson, we used charcoal on large pieces of paper to create marks and patterns. We compared our artwork and were really impressed with the results.
In PE, we played hockey! We focussed on passing the ball to each other using the push pass.
Well done to everyone who has used Times Tables Rockstars and/or Numbots. Help at home by encouraging your child to access these games to help secure their number facts and times tables. Please let me know if you have any trouble accessing either of these.
Science: classification
In Science this half-term, we have been biologists and have been learning about the different types of organisms including: mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, amphibians and invertebrates.
This week, we worked together to create our own classification keys. They allowed us to sort, classify and identify different animals. We created the questions for our classification key based on the physical characteristics of different animals.
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Help at home: Test your child’s knowledge of the different types of animals and the scientific vocabulary.
Our First Lunchtime and Exploring Outside
This week, many of the children have stayed for their first lunch time and full day; we’re really proud of how well they did. They all sat down together to eat in the nursery dining room and tried tasty school meals or their own packed lunch.
As children have become more settled in Nursery, we’ve gradually been introducing them to our nursery routines. We now know that when we hear “3,2,1, Stop!” we need to empty our hands, have a silent voice and to stop and look at the person who is speaking. The children have been learning how to use all of our labels, pictures and templates to help tidy toys away into the right places and we’re beginning to form a line when going to play outside.
We have been very busy this week enjoying the September sunshine . Some of our favourite outdoor activities have been –
- rolling balls and cars down ramps
- sweeping the leaves
- chalking patterns and pictures
- singing and playing instruments
- developing our climbing and balancing skills on our new playground equipment
- baking in the mud kitchen
Each week we will be suggesting ways that you can support your child at home. This week involves a favourite rhyme.
Help at home – Can you sing the ” Wheels on the bus” nursery rhyme? Can you remember all of the actions? The Wheels on the Bus
Next week we will be reading our first focus story ” The Three Little Pigs”. We will be using story props to retell the story. The Three Little Pigs
Reading- Hilarious Greek Myths with Tom Vaughan
Help at home: Ask your child questions about the author. Click here to rewatch our chat with Tom: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/hilariousgreekmyths
Year 3 Maths
We have been working on place value in Year 3 and making sure we understand the difference between hundreds, tens and ones. This will be important for when we come to add and subtract 3-digit numbers later in the term!
We have looked at how we can represent numbers in different ways: using numerals, Dienes blocks (base ten) and counters.
Help at home by practising reading and writing 3-digit numbers. If I said ‘351’ for example, could you tell me the value of the 5?
Reading Records
Children in 5/6 have been sharing their love of reading in our Book Club sessions. Each week, children complete one activity in response to what they have read during the week.
Help at home: Check the last few pages of the reading record. There are many activities to be completed and signed by an adult.
PE: hockey
We are learning a new sport this half term -hockey!
The children were very excited to be introduced to the game of hockey. They were even more excited to be able to use some brand new equipment! We played some warm up games first to get us warmed up and our hearts pumping faster – we love these!
The hockey sticks were handed out and our first job was to make sure we could grip the sticks accurately. The children were then allowed to explore with the hockey stick and a ball. This allowed the children to get used to handling the ball.
They then worked in pairs to learn how to pass accurately with the ball and by the end of the session they were much better and even played a game of possession ball.
