The Nativity
Some of our learning is top secret this week, as we continue preparations for the festive season! There’s been Christmas crafts and of course, lots of practise for our very special show.
Here’s a little insight into the super learning we can share from this week…
Advent and The Nativity Story
We’ve been learning about the story of the first Christmas- The Nativity. Nativity is our word of the week.
We started the week by finding out why Christians choose to celebrate Christmas and where the word ‘advent’ comes from.
Did you know both Rainbow and Sunshine Class has their own Advent tree? ‘Star of the Day’ gets to choose a decoration each morning. See if you can spot it next time you are in the classroom!
We learnt a version of The Nativity with actions and enjoyed re-telling the story using a Nativity scene in the classroom.
In our writing, we used an image of The Nativity to either write a sentence or label characters and/or animals from the image.
We discussed that people have different traditions and reasons for celebrating Christmas. Next week, we’ll be looking at how Christmas is celebrated across the world.
Maths; 2d Shapes
In maths this week, we’ve been re-visiting 2d shapes. We’ve been naming shapes and discussing their properties. We’ve been exploring which shapes can fit within other shapes. We’ll continue our shape explorations into next week.
Expressive Arts and Design; Observational drawing
The children developed their observational drawing skills by carefully looking at a Poinsettia before drawing it with wax crayons. As they examined the plant, they noticed details like the veins running through the leaves. Using these observations, they chose colours purposefully.
Phonics
It’s review and assessment week! This week the children have been re-visiting all they have learnt across the autumn 2 term and completed a phonics check.
It’s been fantastic to see the progress made since September and how all of the children’s confidence has grown in regards to both their reading and their writing skills.
Help at home; Please keep re-visiting the learn at home sheets. If your child has been at school, you will have received an updated ‘GPC mat’ with the sounds and tricky words we have covered so far. If any GPCs or tricky words have been highlighted, these are the ones your child was unsure of during the phonics check and therefore need a little more re-visiting. If your child has a blank sheet in their bag, they knew all GPCs/tricky words covered in the assessment.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each 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 Who has seen the wind? By Christina Rosetti.
We’ve also been learning a range of winter/Christmas themed poems, ready for our EYFS production- we’ll keep those ones a surprise!
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Swimming
Posters detailing the dates for swimming sessions (after half term), will be put on classroom doors this week. They will also be posted with further details next week, on the Class News post.
Reminders and Diary Dates
- Tuesday 16 December 1.30pm / Wednesday 17 December 9.45am Early Years Christmas Performance
- Thursday 18 December Christmas Dinner
- Friday 19 December Non-uniform day and Reception Christmas Party day.
Nets of 3D shapes in Year 6 maths
Year 6 children have been exploring how many different ways they can create a net of a 3D shape. First, they visualised how the nets might fold to make a cube. Then, we used magformers to create the cubes. Finally, we used Polypad to explore some examples and non examples of nets for cubes.
Help at home: Discuss mathematical language of 3D shapes such as vertices, edges and faces (mathsisfun has a great dictionary function to help) Look around for examples of prisms and pyramids in the items that you buy from the supermarket. Explore unfolding the shapes and looking at the nets.
Inspiring artists!
This week, we have been using Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth as our inspiration for creating our own designs. We sketched some of our favourite designs and then used these ideas to create our own sketches. These will be our final designs that we’ll create our soap sculptures from. The children added texture and negative space to their designs.
Science – being chemists
This half term, we’ve been chemists. We’ve been learning about materials, their properties and which material is used for what and why.
This week we tested the absorbency of different materials.
We learnt that,
Absorb means when a liquid is taken in my a material.
We predicted, then tested, the absorbency of a tissue, kitchen roll, paper and a plastic bag. Some materials absorbed quicker than others but the plastic didn’t absorb the water at all.
Help at home by finding absorbent material in your home.
A Zoom from Antarctica!
On Friday, KS2 made history by joining the first ever Zoom webinar streamed live to thousands of schools… from Antarctica!
Hosted by Picture News, we were joined by Robert Swan, a conservationist who is the first person to walk on both the North and South Poles.
We learnt about the importance of Antarctica and how we are all owners of this beautiful, unique continent.
Help at home: Visit the 2041 website and ask your child what they learnt on Friday.
Stick Man
We’ve enjoyed listening to Stick Man by Julia Donaldson this week in our story time sessions. The children used story props to re tell the story to their friends. We use story props in Nursery to help the children to remember the story, it also supports their creativity.
Creativity and storying can happen anywhere in nursery not just in the story corner. Outside there are many great opportunities for creativity. This week our crates became a bus to take us to the zoo where we enjoyed a lovely picnic.
We saw lots of team work, negotiation and turn taking outside this week. We created a track with the drains and stands to roll balls and cars down. It was tricky to join the pieces together, so that the balls kept rolling and to catch them at the end. But, we did it!
More team work and some fiddly fingers were needed when we all helped to put up our Christmas tree. We hope you like it ! We are looking forward to starting our Christmas activities in Nursery next week.
We’ve also been busy learning our Christmas songs, maybe you’ve been hearing them at home? We can’t wait to sing them at our Christmas sing- a long.
Help at home
Can you find some long and short objects around the house? Which is the longest piece of tinsel on your Christmas tree? Which is the shortest?
Let us know what you find.
Next week’s learning:
We’ll continue reading Stickman by Julia Donaldson.
In maths, we continue to learn about length so will be using the words long, short, longer and shorter to compare different objects.
Nursery rhyme of the week – We’ll be busy learning songs for our sing – a long, so please keep singing your favourite rhymes together at home.
Here is a reminder of the Nursery rhymes we have covered this half term
Wind the Bobbin up.
Hickory Dickory Dock.
1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive.
Twinkle twinkle Little Star.
Sound of the week – N n for net
Open your lips a bit, put your tongue behind your teeth and make a nnnnnn sound.
Reminders:
- Please send your child’s costume to Nursery by Monday 08 December. Remember to write your child’s name on all items of their costume and the bag. Thank you for your support.
- If you haven’t already returned your reply slip for the ‘Stay and Decorate’ sessions, please do so this week.
We hope that you have happy and healthy weekend.
Owl Babies
This week in Reception, we enjoyed reading Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. 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.
Using a story map, we created our own actions to help us retell the story from the beginning to the end. We practised remembering key events from the story and included the repeated phrases.
I want my Mummy!
All owls think a lot.
What’s all the fuss?
Phonics
In phonics this week, we’ve focused on:
- words with s /s/ added at the end (hats, sits)
- words with s /z/ added at the end (bags)
- words ending s /z/ (his)
We’ve learnt the tricky words: we, me, be
Tricky words are words that children learn to recognise by sight. Children have been introduced to many new Phase 2 tricky words this half term. Regular practice, both at home and at school, will help them to remember and recognise these words.
Help at home: Here are a few games you can play to help your child learn their tricky words:
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Tricky word doorbell/password: Stick a tricky word on a doorframe. Children say the word correctly each time they go through the door.
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Tricky word hunt / hide-and-seek: Write tricky words on pieces of paper and hide them around the house. Children find them and read each word aloud.
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Pairs: Write each tricky word twice on separate pieces of paper. Mix them up and play a simple pairs game where children have to read the word and find the matching card.
In provision, we’ve been reading and highlighting our focus tricky words.
Poetry Basket
Each week we learn a new poem and say it together every day. Reciting the poem out loud helps children to hear the sounds and rhythm in the words, which supports their early reading skills. This week’s poem is called ‘Wise Old Owl‘. Please follow the link to enjoy watching the children recite it.
Maths: counting, ordinality and cardinality
This week in Maths, we’ve been busy:
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practising one-to-one correspondence by carefully matching objects to their representations
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developing our understanding of cardinality — knowing that the last number counted tells us the total
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counting abstract things such as claps and jumps
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counting beyond 20 to spot number patterns
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linking quantities to numbers within 5
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exploring how an amount stays the same even when it is moved or rearranged
Learning journey drop-ins
Thank you to all the parents and carers who were able to join us for the first look at your child’s learning journey book. We’ll be inviting you back to view these again on specific dates in the spring and summer terms, but they are also available at any time in the classroom if you would like to take a peek.
A few parents and carers asked about the written observations and the numbers that were written next to them. Our Early Years Curriculum Guide describes our curriculum and explains the age-related expectations for children in Reception. Please ask if you have any questions.
Diary Dates
- Friday 12 December 3.15-4.15 FOSP Christmas Disco (bring named party clothes in a bag to change into at the end of the school day)
- Tuesday 16 December 1.30pm / Wednesday 17 December 9.45am Early Years Christmas Performance
- Thursday 18 December Christmas Dinner
- Friday 19 December Non-uniform day and Reception Christmas Party day. More details to follow.
Art – printing
We’ve used out printing skills that we learned on the Hepworth Gallery trip last week. There were some ‘ooohs’ and ‘ahhhs’ as children saw what pattern their tile made.
Design and Technology – Cooking
Over the last couple of weeks, the children have had a great time making and tasting leek and potato soup.
The children used knives safely to cut the onions, potatoes and leeks using the claw grip and bridge method. The children also discussed the importance of food hygiene.
At home, why not make this recipe?
How To Catch A Star
Literacy
This week our focus story was ‘How to Catch a Star‘ by Oliver Jeffers. (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). We read the book and spent time retelling the story in our own words.
Phonics
During our recent Phonics lessons we’ve been expanding our digraph knowledge. Digraphs are two letters that make one sound. Here are the ones we now know so far:
ck, ss, ll, ff, zz, qu, ch, sh, th, ng, nk
Help at home: you could write these digraphs on paper to play with your child. They’d be great as flashcards to practise or if you made two sets, you could play games such as Snap or Matching Pairs. You also hide one pack around the house and then use the other as a prompt to find the right one.
The Phonics challenge in class this week was to challenge a friend to a Tricky Word Boo game. You need to read as many words as you can and collect them in a bowl as you go. Be careful though! If you come across the word ‘Boo’ – you need to put all your words back. The winner is the person with the most cards at the end.
Help at home: You could play a game of Tricky Word Boo at home.
Word Of The Week
Our word of the week this week is ‘reflection‘.
We use this song to help us practise the word of the week in class:
Poetry Picnic
Each week we learn a new poem and we 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 children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called ‘Mice’ by Rose Fyleman.
Here’s Sunshine Class reciting it 🙂
Maths
After watching an episode of Numberblocks, we enjoyed making our own Stampoline prints to show different ways of making 5.
Help at home: You could watch the Stampolines episode with your child
PE
During our PE lessons, we’ve been using the large equipment in the hall to practise our balancing skills. Balancing is one of the fundamental movement skills. It is a key skill for many sports such as tennis, gymnastics, football, ballet, dance, golf and many more.
Winter weather
The winter weather is well and truly here. We had fun in our outdoor classroom mark making in the frost with paint brushes and water and being ice detectives.
