A fantastic trip to the Railway Museum!
On Monday, the children had a fantastic time at the Railway museum. They were very excited to go on their first ever school trip – especially travelling there by coach! A few members of the public commented on how well-behaved the children were. Well done, Reception class!
The children enjoyed looking at different trains and making comparisons of old and new. They had lots of fun watching the miniature railway and it led to lots of great discussions about trains, tunnels and transport. The children enjoyed sitting on the Japanese Bullet train – they particularly liked the fact it goes very fast (150-200mph).
To end our fantastic trip, we sat in the upper gallery and viewed the trains across the museum. We then sketched the trains we had seen – the children drew some fantastic sketches!
The Hundred Decker Bus
This week, we’ve been reading another ‘Hundred Decker’ story by Mike Smith. The Hundred Decker Bus
In this story, a driver who is bored of his daily routine decides to take himself and his passengers on a long ‘adventure’. As more people get on the bus, more decks need to be built!
Linked to the story, we’ve been comparing cities/towns to the countryside, discussing similarities and differences. Countryside is our ‘word of the week’.
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.
Computing
This week, we’ve been using Bee-bots. Bee-bots are an early coding resource. Children have to program the bee using directional and ‘GO’ buttons. They have to pre-plan the algorithm they need to enter, to successfully get the bee to its intended location.
Maths
In Maths, we’ve been comparing numbers and noticing whether change creates a number that is more or less than another.
In provision, we used the ‘bus stop’ number story to explore subtraction (creating less) and recorded our number stories.
Phonics
Spring 2 week 3 has been a review of phase 3 sounds, reading words with two or more digraphs (2 letters that make 1 sound). We review tricky words (a word you can’t sound out – you just have to know it) daily.
Tricky words can be just that-tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try…
Tricky word stick person (a modified version of the ‘hangman’ game)
We often play this game in class. Write the correct number of dashes for your chosen tricky word and let your child make guesses. Encourage your child to use letter names rather than sounds for spelling tricky words. Draw a part of the stick man for each incorrect guess- you can give extra chances by adding a hat, shoes, gloves etc. to the stick person!
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 the traditional nursery rhyme Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake.
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Music
This week, the children have been listening to Gustav Holst – Mars. We switched off the lights, laid in the dark with our eyes closed and listened to the music. The children really enjoyed the time to stay still and reflect on the music they were listening to.
“It’s like a movie” Kitson.
“It’s like a storm” Sienna.
“When it was the end I was curling up because it sounded scary” Eli.
“It made me happy because of the little bits and loud bits together” Myla.
“The quiet bits made me tired” Liezah.
“I heard trumpets” Harry.
Reading reminder
Children should be reading fluently by the time their book is issued home on Thursday. Your child will have read their book at least 4 times at school – this is where the teaching of reading happens. The aim of reading sessions at home is to celebrate their reading. To showcase what they have learnt that week and for your child to recognise themselves as a ‘reader’.
If you believe your child is reading from memory you can ‘spot check’ particular words in a sentence or play games with the e-book (such as spotting tricky words).
Remember to encourage reading for pleasure through sharing library books, magazines and other texts at home.
Reminders and Dates
Reception’s Class Assembly- 14.03.23 2.45pm You are invited to our class assembly, where we’d love to share our learning with you.