This week, we’ve explored all things autumn!
Understanding the world; seasonal changes
We took an autumn walk to spot changes in the natural environment. We remembered lots of these from our nature study sessions.
Leaf Man
We’ve been reading the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.
“A Leaf Man’s got to go, where the wind blows”
The book takes us on Leaf Man’s journey, as he travels on the autumn wind across different autumnal landscapes.
Our ‘word of the week’ is seasons. We know that we have four seasons in the year; spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Inspired by the book, we made our own ‘Leaf Man’ pictures.
Understanding the world; Farmer time with Farmer Luke
Did you know that Reception classes have the opportunity to video call with a real-life farmer, working on his farm?! We speak to farmer Luke once each half term to see how farm life changes over the year and what jobs he is busy doing. Farmer Luke has an arable farm, so it’s a very busy harvesting time of year. He took some time out this week, to show Reception around the farm. Next door to his farm are some animals too. Reception were so excited to see the cows and were very impressed to see his amazing tractors!
Maths
Our focus in maths this week has been comparing quantities. We have developed our skills to look carefully and use the language of ‘more than’ and ‘fewer than’ to describe sets of objects.
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 Five Little Pumpkins.
click here to watch us recite this week’s poem!
Phonics
This week, the children have learnt the phonemes (the sound a letter makes) h, b, f and l. They have also been practicing writing the graphemes (the written letter).
We learnt the tricky word: the
Please continue to use the ‘Learn at home’ sheets with your child, to review our new sounds each week.
Help at home; blending
Oral segmenting/blending games are great, both if your child is still learning to blend and for those children who are confident ‘blenders’, to revisit their skills. Here’s just one idea to try at home: Dress the Baby (idea taken from earlyimpactlearning.com)
Any toy can be used for this game. Put a baby doll or another toy down with some clothes round it- for example a hat, boots, a nappy, a coat and gloves.
Say one of the pieces of clothing in sound-talk. For example a boot would be a ‘b-oo-t.’ If your child can blend it, then they can put a piece that piece of clothing on the baby/toy. To make it easier, you can say all the pieces of clothing like robots before you start.
Let us know if you try this game at home!
Dates for your diary and reminders
Parent-teacher consultation (PTC) appointments- 22.10.24/24.10.24 (individual times) A zoom link will be sent for your appointment. Please use your child’s name as your screenname. Thank you.
Swimming lessons will begin after the half term break. On your child’s swimming day, please provide a swimsuit/swim shorts, a towel and a pair of goggles if needed. No floatation equipment is required, as we provide these in school. Your child should still come to school wearing their PE kit.
During autumn 1, your child has met our swimming instructor Miss Joicey and has had an opportunity to visit the pool.
Stay and Learn; Number (session 1)- 13.11.24 9am-10am This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about the Early Years Curriculum and watch your child learning in school. This session will be focused on maths.