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.