It has been a busy week full of new experiences for Year R.

Year R had their first school trip to the library on Wednesday. Although it was a long walk we made it there and back! The lovely ladies at the library showed us around the children’s floor and told us about the exciting activities that they have on Saturdays, like Lego club and board game mornings! They then read us some of their favourite stories, they were very funny!

As well as our first school trip we have been busy practising for our Nativity. We are learning lots of new songs and get to perform on stage. Letters have been sent out for grown ups to get tickets to watch our performance as well as notifying the role that their child will be playing. Please ensure that you are bringing in costumes so they are in school and ready for our performance on Wednesday 5th December.

Dear Parents                                                                                                                           19.11.18

Next week we will be learning…

Maths: In maths next week we will be learning about more and fewer. Children will be able to select the group which has more/fewer items in it. At home you could support this learning by sharing out toys and getting the children to find which group has more /fewer toys in.

Literacy: In literacy next week we will be thinking about how to enrich our spoken language by introducing new vocabulary and exploring new words and meanings. With this in mind we will be sending home some ‘talk homework’ on a separate letter. This is designed to support our learning in school and enable the children to spend quality time with you at home talking and exploring new words. This week we will be using the Christmas story as a vehicle to explore new words. Each week we will be sending home a ‘top tip for talking’. Please see below for this weeks tip. Talking and exploring new words is so important at this stage in their development. Enjoy the talking!

Phonics: Next week we will be learning the letters h, b, f and l and learning to read the high frequency words no, to, the and go. Perhaps you could write the words on the fridge or around the house and see if they can read the words as they pass during the day?

Other events….

• We had a lovely visit to the chapel at Oaklands School last week. A big thank you to the school and Miss Keogh, the Chaplin, for letting us come and compare the symbols of worship we use in class with those in the chapel.
• On Friday 9^th we had a special assembly with the rest of the school where we looked at all the work that has been going on relating to remembrance. The children had worked with Mrs Pearson to make a cross out of purple poppies which commemorated the animals who lost their lives in the first World War.

Some useful information and reminders!

• Phonics meeting: 30 on Tuesday 20^th November.
• Please continue to bring in the costumes and ticket slips for the Nativity. It is also important that your child has lots of opportunity to practise their lines (if they have any!) so please support them at home.
• Parents evening is coming soon! We look forward to seeing you all on the evenings of either 27^th or 28^th You will be asked to sign up electronically for a session in due course.
• Reminder that there will be a whole school INSET day on Friday 30^th

Top tip for talking!

Younger children might find it difficult to tell you about their day at school. To support them, try giving choices like “did you paint a picture or play on the swings?” or ask “tell me one good thing that happened today”. You could say one good thing about your day too, just to get the conversation going.

The Early Years team

Dear Parents                                                                                                  08.11.18

What a busy week we had last week! The children were very busy with their learning and are really showing us their progress with writing small words and hearing initial and other sounds in words. Use the letter cards to make small words for the children to further develop these skills. We have been talking about Remembrance and on Friday we will sing a song and show the rest of the school some art work we have done in relation to the animals who helped us during World War 1. We hope you will spend some time on Sunday thinking about the 100 years since the end of the war.

Next week we will be learning…

Maths: In maths next week we will be looking at measuring things. We will be ordering different items by length and using the mathematical language of long, short, tall etc. Have a go at measuring things at home. How many pencils long is the table? Can they estimate before they find out? Which item is longest, and which shortest?

Literacy: In literacy this week we will learn how to write sentences. We will be looking at some dragon words and how these can be used in our writing. Some children will be sent home with Dragon words this week, please talk to them about how they can’t use their sounds to read the words but need to learn them by sight.

Phonics: Next week we will be learning the letters ck, e, u, and r  and learning to read the high frequency words to, get, got , the, put and and. Perhaps you could write the words on the fridge or around the house and see if they can read the words as they pass during the day?

Other events….

• Miss Ingleby has now left Starfish class after finishing her placement. The children have really enjoyed having her with us and we wish her well in whatever lies ahead!

Some useful information and reminders!

• Phonics meeting: 3.30 on Tuesday 20^th November.
• If your child is now 5 and they still would like milk at school, please logon to coolmilk and register. You will now need to pay a small subscription for them to have it.
• Some parents of older children have been asking us about bugclub. This year the school will not be subscribing to bug club. If you wish to access other books for your child please use books from the library or others you may have at home where you can practise segmenting for reading and identifying the high frequency words and letters learnt in the text.
• With the Nativity and Christmas fast approaching we will be sending home a letter about costumes to all children. Please keep an eye out for this! Some children will also have some words to learn. Please help them at home. Thank you.

The Early Years team

Dear Parents

And so a new half term begins!! We hope you all had a restful and enjoyable holiday and a not too scary Halloween!

Next week we will be learning…

Maths: In maths next week we will be thinking about what is one more or one less than a number. We will be using our fingers and other objects to help us and using bigger numbers for the children who are confident to tell us without any support.

Literacy: In literacy this week we will be writing messages in a bottle to a pirate! We will be building on our work last week, thinking about the initial and other sounds in words and recording them. The children have been working really hard to blend sounds to read small words and segmenting them to help them write. If you could support them at home in this by making small words with the letters we are sending home and encouraging them to write any sounds they can hear that would be great. Don’t worry if your child is not yet ready for this! Play eye spy, practise the letter sound cards and enjoy reading together. Thank you.

Phonics: Next week we will be recapping the letters we have learnt so far and teaching the children the tricky words ‘the, no, go ‘ and ‘I’. Please could you practise these with the children at home.

Other events….

On Friday we will be having a History day as a school, looking at Remembrance in the context of World War 1. We will be doing some art work, thinking about the differences in how people lived  then in comparison to us  and learning a song as well as visiting the chapel at Oakland’s school where we will be having some quiet time following our whole school assembly in the morning.

Some useful information and reminders!

• A parents meeting about phonics will take place at30 on Tuesday 20^th November. Please come along so that you can hear how we will be teaching phonics in the coming weeks.
• We will be going to the library on 21^st November. A reminder to return any late paperwork.
• Please return any washed PE kits that are not back at school.

Thank you

The Early Years team

This week we have been very busy guessing / estimating in maths. We have been drawing round our feet and hands, guessing how many multi link cubes will fit in our hand print and then finding our by counting. We had great fun learning! We have also been doing lots of writing, exploring the sounds we could hear and writing them. We have learnt so much in such a short time!