This week we have started to learn about the first Christmas story. We read a book and thought about the characters, the setting and the main events. We have sequenced the story from beginning to end and used time words such as then, after next, before. We have been learning to use laptops to type and play games as well. The children have been comparing playdough and clay and learning different techniques to shape both materials. We have been working on using our sound cards to help us form letters to write messages and letters to Father Christmas.

Our words of the week are ‘sleep’ and ‘lonely’.  We talked a lot about feeling lonely and how we would know if someone was feeling like this. The children thought they may be on their own or not talking to anyone. We then talked about how to stop others feeling this way and we came up with ideas such as asking them to join in with what we were doing and asking them why they were lonely.

In Maths, we have learnt all about the number ten and creating our own personal methods to solve number problems. We have continued to look at sets and how we can group a number of objects based on their similarities, such as colour, shape or form. The children have come up with their own ways of grouping objects this week as well. We looked at how ten is made up of double 5. We have been solving problems involving one more and one less, using our personal methods to help us. They have also been using tens frame and part part whole grids to help them solve problems.

In Phonics, we have learnt how to read and write /g/ and /o/.  For these sounds, we use cued articulation to ensure that we are pronouncing pure sounds.  The letter formation rhymes for these sounds are as follows: g- around the girls head, down her long hair, give it a curl and a flick; o- all around the orange. Don’t forget to look at the phonics videos on Seesaw which show you how to pronounce the sound and words to mash and bash.

We are continuing to develop our ability to be independent and how to solve problems using the resources, including friends. We have come up with 4 strategies to help them children be independent which are displayed in the classrooms. They are – brainbox, friends, learning dinosaurs then adults.

If you have any questions about what your child is learning, please email your child’s class teacher.

Year R team

This week we have been continued learning about space. We have been using Google Earth to look at space and zoom into planet earth, including seeing a close up of Valentine Primary School from above. We have continued to use the story ‘Whatever Next!’ We have been looking at non-fiction books about space and learning how to use the contents page and page numbers. We have introduced two more 3D shapes – cuboid and cylinder and also continued to use cube and cone. The children explored which shapes are good for building and which shapes roll. We have been finding these in the classroom and using them as a way to build our rockets to make them stand out more. We have been working on using our sound cards to help us form letters to help baby bear learn about space.

Our words of the week are ‘exhausted’ and ‘anger’.  We acted out scenarios of when we have felt angry and how it made us feel. We have talked about how we can use the comfort zones to help us calm down. We have discussed these words and the children gave examples of when these words applied to them.

In Maths, we have learnt all about the number nine and creating our own personal methods to solve number problems. We have introduced them to sets and how we can group a number of objects based on their similarities, such as colour, shape or form. We have been solving problems involving one more and one less, using our personal methods to help us.

In Phonics, we have learnt how to read and write /m/ and /d/.  For these sounds, we use cued articulation to ensure that we are pronouncing pure sounds.  The letter formation rhymes for these sounds are as follows: m- down Maisie, over the mountain, over the mountain; d- around the dinosaurs bottom, up his long neck and down to his feet.

We are continuing to develop our ability to be independent and how to solve problems using the resources, including friends. We have come up with 4 strategies to help them children be independent which are displayed in the classrooms. They are – brainbox, friends, learning dinosaurs then adults.

If you have any questions about what your child is learning, please email your child’s class teacher.

Year R team

This week we have been learning about space. We have read the story ‘Whatever Next!’ and learnt all about Baby Bear exploring the moon in his rocket. We have acted out the story with giant cardboard boxes as our rockets and thought about how we can change the box to make it look more like a rocket than a box. To help us build our own rockets, we have looked at two 3D shapes – cube and cone. We have been finding these in the classroom and using them as a way to build out rockets to make them stand out more. We have been supporting Baby Bear in thinking about what he needs to take to the moon – writing lists to help him remember, while practicing using the sounds we have been learning and sound cards.

Our words of the week are ‘drowsy’ and ‘surprised’.  We acted out scenarios of when we have felt surprised and how it made us feel. We have discussed these words and the children gave examples of when these words applied to them.

In Maths, we have learnt all about the number eight and creating our own personal methods to solve number problems. We have introduced them to sets and how we can group a number of objects based on their similarities, such as colour, shape or form. We have been solving problems involving one more and one less, using our personal methods to help us.

In Phonics, we have learnt how to read and write /i/ and /n/.  For these sounds, we use cued articulation to ensure that we are pronouncing pure sounds.  The letter formation rhymes for these sounds are as follows: i- down the insect’s body and a dot for his head; n- down the net, up the net and over.

We are developing our ability to be independent and how to solve problems using the resources, including friends. We have come up with 4 strategies to help them children be independent which are displayed in the classrooms. They are – brainbox, friends, learning dinosaurs then adults.

If you have any questions about what your child is learning, please email your child’s class teacher.

Year R team

This week we have been battling the evil pea from our story ‘Supertato – Veggies assemble’.  The children have created new super veggies to help Supertato, giving them new superhero names. We also thought about what superheroes are good at and what we are good at. The children have been problem solving with weighing, thinking about which vegetables are heavy light then introducing the words heavier and lighter. We explored what superheroes need to keep themselves healthy and tried out some of the ideas, such as moving in different ways and trying new fruits.

Our words of the week are ‘tired’ and ‘hurt’.  When we looked at the word ‘hurt’ we looked at it in two ways – physically being hurt and someone hurting our feelings. We have discussed these words and the children gave examples of when these words applied to them.

In Maths, we have learnt all about the number seven and creating our own personal methods to solve number problems. We know that we cannot use a ‘fives frame’ when representing the number seven as seven is one more than six.  We are continuously revising 2d shapes and recalling their properties e.g. one straight line and one curved line is a semi-circle.   When problem solving the children have come up with their own methods to solve problems.

In Phonics, we have learnt how to read and write /t/ and /p/.  For these sounds, we use cued articulation to ensure that we are pronouncing pure sounds.  The letter formation rhymes for these sounds are as follows: t- down the tower, across the tower; p- down the pirate’s plait, up the pirate’s plait and around his head.

We will be posting videos to support with phonics at home on Seesaw. These videos will show you as parents how we teach the sounds and how learning sounds supports reading of words. Please look out for these.

We are developing our ability to be independent and how to solve problems using the resources, including friends. 

If you have any questions about what your child is learning, please email your child’s class teacher.

Year R team

This week we have been battling the evil pea from our story ‘Supertato’.  The children have been writing plans to save the captured vegetables, designing wanted posters, weighing various vegetables and ordering them by weight.  The children have had a fantastic learning week.

Our words of the week are ‘devour’ and ‘startled’.  We have discussed these words and the children have ‘devoured’ their lunch every day, including using the vocabulary for it.  The children were continuously ‘startled’ throughout the Supertato story and even more so when the evil pea would move around the classroom.

In Maths, we have learnt all about the number six and creating our own personal methods to solve number problems. We know that we cannot use a ‘fives frame’ when representing the number six as six is one more than five.  We are continuously revising 2d shapes and recalling their properties e.g. one straight line and one curved line is a semi-circle.   When problem solving the children have come up with their own methods to solve problems, for example Summer uses Lego to solve number sentences.  This method and picture of Summer is then put on the maths board with ‘Summer’s method’. 

In Phonics, we have learnt how to read and write /s/ and /a/.  For these sounds, we use cued articulation to ensure that we are pronouncing pure sounds.  The letter formation rhymes for these sounds are as follows: s- slither down the snake; a- around the apple and down the leaf

We are developing our ability to be independent and how to solve problems using the resources, including friends. 

If you have any questions about what your child is learning, please email your child’s class teacher.

Year R team

The children in Year R have had a fun week back after half term. On Monday, we looked at the story ‘Giraffe’s can’t dance’. The children talked about how Gerald feels throughout the story and how proud he felt at the end. We showed the children their new special diaries and they drew pictures of something that makes them feel proud. 

Our focus story this week has been a story called ‘Goodnight Pirate’ by Michelle Robinson. This story introduced the children to lots of new vocabulary linked to pirates. We acted out the story, made treasure maps and thought about the position of the objects on the map, using words such as, next to, under, beside, in front, behind. We have also been writing secret messages to pirates to tell them where the treasure is.

Our words of the week are ‘gulp’ and ‘disappointed’. We have talked about when we would feel disappointed and whether it is a good feeling. We also talked about how we can change from being disappointed.

In Maths, we have been revising the numbers zero to five and solving problems using these numbers. We have spent time using five’s frames and working out what one more and one less would be from a particular number, using objects to help us and to check. We have also revised all the shapes introduced and been using the shapes to make pictures, talking about why we have chosen particular shapes.

In Phonics, we have been focussing on segmenting and blending sounds, to get us ready for introducing sounds next week. We played ‘Simon says’ but instead of saying what to do, we segmented the words, for example, put your hand on your f-ee-t, touch your n-o-se.

If you have any questions about what your child is learning, please email your child’s class teacher.

Year R team

The children in Year R have had a busy week learning about  different emotions and that it’s okay to express your feelings. 

Our focus story this week has been a story called ‘The Colour Monster’ byAnna Llenas. This story matched how we feel to different colours and what these feelings mean and are presented.  The children had made their own colour monsters, showed awareness of how other children are feeling and tried to solve emotional problems by looking after each other. 

Our words of the week are ‘proud’ and ‘nibble’. We have talked about how we feel when we are awarded with a proudosaur and how this makes us feel inside.  All week the children have been spending their learning times making themselves proud and explaining what they did to make them feel that way. 

In Maths, we have learnt about the number five and understanding what this number means and represents e.g. five claps, five star jumps, five jumps and understanding that it’s not just objects that can be counted.  The rhyme for writing 5 is “a hat on top, take a dive, around we go, that makes a five”. We have revised all of the shapes we have learnt in snappy maths, since the children started school.  These are; circle, semi-circle, triangle, square and a rectangle.  To understand the differences,  we described the square as having four straight sides that are the same, and the rectangle as having four straight sides, two long sides and two short sides. We used pieces of wool to recreate the shapes, selecting the pieces that were the same for the square and different for the rectangle.  The children also noticed that a triangle can be made with different angles using the wool. 

In Phonics, we have been focussing on our voices and the different sounds that they make. We experimented with our voices when retelling stories, copying transport and animal noises.  

If you have any questions about what your child is learning, please email your child’s class teacher.

Year R team

The children in Year R have had a busy week learning about the changes in seasons.

Our focus story this week has been a story called ‘Leaf Man’ by Lois Ehlert. This story showed how when Autumn comes the leaves on trees change colour and fall off the trees. It then shows the children how the leaves move on the wind, travelling to different places. The children went outside and searched for leaves with a variety of colours, took these back into the classroom and made their own leaf man. We compared leaves that had fallen to the ground to the ones still in the tree, talking about them as crunchy, slippery, smooth.

Our words of the week are ‘worried’ and ‘dehydrated’. The children loved learning and using the word dehydrated, and are starting to identify when they feel like this, especially after PE. We spent a lot of time talking about what worried means and how we can help others who may be feeling worried.

In Maths, we have learnt about the number four and understanding what this number means and represents e.g. four claps, four star jumps, four jumps. Not just objects. The rhyme for writing 4 is ” down and across and then one more, that’s the way we write a four”. We looked at a square and rectangle, comparing the two shapes. We described the square as having four straight sides that are the same, and the rectangle as having four straight sides, two long sides and two short sides. We used pieces of wool to recreate the shapes, selecting the pieces that were the same for the square and different for the rectangle.

Phonics has been about alliteration; a word we introduced to the children. We played lots of silly name games, silly soup, what’s in the box and sound chairs. Through alliteration we talked about how the words begin with the same letter. Some great examples this week have been:

Ben bounces blue balloons

Poppy pops popcorn

Silly snakes slither in soup

If you have any questions about what your child is learning, please email your child’s class teacher.

Year R team

What a lovely week the children have had!

Our focus story this week has been a story called ‘Only One You’ by Linda Kranz. This story is wonderful to explain to the children that they are all individual. The children can make a meaningful connection and understand that they, in their own way, can truly make a difference in their own lives and in the lives of those around them. They will celebrate their own uniqueness and we celebrate this too.

Our words of the week are ‘cross’ and ‘thirsty’. The children have great understanding of these words and have often used them throughout the school day (we like to turn cross into happy rather quickly!)

Maths has been a snappy blast. We have learnt about the number three and understanding what this number means and represents e.g. three claps, three star jumps, three jumps. Not just objects. They are showing great awareness that a triangle has three sides and three corners- using their pointy fingers to find the corners.

Phonics has been full of funny rhymes and stories. We have done rhyming soup, odd one out, and rhyming bingo. Lots and lots of fun to imbed understanding of rhyming words. To extend the children, we have been having lots of fun with syllables e.g. um-brell-a. The children have been clapping to each syllable and enjoyed clapping to names of children around the classroom.

This week in Year R:
The children having been learning the names of the friends in their class and exploring the indoors and outdoors with different friends.

We have introduced the book ‘Starting School’ by Janet and Allen Alhberg. The children have enjoyed listening to this story, making comparisons and similarities between themselves and others.

In maths, the children have learnt all about the number two, explaining that two is one more than one and one is one less than two. We have been practicing this with objects in cups and leaves on trees.
The children have looked at the semi-circle shape, which links in nicely with number two! We have discussed and learnt that a semi-circle has one straight line and one curved line.

In phonics the focus has been creating sounds using our bodies, comparing the sounds and using the correct language to describe the sounds, e.g. loud, quiet, slow, fast, high, deep, compare.

Ensure that any reading is logged onto Seesaw so your child can earn stickers on their reading caterpillar.