This week we have been learning about the jungle environment and the different habitats in the jungle.

Year R started the week by reading ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson. We explored the animals in the story, thinking about how they are similar and how they are different.

The children have written facts about the jungle animals thinking about how to structure sentences.

We found different ways to sort the animals and explained how we had completed this. We then looked at the differences between how a sloth moves and how a cheetah moves, thinking about the time it takes to get from one place to another.

Next week we move to a new environment….polar.

On Thursday 25th April, Farmer Ian came to visit us with all his animals. All the children in Year R experienced the farm animals first hand. They held chicks and they were challenged to put the chick in their heads!

The children learnt the names for different baby farm animals and the words to to talk different parts of the animals.

They all had an amazing experience! Have a look at the photos below of the animals that visited us!

On Tuesday 26th March the Year R children had a surprise visit from some fire dogs. Shaun brought the dogs in to show us how clever they are at finding clues to how fires start. One of the dogs was called Harvey and he really liked to play with his toy! He dropped it by our feet to throw for him.

We also met Ruby who was a lot smaller but very quick at finding smells. She used her nose to sniff out a smell that had been hidden in the playground. We thought she would find it in a few minutes but it only took her seconds!

These dogs are amazing and there are only 17 fire dogs in the whole country. 4 of them are in Hampshire.

On Tuesday 19th March, something mysterious happened in the Year R garden.

When the children went out to do the daily mile, they noticed part of the garden had been taped off. Why I hear you say?

Someone or something had come into the garden and messed it all up!! The children were very concerned that their equipment wasn’t being respected.

After lunch it got even worse! All the book corners in the classrooms had also been trashed! There was tape around them as well.

The children spent the day being police officers and investigating who could have made such a mess. They came up with ideas and explanations, looking for clues with their magnifying glasses and binoculars. Incident forms were completed and sketches made of possible suspects.

At the end of the day we looked in a non-fiction book about the job of police officers to see if we had been undertaking the role correctly. Once again, we made the page come alive!

On Monday Brian from the RNLI came to visit us. We had been looking at non-fiction books about lifeboats and rescuing people at sea. He talked to Year R about how to keep safe near water and what to do if you get into trouble.

We learnt about the different flags that are at the beach and what they mean:

Red and yellow flag – soft area suitable for swimming

Black and white flag – hard area for surfboards

Orange flag – no inflatables

Red flag – danger

The children learnt that in an emergency you can call 999 or 112.

We learnt so much from Brian and now we know how to be safe around water.

When we looked at the non-fiction books again, the information that Brian had told us was in there too. He made the page come alive!

Children in Year R have learnt all the phonics sounds. Now we need to make sure we really know them.

Starting next week and continuing until Easter, we will be spending our phonics session revising and applying all the sounds we have learnt since starting school. The children will be focusing on a few sounds a week, reading and writing the sounds in words, captions and sentences.

Each class has a slightly different focus depending on what the class needs.

Please speak to your child’s class teacher to find out how you can support your child in phonics, and use the homework booklet sent out after Christmas.

On Friday 15th March, Year R celebrated comic relief. We had crazy hair and red noses day.

We talked about why we were raising and looked at some of the people that would benefit from the money they were donating.

Some children made red nose biscuits in celebration time!

• 

Next week in phonics, children will be learning the phonemes:

ue ure

Some examples of words containing these phonemes are:

cue, due, queue, rescue, statue, argue

pure, cure, secure, manure, mature

We are continuing to learn our tricky words, including reading and spelling them. This includes:

she, was, are, my, they

If you have any questions about phonics, please speak to your child’s class teacher.

Year R team

Week 2

This week, children in Year R have been learning about the story ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’. They were given the challenge of designing, building and evaluating a bridge in a group, meaning they had to work together to share ideas and come up with a plan.

Once they have finished their bridge, we tested them for strength.

Also this week, we celebrate World Book Day with all the children and staff dressing up as a book character. We read the book ‘Who’s in the loo?’ then went on a scavenger hunt around the school to find the characters, noting where we had found them.

In order for children to learn in the garden, they will require a pair of wellies in school all the time. Please ensure they are in a bag on their peg.

Week 1

Welcome to the new Year R project. It is called Book Detectives because in this project the children will hear stories, read stories and explore new books, focusing on the characters, setting and events.

We will also be looking at non-fiction books and show the children that what we learn in these books are real life facts.

The first story we have looked at was ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ by Michael Rosen. The children explored a sensory session where they took their shoes and socks off to walk through the grass, water, mud, etc to understand what it would have felt like for the characters. From this they created some incredible stories of their own with new characters and events.

Look out for next weeks adventures!

Year R team