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Light and dark!
Autumn 2-Light and Dark
Welcome back! We hope you’ve had a lovely half term and are feeling well rested. This half term our overall theme is Light and Dark.
We’ll be using the following focus books to help us with our learning
See you all in the morning for some fun challenges and some learning about St James.
Training day – Arty Ideas
We thought you’d enjoy hearing a little about what went on during our recent teacher training day! Part of the day was dedicated to developing our art knowledge and skills with our resident art teacher, Mrs Boulton.
Teachers got hands-on with paints, pastels and even soap! There was plenty of colour, laughter, and even a bit of friendly competition as we experimented with new techniques and ideas for upcoming art lessons.
The rest of the day focussed on other important areas too, including maths and inclusion. It was a full, productive day – and we left feeling ready and excited for the next half-term!
Leaf Man
It has been another fun filled week in reception, our focus book has been Leaf Man by Elois Ehlert.
In the book autumn has come, the wind is blowing and Leaf Man is on the move. No one is sure where he is going, but ‘A Leaf Man’s got to go where the wind blows.’ Our word of the week was ‘seasons’ we have talked about the four seasons winter, spring, summer and autumn. We have really enjoyed learning about the season of autumn, when the leaves fall from the trees, when some small animals like hedgehogs are looking for food to store and some animals begin to hibernate like a door mouse.
Help at home: Go on an autumn hunt and see if you can spot signs of autumn like acorns, pine cones, squirrels conkers and more. Don’t forget to send in some pictures to add to our seasons display.
Poetry Basket
This week our poem was Five Little Pumpkins.
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, ‘Oo, it’s getting late.’
The second one said, ‘There are witches in the air.’
The third one said, ‘Well I don’t care.’
The fourth one said, ‘Let’s run, run, run.’
The fifth one said, ‘Let’s have some fun.’
But oooh went the wind, and out went the light,
And five little pumpkins tumbled out of sight.
Phonics
This week the children have recapped all the phonemes (the sound a letter makes) we have covered so far this term. We have focused closely on our blending, the skill that helps us with our reading and our tricky words the, is and I. Keep up the great work everyone!
Maths
In Maths, some of our teddies have been arguing over who has more things. we have used the stem sentence
“… has more than..”
“…has fewer than…”
The activities this week have focused on developing the skill of comparing as children have been encouraged to look carefully and use the language of comparison to describe sets of objects.
‘Fewer than’ is used rather than ‘less than’ because the focus is on countable things.
Have a happy and healthy weekend
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman, Mrs Linton, Mrs Cairnes and Mrs Small
Henri’s Scissors
This week we have been reading Henri’s Scissors by Jeanette Winter.
The story is a biographical children’s book about the famous artist, Henri Matisse. We learned about his life and discovered how, even when he became unwell and could no longer paint, he continued to make beautiful artwork by cutting bold shapes and colours to create collages.
Our word of the week was artist. We talked about different types of art and artists, introducing new vocabulary such as sculptor, sculpture and collage.
Then, we became artists ourselves by creating our own colourful collages – just like Matisse!
We used our language and communication skills to explore and respond to Matisse’s artwork. We looked closely at the colours, shapes and patterns and thought carefully about which pieces we liked and why.
We also discussed questions such as:
- Why do you think the artist painted this?
- Which is your favourite, and why?
Here are some of our thoughtful responses:
I like the green shapes, they look like emeralds.
I can see pink and purple, I like that.
I like the white bit, it is a funny shape.
Phonics
This week, children have been learning the phonemes (the sounds that letters make) h, b, f, and l. They’ve also been practising writing the graphemes (the written letters) for these sounds.
We’ve also learnt a new tricky word: the.
A tricky word is a word that can’t be sounded out using phonics – it’s one they simply have to learn by sight.
The children now know three tricky words: I, is and the
Help at Home: You can support your child’s learning at home by writing these tricky words on pieces of paper or sticky notes and placing them around your house. Keep challenging your child to read them whenever they see them – the more practice, the better! These words need to be recognised instantly, just by looking.
Poetry Basket
Children love listening to and joining in with poems each week. We learn a new poem every Monday and recite it together throughout the week.
Saying the poems out loud helps us focus on sounds, rhythm and rhyme, which supports our early reading skills. We’ve noticed that some poems have a fast and lively beat, while others are slow and gentle.
Maths
In Maths, we’ve been using our subitising skills to identify patterns up to 4.
Subitising means being able to see a small number of objects and know how many there are without counting – for example, recognising that there are three dots just by looking.
We’ve been using our subitising skills playing bingo this week.
Help at home – autumn leaves and conkers.
If you go on a walk this weekend, we’d really appreciate donations of dry leaves to help us with an art project next week. We also need some conkers and acorns to use in our maths learning – see how many you can find! Thank you for your support.
Have a happy and healthy weekend
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman, Mrs Linton, Mrs Cairnes and Mrs Small
Reading: It’s so important!
We hope that you’re enjoying reading your child’s library book with them. We call this a ‘love of reading’ book – to do just that, encourage a love of reading for your child! Reading to and with your child can have a huge positive impact on your child’s education.
This research is a powerful message of the impact you can have when reading to/with your child:
At school, your child reads a physical book four times a week – with a focus on teaching phonics skills. This is then sent home as an eBook. The purpose of the eBook at home is to celebrate your child’s success (in phonics skills). Your child should be able to read most of this book confidently and really feel like a reader.
We’ve chosen to use eBooks at home for many benefits. Allocating eBooks frees up about two hours of teacher or TA time changing books – now spent teaching reading!
Here’s some information on how to access eBooks but if you’re having any problems please speak to your child’s class teacher.
Happy reading!
Phonics stay and learn
It was great to see so many of you at our first Stay and Learn this week. We hope you enjoyed watching your child take part in some fantastic phonics learning! We’d love to hear your feedback.
There are 5 more Stay and Learns this year – find the dates here.
For those of you who were unable to attend, please find attached the PowerPoint shared at the meeting.
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
We’ve had a great week this week using our focus book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury.
We listened for lots of different noises on our sound walk: we heard the dishwasher swishing, Mr Freeman and year 5 dancing to music, birds tweeting and the cars going past.
Our word of the week has been squelch the children have really enjoyed using this during their learning.
“I am squelching in the mud!”
Poetry Picnic
Each week we learn 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 our poem was called Falling Apples
Here is the tree with its leaves so green.
Here are the apples that hang between.
When the wind blows, the apples will fall.
And this is the basket to catch them all.
Phonics
This week, we have learnt the phonemes (the sounds a letter makes) ck, e, u, r. We’ve also learnt a new tricky word; I.
During our phonics learning, we listened carefully to the initial sound in a word and sorted objects by the sounds they begin with.
Help at home: Look out for a ‘learn at home’ sheet which recaps the phonics learning from the week. Please look at this with your child and complete the activities.
Maths
This week we’ve learnt that numbers can be composed of ones. We joined in with the STEM sentence “one and one and one make three” and made collections of three things for the three bears.
Have a happy and healthy weekend
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman, Mrs Linton, Mrs Cairnes and Mrs Small
PE
Hello
My name is Mrs Freeman and I teach Nursery and Reception every Monday afternoon. This is when the children will have their weekly PE lesson.
I was amazed to see how well the class did during their first session. We discussed how to stay safe and the importance of listening to instructions.
Please see the photos below.
This half term, our sessions will focus on football. The children will be working on developing fundamental movement skills like running, jumping, throwing and catching through some playful activities. We will incorporate simple games that build gross motor skills such as kicking, controlling, and passing, while also fostering social development through teamwork and understanding simple rules.
We have also started some activities using the big parachute – so much fun!
Help at home
Share these photos with your child.
Can your child tell you about their PE lesson?
What did they enjoy?
How did they stay safe?
