Headteacher: Anna Moss

2.10.20

Hello Red Class,

We were determined to visit Forest School despite the rain. I needed windscreen wipers for my glasses at one point. Our Nursery friends joined our adventure too and you looked after each other beautifully. We played ‘123 where are you?’ to learn Forest School rules and you had some time to play and explore. From playing on the old log, to making autumn leaf bouquets and jumping in puddles, it was a good start to our Forest School adventures.

This week, in Phonics, we discovered i, n, m, d and we continued to practise I, to and the. You particularly liked our ‘Snap’ game where you shouted ‘Snap’ if the letters looked the same. Keep practising your sounds and actions at home too using your little blue book. Please keep your Phonics book in your book bag as we like to put new letters into the books each week. You should find i, n, m, d in your book bag tonight. Over the weekend, try to draw pictures to match the target sounds. Maybe, you could draw mummy for ‘m’.

We used magnetic letters at school to spell CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words. To spell words at home, either use magnetic letters or write individual letters on post-it notes. Draw 3 boxes in a row and then place a letter in each box to make the word. So, if you say the word ‘tap’ together, then sound out each letter e.g. t-a-p and then pop a letter to match each sound in each box.

To get ready for writing, we enjoy a good dough dance in Red Class. Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’ is our choice of music at the minute. We exercise our hands by tapping, rolling and pinching the dough to the music. In Write Dance, we returned to the ‘Volcano’ and practised our straight lines. It was lovely to see the progress you’ve made in a few weeks. I can see clear marks where you’ve used both hands and you’re starting to retrace your lines too. You can watch the example video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygeuvwuf10c

In Maths, we played games and used songs to explore positional language. Try using on top, below, beside, in front and behind at home using your favourite toys. The children were also introduced to the Slavonic abacus this week. This is an abacus consisting of 100 beads divided into 2 colours. Each row of 10 is divided into 2 groups of 5 by colour. This helps the children to ‘see’ and ‘say’ numbers quickly. We use this piece of equipment a lot in the classroom to help the children to count and to understand number.

Finally, we popped appointment slips for parent consultations in the book bags today. I’ve given each family a time slot. So, hopefully, if I keep to time, you should expect a call during that time slot. We hope you have a super weekend,

 Mrs Webb, Mrs Hampton, Mrs Dyson and Mrs Flynn xxx