Headteacher: Anna Moss

03.02.23

Hello Red Class Families,

This week, we looked at double letters in Phonics and read words such as ‘letter’, ‘carrot’ and ‘rabbit’. The children are starting to understand that, in these examples, two letters make one sound. We also introduced the sound and catchphrase for ‘air’ and ‘er’ and added ‘pure’, ‘sure’ and ‘are’ to our tricky word list.

air – chair in the air

er – a bigger digger

Handwriting lessons focused on ‘b’, ‘h’ and ‘k’ using the cursive script. Mrs Moss will take you through the letter formation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMEIvn3B1nk In Literacy lessons, we looked at different types of writing linked to ‘Our World – Religion’ topic. We explored lists, captions and labels and every day we showcased children’s writing from home or Play and Explore. It’s great to see the children using their segmenting (sound talk) skills to spell words. In Reception, we want the children to listen carefully to each sound in the word and make the best choice from what they know e.g. spelling ‘baby’ as ‘babee’. At this stage, we’re building their confidence to ‘have a go’ at writing. However, it’s never too early to start talking about spelling, for example, explaining that the last letter in baby is ‘y’ as this makes the ‘ee’ sound too.

In Maths, we made towers of cubes and compared them to find the difference. Many children often see the total at first and find it tricky to find the difference. By the end of the week, we could see a real improvement. I’ve heard lots of confident counting in 2s to 10 in Mental Maths too.

During RE (Religious Education) lessons, we used photographs and video clips to explore special places, including a church as a special place for Christians. We looked at items and pieces of furniture from a church. This linked nicely to William’s ‘Show and Tell’ about his children’s Bible where we shared a story about Noah’s Ark (which made our Noah smile). During our RE lessons, the children have been really good at making links to some of their experiences such as playing in the grounds of St Catherine’s Church and attending weddings and Christenings. Next Friday, we’ll visit St Catherine’s Church. Although, we’re not visiting Forest School, we’ll keep to the same Friday routine of joggers and trainers as routine makes me happy. 

New eBooks are available now. Your eBook counts as a tick on your reading list and it will give you an accurate picture of how your child is progressing with their reading.

Just a reminder about avoiding snacks with nuts and encouraging healthy snack choices. I am inspired to do better for my own children when I see some of your delicious, homemade snacks coming into school! Please also add just one small keyring to your book bag as some animal groups are struggling to fit their bags into the crates.

Finally, wishing all our little ones with coughs and colds a restful weekend.

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx