WOW! What a fantastic first half term we have had. It has been an absolute delight getting to know you all and making friendships.
We are very excited about our next half term topic. It is called ‘Celebrations’ and during this topic, we will be learning all about the different things we celebrate with our individual families, as well as the celebration of Diwali. Some of our weekly themes for this half terms topic are Bonfire Night, Diwali and Christmas. These themes will link to a story and support our free choice activities around the room and outdoors. Some of the books we will be looking at this half term are: ‘Rama and Sita’, ‘Francis the Firefly’, ‘The Gunpowder Plot’, ‘Room on a Broom’, ‘The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas’ and ‘The Christmas Story’. We will also continue to explore our local area through our woodland walks (dates to be released) as well as preparing and cooking traditional foods for the celebrations.
We don’t ask for much in Class 1, but we do ask you to listen to your child read and practice their key words 4 times a week. Reading is something we love to do and we really hope you can share this experience with your child. There are so many skills to early reading that are fundamental to the children becoming confident fluent readers. Some of these are ensuring the children know that the words have meaning and that the pictures give us so many clues as to what the words say. Another is discussion – talking through the book, predicting, checking, retelling what happened and comparing the story to a previously read book. This opportunity for comprehension is so simple yet so powerful. Finally, re-reading – for children to get a sense of success and independence, we encourage children to read books more than once so that they build fluency and start to ‘see’ the words instead of needing to sound them out. There will be more information about the children specific reading targets once they receive their first reading book. Once you have read with your child and practiced their key words, please write a note in their reading log to let us know how they got on. Please can children bring their reading log, reading book and key words to school everyday. This is because over the week, we will aim to listen to your child read at least once and these reading days are not set to timetable.
In Class 1, P.E is done every Friday. It is very important that each child bring their school P.E kit (shorts/joggers, hoodie/jumper, t-shirt and trainers). Please ensure each piece of your child’s clothing is clearly named with a permanent marker/sticker. This means any missing pieces can be easily returned to its owner. PE and learning is thirsty work so we also recommend sending a named water bottle in with your child too.
We promote independence in Class 1, including the children bringing and taking responsibility of their belongings, entering the classroom on their own, putting on their own coats, getting changed for P.E and accessing activities independently. Any support with encouraging your children independence in and out of school is very helpful.
We spend a lot of time with the children but this doesn’t mean that we see all of their learning experiences, as these will also happen at home. To make sure we have record of these achievements, each Reception child has a wallet in their reading log that contain ‘WOW moment’ cards for you to write down what your child has done. These achievements can be anything such as: learning to ride a bike, writing their name or helping out at home. These moments will then go into their folder as a record for their learning.
We are a friendly, caring team and if you ever have any queries about your child's education please talk to any of the class 1 staff.
Mrs Bailey and Mrs Hatherley
We have had a great time exploring the Class 1 area and playing with our new friends. As you can see we have enjoyed climbing and building outside. Inside we have been reading story books, colouring, using the interactive board and doing crafts.
Our Body
Using the story 'From Head to Toe' by Eric Carle, we have been looking at our body parts. We worked together to label these body parts and talk about where they were. We also discussed the vital organs and what they do.
The year 1's went on to learn about what vital organs we had in our body, where they were and what they did. Here are some things they told the reception children:
- "The heart pumps our blood around our body and keeps us alive"
- Our lungs breathe in the air that we need"
- "Our intestines moves our food through our body and makes poo!"
- "Our liver soaks up all the good things and cleans our blood"
- "Our skin keeps everything in. It is the biggest organ of our body and helps us to feel"
- "Our brain sends messages to our body parts to tell them what to do"
- "Our kidneys take out all the bad stuff and makes wee"
We have had a great start to the week. It started off with the smell of fresh bread floating through the air and the taste of fresh orange juice. Today, we celebrated 'Culture Day' and tried a traditional French breakfast. We then used our 5 senses (our theme of the week in Class 1) to see the bread, feel it's texture, taste the toppings, smell the freshness and hear the crunch of the crust. It's safe to say that it was that fresh, we forgot to take any photos! We also explored our senses throughout all of our learning today. Later on in the day, we learnt how to say 'hello' in French, as well as 'thank you' and 'my name is...'. As we were doing portraits, we looked at a different country that had a famous artist. This artist was from the Netherlands and his name was Vincent Van Gogh. We learnt about his style of artwork and had a go at painting our own portraits.
Keeping Healthy
To kick start this week, we read 'The Selfish Crocodile'. We looked at the vocabulary used in this book and discussed other words we could use within our writing that meant the same thing. We talked about how the crocodile had an unhealthy mindset as well as unhealthy teeth.
In the afternoon we had a great time learning all about our teeth. We learnt that as a child we have 20 teeth. We have 2 sets of teeth in our life time and that's why it is so important to look after them by brushing them twice a day (2 minutes at a time) as well as having a healthy diet.
We use ceplac tablets to turn our teeth pink. Using mirrors, we could see where the pink had settled and where we needed to brush. We had a wonderful time inspecting our teeth and seeing how pink our tongues were!
Bird Feeders
This week we have been focussing on Autumn. We have been discussing the Autumnal changes we have noticed around us as well how these changes impact the animals and environment. Today we decided to make birdfeeders to help feed the animals that may need it during the colder months when food supply is limited. We missed hot water, gelatine and bird seed together. We then pressed this into cutter moulds and popped them in the freezer. Once set, we will place these all around our outdoor area and park for our local wildlife.
HALLOWEEN!
We have kick-started our topic with Halloween! We have a spooky set up in the roleplay area where we have been creating some disgusting spells. We have also been decorating our pumpkins, creating glistening spider webs as well as practising out cutting skills to make vampires, witches and skeleton figures. We have also enjoyed completing some colouring and writing activities as well as some jigsaws and measuring.
BONFIRE NIGHT
For the celebration of Bonfire Night, we have used the story of Francis the Firefly. We have watched the animated film, written an overview of this as well as hot-seated the characters. We have also learnt about the history of Bonfire Night and the role that Guy Fawkes had in the creation of Bonfire Night. Today we have enjoyed completing our sgraffito art as well as making firework biscuits! We look forward to learning about firework and sparkler safety, making party food for bonfire night as well as creating our own fire safety posters
DIWALI
This week we have started to learn about the celebration of Diwali. Using the story of Rama and Sita, we have learnt how this story represents the meaning that good always wins over evil and light over dark. Diwali is also know as the 'Festival of Lights'. We have learnt that diya lamps helped guide Rama and Sita home and that the people who celebrate Diwali often light their own diya lamps. Diwali is a time for families to come together. They clean their homes, make feasts, light diya lamps, prayer and create rangoli patterns outside their homes to invite Lakshmi (the Goddess of health, good luck and wealth) into their family home. Over the next two weeks, we are going to be tasting traditional Diwali food, making our own diya lamps as well as completing our retell of the story of Rama and Sita.
