Author: Mrs Wood

Welcome back!
We hope you had a happy and healthy break. Thank you to the parents who sent in some photos. We really enjoyed sharing these on Tuesday.

This half-term our topic is called Life on Earth.  We’ve kicked off our topic by reading The Bug Collector by Alex G. Griffiths in literacy and going on bug hunts. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be learning more about life cycles. We’ll closely observe caterpillars to help us understand the different stages of a life cycle.

Phonics
This week, we’ve started Phase 4. In this phase children will use the phonemes learnt in Phase 2 and Phase 3 to read and spell words with four or more phonemes and words ending in suffixes:
–ing, –ed /t/, –ed /id/ /ed/, –est

Here are some examples:
CVCC words: tent, damp, toast
For example, in the word ‘damp’, d = consonant, a = vowel,  m = consonant,  p = consonant

CCVC words: swim, plum, spoon
For example, in the word ‘plum’, p = consonant, l = consonant, u = vowel, m = consonant

CCVCC words: stamp, crept, twist
For example, in the word ‘stamp’, s = consonant, t = consonant, a = vowel, m = consonant, p = consonant

CCCVC words: strap scrub strong
For example, in the word, ‘strap’, s = consonant, t = consonant, r = consonant, a = vowel, p = consonant

CCCVCC words: strand strict sprint
For example, in the word, ‘sprint’, s = consonant, p = consonant, r = consonant, i = vowel, n = consonant, t = consonant 

They’ll also learn to read and write 18 new tricky words.

Help at home: Practise reading and writing this week’s tricky words.
said    so    have    like

Maths
This week, we continued to engage in activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. We revisited the concept of cardinality – the idea that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are altogether.

A key area we have continued to develop is counting strategies for counting larger numbers of objects, including those that cannot be moved. We had lots of fun helping Gary the giraffe count the packets of raisins for our snack. We n develop their counting skills – will help to embed these key areas of understanding.

Living and Learning
On Tuesday, we talked about personal hygiene, including handwashing. We discussed how we keep ourselves clean.

Gur – We clean our face, body and brush our teeth.
Po – We have a bath and a shower.
El – If there’s still dirty stuff in your teeth, you can floss.
Sh – Wash our hands.
Th – I brush my teeth in the morning and just before bed.

We then had a go at a little experiment to see why it is important we wash our hands well with soap.

Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem was called Pitter Patter. Click here to watch us.

Some more fantastic learning…

Hello! I’ve had a wonderful second week back in Reception. I’m really looking forward to supporting them in their last term in Reception.

This week, we’ve been super busy doing the new chilli challenges in the areas of provision. Lots of children have amazed me with their fantastic independent learning – well done Reception!

On Monday, the children had lots of fun looking drawing self-portraits. Check out our new gallery! Can you spot your self-portrait?

Poetry picnic
This week’s poem was called The Tiny Seed. Every week, we learn a new video. To help us remember the poem, we organise the daily sessions like this:
Session 1: Enjoyment Listen to the poem for enjoyment.
Session 2 : Vocabulary Pick out focus vocabulary and discuss definition.
Session 3: learning words and actions Practise saying the poem.
Session 4 : prosody/ rhythm/rhyme · Discuss how some poem have a rhythm.
Session 5 : Perform Perform the poem as a whole class or in groups.

Help at home: Practise reading the phase 2 and 3 tricky words.
Upcoming dates

• Monday 21 April – Easter Monday
• Monday 05 May – Bank Holiday
• Friday 23 May – School closed: training day

I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term break. Don’t forget to email me any pictures of what you get up to in the holidays.
moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
I look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday 22 April.

Caterpillars
This week, we’ve been observing our caterpillars daily to see how much the they’ve grown.
We’ve also been talking about the life cycle of a butterfly.
Help at home: Can your child remember the four stages? Draw a picture of the life cycle.

We are super writers!
This week, we’ve been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. On Monday, we made our own story maps.

After reading and retelling the story, we used our imagination to write our own versions of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We changed the main character and the food.

The Very Hungry Cat
The Very Hungry Spider
The Very Hungry Tiger
The Very Hungry Ladybird

 

PE
On Tuesday, they enjoyed their first session of PE with Mr McGriffiths. This half-term, they’ll play a game called Hulk Smash to develop their balls skills.

Maths
This week, we continued to develop our subitising skills. We used our understanding of doubles to support our subitising skills when looking at different arrangements. We created arrangements of 6 using different objects. We thought carefully about how we can arrangement the objects so it’s easier to subitise– e.g. 2 groups of 3. We then played a game called Odd One Out. We had to spot an arrangement that was not 6.

Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem was called Under a Stone.

Thank you and goodbye Reception!
Reception, I’ve loved teaching you this year. From starting school to going on your first school trip, we’ve shared many amazing memories together. You’ve made tremendous progress and I’ve no doubt you’ll continue to shine and make your new teacher proud.

Finally, keep reading and enjoy the rest of your time in Reception! I look forward popping back into school to see you all with Baby Wood.

 

Welcome back! We hope you all had a happy and healthy break.

This half-term our topic is called Life on Earth.  Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be learning more about life cycles. We’ll closely observe caterpillars to help us understand the different stages of a life cycle.

Yesterday morning, a parcel arrived at school… It was 5 tiny caterpillars!
DT
On Wednesday morning, we used hand drills to make a bug hotel. We also used saws, hammers and screwdrivers. After that, the creative area has been really busy. They’ve really enjoyed making lots and lots of holes with the hand drills.

Phonics
This week, we’ve started Phase 4. In this phase children will use the phonemes learnt in Phase 2 and Phase 3 to read and spell words with four or more phonemes and words ending in suffixes:
–ing, –ed /t/, –ed /id/ /ed/, –est

Here are some examples:
CVCC words: tent, damp, toast
For example, in the word ‘damp’, d = consonant, a = vowel,  m = consonant,  p = consonant

CCVC words: swim, plum, spoon
For example, in the word ‘plum’, p = consonant, l = consonant, u = vowel, m = consonant

CCVCC words: stamp, crept, twist
For example, in the word ‘stamp’, s = consonant, t = consonant, a = vowel, m = consonant, p = consonant

CCCVC words: strap scrub strong
For example, in the word, ‘strap’, s = consonant, t = consonant, r = consonant, a = vowel, p = consonant

CCCVCC words: strand strict sprint
For example, in the word, ‘sprint’, s = consonant, p = consonant, r = consonant, i = vowel, n = consonant, t = consonant 

They’ll also learn to read and write 18 new tricky words.

Help at home: Practise reading and writing this week’s tricky words.
said    so    have    like

Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem was called Pitter Patter.

Some more fantastic learning…

 

I can’t believe we’re at the end of our second term in Reception! The children have made tremendous progress in all areas of the Early Years curriculum.

Summer 1
Next half-term, we will be learning about bugs and going on lots of bug hunts for bugs. We will learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and hopefully set some butterflies free! We will use hand drills to build a bug hotel for our outdoor area.

Linked to Geography, we will find out where our favourite animals come from. We will locate countries on a map, look at different environments, and compare them to the UK.

As artists, we will mix colours to create camouflage patterns. We will also create landscapes for various animals using our small world resources in the classroom, and create scenarios and storylines for our play.

Poetry picnic
This week’s poem was called The Tiny Seed.  Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about what plants need to grow. Can your child remember what plants need?

Reminders and upcoming dates

• Don’t forget to keep reading your Collins eBooks over the holidays.
• Monday 06 May – Bank holiday
• Monday 24 May – Training day: school closed

As always, I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term break. Don’t forget to email me any pictures of what you get up to in the holidays. moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 15 April.

This week, we’ve seen lots of super independent learning!

We used watercolours to do observational paintings of daffodils.

We explored printing natural objects into clay.

We looked carefully at seeds and sorted them into groups. Our word of the week was miniscule. We used this word to describe the seeds.

We’ve been observing our beans to see if they’ve changed. This morning, we noticed a shoot!

This week, we used our perceptual subitising skills (seeing the quantity without counting) to build on our understanding of equal amounts. We used dice patterns and fingers to explore doubling quantities to 10.   We used this generalised statement when talking about doubles.

… is made of … and …, double … is ….

We noticed that not all numbers are made of doubles. Can your child remember why? 

Help at home: Explore making double patterns with different objects at home.

Reminder!
Don’t forget to attend one of the learning journey drop ins next week. You’ll also get to meet Miss Lowry. We look forward to talking about your child’s amazing learning.

 

Literacy
This week, we’ve been reading the traditional tale Jack and the Beanstalk. We planted our own beans and talked about what a bean needs in order to grow. After planting our beans, we wrote a set of instructions about how to plant a bean.

Yesterday, we introduced the children to life cycles and talked about what a life cycle is.

What is a life cycle?

EB – small to big
BT – Something is a baby then turns into an adult.
RN – Baby chicks grow into a mummy and daddy.
SW – When babies are small they keep growing.
AG – Bugs start off as an egg and they get bigger and bigger.
RZ – They grow and grow and grow!

We watched a video about the life cycle of a bean and talked about the 4 stages.

Help at home: Can your child remember the life cycle of a bean?

Maths
This week, we consolidated our understanding of the composition of numbers by investigating the numbers within 7. We investigated the whole number using the part–part–whole model, e.g. 5 is a part. 2 is a part. 7 is the whole.  We used cubes to show that 7 can be made by combining parts in different ways. We also played a game called Missing parts. Mrs Wood hid some cubes (a part) behind her back and we had to think about the missing part. This is something called partitioning (splitting the whole it into parts).

Help at home: Practise partitioning numbers up to 7 into two parts. You could use your toys, fruit or pencils.

Phonics
This week, we continued to read and write longer words including words ending in -ing.Help at home: Practise writing these words: looking, marching, farming, waiting, morning, winking, singing. Don’t forget to use your phoneme fingers to segment!

What else have we been up to?
This week, our chilli challenges were linked to our focus story.

Poetry Picnic
Click here to watch this week’s poem.

Finally…
Thank you to all the parents/carers who came to watch our class assembly on Wednesday. We were blown away by how many of you turned up! We hope you enjoyed it.

REMINDER!

• Learning journey drop ins – Tuesday 26th & Thursday 28th March
  9-9.30 & 3.15-3.45
  Please return your sign up slip by Friday 22nd March.

We’ve had a wonderful day we’ve had celebrating World Book Day. Our classroom was full of wonderful book characters. Thank you to all the parents/carers who came to our stay and learn session this morning. It was lovely to see our classroom so busy!

The classroom is all set up ready for our World Book Day stay & learn session tomorrow morning. We look forward to inviting parents and carers into our classroom. See you all tomorrow!

Today, Reception went on their first school trip to York Railway Museum. We enjoyed looking at the trains in The Great Hall. We particularly enjoyed sitting on the high-speed Japanese bullet train – the world’s fastest passenger rail network. We also found the replica version of Stephenson’s Rocket.

We look forward to sharing more photos in our class assembly next Wednesday.