Author: Mrs Wood

Thank you to everyone who attended the phonics sessions last week. We hope you found them useful.

Following on from the feedback you gave, here are some captions and sentences your child can write at home. More will be added as we introduce new phonemes.

Phase 2 captions with tricky words: to, the, no, go

• socks on a mat
• an egg in an egg cup
• a hug and a kiss
• on top of the rock
• to the top of the hill
• get off the bus
• no lid on the pan
• pack a pen in a bag
• a doll in a cot
• sit back to back

Phase 3 sentences

• We can get the bus to the fish and chip shop.
• Gurdeep had a chat with his dad.
• Max and Vikram sail a wooden boat.
• Yasmin sits on a rock and looks for fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have three fun phonics sessions for parents this week. Don’t worry if you haven’t requested a session, just turn up on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday at 9am.

See you there!

Next week, we’ll be holding phonics sessions for parents on Wednesday 21, Thursday 22 and Friday 23 of January at 9 am.

During these sessions you will have the opportunity to see how we teach tricky words and long vowel phonemes. We will explain words such as ‘digraph‘ and ‘polysyllabic‘ and give you ideas for supporting your child at home in their independent writing.

Please let us know which day you wish to attend.

We look forward to seeing you next week.

 

We’re reaching the end of your child’s first term in Reception.  We’ve loved seeing all the children gain confidence and make progress in their learning…

• Well done, Sakina and Leo, for your terrific handwriting.
• We’re really happy to see the increased confidence of Ethan, Jasraj and Rayn.
• Well done, Pollyanna: we’ve enjoyed watching you design and create amazing models and drawings.
• We’ve all enjoyed Noah’s enthusiasm for learning.
• Well done, Henka and Kashif, for making wise choices.
• Will and Albie have kept us amused with their great sense of humour.
• Hifza, Musa, Jessica and Olivia have shown concern and care for their friends.
• We’re all impressed with Taha for eating healthier foods at lunchtime.
• Well done to Felix, Harris, Raima and Jemima for great learning in maths and to Phoebe, Liam, Emma, Emily and Sami for their progress in reading.
• Thank you, Safiya-Mishal and Yusayrah, for helping everyone in the class.
• Everyone has been impressed with Maya and Georgie for their great manners and Isabella for always trying her best.

Have a great holiday and happy new year from everyone in Reception!

We’re coming to the end of Phase 2 of our phonics programme, ‘Letters and Sounds’. Next week, your child will begin Phase 3 with the last of the single letter phonemes. The purpose of this phase is to:

• teach more graphemes, most of which are made of two letters, for example: ‘oa’ as in boat
• practise blending and segmenting a wider set of CVC words, for example: fizz, chip, sheep, light
• learn all letter names and begin to form them correctly (so please help your child to learn these: talk about letters using their correct name as well as the sounds they make)
• read more tricky words and begin to spell some of them
• read and write words in phrases and sentences.

CVC words containing graphemes made of two or more letters

Here are some examples of words your child will be reading: tail, week, right, soap, food, park, burn, cord, town, soil.

During Phase 3, your child will learn more ‘Tricky Words’. These are the words we’ll learn in Phase 3: he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, said.

 

The children are progressing quickly with their phonics learning and reading. Alongside blending to read, the children also need to segment words to spell. Children often find this harder and lack confidence in their ability to write.

In Reception, the children take part in shared writing activities where they can ‘have a go’ on whiteboards with the support of adults. We then encourage independent writing in all the areas of provision. This includes writing a label for their model, writing a shopping list in the role-play shop or writing a letter to a friend. At the moment the children are busy writing messages to their favourite superheroes! We value all the children’s attempts at writing and model writing (and making mistakes) to them.

You can help at home by:

• Providing plenty of different types of pens and pencils and encouraging your child to use a correct grip
• Encouraging them to use the school’s handwriting style and to use lower case letters; we teach that a capital letter is required for the first letter in a name and at the beginning of a sentence
• Spelling is harder than reading words – praise, don’t criticise. Little whiteboards and pens are a good way for children to try out spellings and practise their handwriting
• Remember that at this stage children’s phonetic attempts are valued. They will learn the correct spellings of words later.  We want the children to become confident writers by ‘having a go’ and using their phonetic knowledge independently.
• To be able to write, children need to be well co-ordinated through their whole body, not just their hands and fingers. Games that help co-ordination include throwing balls at a target, under-arm and over-arm, and bouncing balls – also skipping on the spot, throwing a Frisbee, picking up pebbles from the beach and throwing them into the sea.

Have fun!

In Reception we observe and assess children’s learning in seven areas. These are: communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; physical development; literacy; maths; knowledge of the world and expressive arts and design. Alongside these we observe children’s characteristics of effective learning.

These characteristics and the areas of learning and development are all interconnected.

‘The ways in which the child engages with other people and their environment – playing and exploring, active learning, and creating and thinking critically – underpin learning and development across all areas and support the child to remain an effective and motivated learner.”

The characteristics of effective learning are:

Playing and exploring – engagement

• Finding out and exploring
• Playing with what they know
• Being willing to ‘have a go’

Active learning – motivation

• Being involved and concentrating
• Keeping trying
• Enjoying achieving what they set out to do

Creating and thinking critically – thinking

• Having their own ideas
• Making links
• Choosing ways to do things

 

At Moortown we follow the Letters and Sounds programme for teaching phonics.

We’ll be inviting you to a ‘phonics morning’ where you’ll be able to watch a short phonics lesson and observe the types of activities which will help you to support your child at home. These will be held on 15, 16 and 17 October at 9.20am. A letter will be sent home with your child.

This week, we’ll be busy learning to identify alliteration and rhyme which will pave the way for the systematic learning of phonics.

The children are taking part in lots of activities where they listen attentively to sounds around them, such as sounds in the environment and to sounds in spoken language. Singing a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs and reading books to and with the children helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books.

We’re also learning to ‘sound talk’. The separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, in order, all through the word, and are then merged together into the whole word: d-o-g = dog. This merging together is called blending and is a vital skill for reading.

Children will also learn to do this the other way around: cat = c-a-t. The whole word is spoken aloud and then broken up into its sounds (phonemes) in order, all through the word. This is called segmenting and is a vital skill for spelling.

This is all oral (spoken). Your child won’t be expected to match the letter to the sound at this stage. The emphasis is on helping children to hear the separate sounds in words and to create spoken sounds.

Ways you can support your child at home:

Play ‘What do we have in here?’ Put some toys or objects in a bag and pull one out at a time. Emphasise the first sound of the name of the toy or object by repeating it, for example, ‘c c c c – car’, ‘b b b b – box’, ‘ch ch ch ch – chip’.

When sounding out, try to avoid the ‘uh’ sound – say ‘sssss’ rather than ‘suh’, ‘mmmmm’ rather than ‘muh’.  This is to keep the sound as ‘pure’ as it can be so there’s no confusion with extra, unwanted sounds when blending and segmenting words.

Welcome to Reception Class!

Thank you all for welcoming us into your homes. It was lovely to meet you all and get to know your child a little bit more.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about this new chapter in your child’s life and hope you’ve been provided with all the information you need. As always, please ask if you are not sure about anything.

The children will all begin this week, with the last children arriving on Thursday.

After your first day, school will begin at 8.50am and finish at 3.15pm. Please bring your child into the classroom and help them in the different learning areas to have a go at a learning challenge. Take this time to look at your child’s learning journey.

We try to get the children to be as independent as possible early on, so please let them hang their coat up and sort themselves out while you wait in the classroom.

At 3.15pm, please wait at the gate to the Reception outdoor area to collect your child.

See you all soon!

 

 

We are so excited that our mud kitchen is up and running! In case you were wondering…here are some of the reasons young children should play in mud.

• Mud makes you happy- ‘friendly’ bacteria could be responsible for releasing chemicals in the brain that make us happy
• Mud provides a fantastic sensory experience, providing endless opportunities for experimentation and discovery
• Mud can help to build children’s immune systems
• Mud connects us with the natural world
• Mud inspires creativity
• Mud provides benefits for physical development
• Mud is a great place for social play, promoting communication and co-operation
• Mud is fun!