Class News

What is an algorithm?

Algorithms are a set of rules or a process.  This is a hard concept to understand when you are 5 years old but we have started to think about how we can learn about them in Year 1.  We can follow instructions by listening to them or by reading them but if a computer needs instructions then it needs programming.  Here is our first attempt at programming – giving Beebots (half bee, half robot!) a series of instructions.

The characteristics of effective learning

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

Well done, Year 1!

Well done to every child in Year 1 for a great assembly this afternoon. Special thanks to Byron who offered to take over Arundeep’s lines.

The children have all tried very hard this week to learn lines, use props and to speak in front of an audience.  There were a few nerves but also excitement this afternoon. Aisha summed it up well: ‘That was fun!’

Thank you to all the family and friends who came to watch.

Good luck with the Wake up Shake up routine tomorrow.

Childline

We had a visit from Sam and Buddy from Childline this morning. We talked about some really important issues and the children had some really good ideas about how they could help people in certain situations.

Remember, Childline is free to call from any phone. The number is 0800 1111.

Creative homework

We’ve looked at our creative fantasy promotions today. There were some brilliant presentations, fabulous audio and visual adverts and lots of disgusting looking potions with accompanying posters! Well done.

Jennifer’s ‘One Wish Spell’ was a favourite. Check out the pictures:

Put on your sorting hat.

Naughty Katie destroyed all of Kandinsky’s paintings this week so we decided to help the art gallery by sorting all of the scattered pieces according to their shape.

Sometimes we had to bring our hoops together because some shapes fit under both criteria. This is called a Venn diagram.

Lots of great maths and lots of fixed pictures!

Generating lots of openers in our English lesson…

Working hard in gymnastics!

Art around the world

As part of our Big Topic, Katie and…, we have been finding out about art from around the world – a good chance to check our geographical knowledge from our recent Where in the World topic, too.

Aboriginal art has certain features that we tried to include in our own examples.  Can you see them in the work below?

Phonics in Reception

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.