Goodbye Reception Class 2012!
As the end of the school year approaches, we have been remembering the past year and thinking about moving on. The children have all made fantastic progress and we are proud of everyone. Well done especially to Matteo for settling so well and Daanyaal who has begun to make good choices with his behaviour. Well done, Neive, for trying hard to write neatly and to Oliver for his increased confidence. Have a great summer!
Health questionnaire
There will be no further homework this term. However, please support your child to complete the health questionnaire sent home today in order to find out their views on some of our key health issues at school.
Emotional health and obesity are the two targets we are working on in school to further our healthy schools status and the questions, devised last year by the school council, are linked to these areas. These include:
- Are you happy at school?
- What do you enjoy most about playtimes and lunchtimes?
Completed questionnaires to be returned by Monday 16 July.
Jubilee Day
Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee
We had a great Jubilee themed day and were joined by David Hockney and David Attenborough!
Reception children get messy…
…and relax!
What is a ‘split digraph’?
This week your child may come home with more unfamiliar vocabulary to do with their phonics learning. A ‘split digraph’ is simply a long vowel sound that has been split as in the words make, lake, shake, like and bike. You might remember how this used to be referred to: ‘magic e’. That term is no longer used as it may be confusing. The ‘e’ is not magic – it’s doing a job.
Enjoy your ‘split digraphs’!
Magical Maths in Reception
This week we have been learning doubling and halving- a year 1 objective! Great learning by everyone especially Isobel, Stanley, Oliver and Enya.
We love to write!
Reception children can’t stop writing! Keep encouraging your child at home to write letters, lists, notes and birthday cards. Fold a piece of paper to make little books for story writing. Let them see you write, too!
Ready, steady write!
This term the children will gain confidence in their writing. All the children have learned enough phonemes to enable them to confidently write using their phonic knowledge. This term they will write stories, lists, poems, messages and letters, practise letter formation, good pencil control and when to use a capital letter and a full stop. It is important for children to know why we write. In the classroom children will see adults writing for a variety of purposes, for example, notes, cards, labels and instructions. Through such experiences children will come to realise the importance of writing and the pleasure that can be gained from it.
We will be using lots of ‘Modelled Writing’ in which we will explicitly demonstrate the process of writing by ‘thinking aloud’ as we write and talking through the process step-by-step to show children what to do. Children will see that writing is an interactive process and will be reassured that writers make mistakes.
Children will be taught that
– printed text is recorded speech.
– writing can be read to or by others.
– writing can be used for different purposes.
You can help your child at home by encouraging them to write shopping lists, greetings cards, messages and stories. Let your child see you writing and talk about what you are doing. Most importantly, their writing should have purpose, be relevant and interesting and remember to give lots of praise.
Please ask if you have any questions relating to your child’s learning.
Phonics
This term we will begin phase 4 of our phonics learning.
Phase 4 relates to the blending of adjacent consonants at the beginning and end of simple words where the single letter sounds are blended together in a left to right order.
Examples of the adjacent consonants found at the beginning of English words are ‘bl.., cl.., fl.., gl.., pl.., sl.., br.., dr.., fr.., gr.., pr.., tr.., sk.., sm.., sn.., sp.., st.., sw.., tw..’ in words like ‘blob, clap, flag, glad, plop, slip, bran, drip, frog, grab, pram, tram, skip, smell, snip, stop, swim, twig’. These are known as ccvc (consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant) words.
Examples of adjacent consonants found at the end of English words are ‘..mp, ..nd, ..nk, ..nt, ..st, ..ft, ..ld, ..lp, ..lt, ..sk’ in words like ‘jump, hand, bank, tent, lost, left, held, help, belt, ask’. These are known as cvcc words.
There are also some combinations of three adjacent consonants such as ‘spr.., str.., spl..’ as found in the words ‘spring, street, split’.
Children will learn to blend and segment these words in just the same way as cvc words.
Remember that some adjacent consonants e.g. ‘ch, sh, th‘ are not blended together in the above manner. They are the spellings of distinct English sounds (phonemes) in their own right, and their sound is different to the sounds of the two separate letters.
As always please ask about any aspect of your child’s learning.