Poetry Picnic: Mice
This week’s poem is called Mice.
One of the words in the poem that we’ve spent time talking about and learning is nibble. Hope you enjoy the performance!
Autumn 2: Week 4
Focus story/literacy learning
This week, we’ve been reading How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers. Together, we sequenced the story and talked about what happened at the beginning, middle, and end.
In the middle of the story, the boy sees a reflection of a star in the water. Reflection was our word of the week. We used mirrors to help us understand what a reflection is. The children had lots of fun pulling funny faces and discovering how reflections work!
On Wednesday, we learned about star constellations. After looking at some pictures of different star constellations, we had a go at drawing our own.
Art
Last Friday, Mrs Boulton created a mini art gallery to introduce this half-term’s featured artist, Howardena Pindell. The children spent time looking closely at some of her artwork and talking about the colours and patterns they could see.
This week, we used hole punchers, soft pads, and paint to create our own representations inspired by Pindell’s style. The children really enjoyed experimenting overlapping the colours.
Maths: Composition
We developed our understanding of the composition of numbers by investigating the composition of 3, 4 and 5. We consolidated our understanding of a whole being made up of smaller parts by using cubes to compose and de-compose numbers. We also introduced the part–part–whole model to the children.
We played the hats game to help us understand the parts of 3, 4 and 5.
How many children are holding a hat? (part)
How many children are not holding a hat? (part)
How many are there altogether? (whole)
We watched the Numberblocks Stampoline video and had a go at printing our own Stampoline patterns of 4. We also used double-sided counters to explore the compositions of 3, 4, and 5. The children enjoyed investigating the different ways these numbers can be made.
Help at home: Draw, paint or create your own Stampoline patterns at home.
Here’s a collage of some more amazing learning that’s happened in our classroom this week.
Christmas is coming!
We’ve started to practise the Christmas songs for our Christmas performance. We can’t wait for you to come and watch us sing on Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 December.
Reminders
– Learning journey drop in’s – Monday 01 or Thursday 04 December
3.00 – 3.30pm Thank you for signing up!
– The cold weather is here! Please make sure your child comes to school wearing a suitable coat.
Poetry Picnic: Shoes
This week’s poem is called Shoes.
There’s a lot of vocabulary that we’ve focussed on when learning this poem: dim, lonesome, tossed and pair.
Try to use some of these words at home to help pupils to remember them.
Autumn 2: Week 3
In Literacy, we read Night Monkey, Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson. For our writing activity, the children drew and labelled pictures showing things they see and do during the day and at night time.
In provision, we investigated shadows through hands-on exploration. The children used torches to discover how shadows changed size when they moved the light source closer to and further away from objects. The chilli challenge to create shadow puppets captured the children’s imagination in the creative area, leading to lots of talk about shadows.
In maths, we introduced the children to composition by focusing on the preliminary skills: the concept of ‘wholes’ and ‘parts’. We investigated composition using own bodies and familiar toys. We used this stem sentence My […] is a part of me and the whole of me is [name] to explain our parts. We hope you enjoyed watching our maths session on Tuesday!
Help at home: Look at the pictures. Can you see the parts?
Thank you for attending Tuesday’s maths stay and learn session. I hope you enjoyed watching our maths sessions all about composition. Your feedback is important to us, so please complete the parent feedback form when you can. If you couldn’t attend, you can view the slides here. As always, if you have any questions, please speak to me at the end of the day.
On Wednesday, we thoroughly enjoyed watching a live production performance called Hare and Tortoise.
Am – I liked it when they were singing.
Ayy – I liked it when we had to clap.
Im – That show was awesome! I enjoyed the clapping.
Sat – I liked it when the Hare went to sleep.
Fin – I enjoyed the running race.
Learning Journey Drop In’s
Monday 1st or Thursday 4th December 3.00 – 3.30pm
A sign-up letter is in your child’s bookbag. Please return the slip by Thursday 27th November. We look forward to sharing your child’s books with you.
Poetry Picnic: A basket of apples
We’ve been learning and reciting another autumnal poem.
As well as enjoying listening to and saying the poems each week, we also use it as an opportunity to learn new vocabulary. One of this week’s words was sour. Look out for our sour (and sweet) faces as we read!
Autumn 2: Week 2
Nursery Rhyme Week
This week, we celebrated Nursery Rhyme Week! In Literacy, we read Each Peach, Pear Plum by Allan Ahlberg and Janet Ahlberg. We had so much fun carefully exploring the illustrations to spot all the different nursery rhyme characters hidden on each page.
On Wednesday, we looked at household objects from the past and the present. We talked about how they are similar and different.
This week’s chilli challenges were all linked to our nursery rhyme theme. Take a look at some of the wonderful learning in action…
Phonics
This week, we learnt four new graphemes: v, w, x, and y. The children are really enjoying their daily phonics sessions and are becoming super readers!
Help at home:
Practise reading the tricky words we’ve learnt so far. You could make it fun by playing a Tricky Word Hunt around your home. Hide the words and see how quickly your child can find and read them!
Living and Learning
Our Living and Learning statement this week is: I follow our school rules: We’re ready.
We have been exploring what it means to be ready – showing good looking, good listening, good sitting and good body language. The children are fantastic at being ready to learn – well done, Reception!
Help at home: Talk together about what being ready looks like at home. For example, being ready to help or being ready for school.
Reminder
Next Tuesday is our Maths Stay & Learn session for parents. Once the children are settled on the carpet, we’ll invite you into the classroom to watch a short maths session. After that, there’ll be a variety of maths challenges for you to enjoy with your child. To finish the session, I’ll deliver a short presentation all about maths in Reception. We look forward to seeing you there!
Living and Learning: Hotshots sponsorship event
To finish off our Me and My Money themed week, all the school took part in a Hotshots event, led by PE Partner, to raise money for our school charity, Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Can I just say how fantastic all the children were in every year group! It was amazing to see them all encouraging each other, no matter their ability. When the children were up for their turn, who maybe football isn’t their forte, the rest of the children were so supportive with their cheering and encouragement. It was fantastic! You should be very proud of them all!
Living and Learning: Penny trail
It was great to see the generosity and enthusiasm of the children during our Me and My Money themed week to try and fill their class collecting tubes. They were filling up by the end of the week.
On Friday, all the classes ventured into the playground to use their pennies to create a huge ‘Moortown’ penny trail. We had so many 1ps and 2ps that we ended up doubling and tripling up our coins.
The total amount raised for Yorkshire Air Ambulance was a fantastic £123.53 so thank you for your donations.
Poetry Picnic
Our Halloween themed poem for the week is called Pointy Hat. We hope you enjoy listening to us performing it!
Autumn 2: Week 1
Literacy
On Tuesday, we talked about why we celebrate Bonfire Night and what people do to celebrate. We also thought about how to stay safe. Here’s some of the children’s Bonfire Night safety tips:
- Stand back from the bonfire.
- Hold sparklers far away from your body.
- Put a sparkler into a carrot to hold the carrot.
- Don’t put sparklers in the bin—put them in some water instead.
- Only adults should light fireworks.
Help at home: Make a Bonfire Night safety poster with your adult or older sibling.
We also talked about Remembrance Day and why people wear a red poppy. We watched a short animation called Poppies. It allowed us to see what life was like for animals during the war.
Here’s a look at some of the exciting challenges we completed to support our learning…
Maths
This week, we’ve been engaging in activities that highlight the purpose of counting – finding out how many objects there are altogether. We’ve reinforced our understanding of cardinality, recognising that the last number we say when counting represents the total number of objects in the set.
A key focus has been deepening our understanding of the number 5 as a quantity. We’ve been linking the number to familiar representations, such as the five fingers on one hand. The children are also beginning to explore different ways to represent numbers up to 5, using both their fingers and the Hungarian number pattern (die frame).
On Wednesday, the children worked in pairs to collect 5 objects and place them on the fingers of their hand template. They were challenged to find:
- 5 objects that are all the same
- 5 that are the same but in different colours,
- 5 that are the same but in different sizes
This activity sparked lots of discussion and teamwork as they compared, sorted, and explained their choices. We saw fantastic mathematical thinking and collaboration throughout the session!
Help at home: Draw a hand on a piece of paper and collect 5 objects. Can you do some of the challenges with did in school?
Important!
If your child likes to have grapes in their packed lunch, please make sure they are cut in half lengthways. This helps reduce the risk of choking. Thank you for helping us keep everyone safe!
Reminders
- Odd Socks Day – Monday 10 November
Children are invited to wear odd socks to school today, marking the fact we’re all different in some way. - Children in Need: non-uniform day – Friday 14 November
- Maths stay and learn session – Tuesday 18 November