Observational drawing
Year 4 are drawing different types of transport through the ages.
Phonics teaching in Reception
We have begun our daily phonics sessions in Reception. These are fun sessions involving lots of speaking, listening and games where the emphasis is on children’s active participation. They learn to use their phonic knowledge for reading and writing activities and in their independent play.
At Moortown we use a systematic phonics programme called Letters and Sounds alongside the actions of Jolly Phonics.
Letters and Sounds is divided into six phases, with each phase building on the skills and knowledge of previous learning. There are no big leaps in learning. Children have time to practise and rapidly expand their ability to read and spell words. They are also taught to read and spell ‘tricky words’ which are words with spellings that are unusual or that children have not yet been taught. These include the words to, was, said and the.
At the moment we are focusing on phase one which will have begun in nursery. This phase paves the way for the systematic learning of phonics. We plan activities that will help children to listen attentively to sounds around them, such as the sounds of their toys and to sounds in spoken language. We teach a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs and read good books to and with the children. This helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books. The children learn to identify rhyme and alliteration.
Ways you can support your children 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’.
Say: ‘A tall tin of tomatoes!’ ‘Tommy, the ticklish teddy!’ ‘A lovely little lemon!’ This is called alliteration. Use names, for example, ‘Gurpreet gets the giggles’, ‘Milo makes music’, ‘Naheema’s nose’.
Teach them ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’.
For more information, don’t forget the phonics meeting on Friday 12 October at 2.15. If you are unable to attend please let me know and I will send you some information.
Find on-line phonics games at www.phonicsplay.co.uk
05 October 2012
The homework this week is Creative and is due in Wednesday 10 October.
I can show what I know about transport.
As you all know, our new topic is All Aboard! To launch this topic we would like you to show us everything you already know about transport. You can be as creative as you like. Kacy wowed us all last week with her jelly brain. See if you can top that! As always, you can be as creative as you like, but if you’re struggling why not try:
- a photo collage of different types of transport
- a PowerPoint presentation
- a comic strip
- a podcast
05 October 2012
This week’s spellings are all words that are contractions. That’s (a contraction of That is) where two words have been joined together with an apostrophe. Your child should learn both, but will be only tested on the contractions.
| LO: apostrophes for contractions | |
| don’t | do not |
| we’ll | we will |
| doesn’t | does not |
| he’d | he would |
| they’ve | they have |
| won’t | will not |
| we’re | we are |
| fish ‘n’ chips | fish and chips |
Hanging about…
Transport Timeline
Year 4 dramatise some historical events which shaped modern transport. Can you guess what event this freeze-frame represents?
05 October 2012
We are focussing on plurals this week.
Some of the spellings are made into a plural by just adding s. The others you have to add es to make into a plural. You add es if you hear an extra syllable when you make it plural.
Children should learn all ten spellings but will be tested on eight out of the ten on Friday 12 October.
| 1. | pen | pens |
| 2. | book | books |
| 3. | boy | boys |
| 4. | table | tables |
| 5. | pockets | |
| 6. | bush | bushes |
| 7. | watch | watches |
| 8. | brush | brushes |
| 9. | fox | foxes |
| 10. | kiss | kisses |
Making a promotion come alive using our new iPads
This afternoon, we’ve turned the promotions we’ve been writing all week into a presentation using the Keynote app on our new iPads.
05 October 2012
This week’s spellings are words where you need drop the ‘y’ for an ‘i’. There are lots of words that could have been chosen for this rule; we’ve chosen words that will help to make our narrative writing more interesting next week. They will be tested on Friday 12 October 2012.
The words in orange are abstract nouns. Can you think of any other abstract nouns?
| Drop the ‘y’ for an ‘i’ |
| moody
moodier moodiest mood terrify terrifies terror hungry hungrier hungriest hunger |
05 October 2012
In order to build the children’s vocabulary, this week we are focusing on spelling wow words…
- ecstatic
- despondent
- devastated
- monstrous
- petrified
- terrified
- morose
- delighted
- disgruntled
Your child will also be tested on the meanings of the word. He / she will be tested on Friday 12 October 2012.