Good morning! We hope you had a lovely week. We had a busy week full of learning and fun, this is what we have been up to:
Literacy
- We have continued to use reading books in school. We are learning how to make predictions about a text with the information we have in the text and in the illustrations, we are using the words that are on our books to make sentences. We are working very hard on developing all our reading skills.
- We continue to introduce and reinforce some single sounds and have been using them to create and read words. This week’s letters were o and g, and we made words including hot, not, mop, dog and got.
- We enjoy listening to and discussing a wide range of texts.
- We have continued to work on our pre -writing skills.
- This week our writing was: ‘I am outside. It is Autumn’ . We did our writing after our wonderful walk in the woods. Look at our detailed drawings!
Home learning ideas
Please support us by spending time at home practising the skills of blending sounds to create and read words. Not too long but a little time every day is the best way to do it.
Please check your child’s purple folder regularly as occasionally we will send home learning ideas.
- Download the document below. On the sheet you will find the letters we have been learning this week along with a list of words to create. You can choose to print the sheet, or simply write out the letters of small pieces of paper. Use the letter cards to create simple words and ask your child to firstly, identify each sound, count how many sounds (phonemes) they hear, then blend or squish the sounds together into one word. Next, say a word which can be made using the letters. say it slowly and clearly – asking your child to identify the sounds they can hear before they ‘make’ the word with the cards.
- Go on a letter hunt. Look around you for places where you can see any of the letters you know. Remember to say the pure sound of the letter not the name. ( so a= ah, not ay )
- Ask an adult to write all the names of the people in your family. Who has an ‘i’ in their name….. who has an ‘ a’ (etc)
- Play a game of “I spy” with our focus sounds.
- Encourage your child to make their name in different ways: in the sand, with flour, play dough, etc.
- If your child cannot yet write their own name, please practise this at home. Lower case letter please ( apart from the initial letter of course)
- Spend time reading books at home. Reading to your child is an excellent way of increasing your child’s vocabulary. You could use the reading caterpillar that we sent in the purple folder to make questions about the text you read to your child.
Numeracy
- We have been exploring numbers to 10 20, or 30.
- We have been practising instantly making and recognising finger patterns. Doing it on our head ( the bunny ears game) makes it a bit tricky as we can’t see our fingers, we just have to feel the pattern. We have explored doing doubles to 5.
- We have explored numbers to 10 (and beyond for some).
- We have worked on sequencing numbers.
- We have worked on counting forwards and backwards from different starting points.
- We have been naming the next number in a forwards or backwards sequence
- We have learning how to make a number (3-10) using different fingers: for 6 : 2 and 4, 5 and 1, 3 and 3. We have started doing the same using counters (0-10), we will work on number bonds to 10 after the holidays.
Counting skills and fine motor skills!
Home learning ideas
- We listened to this song. Maybe you would like to listen to it at home:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHuuuh9GgP8
- Count items using 1-1 correspondence. Put down a quantity of small items, for example raisins, buttons, counters, small stones or lego bricks. Ask your child to count them carefully, pointing to, or moving each one in turn. can they count the total accurately? Increase the level of challenge by using a larger collection.
- Number hunt: Ask your child to look for specific numbers in the street: buses, house numbers and ask your child to say the number that goes after and before that number.
- Practice number formation of the numbers 0 to 10 (or more if your child is confident with this already)
- You may choose to play this game. Please choose from sequencing or ordering (forwards) from 1- 10 or 1-20
- Play Three for me, one for you . The adult says three numbers in a sequence, either forwards or backwards, the child says the next number in the sequence. e.g. 6,7,8………9 or 14,13, 12…….11. You can choose the level of challenge by staying within 10, or going up to 20.
Other areas of the curriculum:
PE:
We are practising throwing, catching and passing a ball (big ones and small ones). It is quite tricky, so please keep practising at home.
On PE days the children should come dressed for outdoor PE, there is no need to bring a PE bag with a change of clothes. On these days, we would ask that the children wear trainers or similar for the playground and PE. It is really hard to hop when you are wearing wellies ! (Wellies are ideal on non-PE days though)
Outdoor learning:
What a fantastic time we had yesterday at the woods! It was lovely to see all children exploring, helping each other and having a wonderful time.
Independent Learning
Other information
A reminder that next week it is the October break. Children are back to school on Tuesday 27th October (Staff will be working on Monday 26th October).
The children are taking home today the bag with the spare clothes. This will give you an opportunity to check the items needed for next term.
Please remember to label all items with your child’s name. We still have items that haven’t been claimed since August. Remember to label hats and gloves too!
This term has been a great one! It has been lovely being back at school, we missed it very much. We had the pleasure of having your children on their first day ever at school (what a privilege!) and it is lovely to getting to know them a little bit better every day. They are all fantastic: they are a lovely, caring and welcoming class, a credit to you all!
We hope you have a wonderful break!
Mrs Cross and Mrs de Bonrostro
Buckstone Primary School 