Class R newsletter Class News 4/February 2012
Hello and welcome back to the new half term. We hope you all enjoyed the half term break and are suitably refreshed. This is the newsletter which is currently shown on the school website, on Class R’s page ~ please remember to use the website; it is very easy to navigate and does hold a lot of information; you can find it at www.heathwoodlower.com/.
We hope you enjoyed the Chinese Dragon parade, thank you for coming to the assembly, it was great to see so many of you and we do feel it is important to share the children’s learning with you. I hope they have been talking to you about their learning and it would be very much appreciated if you could jot down their comments in the little red learning journey books as it would add to their profiles. As you know we just finished the half term with our teddy bears’ picnic; here are a couple of taster photographs from the gallery page ~
I have uploaded images to the gallery pages under the titles of Toy Museum Visit and Spring term activities; do please take a look.
Routines of school
Routines of Class R will remain as they were, with indoor PE on a Thursday. As much as possible we will try to continue to use the outdoor development session on a Tuesday on the field so they will need their outdoor clothes (jogging bottoms, tops and trainers) in school for the half term.
Show and tell opportunities will continue on a Wednesday and the children’s names will be posted on the door towards the end of the week prior to their turn. We would like to thank you for your efforts in helping your child/children to bring in suitable items for this as we do know that they would just love to bring in toys. It is an enjoyable opportunity for all of them and they are not as daunted as you think; even those children who might appear to be concerned really do enjoy their turn and are always encouraged and supported.
Please continue to spend time with your child/children encouraging them to read/share their books and help them to learn their letters. Most of the children have now begun to learn digraphs (two letters making only one sound). These are just as important to learn as they will need to know them in order to read unfamiliar words and they need to know that some letters combine and do not make separate sounds. They have done very well to learn all their letters but the momentum needs to continue in order that they maintain their progress. Your time spent with them learning letters and digraphs is invaluable and much appreciated.
Your child/children are all now beginning to learn some of the high frequency words they are expected to know before the end of the Reception year. As soon as they become confident with the ones that are linked to the reading scheme (word balloons) they will commence with graded reading books. Most of the children now are beginning to understand the concept of a word and are having books with some simple repeated phrases in. Once again your support in encouraging them to play and learn their words does make a tremendous difference, so please keep up the good work. Once they are working with the word balloons, you can encourage them to read and make a variety of simple sentences. Your children will continue to need their book bags in class each day as we take the opportunity to read with them as it arises and this is not always predictable.
This Half Term
This half term our focus will be on water and under the sea. We will be setting up a beach/rock pool as part of our role play and also a boat in the outdoor area so that they will be able to use their imaginations and add to the areas with their own play and ideas. Please feel free to talk to them about their learning and activities and if you have any favourite stories linked to the sea please share them with them. Please don’t forget if they come home and are repeating some of the stories or phrases or even talking about what they have done, we really do need to know and it would be great if you could add comments in the little red learning journey books. In our knowledge and understanding sessions they will be developing skills of Design Technology (through construction opportunities, making cards and artifacts to add to role play) and Science (through practical experiments and cooking opportunities). They will be encouraged to understand more about ‘place’ through mapping opportunities from the stories as well as developing ‘time’ knowledge through sequencing. Within Problem solving, Reasoning and Numeracy we will be consolidating counting, ordering and calculation opportunities. We will also be focusing on problem solving with our challenge table as well as exploring patterns and developing knowledge and use of language around flat and solid shapes. Do encourage them to look at containers at home and talk about their shapes and properties. In PE we will be using some small equipment and developing balance and control with bean bags. Creative activities will cover some observational drawing, exploring colour, drama and story writing as well as exploring textiles.
They will continue to enjoy a wide range of activities both indoors and outdoors and I will attempt to add pictures so please keep checking the gallery to see up to date photographs.
Here’s to a good half term.
Mrs Dicocco
Reception Class Teacher
Class newsletter 1: Welcome to school
