Home learning Friday 18th September

What a great week! Well done to everyone for doing so well. Thank you for taking on board the change of entry point in the middle of the week-that’s really helping to ensure that we can keep distance between our class bubbles. 

Within the classroom we have taken a giant leap into Read Write Inc this week and the children have 3 sounds firmly under their belts! We’ve focused upon ‘a’ ‘m’ and ‘s’. Enjoy the little video I’ve added of the children talking about these sounds. Maybe you’ve heard tales of Seraphina Sound Around who has visited each day to help us with our phonic work. Some say she looks a lot like Mrs Grimes, I don’t see it myself ;)
It would be great if you could reinforce these sounds at the weekend, look for items in your house that start with these sounds and have a go at forming the letter. Please use the little rhymes that the children say in the video. This will ensure that they get the formation right and is crucial! 

In our mathematical work, we’ve been careful counters this week. One of our jobs was to be a farmer and count 5 animals into the field. Later on in the week, we looked at some images which represented either the number one or two.  We had some great discussions about these as the children sorted. It was interesting when we looked at a picture of a nose- some of us thought it represented one- there was one nose. Others saw a representation of 2- there were two nostrils. Our mathematical work throughout Swansfield places such importance on the ability to sort and explain and this starts in earnest in the early years. If you are out and about at the weekend, look at objects and artefacts and talk about the numbers and amounts that you see- 3 windows on a door, 6 eggs in a box, 5 buttons on a cardigan. Number is everywhere! 

In our afternoon sessions, we have been exploring our families.  We have discovered that there are so many similarities that we share with each other- lots of us have a brother or a sister, many of us have two houses that we call home. We’ve also learnt that we all have something that makes our family unique. Identifying and explaining similarity and difference is a crucial skill to master in Reception and we’ll revisit it in many contexts throughout the year. The children enjoyed making their own house with lolly sticks and we’ll be displaying these in our classroom. 

Thank you for remembering about PE Thursday, we had great fun outside racing and chasing and following assault courses. We’re trying really hard to master skipping with a hop and a step at the moment. You could practise this at home.
 
Our lunchtime routines are becoming more familiar now and the children are enjoying their time in the hall. For those who have school dinner, we are really encouraging the use of both a knife and a fork. It would be great if you could reinforce this at home too. 

I do hope that everyone has a great weekend. See you on Monday! 

Mrs G