Brrr! This week has seen some rather cold days, but this has been the perfect opportunity for us to explore our gardens and the forest. We have noticed a big change in the weather and the temperature outside. Lots of us has a wonderful time scraping ice and frost off of the equipment to make our own “snowballs” and mixtures in the mud kitchen.
We have also loved looking at our new ‘Curiosity box’ where we have been describing what we can see, as well as exploring and testing different materials.
Mini Explorers
We have had such a fun week exploring the forest. Here we are fully engrossed in our “loud and proud walking”. We had to use a stick to explore the sounds we could make on different surfaces in the forest. Can you spot the things we tested? You might like to try this activity again at home or on a local walk. Does a stone make the same sounds as a stick when you tap or scrape things?
Phonics
This week in Reception we have been busy using all of our phonic knowledge to help us label pictures, play games and make words. We have been learning about letters that go together to make one sound, such as ee, ai and igh. We have also been practising our harder to read and spell words. We know that these are words we cannot sound out so we must learn to recognise these by sight – we are beginning to get the hang of it and will continue to practise these over the next few weeks!
How you can help at home:
- Practise recognising the new sounds we have been learning – can you spot them in any stories you are reading together?
- It is the time of year where we see hats, scarves, gloves etc all flying around – please help your child to be independent when getting dressed/undressed and check that everything is labelled! They may need some extra time to get ready in the mornings as learning to zip up coats can be quite tricky!
- Play games together that involve taking turns such as snap, snakes and ladders and other simple board games