Last week we had visitors to Merry Hill school and the children showed off how fantastic and amazing they are! We showed the Merry Hill Golden Rules that we apply each day and we saw so many good choices around school and outside on the playground too! Well done everybody!
PSHE
In PSHE we recalled what PSHE is using our stem sentences: “P means personal, everything about me. S means social which are all the people around me. H means healthy and keeping me well in my body and my mind. E means education which is the learning we do at school.” We went into Calm Me time using the chime and practiced a breathing technique to get us into the ‘green zone’ so we could be calm and ready for circle time. When we breathed through our nose we focused on the feeling of being proud of ourselves and when we blew out through our mouth we focused on the feeling of being relaxed. In circle time we all sat in a circle and did an interesting role play between two adults, where the two adults were being unkind to each other! We said things such as, “you aren’t my best friend anymore”, “you can’t come to my birthday party” and “you can’t play my game”. We decided altogether what exactly unkind and kind behaviour is and discussed how the children felt having seen the adults do role play. Some people thought it was funny and others found it sad. We passed around Jigsaw Jenie and all said the name of someone we would tell if we were upset. Some names at school were Miss Bates, Ms O’Donnell, Miss Wills, Mrs Barnes, Mrs Mitzman, Mrs Jones and Mrs Summers.
Literacy
Our focus book in Literacy is ‘One Snowy Night’ and we have used this as the inspiration for our Winter Production. The children have been working so hard on using the sounds we have learnt in phonics to write a sentence independently. As well as discussing sounds learnt, we have been also been learning how to use our own fingers to add finger spaces in between each word! In the outside area, we have turned the role play house into Percy the Park Keeper’s Shed. The children have been acting, drawing and writing out parts of the story. Don’t forget, Reception are performing ‘One Snowy Night’ on December 15th, first show at 9:30am and the second show is at 2pm!
Maths
We have continued learning about different parts and wholes in Maths this week. We have a new Part Part Whole Machine, which takes parts and makes a greater number altogether which falls and lands in the whole basket. The children have been taking it in turns choosing numbers from the basket, knowing the number by subitising it (knowing from the dots without counting) or by recognising the number numeral on the card. The children have been practicing their teamwork skills by following the steps, using blue tack to stick numbers on the part part whole laminated sheet to help remember what we are doing with the machine and plan ahead. Then they took it in turns to enter the amounts into the machine and put the numbers down the chute! Well done! Finally the children counted the whole from the basket and wrote the answer in the whole circle. Some of the answers we double checked using our one by one slow counting and touching each item once. If the children disagreed they checked to work it out. Some children noticed number bonds and relationships starting to form between the numbers… for example that when the number card said 0 “we don’t put anything down the pipe because 0 is nothing…3 and 0 is still 3!”. When writing the children used their number songs to remember number formation, such as ‘around the tree, around the tree that’s the way we make a 3!” We have had so much fun doing this!
Nursery Rhyme:
Our rhyme this week has been ‘Wind the Bobbin Up’. We have been using cotton reels to support this, and doing the song as a physical warm up before exercise and daily miles.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p07j4yy5/mr-tumble-songs-wind-the-bobbin-up
How you can help at home:
Continue to use fridge words to support and discuss new vocabulary, like we have done this week with Concept cat’s ‘between’. Try to use the words in a range of phrases and sentences so the children develop a secure understanding of the word’s meaning. Comments are much less demanding than questions and they help guide the children in how to use the new word.
Discuss with your child who they could speak to at school if they are upset or need help with their feelings.