Hello Elephants and Zebras,
It is getting colder but it hasn’t stopped us from enjoying the outdoors wrapped up in our coats. From our daily mile exercise, to Mini Explorers, to our maths lessons – they can all be done outside. During Child Initiated Learning the children are encouraged to be creative with the resources outside and this helps them build on their Physical Development; balancing on tyres, using the climbing wall; building their own assault course (watch out for the lava underneath!) all helps work on their core strength and co-ordination as well as using their imaginations!
We are learning to “confidently and safely use a range of large and small apparatus indoors and outside, alone and in a group” and “Develop overall body-strength, balance, co-ordination and agility.” (Development Matters 2021)
Our space den is still proving to be very popular as is our puppet area inside! From building dens to designing them there is so much you can do in construction. Inside we have been working on adapting our Literacy Story ‘Whatever Next!’ and some children have made their own bear. We had to carefully cut around the different parts of the bear and stick them all together in the right place. On Thursdays we always love visiting the Library and it’s lovely to see children engaging with, and enjoying, books all around the classroom. If you have any favourite stories at home – do let us know and we can share them in class.
Sound of the week
We are learning to ,”read individual letters by saying the sounds for them” and “develop the foundations of a handwriting style which is fast accurate and efficient” (Development Matters 2021).
This week we have learnt our ‘ll’, ff’ and ‘ss’ sounds and letter formation. We have practised words like ‘mess’, ‘drill’ and ‘off’ and we have also been learning some of our tricky words. We are learning ‘the’, ‘no’, ‘I’, to’, and’go’. These all use letters we have learnt but are ‘tricky’ as they cannot be sounded out easily. The children are learning to recognise them by sight.
How you can help at home:
This week why don’t you watch out for the tricky words and if you spot any in books, a magazine or junk mail – maybe have a competition and challenge your child to find 3 words! You could help your child to write them out, or if they’re working on their letter formation you write them out and they decorate the letters. When you’ve written them out try sticking them to a kitchen cupboard door – or a wall near their toys – so you can see them throughout the day. Then when you’re near the words ask your child to point out a word or two. Repetition is key to learning these words and you can turn it into a game – have fun!
Have a wonderful weekend,
The Reception Team