Month: January 2017

Over the last couple of weeks, the children have been enjoying lots of different activities around our topic, Once Upon A Time.
They have been building bridges to help The Gingerbread Man to cross the river, making crowns to wear in our castle, acting out the story of The Little Red Hen, playing in the arctic fairy land and lots more! Here are some pictures:

In English, we sequenced the story The Gingerbread Man and wrote a storyboard describing the main events of the story. We focused on sentences openers such as first, next, then, after that and finally. The children particularly enjoyed writing about the last part of the story where the fox gobbles the gingerbread man up in one bite!
In Maths, we did lots of jumping around when learning how to add and subtract using a number line. This week, the children will be bringing home a number line that they can use to practise Maths at home. We’ve focused on the different directions you jump on the number line depending on whether it’s an addition or subtraction sum and made sure that we only jump one number each time. You can see us using our outdoor number line here:

In phonics last week we reached the end of learning Phase 3 sounds! The next couple of weeks will now be spent consolidating their phonic knowledge and applying it when reading and writing. We also be focusing on rhyming words.
We also conducted our first science experiment, testing the properties of different materials to help us decide which material we should use to make our fairy tale town!
This week, in Maths we will be focusing on positional language (such as behind, next to, in front of etc.) as well as odd and even numbers. In English we will be looking at rhyming words to make Rhyme Slime Potions. We will also be starting to build our fairy tale town during afternoon sessions.
Finally, please look out for letters coming home this week regarding parents evening next week and our school trip to London Sea life Aquarium, which is taking place after half term.

Last week, Reception visited the John Harvard Library on Borough High Street.
The children chose a book each and did some independent reading and also had 2 books read to them by Luke the librarian!
As a class, we found lots of books for our topic this half term, Once Upon A Time. Then, we got a class library card so that we could borrow the books and take them back to school.
Here are some photos from our trip:

The children’s amazing landscapes created during Arts Week, where we replicated the work of Claude Monet’s Meadows, are now on display in the school hall and in the classroom. The children really enjoyed using water colours and did a fantastic job!

You can see our hall display here:

This week we will be writing storyboards of The Gingerbread Man in English. In Maths, we will be learning to add and subtract using a number line and start to look at odd and even numbers. Our new sounds in Phonics this week will be ‘ear’, ‘air’ and ‘ure’. We will also learn to spell the words ‘they’, ‘is’ and ‘his’.

Welcome back and Happy New Year! We hope that you all had a wonderful break.

This half term our topic will be Once Upon A Time. Our text to support this topic is The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters.

Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring the text, looking in detail at the different letters and characters and developing our descriptive vocabulary. The text will also be supported by other traditional tales such as Rapunzel and The Gingerbread Man. In line with our topic, our reading corner has become Rapunzel’s tower. This week, the children have really enjoyed reading books to Rapunzel to keep her busy whilst she is stuck in her tower! Our role play area has become a castle for the children to enjoy dressing up as Kings, Queens and Knights and recreating some of their favourite traditional tales. You can see pictures of the reading corner and role play area below:

This week, we have also been busy writing silly sentences using CVC words and writing about what we did over the holidays. In Maths, we have looked in more detail at 2d shapes and their properties. We have also learned about symmetry and used shapes to create patterns on butterflies.

Today your child will be bringng home a letter regarding our school trip to the John Harvard Library on Monday. As stated in the letter, this trip is covered by the ‘blanket’ parental permission slip which you signed at the beginning of the year. However, if you have any reservations about this trip please contact the School Office as soon as possible.