It’s been a lovely bright and sunny week and Reception have loved making the most of it outdoors. As an extension of our Forest Schools day on Thursday, the children have been very interested in hunting out the signs of Autumn’s arrival. As our playground it surrounded by oak trees, this has mostly consisted of collecting vast amounts of acorns but there has been enthusiastic investigation and gathering of leaves, twigs and berries. Some children even took the challenge of drawing these autumnal artifacts back in our creative area. There’s also been a good use of the sandpit, water area and music stage as the kids enjoyed the sunshine.
Our topic of ‘All About Me’ has seen us all sharing about the special people in our lives. The children were interested to see and talk about the grown ups family photos and ask us questions about the people that are special to us. In turn, the children have been taking time to show their own photos and talk about the people who are important to them. Thank you so much to everyone for taking the time to share your photos with us. As there are so many, we haven’t been able to give everyone a chance to share in front of the class yet, but will continue this next week. The photos have been printed and stuck up in the classroom to give the children more informal opportunities to discuss their families with us and with each other.
Our Maths sessions this week have continued investigating sorting and comparing objects and amounts. The children have had opportunities to populate a ‘five-frame’ with counters and compare theirs with a friend; they have listened to the Julia Donaldson story ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’ and acted out how the number of animals grew more and then fewer; and they have compared Numicon pieces and towers of blocks using this language of comparison.
In Phonics, we have introduced the children to the first three sounds of ‘Phase 2’ of our scheme. These are: ‘s’ as in snake, ‘a’ as in apple, and ‘t’ as in teacup. We have learned how to say these sounds correctly and how to form them correctly when writing as well as spotting them in words. The children have further been practising their listening skills in games and activities to help them prepare their auditory skills for learning new sounds.
On Tuesday, the children all enjoyed another ‘Reading Buddies’ session with the children from Class 10. The older children are becoming well acquainted with Reception class and it was lovely to see their interactions. This week, we have also had the book fair in school and all the children in Reception had the opportunity to visit the fair and make a ‘wish-list’ of books they were interested in. Thank you for all your support of the book fair – by buying books via the fair, the school is rewarded with money to buy more books to use in our school library which greatly enhances our learning opportunities. There is still chance to bring back you completed ‘wish-list’ form on Monday is you decide you would like to purchase any books.
DATES FOR THE DIARY:
Thursday 9th October: ‘Hello Yellow’ Day in support of Children’s Mental Health (children encouraged to dress in yellow or bright colours).
Thursday 23rd October: School Photographs (as such, please send children in PE kit uniform colours despite it being EYFS Forest Schools).
Thursday 23rd October: Last day of Autumn 1
Friday 24th October: School closed
Tinshill Drive
Cookridge
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS16 7DH
0113 386 2500