Hello!

This week we have been making potions! We have had a cauldron full of snakes and bats and other such bugs and grubs to help make our potion. Our main story was Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. The children knew the story well and could join in the refrain. We looked at the changing weather in the story and talked about how we could make a new broomstick for all the characters.

The children new the story so well and have spent the week using the toys to recreate and re-tell the story.

We made sure we had our safety goggles on before we started to design and make our potions. We talked about witche’s spells and scientists making potions and medicines … the Corona Virus Vaccine might well have been developed in our classroom!

Our fine motor activity saw the children using pipe cleaners and wool to make mini broomsticks…

Our sounds were: e, l h , sh and r. We have done plenty of writing, reading, blending and segmenting using all the sounds we have learnt. The children are becoming really confident now and I hope the first ‘ reading’  book home went okay. We have started to learn our tricky words or red words as they are sometimes known: words which cannot be sounded out. Unfortunately they just need to be learned. So far we have learnt I and the. When you are reading to your child at home it would be beneficial to ask them to spot any the’s or I’s in the text. They love to do this and it helps embed the tricky word firmly in their memory.

We are using this song to help us learn our tricky words too: watch it along with your child, you will soon get the idea!!

We have had lots of sound activities out this week to reinforce our learning…

Our writing table saw the children writing ingredients for potions and spells. The children enjoyed choosing slimy or disgusting ingredients to write about. Eye of a newt, legs of a frog and skin of a snake was a great example of some ingredients chosen.

Our number work concentrated on ordering numbers and comparing groups of non-identical objects.  We got into groups – white t-shirts and green cardigans, teachers and children, dark hair and light hair – we looked at which group had more or less people – we used the language of more and less and greater and lesser. We continued our learning grouping various resources around the classroom and comparing the size of the groups.

We read the Winnie the Witch series of books this week too. The children love Winnie’s antics, especially Wilbur the cat. These books have fabulous illustrations that can be poured over and always a new part of the picture to spot.

The nasal flu spray was successful for those who received it and we also had our first fire drill which went smoothly too.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Erin

This week in Reception Oak class we looked at light and dark…

Our man story of the week was The Ahlbergs : Funnybones. It is set in the dark! We made our own skeleton art work and danced a skeleton dance…

We had circle times chatting about things that happen in the light and other things that might happen in the dark. We also talked about sources of light – a huge and interesting array of answers were including: ‘ Our eyes have lights in them that turn on when we open them and turn off when we shut them, like car lights!!’  – It’s always good fun in Reception!

We made shadow puppets and made up stories with them using a bright torch and a white sheet. A very popular activity and lots of creative ideas in stories that evolved as they each added their puppet to the show.

Our home corner turned into a bedroom with lots of pyjamas and bedtime stories. The children do so love recreating familiar routines from home!

Our sounds this week have been : u c k f b

The children enjoy finding out the sound from our sound bag, where we have a number of objects that start with that sound. Childfren are chosen to hold up an object and say what it is and then we guess the sound. After this we draw the sounds in the air, wrie them on a whiteboard, watch a 2 minute video on each sound, blend the sound and learn an action as well as a saying to help them remember how to write the sound.

We have moved our PE day to a Wednesday as this week our Monday hal time was cut short as other classes had assemblies. We returned on Wednesday to have an extended PE lesson which everyone enjoyed.

As always numbers have been an important part of the week. Catching stars in the water tray…

Number puzzles…

Continuing one more/  one less…

and timing ourselves seeing how many actions we could do in one minute – whether it be star jumps, hops, or how many balls we can get in the bucket!

We followed this up with telling each other about an activity we took part in using language such as First, next, after that and finally or at the end.

Lots of building this week both indoors and out:

In our outdoor classroom the children got creative using the building sticks and balls to make up a golf game!

Our Diwali project on display. The clay hands are wonderful!

Lovely to chat to you all this week at our  parents meeting. Don’t forget any questions email Mrs Saunders.. office@st-matthews.merton.sch.uk. ‘ Reading’ books for your child to try reading to you will be coming home from next week, along with your childs normal 4 book choice for you to read with them. -We haven’t covered every sound yet so you child won’t know some – just let them have a go. Choose a quiet moment when you can give them your full attention ( without a phone in your hand!) and help them sound out and blend the words – some children are ready, some are not quite there yet. Don’t worry we all have to start somewhere and getting in the routine of having a book they need to read to you is great practise. Even if they just manage to recognise a few sounds, give lots of praise , and then always read the story fluently to them after they have had a good go at sounding it out and blending themselves.

Good luck – let me know how it goes in the yellow book.

Thanks

Erin Bibby

We’ve had a fun week in Reception Oak class learning about the Hindu celebration of Diwali which is this weekend. We have read the special story of Rama and Sita and discovered why it’s so important to the Hindu people – a triumph of good over bad and lanterns and lights to guide Rama and Sita home. The children were particularly impressed with the 10 headed demon – we had lots of pictures and interpretations of him over the week!

Diwali is all about light, lots of colours, rangoli patterns and sparkles! The children enjoyed making sparkly doilies.

Sorting the shiny, sparkly, glittery, smooth jewels…

and making paper chains for our Diwali display.

Our fine motor activities had the children using tweezers to collect sequins from the water.

and using coloured sand to make rangoli patterns using the shapes…

More fine motor work saw the children grating chalk … we used the chalk grains to make rangoli patterns on the playground.

This week we have revised the sounds:

m a s t d n i p o g

We have recognised, learned their sound, formed each letter and blended to read. The children are working super hard. We have some fabulous readers in the class who are really helping us to progress with our sound work. Ask your child to show you how to write/ say each sound.

Our clay hand activity has been a hit with the children making their own rangoli patterns on their hands.

Our Thursday ICT lesson was a hit and the children enjoyed their visit to the ICT room and learning how to hold and click the mouse accurately.

This weeks maths was all about one more/ one less. What is one more than any given number and what is one less. We used plates and cubes to show one more or less than an amount, number fans, and had great fun playing musical chairs when I always managed to put out one less chair than we needed! Oh dear!

On Remembrance Day we talked about why we had made poppies, thought about the soldiers who had died or been injured in war and held a two minutes silence. The children watched this beautiful animation. It’s worth another watch at home and further discussion.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04p4zsl

Our RE lesson centered around the story of creation. We marvelled at God’s Wonderful world and thought about beautiful thinds we have seen in the world. Rainbows were a popular choice, along with big waves in the sea and tiny, pretty flowers.

Our photos of our marshmallows around the fire have failed to download from our class  ipad. I will try to get them again for next week.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Looking forward to Monday already!

Hello!

A busy week back in Reception Oak Class this week. Lots to concentrate on including revising our sounds. This week we have revised:  m a s t d. We have practised recognising these sounds for reading, forming these letters, saying these sounds, thinking of words that start with these sounds and independently writing cvc words ( consonant vowel consonant )  starting with these sounds. To help with this at home it would be a good game to see who can think of 5 words beginning with one of these sounds.

Our writing area has been choc-a-block all week, much to my delight!

The children came up with some fabulous words to match our sounds… here are some examples…

Of course with Bonfire Night being on Thursday of this week we concentrated ourselves with learning about Guy Fawkes. We ‘talked around a picture’ of Guy Fawkes laying a trail of gunpowder underneath the Houses of Parliament. We got some super ideas, thoughts and language from the children including ‘ lurking, camouflaged and looming’ as they described how the picture made them feel, what they could see, what did they think was happening, who did they think it was.

Our activities continued to be based around the same theme with a Discovery lesson discussing a candle. What is it? Where might  you find one? What shape is it? What does it smell like? What does it feel like? What colour is it?  Taking an everyday object or an obscure object and talking about it is a great way to gauge your child’s understanding of the world around them,  which you may be taking for granted that they understand already,  as well as ensuring links are being made, and enabling the children to be exposed to a variety of language they may or may not have used before.  Try it at home – the conversations turn out to be rich with language, and enable any misunderstandings to be ironed out in a safe environment as you are simply discussing an object. Some of the language we gathered from the children included – ‘ We’ve got a candle at home on the table and it’s a rich crimson colour not boring like your white one!’ Fabulous – how often in a day would a child think or need to use such evocative describing words? These little activities turn the children, hopefully by the end of the year, if not during their Year 1 year into creative writers using a wide and rich language.

We played matching games with onomatopoeia firework sound words. Good reading practice and turn taking as well as fun making the sounds!

On Wednesday, instead of afternoon snack and play we visited the Merriman Garden at school. We lit a campfire and enjoyed toasting marshmallows for our snack. ( Those children unable to have gelatine enjoyed some tasty biscuits instead.) I will post the photos next week as they haven’t downloaded from the class ipad successfully at my time of writing this.

The children were able to tell me exactly what I  needed to do to build a fire – the children who have been to a Forest School nursery setting were particularly vocal – talking about pyramids of sticks / paper screwed into balls beneath the pyramid and to stand back from the flames! Lots of health and safety rules covered here!

We had a small world play ‘bonfire making station’ in the classroom this week too… it was received with mixed reviews as ‘ it’s not even real Mrs Bibby!!!’

Our role play area is currently a campfire/ camping area – the children are enjoying putting up tents – gathering around the campfire and telling stories – I’ve enjoyed hearing about lots of your recent family camping adventures!

Various firework pictures were created while we listened and recognised sounds from a firework night. We ended our session listening to Handel’s Music for The Royal Fireworks.

We used 2D shapes to create some firework pictures – this was helpful to teach names/ revise properties of shape.

Following on we sorted shapes too.

Our RE lessons are following a topic: God’s Wonderful World. This week we examined the word ‘ beginning’ and discussed its implications. We read and then watched an animated version of The Creation Story. The children are certainly interested and engaged when we have our quiet prayer time and light our candle. Our ‘ beginning of our world’ discussion enabled a full range of ideas and views to be discussed. The children listen well and understand that there are differences in each others understanding and beliefs. RE is such a key topic to enable the children to celebrate each other’s cultures and learn about the world.

We are getting ready for Remembrance Day in Reception and have learnt about the significance of the poppy and why we wear them at this time of year. Our class need lots of fine motor skills practice so we are sewing a class poppy and have used card to make a poppy display. The children had to rip the card and then stick to make their poppy. They found both of these activities really hard, They persevered but it highlighted how much work we need to do on our fine motor skills to enable their letter formation and then writing to be easy and enjoyable.

These are just some of the weeks activities and highlights. It’s great to be back – we’ve missed the children very much.

Stay well and we can’t wait to continue our learning next week!