This week, we have learnt about another ELLI animal. We have been learning about the curious cat. Curious cats like to find things out, to get to the bottom of things and find out what is really going on. They like to ask questions, especially “why?”. The children were introduced to the topic using the story ‘Nothing’ by Mike Inkpen. Throughout the story the children were being asked questions about what they thought the toy was going to turn into. They used photographs of cats to look carefully at different features and paint a picture of a cat.
We are really enjoying seeing the All About Me boxes being filled by a different child each night. The children have been asking lots of questions to find out more about that child. Mostly “Where did you get that toy from?” because they like the look of it!
For the past few weeks, during our PE sessions, the children have been using the apparatus to move like animals. They have been balancing like flamingos, climbing like monkeys and slithering like snakes. It has been amazing to see their confidence grow when moving in different ways developing throughout the series of sessions. In PSHE, we have been focusing on labeling feelings and finding out what the children aspire to be when they grow up.
During phonics, we have learnt the phonemes o, c, k and the digraph (two letters that make one sound) ck. The children have taken part in another guided reading session with their teacher and have been focusing on blending and using their finger to track the words in the books. You will have noticed that each child has been given a reading book, reading record and a letter to explain how parents and carers can help at home. It is really important that the children read the book they have been given each night, even though it’s the same book. Reading the same book will help them do develop reading fluency. The books are all phonetically decodable, meaning the words in the books can be blended. Most children have a book that includes only the taught phonemes (s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g).
Last week in our maths sessions, we looked at using the language ‘one more’. This week we have focused on using ‘one less’. The children have been brilliant at this and have noticed patterns in their learning, one more is a bigger number each time and one less is a smaller number. The children have played games such as musical chairs and acted out familiar nursery rhymes such as ‘Five Little Ducks went swimming one day’. It has been amazing to see them using these games and rhymes to develop their knowledge of one less by playing them independently inside and outside of the classrooms. We have introduced the part-part whole model to the children. They have been using it to partition numbers up to 5. Children used multilink cubes to do it practically, before recording it.
Next week is the final week of your child’s first term in school! Our last day in school is Friday 25th October and children are able to come to school in their own clothes (non-school uniform day). Monday 4th November is an INSET DAY so we will be seeing the children again on Tuesday 5th November.