Welcome back! We hope you had a fantastic rest over the Christmas holidays.

Noticeboard

• School will reopen for pupils on Wednesday 5th January, 2022 for Term 3.
• This term, we will continue to invite parents to contribute to their child’s learning diary. Each week, we will request an observation. Please read the weekly learning to find out which area of learning we would like you to contribute to. Click here to see the Parents Guide from Evidence Me. 
• When using the Bug Club books, please remember to click the ‘X’ to close the book when your child has read it, otherwise teachers cannot see that it has been read.
• Please remember to read the phonetically decodable reading book with your child everyday. Reading the same book daily for several days helps to develop fluency and embed phonic knowledge and skills. Please write a positive comment about your child’s reading in their log book everyday. You can click here to access the blog post about reading at Henleaze Infant School and click here to view some of the FAQ’s. Please remember to return your child’s books every Monday as they will swap them for new ones on Mondays.

Celebrations from Term 2, Week 7

In Term 2, Week 7, the children loved getting into the Christmas spirit and enjoyed their Christmas parties. They all ate party food and played classic party games. Father Christmas visited each of our classrooms and delivered a special present for the class. We also joined the rest of the school on the playground for some festive carols and a Christmas celebration.

In Week 7, the children were introduced to the part-whole model in Maths. You can see some photos below of the practical work we have been doing to introduce the model.  You can click here to go to the BBC Bitesize website where part-whole models are explained. To find out more about the representations used in Reception Maths, please click here to view our schools Calculation Policy. 

Learning diary contribution – Evidence Me

Talk to your child about what their dreams and goals are for Term 3 and ask them what they would like to get better at. This could include perfecting their letter formation, counting to 30, scoring goals or sharing their favourite toy more. Ask your child to draw a picture of themselves achieving this goal. In the comment of the observation, please write what their goal is and how they will feel when they have achieved it.

Click here to see the Parents Guide from Evidence Me.

Learning in Week 1

If you are self-isolating, please click here to view this weeks planning.

This term, our topic will be ‘Where I Live’. This week, the children will be introduced to this new topic. Click here to view our Reception topic maps (Term 3 is also called Spring 1). They will be learning about how to play in their new role play areas, which are community themed. The children in each class voted to decide what they wanted their role play area to be.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Our Jigsaw theme for Term 3 is “Dreams and Goals”. This week, we are remembering the ELLI Tortoise and that persevering helps us to tackle challenges. We will be reading the story “Mae among the Stars” which is inspired by the life of the first African American woman to travel in space, Mae Jemison. PSED Learning diary contribution: Talk to your child about what their dreams and goals are for Term 3 and ask them what they would like to get better at. This could include perfecting their letter formation, counting to 30, scoring goals or sharing their favourite toy more. Ask your child to draw a picture of themselves achieving this goal. In the comment of the observation, please write what their goal is and how they will feel when they have achieved it.

Communication and Language

This week, we will be introducing the children to the story ‘Bear at Home’ by Stella Blackstone. We will be discussing the story and any unfamiliar language with the children. As each class learns about their new role play area, they will learn and use new language associated with it.

Word of the week: community

Physical Development

We will be exploring a balancing stance and also walking in different ways along a line. In Write Dance we will be moving our arms like train wheels as we explore whole body movements to music.

Literacy

This week we will be learning the new digraphs oo, ar, or. We will also be learning the new Common Exception Words ‘are’ and ‘my’.

Please support your child at home to practise the letter formation of s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, e, u, r, h, b, f, l  j, v, w, x,y ,z, q.

This week we will continue to read with your child either 1:1 or in a small guided reading session. Please continue to read with your child every day to improve their fluency with a text. Ask your child questions about the characters, what they think might happen next and discuss/ explain what they think is happening in the pictures. 

Writing – This week we will be writing a list of rooms we might find in our houses. 

Maths

This week, the children will be introduced to Zero. The children already have some practical understanding of ‘nothing there’ or ‘all gone’. This week, they will learn that the number name zero and the numeral 0 can be used to represent this idea. The children will be given opportunities to apply this understanding within the classroom and sing number songs which count back to help to develop the understanding that 0 is one less than one.

Understanding the World

We will be talking about and describing people who are important to us. We will be looking at Maps that are relevant to us and learning about simple ways to use them.

Religion and Worldviews

This term, we begin a new Unit “Why are some times special?”. We will be sharing special times and things we have done in the holidays, and thinking about things we celebrate.

Expressive Arts and Design

This week we will be doing some observational drawings of teddy bears. We will talk about the different features of the teddy bears and use pencil to draw them. We will then use oil pastels to add colour.