Kung Hei Fat Choi – Happy New Year. This week are celebrating the Lunar/Chinese New Year. The children are learning all about the festival and comparing it to the other festivals we have learned about so far this academic year. They are learning about, how people celebrate the festival and are partaking in a variety of activities. We will be tasting some Chinese food, listening to music, hearing stories and acting out the story of how the animals raced. The children will also make some decorations and try to use chopsticks. See if your child can tell you about Lunar/chinese new year.
The children are working hard with their phonics each day and are now trying to use their knowledge of the sounds to write simple sentences. Continue to work on the reading activities sent home and if your child has log in details then please log in each day and do the quiz and reading book set. Remember if you click on Fred the frog you can find all past books set and can read the book again. This is essential for reading fluency – those children reading every night make the most progress. Can we also remind you that reading books and diaries should be returned on a Wednesday so that next weeks book can be sorted. We have added some links below to some of the on line videos that provide extra practise for your child.
https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/FF8tpaSM/PXCioLS1
https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/hufdsFUw/VLZneYoV
In Maths this week we are moving on to 6, 7, 8. We are looking at how these numbers are made up and the different ways each of these numbers can be made. We would like the children to have a deeper understanding of the make up of each number so they don’t have to rely on counting. The children are confidently working with numbers to 5 and can tell you the different ways to make the numbers to 5. Ask your child to show you 5 on their fingers, then ask them to show you another way. Repeat this for the other numbers to 5. We will be doing the same with 6, 7, and 8 so the children know what makes up each amount and the different ways these numbers can be made up. This could be 3 and 3 or 2, 2 and 2, or 5 and 1 etc. See if your child can tell you different ways to make each number. If they find this difficult, use practical aids such as cars, bricks or pieces of pasta and get them to do it physically.
The weather has been very cold so far this week. Please ensure your child brings a hat and gloves to school each day and a warm waterproof coat. Please NAME all items as they easily get lost. If you would like to provide a pair of wellington boots for your child for wet weather then please send these in with their names clearly visible.
Please can we remind you that children should not be bringing in toys from home. I’m sure you can imagine how distracting this can be and children can get very upset if another child takes it or it gets lost or broken. The children have plenty to play with in the setting so do not need their own distracting resources. Please also bare this in mind with things like hair accessories as children tend to mess with these when they should be focusing on learning. Try to make sure hair bands/ bows/ headbands are appropriate for school and offer as little distraction as possible. Keep the pretty decorative items for home where they can be kept safe. Can we also remind you that children should not be wearing jewellery to school. If wearing earrings these should be plain small studs.
We have had a number of parents come to us about missing items of uniform. Please check that all of your children’s uniform is clearly named. If written on in pen, this will most likely have washed off by now and it makes it very difficult to return items to the correct owner. If you find your child has accidently taken someone else’s item of uniform home then please return it to school.
Have a lovely week
The Reception Team