Making the most of bright autumn days.

With only three weeks to go until half term it is amazing to see how well these children have settled into school life which is so very different to nursery. They are all making new friends and the party invites have started! They are becoming part of the whole school community and of course starting their more formal learning, whilst still having opportunities for child initiated play.

We have now learnt twelve of the twenty-six individual sounds and practise blending the phonemes to read every day. Already many children have learnt some ‘sight vocabulary’ through our reading and writing activities and everyone is working hard to write their letters and numbers correctly. Hopefully you are all starting to settle to working with your child at home to support them in their learning and helping to build the firm foundation upon which they will rapidly develop.

The children have learnt about the ‘Primary’ and ‘Secondary’ colours and have experimented with colour mixing using Playdoh and paint.

Our ‘Looking for signs of Autumn’ walk gave the children the opportunity to practise their digital camera skills and we filled in our RSPB Wildsquare survey sheet to show what we had found.

In literacy lessons throughout the week we read several versions of ‘The little Red Hen’ comparing the characters, illustrations and language used. I think everyone liked Pie Corbett retelling the story to a class of children. They joined in well and found him very amusing. Bread making which was the centre of the story was a great practical experience for everyone.

Our apparatus work has progressed to include rolls, jumps and travelling both on the floor and apparatus and this week we tried out moving with ribbons, with very few tangles, amazing! Our lessons using the parachute are helping to develop listening skills, self-control and they are of course great fun. Everyone loved sitting inside the parachute as we practised our counting.

We’re off to Wimpole next Tuesday; please read the letter carefully so that your child has everything that they will need. Fingers crossed for good weather!

Information evening for reception parents is coming up on Monday 14th October. A chance for the whole parent group to meet and see in more detail what has been happening in class and what the expectation for future learning will look like. It is an opportunity to share as a group, to ask general questions that have arisen and clarify anything that is unclear. The following week on the afternoon and evening of the 23rd and 24th October parents are invited in for parent consultations to discuss children’s individual progress. Letters will be coming out soon.