Spring 2 Week 2 3.3.23
Hello!
This week we have introduced the story Jasper’s Beanstalk in our new Talk 4 Writing unit. The children have been reading and enjoying the story, they have come up with actions to help them to retell the story and we have created story maps to show our understanding of the story and to help us retell it. Next week they will be writing the story into their very own story books!
The chicks have been living in their cage and have been entertaining us all with their antics! They like to cheep quite loudly too! Earlier this week the children had a chance to hold a chick. They have also been making observational drawings of the chicks along with lots of other chick-based creative work. We said goodbye to the chicks today as they head back to the farm.
On Thursday it was World Book Day. The children looked absolutely fabulous in all their wonderful outfits. It was lovely to talk about all of our favourite books and characters and we had extra slots through the day to enjoy stories together. Thank you for your support in providing character outfits for your children.
In maths we have been comparing numbers within 10, using the language more and fewer. We have also been making 10 in a variety of different ways. We have also been practising ordering numbers, taking amounts away and counting on. You could pose some number problems for your child at home using things around the house. For instance: ‘There are 5 of us in the kitchen, what if 2 people go upstairs. How many will there be left in the kitchen?’ Or ‘I have 4 potatoes on my plate but I’m going to put 3 more on. How many do I have now?’ You can use fingers to help, objects to take away or add on such as buttons or Lego pieces, a number line to 10, draw circles to represent the amount and cross some out or draw some more on.
Next week in maths the children will be learning about 3D shapes and will be exploring their properties using the language faces, edges, vertices, curved and flat. They will be doing some problem solving tasks, grouping the shapes, printing with the shapes to explore the different faces and then they will continue the week with some work about pattern.
This week we have been reading the book The Runaway Pea. We have been enjoying the story, joining in with parts of the story and gathering ambitious vocabulary: trembled, whimpered, tumbled, collapsed, amazingly high and in a flash.
Inspired by this story and our Talk 4 Writing story Jasper’s Beanstalk, we have done some planting in class and there are a number of peas and beans planted and ready to be cared for. We hope to see them flourish over the coming weeks and months.
Next week we will be reading Jungle Jamboree and again enjoying and getting to know the story really well and finding super vocab in the story.
The idea of reading a book per week in this way is that the children become familiar with the story, feel confident to pick the book up from a shelf and are able to retell the story. By extracting ambitious vocabulary and explicitly discussing the meaning of words and how we can use them, the children are adding new words to their own vocabulary that they can use within the story but also in other contexts.
Thank you for giving your time to attend parents’ evening this week. It is always lovely to see you and talk with you about your child’s progress. We are so proud of the children and the progress they have made so far this year. Thank you for your continued support in listening to your child read, helping them with formation and writing and other activities you do to supplement and support what we are teaching in school. We really do appreciate it.
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
The Reception team
