The Christmas Story
Christingle
The children enjoyed making Christingles last week, we talked about the different parts to the Christingle and what they all mean.
Help at home: ask your child if they can tell you about the Christingle?
This week our focus book is The Christmas Story.
Our word of the week is Nativity.
We’re so excited to be sharing our nativity story with our grown ups this week, we’ve polished off our star costumes and are definitely ready to shine in our performances on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Phonics
This week in our phonics we will be focusing on our tricky words, please look out for a set in your child’s book bags to learn over the Christmas break.
Send your photos to: stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Have a happy and healthy week and thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman and Mr. Smith.
Owl Babies
This week our focus book has been Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.
We’ve really enjoyed the story reciting the repeating line ‘I want my mummy!’ Our word of the week has been swoop and we’ve enjoyed using it during the week.
“The owl swoops to catch a mouse.”
“I can swoop when I put my arms out.”
We’ve also continued exploring nocturnal animals this week.
Help at home: Ask your child if they can explain what a nocturnal animal is and if they can name any.
Phonics
Autumn 2 week has focused on words with s /s/ added at the end (hats, sits), words ending s /z/ (his) and with s /z/ added at the end (bags)
We’ve learnt the tricky words; we, me, be
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Wise Old Owl.
A wise old owl sat in an oak,
The more he heard, the less he spoke.
The less he spoke, the more he heard.
Why aren’t we all like that wise old bird?
Maths; counting, ordinality and cardinality
In Maths, we’ve revisited careful counting. Making sure we say our numbers in the correct sequence (ordinality) and stopping ‘at the stopping number’ (cardinality).
Help at home: The Journey of a letter
Next week, we’ll be reading The Jolly Christmas Postman and learning about the journey of a letter when it has been posted.
To help with our discussions, we’d love to share some photos of your child at their local post box.
Send your photos to: stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
We are also asking you to send in one stamp for your child, to support our learning next week.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman and Mr. Smith.
National Santa Dash
On Friday, all children took part in the National Santa Dash. This event was all about having some fun whilst being active.
We’ve decided to extend this event: we’ll be holding an Easter and Summer Dash, too! Our goal is to allow pupils to set some targets and improve on their personal bests through the year.
Here are some photos – enjoy!
How to Catch a Star
This week our focus book has been How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers.
The children have really enjoyed thinking of different ways to catch their own star.
“I would use a lasso to catch a star.” Joey
“I would eat 9 peeled apples and collect the seeds and plant them to grow a tree. I would climb the tree to the top and get a star.” Carson
“I would use a really big ladder and climb to the top.” Ella
Our word of the week has been reflection and we looked closely at shiny and dull objects. We also looked at the artist Claude Monet who created lots of artwork looking at the Houses of Parliament.
Phonics
This week, we focused on the new digraphs sh, th, ng and nk.
We’ve also learnt the tricky words; she, he, of, go, no
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’.
Please continue to revisit this week’s sounds, by using the learn at home sheets. Thank you.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Shoes.
Before I jump into my bed,
Before I dim the light,
I put my shoes together,
So they can talk all night.
I’m sure they would be lonesome,
If I tossed one here or there,
So I put my shoes together,
For they are a friendly pair.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and please don’t forget to email any pictures from home to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman and Mr. Smith.
Maths Stay and Learn
For those parents who could not attend the Maths Stay and Learn last week or if you would like to access the teacher presentation, please click the link below:
Parent copy SE Maths Mastery presentation stay and learn 2024
World Nursery Rhyme Week
This week has been World Nursery Rhyme week. We have had a great week celebrating our favourite Nursery Rhymes and have focused on a range of different nursery rhymes and we have been singing them (even more!) at carpet times.
Help at home: Sing your favourite Nursery Rhyme and send a video of you singing it for us to share in class.
Odd Socks
I know how to STOP bullying is our school living and learning statement this week. On Tuesday, we wore odd socks to signify our differences and share the message that we are all different in some way. We discussed how important it is to celebrate our differences and respect everyone.
We read the story Odd Dog Out by Rob Biddulph and talked about how great it is to all be different.
“I am different because I have one white sock and one black sock!”
“I am different because I have a big sister and no brothers.”
“I am different because I have blue eyes.”
Stay and Learn; Maths 1
On Wednesday, we had a wonderful afternoon exploring maths with our adults.
Thank you to all of the parents and carers that were able to join us in the classroom to watch a short lesson, take part in some activities and listen to a teacher presentation.
Phonics
This week, we focused on the new GPCs (Grapheme-phoneme correspondence) v, w, x, y.
We’ve also learnt the tricky words; and, has, his, her
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’.
Please continue to revisit this week’s sounds, by using the learn at home sheets. Thank you.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called A Basket of Apples.
I’ve got a basket of apples, picked from a tree.
Apples rosy red for you, and shiny green for me.
Some of them are big, and some of them are small.
Some of them are oval, and some shaped like a ball.
Some of them are sour, and some of them are sweet.
Lots of lovely apples for you and I to eat.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and please don’t forget to email any pictures from home to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman and Mr. Smith.
Binny’s Diwali
Welcome to Autumn 2, this half term our theme is Light and Dark and our first focus book was Binny’s Diwali.
Our word of the week was Festival and we looked closely at the Hindi festival of Diwali, we talked about the features of a festival- special clothes, special food, a happy celebration.
Phonics
This week, we focused on the new digraphs ff, ll, ss and the single letter phoneme j.
We’ve also learnt the tricky word; as
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’. In as, the ‘s’ is tricky because it makes the /z/ sound.
Help at home; World Nursery Rhyme Week
Next week, we’ll be celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week.
If your child would like to, we’d love to share a recording of them telling their favourite nursery rhyme in class. Please send your videos to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman and Mr. Smith.
Leaf Man
It has been another fun filled week in reception this week, our focus book has been Leaf Man by Elois Ehlert.
We’ve enjoyed exploring the season of Autumn. We went on an autumn walk to collect some leaves and found lots of different colours and shapes. We even went to see the hedgehog that tried to come into school.
Help at home: Go on an autumn hunt and see if you can spot signs of autumn like acorns, pine cones, squirrels conkers and more. Don’t forget to send in some pictures to add to our seasons display.
Poetry Picnic
This week our poem was Five Little Pumpkins.
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, ‘Oo, it’s getting late.’
The second one said, ‘There are witches in the air.’
The third one said, ‘Well I don’t care.’
The fourth one said, ‘Let’s run, run, run.’
The fifth one said, ‘Let’s have some fun.’
But oooh went the wind, and out went the light,
And five little pumpkins tumbled out of sight.
Phonics
This week, we have learnt the phonemes (the sounds a letter makes) h, f, b and l. We’ve also learnt a new tricky word; the.
Help at home: Look out for a ‘learn at home’ sheet which recaps the phonics learning from the week. Please look at this with your child and complete the activities.
Maths
In Maths, some of our teddies have been arguing over who has more things. we have used the stem sentence
“… has more than..”
“…has fewer than…”
The activities this week have focused on developing the skill of comparing as children have been encouraged to look carefully and use the language of comparison to describe sets of objects.
‘Fewer than’ is used rather than ‘less than’ because the focus is on countable things.
Next week our focus book is Potion Commotion by Peter Bentley and Sernur Isik.
Help at home – bottles.
Please can we ask for some donations of bottles to help with a potion themed challenge next week. Thank you for your support.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and please don’t forget to email any pictures from home to stjames@spherefederation.org thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman and Mr. Smith.
Stay and Learn; Phonics Phase 2 10.10.24
A big thank you to parents and carers who joined us on Wednesday for our Phonics Phase 2 Stay and Learn session. We hope you enjoyed watching a lesson in action, taking part in some activities with your child and that the teacher presentation was informative.
Here’s some more information about phonics and reading in Reception…
What do reading groups look like in class?
Children read with an adult at the same time each morning. They look at the same book throughout the week, in groups of 6 or less. We usually read 4 times a week (Mon-Thurs). The current week’s eBook is usually issued by Friday evening.
Day 1/2- Decoding– children are introduced to new vocabulary, key decodable words (words that can be segmented and blended) and read through the book together. The aim is to work towards automaticity (reading the words on sight/memory recognition), which in turn makes reading more fluent.
Day 3- Prosody– prosody is the patterns of stress, intonation and rhythm in speech (i.e. sounding like a story-teller!) this is modelled to the children and they are taught to spot features in the text that will affect the way we read the words (for example; how is the character feeling? is there an exclamation/question mark or other grammatical features? and briefly pausing when we see a full stop)
Day 4- Comprehension– the children will be asked a range of questions to check their understanding of what they have read. These can usually be found on the last page of the eBook, if you’d like to use them at home as talking points.
Reading reports and Keeping in Touch
Teachers will check reading reports each week and will make ‘keeping in touch’ phone calls to those who have not read within the week, to see if we can offer any further support. You can also ask your class teacher at any time, if you are having issues accessing reading at home.
Reading records
Please remember to send your child’s reading records to school each Thursday. Please add a short comment about how your child has been getting on with their reading at home. Remember, this can also be about other reading as well as eBooks.
Feedback
Finally, another thank you to those of you who attended the Stay and Learn. We would love your feedback!
Thank you
Henri’s Scissors
It has been another fun filled week in reception this week, our focus book has been Henri’s Scissors by Jeanette Winter a biography about the artist Henri Matisse.
We have been artist and created our own piece of artwork in the style of Henri Matisse. We used our cutting skills to cut up shapes to add to our pictures just like Henri did.
Poetry Picnic
This week our poem was Leaves are Falling.
Leaves are falling, leaves are falling,
One fell on my nose.
Leaves are falling, leaves are falling,
One fell on my toes.
Leaves are falling, leaves are falling,
One fell on my head.
Leaves are falling, leaves are falling,
Yellow, Orange, Red.
Phonics
This week, we have learnt the phonemes (the sounds a letter makes) ck, e,u and r. We’ve also learnt a new tricky word; I.
Help at home: Look out for a ‘learn at home’ sheet which recaps the phonics learning from the week. Please look at this with your child and complete the activities.
Maths
In Maths, we’ve been using our subitising skills to identify patterns to 4. We even tried to listen to how many sounds we could hear – without counting. We have investigated different ways of making 4, using multilink cubes. This was lots of fun and definitely bit of a challenge.
Next week our focus book is Leaf Man by Elois Ehlert.
Help at home – autumn leaves and conkers.
If you go on a walk this weekend, we’d really appreciate donations of dry leaves to help us with an art project next week. We also need some conkers to use in our maths learning – see how many you can find! Thank you for your support.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and please don’t forget to email any pictures from home to stjames@spherefederation.org thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman and Mr. Smith.