Meet the Teacher 14th September 2023

Please find below, the link for the copy of the slides from Meet the Teacher. Thank you to those who were able to attend, if you were unable to, please take a moment to have a look at the information. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to speak to Mrs Gregory or Mrs Clements at pick up. 

Week beginning 22nd March 2024

This week we learnt about staying safe at the seaside with Barnaby Bear. We talked about the people who keep us safe and compared Poole to Ashtead. 

In Talk for writing this week we have learnt about bumblebees and also made up a new song to help us remember the nouns we needed to label the parts of the bumblebee, It follows the same tune as heads, shoulders, knees and toes but starts Head, Thorax, Abdomen.

Next week:

Phonics - CCVCC (stamp, crisp) and CCCVC (string, scrunch)

Talk 4 Writing - writing spine poems using adjectives

Maths - subitising skills for numbers 6-10 using ten frames and Hungarian die patterns.

We're looking forward to another busy week next week and hopefully some warmer weather so we can really enjoy the outside area again. It has been wonderful watching the various puppet shows and observing the tadpoles as they grow and change.

We have lots of lovely resources at school that the children love to play with and have introduced a number of new fiddle toys. From time to time children like to pop them in their pocket and take them home. We really appreciate it when you bring them back, thank you.

Have a lovely weekend.

x

Week Beginning 15th April 

The children came back to school with a spring in their step and great excitement to share with us their holiday activities. 

This week in Maths we have been exploring ways of sorting objects, remembering to look for things that are the same and different. We have sorted by colour, type, size. We used numberblocks to introduce odd and even numbers, before making our own using multilink cubes and sorting those by odd and even. We learnt that the numberblocks had 2 columns and that the 'flat tops' were even and those without 'flat tops' were odd. Maybe you could have a go at creating your own odd and even numbers at home. 

We introduced our topic for this half term 'fun at the seaside', sharing our own experiences of going to the seaside. We have been immersed in seaside themed activities including a shop outside, a puppet show and using kinetic sand to create our own sandcastles.

Next week:

Phonics- We will be continuing to learn to read CVCC words and the tricky words some, come, love, do. 

Literacy- We will label the parts of a bumblebee linked to our model text 'The Sleepy Bumblebee' and then generate adjectives to describe some of the parts. 

Maths- We will be focusing on counting things that cannot be seen, such as sounds, actions and periods of time. We will also be representing collections of larger amounts, working with numbers beyond 20. 

Topic- We will be learning about similarities and differences between Ashtead and the seaside town of Poole. 

Have a great weekend. 

Week Beginning 25th March 2024

The final week of our 'Amazing Animals' topic and what a way to finish. We watched as the ducklings grew and their feathers were beginning to change. They had their first experience of swimming and they took to it...well...like a duck to water! We thought it was very funny to watch as they splashed around and they were very tired at the end. We said goodbye to the ducklings on Thursday lunchtime when they went back to the farm to join all their cousins for Easter. We also enjoyed learning about the 'secret life of a hedgehog' when Graham brought in 2 hedgehogs for us to meet (Henry and Holly). They were very cute although not very cuddly but now we all want to have a pet hedgehog! The children were all looking forward to performing their dances that they've been working on all half term with Mr Rae to you on Tuesday and we hope you all enjoyed it. We're always amazed at how quickly they pick up the steps and how confident some of them are when performing to an audience. 

Next half term we will begin our topic 'At the seaside'. Maybe you will be bale to enjoy a trip to the seaside over the holidays to find out what it is like. Remember Monday 15th April is an INSET for teaching staff. We look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday 16th April at 8.30am.

Happy Easter! xxx

Week Beginning 18th March

Reception children have had a very egg-citing week at school. The hook of our Literacy unit for the rest of term meant that 5 eggs arrived with an incubator and cage! This caused great interest and the children had so many ideas of what might hatch out of them. Some ideas included: turtles, dinosaurs, bees and chicks. We found out what the incubator does and carried on waiting patiently to find out what would hatch. Wednesday morning came and the children were keen to come and check if anything had happened over night. Our first duckling had hatched and was resting after using so much energy to hatch.  We now have 3 ducklings and the children are looking forward to watching them swim for the first time and helping to look after them over the coming week. 

Our literacy non-fiction model text is 'Ducklings', with a focus on informing. The ducklings visiting will be a great help when it comes to writing our own information text about them. 

Next week:

Phonics- We will be revisiting some of the learning from this half term to ensure that we are secure in accurately reading longer words, those ending in 'es' and those with 's' that makes the 'z' sound. 

Literacy- We will be constructing the story map to accompany our 'Ducklings' model text and then use it to write our facts about ducklings. 

Maths- We will be exploring the patterns within number, developing an understanding of doubles. To help us with this we will be creating 2 sets with exactly the same number of items. 

Topic- We will be learning about woodland creatures next week. There will be a very special woodland visitor coming to visit Reception children, here are some clues: I hibernate, I am nocturnal and I roll up when I feel threatened. 

Dance performance- don't forget next Tuesday at 2pm (weather permitting-alternative arrangements will be made if needed) the children will be performing their dance they have been working on every week with Mr Rae. We look forward to seeing you there. 

Thank you to all of our parents who attended parent consultations this week, it was a pleasure to share your children's progress. Have a lovely weekend.  

Week Beginning 11th March

Pet Week has been lots of fun. We have talked about the pets we have and how to look after them. Thank you to those parents who signed up to bring their pets in as well, we all enjoyed learning about how to look after Rabbits, Tortoises, Guinea Pigs, dogs and horses. Our tadpoles are also doing well in the outside area. Mrs Bojilla added some pond weed for them to nibble on and they are getting bigger and stronger. We will continue to observe them and hopefully see them change from tadpoles to froglets. 

Next week:

Topic - farmyard animals

Maths - composing and decomposing numbers through investigating part, part, whole relations e.g that 7 can be composed of 5 and 2.

Literacy - We start our non-fiction topic with the introduction of some eggs to our investigation area in Squirrels class - what will they hatch out as?

Phonics - 's' /z/ as in visit or chains, 's' as in cheeps or surfs and 'es' /iz/ as in fizzes or boxes. 

We look forward to discussing the progress your child is making at the consultation evenings on Tuesday and Thursday next week.

Enjoy your weekend!

x

Week Beginning 4th March

Wow! What an exciting week we have had in Reception this week. The highlight has to have been World Book Day where everyone came in either as a book character or all cosy in their pyjamas with their favourite bedtime story. The children were so excited to share with their class their costume and even had a visit from some of the other teachers in the school for story time. 

Friday saw our girls showing resilience and develop a new found interest in football for #letgirlsplay as part of International Womens day. It was wonderful to hear how much they loved having the opportunity and so many are now keen to play football at lunchtimes. A big thank you to Coach Jack for coming in an running the session for us. 

Next week:

Literacy- We will be continuing our 'Little green dinosaur' story, and using our innovated version from this week to write a simple version of our innovated story. 

Phonics- We will be continuing to develop our blending skills for longer words that contain more than 1 digraph! 

Maths- We will be comparing sets again and use our understanding of 6,7,8 to help us make comparisons between different representations. We will be using the language of 'more than', 'less than' and 'equal' to when comparing. 

Topic- We are very excited for Pet Week next week, with lots of different animal visitors. We will be finding out how they are cared for and a bit about their diets. By the end of the week we will be able to name some animals that are herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. 

Have a lovely weekend. 

Week Beginning 26th February 2024

The children have enjoyed learning about Rainforest animals and exploring the sounds you might hear in the rainforest. They have explored different percussion instruments, including the agogo and kokiriko to replicate the sounds of the Rainforest and the animals who live there. We  discovered where the rainforests are in the world and that they are in parts that are hot and rainy.

Next week - 

Phonics - Words with 2 or more digraphs

English - We will learn the story of The Little Green Dinosaur and deepen our understanding through drama and role play to build a story map. We will then innovate our story by changing the characters.

Maths - count out a set of objects from a larger set remembering the 'stopping number'. We will also explore the repeating pattern of the counting numbers and their word names.

Topic - We will be going on safari to find out about animals who live in the African savannah. Our bean plants are growing strong and beginning to take over the classrooms in Hedgehogs and Squirrels so we will aim to plant them out next week in the outside area (weather permitting)

Pet Week - Remember to sign up if you would like to bring your pet in for Pet Week (wb 11th March). There are still slots to fill. So far we have guinea pigs and a horse coming to visit. Mrs Gregory may bring her elderly dachshund, Isla and I'm sure Mrs Gibbard will bring Coco in too at some point.

Dance will be on Monday instead of Tuesday next week.

World Book day on Thursday - come dressed as your favourite book character or simply ready for your bedtime story in your pyjamas and slippers.

Have a great weekend!

x

Week Beginning 19th February 

We started this week with great excitement when a dinosaur appeared on the school field on Monday afternoon! This launched our next Talk for Writing model text, 'The Little Green Dinosaur'. We have been learning the key vocabulary in the story to help our understanding of nouns, adjectives and verbs! 

Another highlight of our week was our very first dance lesson with Mr Rae! The children absolutely loved following the routines for the songs and showed excellent resilience whilst trying to keep up with some quick moves! 

Next week:

Phonics- We will be continuing our Phase 3 phonics, we've now learnt all of the sounds so will be reviewing them and using them for our reading and writing. 

Literacy- We will be using adjectives to write spine poems about the T-Rex in our model text 'The Little Green Dinosaur' as well as exploring mixing green in the art area to create our own pictures of the little green dinosaur and moving like dinosaurs in the outside area. 

Maths- We will be exploring and comparing length and height. Some key words we will be using include: short, shorter, shortest, long, longer, longest, tall, taller and tallest. Whilst you are out and about at the weekend you might like to see what you can find is long or short, or tall or short. 

Topic- We will be exploring the rainforest and learning about some of the animals that live there. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week beginning 5th February 2024

Our final week of our topic 'On the Move', culminated in a visit from Mr Gregory, who brought in a Mk1 golf GTI (1983) and a Mk8 golf R (2023) for us to compare. the children were very excited and noticed lots of similarities such as they both have windows with windscreen wipers, lights and seats as well as differences such as the pattern in the middle of the wheel is different but they are both circles. The old white golf had 4 round lights but the new golf only had 2 lights. Mr Gregory explained that the lights on the new golf were much brighter. We all pretended we were at a car show and put our hands behind our backs to look around the cars. The old engine had lots of wires and pipes but we couldn't see them on the new golf, although he told us they were there, just hidden. The children enjoyed looking at themselves in the reflection on the black car and asked questions. We found out that Mr Gregory loves driving the old Golf the best because it's fun but drives the new golf most of the time because it's more comfy! We also asked about the cars that Mr Gregory works on which are very fast supercars and he told us how the F1 road car and the F1 racing car look quite different but can go the same speed. The F1 racing car is designed with big wings that help it to stick to the track and make it go round corners quicker - maybe he'll bring in one of those next time!

Next term will be learning about 'Amazing Animals'. If you have a pet you would like to bring in to talk to all of Reception about we will be celebrating 'Pet Week' nearer Easter so look out for that.

We will also be starting our block of dance lessons with Mr Rae every Tuesday building up to our performance to you all on Tuesday 26th March. Look out for timings.

Have a very happy Half Term and see you bright and breezy on Monday 15th February.

x

Week beginning 29th January

This week our Reception children have been hooked into our non-fiction focus in Literacy for the model text 'How to grow a bean plant'. We have been learning to instruct by planting our very own bean plants, thinking about you need and what you do. We have started to construct our map with actions to retell the model text. We'll share this with you once we have completed it. 

In Maths this week we have been exploring the composition of 5, getting to know the nursery rhyme '5 little speckled frogs' very well! We have used our fingers to count how many are up and how many are down to understand how 5 is made. We have used the stem sentence '5 is made from ..... and ......'. 

Next week:

Phonics- We will be revisiting some of the digraphs and trigraphs we taught this half term, to plug the gaps in our knowledge to help us successfully recognise them without the picture and saying. Our focus sounds will be ai, ar, or, ear and air. 

Literacy- We will be continuing our map for our 'how to grow a bean plant' instructions, boxing it up and then use our phonics to help write the 'what to do part'.  

Maths- We will be working on our understanding of 6 and 7, getting to know it as 5 and a bit. 

Topic- Our 'On the move' topic will be coming to an end, and we'll be finishing it with an exciting visit of old and new transport, where we will be looking for the similarities and differences between them. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week Beginning 22nd January 2024

At lunchtime on Thursday 25th January we celebrated Robert Burns birthday. We learned that he was a famous Scottish poet who lived a long time ago. Mrs Gregory treated everyone to a Burns Supper in the hall at lunchtime. We watched as children piped in the haggis and we all clapped along with the rhythm of the music. Mrs Gregory read 'Address to the haggis' which is a poem by Burns written in Scots dialect. We then raised a glass (of whisky) and said Slàinte (Mhath) and all danced the Gay Gordon. In Music this week we named some percussion instruments including the agogo bells, claves, cabasa and drum. We played pass the parcel and enjoyed joining in playing the instruments with a steady pulse.

Next week:

Phonics - longer words including some compound words where we will identify both root words and talk about how the meanings might change when they are combined eg lap/top and sun/set.

Maths - We will sing the song 5 little speckled frogs to investigate the composition of 5, investigating part-part-whole. Knowing that 5 can be partitioned in different ways but it still makes 5 eg 2 and 3 makes 5, 4 and 1 makes 5. Children will be able to find the hidden number through their knowledge of number bonds to 5.

Topic - We will be looking at old and new transport, finding similarities and differences. The children may like to talk about their experiences visiting museums eg Brooklands Museum.

We hope everyone who came to the disco on Friday had a great time and that you all have a lovely weekend.

x

Week Beginning 15th January 

This week has been a particularly cold one in Reception! But it hasn't stopped us having lots of fun with our learning. A big highlight this week was watching a video kindly recorded by Ottilie's uncle, who is a fire fighter. He taught us all about the features of a fire engine and pump engine. Thank you Ottilie's family for organising this for us. 

In Literacy we have learnt our model text 'Jack and the beanstalk', and created a story map and actions to help us retell it. Our favourite part is when Jack's mother is furious! The model text and story map are below for if you'd like to share the story with your family at home. 

Next week:

Phonics- We will be learning the final 2 phonemes in Phase 3 (er and air), learning to recognise them in words to help blend successfully. 

Literacy- We will be innovating our story, changing the main character. 

Maths- We will be comparing mass and capacity, using balance scales to compare objects, and different sized containers to compare capacity. We will learn to make sensible predictions and use the mathematical vocabulary of heavier, lighter, full, same and balance when comparing.  

Understanding the world- We will be continuing with our 'on the move' topic and find out about water transport, finding similarities and differences between air and water transport. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week Beginning 8th January

The first full week back and the children have been very busy learning 4 new digraphs, talking about different types of transport on land, sea and in the air and beginning our new Talk 4 Writing story, Jack and the beanstalk. Your child will be able to tell you what a noun is (a naming word). In PSED we learnt that if we persevere we can tackle challenges and everyone had fun trying to write their own name but with their eyes closed - a challenge indeed but lots of fun! Lots of children have already visited the workbench and are learning how to use a hammer and nails safely as well as a screwdriver and screws to join pieces of balsa wood.

Next week

Phonics - ur, ow, oi, ear

Maths - recognise and order numerals to 5 and notice the staircase pattern shows each number is one more.

Topic - Know that emergency services exist and find out what they do.

It looks like it will be cold again next week so please make sure all hats, scarves and gloves are named. The children had lots of fun exploring the ice in the outside area this week including building a campfire and making ice marshmallows to toast on the pretend flames.

Wrap up warm and have a lovely weekend.

X

Week Beginning 3rd January

Happy New Year to you all! It has been lovely welcoming the children back to school after the Christmas break and hearing about all about their celebrations. 

The children have returned to school with a spring in their step and have been keen to learn. 

In Phonics we have been learning new phonemes, including the trigraph 'igh'! 

In Literacy, something very bizarre happened over the Christmas holidays, we returned to school to discover very tall beanstalks growing in our classrooms! The children have been busy thinking about what it was, how it got there and what is at the top. There has been some wonderful writing about this, using their phonics to help. 

Next week:

Phonics- We will continue to learn more digraph sounds (oo, oo, ar, or) and reading and writing words with these sounds in. 

Literacy- We will learn the model text for 'Jack and the beanstalk', learning the meaning of the nouns and writing a spine poem about the giant. 

Maths- We will be focussing on subitising, learning to represent quantities in different ways and the symbolic representation of number. 

Understanding the world-  We will start our new topic 'On the move', sharing and learning knowledge about air transport. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week Beginning 4th December 2023

Almost the end of term and the school is looking very festive, particularly today when everyone wore their Christmas jumpers and enjoyed a Christmas lunch.

The Christmas fair on Sunday is sure to delight with many stalls for the children to win prizes and of course the bottle tombola. We look forward to seeing you then.

Next week:

Phonics - We are going to revise some of the digraphs we learnt recently, ch, sh, th, ng, nk.

Maths - We will be looking in more detail at how we can make 3, 4 and 5 in different ways and the numerals to match.

RE - We will learn about how Christians celebrate Christmas around the world and also learn how to say Happy Christmas in different languages.

Reminders:

Music and Mince pies - The children have been getting ready and look forward to singing our Christmas songs to you on Tuesday morning. Please could we ask that all children wear a Christmas jumper on Tuesday again, it looked so good when we practiced today! 

Christmas Party - On Thursday morning 

End of term - Friday is the last school day for children and we finish at 1.30pm. Hooray!

Have a good weekend. See you at the fair on Sunday 

x

Week Beginning 27th November 2023

This week has definitely been a very creative week. The children have all enjoyed getting into the festive spirit creating snowmen, Christmas trees, reindeer, stars and paper chains to decorate the classrooms. Thank you to all the parents who gave up their precious time to come and help the children.

Next week:

Phonics - we will revise all the sounds taught so far and assess the children's phonic recognition and blending skills.

Maths - The children will begin to explore the composition of number, focussing on the concept of 'wholes' and 'parts'.

UtW - We will find out about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah and the children will talk about any personal experiences of Hanukkah or compare to other religious celebrations we have learned about this year.

The children are busy learning their Christmas songs in readiness for performing them to you at our 'Music and Mince Pies' celebration at the end of term.

Enjoy your weekend.

x

Week Beginning 20th November 2023

This week we have been learning lots of facts about dinosaurs. The children have enjoyed measuring out just how long some of the later dinosaurs were with some being as long as our classroom and as high as a house!

Rosie's walk has really engaged the children in writing this week culminating today in each creating their own stories changing the setting. They have been inspired to write their own stories on the 's' plan format using pictures and then retelling them to us and their friends.

Next week:

Phonics - more digraphs next week! 'sh, th, ng, nk'

Maths - comparing the number of objects in 2 sets by matching 1:1. They will use the language of 'more than' and 'fewer than' and begin to see that the objects in some sets can be matched without any left over drawing attention to the concept of sets being equal.

UtW - How has the Earth changed since the dinosaurs roamed the Earth?

Boom Reader - Well done to Ava who won her choice of book today in the raffle. You logged 7 reads this week.

Please don't forget to log each time you read with your children on Boom Reader. Since half term there are 7 Hedgehogs and 8 Squirrels who haven't read at all! If you need any help setting up the app please just ask and we will do our best to help you. Remember for every read logged, your child receives 1 raffle ticket so the more reads logged the more raffle tickets and the more chance winning the prize of a book of their choice. As they say ... You've got to be in it to win it!! 

We're looking forward to Art/DT morning next Wednesday when we will be making lots of Christmas Crafts. Thank you to those who have signed up to help already.

Wrap up warm and have a lovely weekend.

x

Week Beginning 13th November 

It's been another busy week in Hedgehogs and Squirrels this week. In Literacy this week we have been using our adjective work from last week to create our own Spine poems about one of the settings in the story. We started by writing one as a class and then creating our own in our writing books. The children worked hard to listen carefully to the initial sounds in their chosen words. 

We had yet another mystery appear in Reception this week when a huge egg appeared in the sandpit. There were lots of ideas about what might have laid it and what might hatch out of it! Some of the children's ideas included unicorns or dinosaurs! Later in the week, some bones also appeared, so the children became fossil hunters just like Mary Anning who we had learnt about earlier in the week. 

Next week:

Phonics- We will begin to learn our first digraphs! 2 letters that make one sound! 

Literacy- We will be constructing a story map to help use retell the story Rosie's Walk

Maths- We will be learning to identify and name circle, triangles and 4 sided shapes. 

UtW- We will be finding out how to use non-fiction books to find out about dinosaurs. 

Request for Art and DT morning

We will be making sock snowmen, please could each child bring in 1 clean white sock and 1 clean coloured/patterned sock. You might want to buddy up with a friend, with one bringing in a pair of white socks and the other bringing the pair of coloured/ patterned socks. Thank you! 

Week Beginning 6th November 2023

It was lovely to meet you all this week to discuss your children's progress in their first term at school. For some of you it was your first Parents Evening, so Congratulations! We are all really pleased with how they have settled, made friends and are joining in with all the opportunities we offer.

We found out how families prepare for Diwali by decorating the house and making special foods and then celebrate with friends and family often enjoying amazing fireworks displays together. In the Malleable Area children choose to make Diwa lamps and in Fiddly Fingers they created their own Rangoli patterns using coloured rice. 

Through the story of 'Rosie's Walk', in Literacy we have been learning that Nouns are naming words and Adjectives describe the nouns.

Next week: 

Literacy - We will write a spine poem about the setting of 'Rosie's Walk' using the adjectives we generated this week.

Maths - Comparing length, mass and capacity.

Phonics - v, w, x, y

Topic - Dinosaurs! Who was Mary Anning?

Reminders:

Boom reader - Please remember to log each time your child reads on the Boom Reader app. Each time your child reads at home with you, log it on the Boom Reader app and they will receive one raffle ticket. At the end of the week all their raffle tickets are put into a box and a lucky winner receives a picture book of their choice. Congratulations to Neve who won the raffle this week! She also logged the most reads in Reception this week.

Odd Socks Day - wear your odd socks on Monday for Friendship Week.

Have a good weekend

X

Week Beginning 30th October

It was wonderful to see all of the children return to school after the half term break with huge smiles and ready to continue their learning in the second half of the autumn term. 

This week we have been learning about the signs of Autumn, and talking about our own experiences of it. We learnt that deciduous trees loose their leaves in the autumn and that animals such as hedgehogs start to build nests and eat lots of food ready for hibernation. 

The biggest highlight of our first week back was a very strange mystery on Wednesday afternoon with footprints and brown features appearing in both classes! The children enthusiastically became detectives to try and find out what made the footprints and why they had come into our classrooms. Some of the children's ideas included: an owl, a cheeky monster with a feathery tummy or a chicken. 

Next week:

Maths- We will be learning to describe, explore and continue repeating patterns. 

Phonics- We have finished our review weeks where we have been plugging the gaps and will begin to learn new graphemes and their phonemes again. We will learn the phonemes: ff, ll, ss and j. 

Literacy- We will be learning about the nouns in the story 'Rosie's walk' using our whole school Talk for Writing approach. We will also be learning what an adjective is and coming up with them to describe the different settings in the story. This will help us to write a spine poem the following week. 

Understanding the World- We will be learning about the Hindu celebration of Diwali and continuing our RE where we are finding out why we say 'thank you', as part of our enquiry of 'what is Christmas'. 

Reminders:

Christmas cards- designs have gone home in bookbags today. 

Group reading books- Please read these 3 times at home and record them on Boomreader and return them on a Monday so we can issue them to another group. Thank you. 

Phonics home learning folders- New sheets will go into book bags from next Friday as it has been another review this week. 

Have a lovely weekend, remember to stay safe if you are watching a firework display! 

Week Beginning 16th October 2023

What a way to complete the first half term at school. The children all sang their hearts out for our Harvest Assembly today. The Big Red Combine Harvester is a particular favourite but the Bean Song gets everyone moving and a grooving! Thank you for coming.

We hope the children enjoy a well earned rest over half term as they've all worked extremely hard. Next half term we are looking forward to learning all about 'Dinosaurs'. Remember to do lots of reading over the holiday and record on the Boom Reader app. Congratulations to Jack in Hedgehogs who won the raffle today and chose a book to take home and keep forever.

Happy half term!

x

Week Beginning 9th October 2023

This week we have continued our 'All about me' topic and shared our understanding about what is inside our body. The children loved drawing around someone in their class and then adding all of the parts the knew. We were very impressed with their knowledge! We also developed our Geography skills, learning about Ashtead Village. We learn about the features and used google maps and street view to identify the key features including: the common, the train station, Marks and Spencer, the pond, little Tesco and the church. We are looking forward to going to the church next week to watch Year 1 and Year 2 perform for the Harvest rehearsal and seeing some of the features we identified on the map in real life! 

Next week:

Phonics- This week we have assessed the children's grapheme, phoneme, correspondence (GPC) and will be filling some gaps in our knowledge before the half term break. 

Literacy- We will begin our non-fiction Talk for Writing learning and learning the recount for our trip to the church. We will learn it my drawing a non-fiction story map and use actions too. 

Maths- We will be exploring the number 4 and continue to build on our subitising skills. 

Understanding the world- We will be learning about the importance of oral hygiene and practicing our Harvest songs ready to perform them to you on Friday afternoon. 

Have a lovely weekend, we look forward to seeing you at Bake and Taste on Saturday morning! 

Week Beginning 2nd October 2023

What a productive week we have had. The children have begun learning our Harvest songs in preparation for performing to you all on the last day before half term. They are learning the words and actions quicker than the teachers! Hopefully you have Friday 20th October in your diaries already and we look forward to seeing you then.

We have learnt about different celebrations and talked about how we celebrate for example birthdays, christenings and weddings that we may have been to with our families. The children talked about wearing special clothes, eating special foods (including birthday and wedding cake) and decorations. We also learnt a little bit about some other religious festivals which we will hopefully learn more about as the festivals come up in the calendar.

Next Week:

Phonics - we will be learning the new sounds h,b,f,l as well as revising the words ‘I’ and ‘is’ and introducing our new word ‘the’

Maths - children will learn that 2 is made up of 1 and ‘another 1’ and will be able to make their own collections of 2 objects identifying the ‘1 and another 1’ within them.

Topic - We will find out what the children know about the body both inside and outside. We will also use maps of Ashtead to locate the school and try to identify the features of our school. Then we will locate other features of Ashtead familiar to the children, such as the railway station and the park.

Reminders:

Several children did not have their phonics folder in their book bag today. This folder must be in the book bag every Friday for us to add the next page. 
Thank you to those parents who are already logging the books your child reads with you. We looked at the Boom Reader website today as a class and talked about how if you read your Little Wandle reading book 3 times at home you will get 3 raffle tickets. This is the minimum we expect every child to receive each week. You can of course read more often to earn more raffle tickets and more chance of winning a book in the raffle on Fridays. So if you haven’t already, please log in to the app and start recording your child’s reading at home so that all children can have at least 3 raffle tickets in next Fridays draw!

Happy reading and enjoy your weekend!

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Week Beginning 25th September 

We have been artists this week in Reception! We've been learning all about Frida Kahlo, how and why she created self-portraits. We then used mirrors ourselves to create our own self-portraits, which we are very proud of. They are being displayed in the hall and in Hedgehogs classroom. 

In Maths we've been subitising, learning how to recognise 1,2 and 3 without counting. The numberblocks have helped us to do this. 

Next week:

Phonics- We will be learning the phonemes ck, e, u, r and the tricky word I. 

Maths- We will be learning to count and make sets of up to 5 objects and understand that the last number counted tells us how many there are altogether. 

Understanding the world- We are going to be thinking about celebrations including birthdays and others special to our families. We will be sharing what we do during these special times. 

Reading- We will be starting group reading next week, all children will have a wordless book sent home on Wednesday along with a reading expectations letter. 

Reminders:

Library days- Hedgehogs will visit on Tuesdays and Squirrels will visit on Wednesdays. Please ensure your child's reading books are in their bags so they can choose new ones. 

Phonic folders- We update these every Friday, please ensure it is in your child's book bag so we are able to do this. 

BoomReader- You will have a letter in your child's book bag today explaining BoomReader with your child's login details. Please log any reading you do with your child at home. Thank you. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week Beginning 18th September 2023

Autumn is here and the children have adapted well to the changing weathers this week.  Please make sure that your child comes to school with a named coat every day as we spend a lot of our time outside during the day, even when the weather is inclement. 

It has been lovely listening to the children talking about their families and showing us photos of everyone. Thank you to those who remembered to email photos, it's not too late. We talked about some of the things that make them unique as well as some of the similarities and differences including the various countries that families have come from and the names we give to members of our family. We also had great fun looking in mirrors and using the loose parts to make self portraits. We plan to display some of these as part of our display in the hall on the artist Frida Kahlo who we will be learning about next week.

Next week

Phonics: We will be learning 4 new phonemes 'g', 'o', 'c', 'k' and the word 'is'.

Maths: We will be representing numbers in a given set using objects and matching sets to numerals. Children will make their own arrangements that can be subitised. This is when you look at an arrangement of objects and without counting, know there are 1, 2 or 3 in the set.

UtW: We will be talking about the sorts of things we could do when we were babies comparing similarities and differences to now and in the future. Please send in a baby photo for your child to talk about.

Reminders:

1. Name everything! We are still coming across some jumpers, PE kit, snack pots, water bottles etc that do not have names on them. We cannot guarantee being able to return items if they are not named.

2. Please do not put water bottles in book bags ... EVER!  If they leak they damage the books and Phonics folders.

3. Please return the Phonics folders to your child's book bag every day as we will be adding to them each week.

4. PE is on Thursday and as it gets cooler your child may wish to wear tracksuit bottoms and a zippy. Please also add a spare pair of socks.

5. LIBRARY books will be changed on Tuesday (Hedgehogs) or Wednesday (Squirrels)

Have a lovely weekend!

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Week Beginning 11th September

Well done to all of Squirrels and Hedgehogs for adapting so well to full days this week. We have been very busy, continuing to learn how to use the environment, making new friends and starting our Phonics! This week we have learnt the sounds 's', 'a', 't', 'p' and have been learning to pronounce the sounds, recognise the grapheme (written letter) and identify the initial sounds in words. To help us consolidate this learning we have had passwords around the classroom. 

We had our first PE lesson with Coach Harvey on Thursday afternoon, the children really impressed us with getting changed and they had a great time developing their ball skills. 

Bookbags- In your child's bookbag today you will have had a phonics folder, sharing with your the sounds we have learnt so you can support your child's Phonics learning at home. We have also given your child 2 logins for educational websites we have subscribed to to support their learning at home. These are on a coloured, laminated card. The websites are: www.purplemash.com and www.educationcity.com. 

Next week:

Phonics- In Phonics we will be continuing to learn new phonemes and learning to orally blend sounds to make words through a range of games. The phonemes and their corresponding graphemes are: 'i', 'n', 'm' and 'd'. 

Maths- In Maths we will be learning to match objects, match objects to pictures and sort objects. We will be encouraged to use stem sentences including 'the....matches the.....'. We will also be looking for similarities and differences to help explain why objects match or don't match. 

Understanding the World- We will be staring our 'All about me' topic and start by thinking about our families and who is in them. Please email the office a photograph of your child's family so your child is able to share with their class. 

Expressive Arts and Design- We will be exploring our facial features to use loose parts to create self portraits. 

We hope you have a lovely weekend! 

Welcome!

It has been lovely to welcome all the new children and families to Squirrels and Hedgehogs Classes this week. Although the weather has been unusually 'scorcio' the children have been fantastic, joining in and making new friends. They have been climbing on the climbing frame, riding bikes, glueing and painting masterpieces, building mystery machines, mixing in the Potion Kitchen, counting and singing. We had a tour around the school, meeting all the teachers and the children.

Next week

Monday - The children will stay for lunch and go home at 1.15pm.

Thursday - Our first PE lesson with KIKO

Phonics - Our Little Wandle journey begins with learning the single sounds s,a,t,p

Maths - We will be learning to subitise to 5.

If you haven't already done so, please make sure that everything your child brings to school is named, especially their water bottle, uniform (remember they change for PE), book bag, snack and hat. Thank you to all those parents who have already done this, it makes our job much easier and quicker. 

Have a restful weekend and we look forward to seeing everyone on Monday at 8.30am.

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