Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely half term. The children have settled beautifully back into school, showing us their super learning behaviours.
Phonics -
Graphemes - air, er, words with double digraphs dd, mm, tt, bb, rr, gg, pp, ff, tt.
Tricky words - are, sure, pure.
Some independent writing - chair, letter, bigger, rabbit, kitten, rubber.
Maths -
This week, we have continued to explore the composition of numbers within 10, focusing on the ‘special case’ of when 2 equal parts combine to make a whole. The children used their skills of comparison to identify when 2 sets are equal or not equal, using a range of familiar representations including dice and fingers to explore the idea of ‘2 equal parts’, and then find the whole by combining these parts. The children have continued to use their subitising skills, beginning to ‘know’ the whole when they see 2 parts the same size for larger numbers within 10, as well as begin to recall some doubles facts when an image or physical resource is not available to support them.
The use of gesture has been particularly important this week. When children make a double pattern on their fingers, they will be encouraged to match their fingers to ‘check’ that the same number is shown on each hand.
Activities to try at home -
Provide counters for your child to use to copy some die/dice patterns. Talk about the patterns they have made, e.g. Look! 4 is made of 2 and 2, 2 and 2 make 4. [Use gestures to reinforce the parts and the whole].
Display 1 die/dice pattern at a time and encourage them to shut their eyes and visualise it before then trying to copy it from memory. Let’s quickly ‘take a picture’ with our eyes. What do you ‘see’? Can you see the double? Can you make the same pattern using these counters? Let’s see if it matches the pattern we saw. Look! 4 is made of 2 and 2, 2 and 2 make 4, etc. [Use gestures to reinforce the parts and the whole].
Work together to decorate a butterfly. We need to have the same number of gems/counters/foam shapes on each side. How many have we got on each side? How many have we got altogether? How do you know?
Topic -
This term's topic is 'What happened long, long ago?' We will be diving into history, learning about important historical figures and moments in time. We started this topic by reading Diary of a Time Traveller, learning about the moon landing and Stonehenge. We will be creating a timeline in class, adding important dates to learn about what happened in our lifetime, and before our lifetime to develop our understanding of history.
ELGs -
Understanding the World (UtW)
Past and Present:
Talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society.
Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling
People, Culture and Communities:
Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps.
Know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and – when appropriate – maps.
The Natural World:
Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants.
Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter.
Wishlist -
As always, we are accepting small boxes and tubes for our well loved junk modelling area.