HAILEY CE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Hailey, Witney, Oxon, OX29 9UBHeadteacher: Mrs. D Davies Tel: 01993 703802
Fax: 01993 849790
email:
9th June 2017
Foundation Stage Unit Newsletter – Term 6, 2017
Dear Parents and Carers,
We are now in our final term of the year!Dragonfly parents, can you believe that your child only has a few more weeks left in the Foundation Stage? There is a lot to do, but we are really looking forward to a lovely, sunny term with the children!
Topic and Learning
This term our topic is ‘Am I The Fastest?’ Each week the children will experience their learning through this topic. The nature of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum means that where possible, we go with the children’s interests and ideas. Therefore, possible themes in our topic may be: about things that are fast and slow; how to use the body in different ways for sports, games and play; about what makes a good team; about different types of sports and competitions; about the different places used for sport; about toys that move using clockwork, windup mechanisms and remote control; about different games and understanding rules of play. During our topic work, the children will look at a selection of fiction and non-fiction books as well as some poetry and rhyme.
News
We are continuing with our ‘news’ time on a Monday morning, giving the children a chance to share what they have been doing at the weekend.Don’t forget that you can help them with this, byjotting us a note and by discussing what you have been doing over the weekend, perhaps on a Sunday evening or over breakfast on Monday morning. This will then help to jog their memories or give us a chance to ask some questions to prompt their thinking. Thank you for your help in this matter.
Routines
Just a few reminders about our routines; please ensure that children are settled and left in the classroom by 8:50am. Children need to bring their book bag to school every day. Please check the book bag everyday for letters and other information that may be put inside throughout the day.
With the weather becoming warmer, please ensure that your child has a water bottle in school every day. For drinking during the day, the children should only have water in their bottles please. If they are staying all day, then they may bring juice for lunch, which can be stored with on the shelf in the cloakroom. A named sunhat is also a necessity, particularly as the children are outside a lot during the day. Sun cream (which also needs to be named) can be brought in but may I remind you that we are not allowed to apply it, so the children should be taught how to apply it themselves. However, the 12 hour protection cream is probably best and can be applied at home before school. Thank you!
Children will continue to take part in PE on Friday afternoon with Mrs Davies, so all Dragonflies and those Butterflies that stay all day will need their PE kit. Please make sure that all uniform is clearly labelled; because the children all get changed together, their belongings can easily get muddled up.
Topic Homework
We do ask that the children have the opportunity to explore and discuss our topic at home with you.As previously, please find attached the details regarding homework for this term.
Further Information for Nursery Children (Butterflies and Caterpillars)Sound of the Week
Starting week beginning the 12th June, the nursery children will be continuing with their sound of the week. They are invited to bring in something from home that begins with that sound at the beginning of the week. We will then be looking at the items across the week and creating a display of the items in the classroom. The children will look at other things beginning with that sound and learn songs that help reinforce the sounds too. Please remember that it is the sound, rather than the letter, so do ask if you are unsure. Due to the fact that we have had some new Caterpillars, we are now at the point where some of the sounds are being repeated from earlier in the year, but repetition is a helpful tool at this age. Below are the sounds for this term:
12th June – things beginning with ‘a’
19th June – things beginning with ‘t’
26th June–things beginning with ‘p’
3rd July - things beginning with ‘i’
10th July – things beginning with ‘n’
17th July – things beginning with ‘m’
Library Books
Books will continue to be changed on a Wednesday morning this term, so please ensure your child’s book is in school on that day. The nursery children have enjoyed being involved in our School Reading Challenge (reading 4 or more times in a week), so thank you for all your comments in their reading diaries. Don’t forget, when you read a book together at home, please write a brief comment to say what you read, maybe mention anything significant that your child may have said while listening to a book.
How you can help at home
Help the children to recognise their name and maybe identify the sound that their name begins with. Practise simple maths concepts such as counting small groups of objects and recognising significant numerals, such as their age. Play games where they have to identify shapes and colours and use a dice. For those starting Reception in September, it would be useful for the children to practise writing their name and how to recognise other numerals up to 10.
Further Information for Reception Children (Dragonflies)
Maths Learning
In Maths, this term, the children will be consolidating their counting skills; counting to 20 and 100 in ones and tens. We will practise our addition and subtraction strategies, thinking about counting on, as well as identifying one more and one less. We will recap on money and coin identification and use this to help us subtract by finding change. The children will explore measures (lengths, weights and capacities) and how to use non-standard units to measure, comparing different lengths, weights and capacities too. Finally, we will go back to addition and think about finding pairs of numbers that make certain totals.
Reading and Writing
We will continue to regularly read individually with children as well as with the whole class group. Most of the children are now able to blend the sounds of simple short or longer words to work out what the word says. It is helpful if you ask your child to point out individual sounds in words, and then to put these sounds together to read the word. If they do not know all the letter sounds, help them and do the blending together. However, as many sounds are made up of more than one letter, and we are only starting to learn these, remember that children can use a range of strategies to help them make sense of text. Using pictures, repetition, rhyme and knowledge of stories are really useful and valuable strategies. Please record each book read at home in your child’s reading diary adding your own comments too and remember to always keep the school reading books in the book bags so that we can change them in the week.You are welcome to include both school books and books from home/the library, but please remember that the school books are of an appropriate level to help in the development of your child’s reading and it is important to include them in the books that your child reads during the week. Your comments also help to see the progress that is happening at home, so please continue to do this with the books that you read. Don’t forget to read 4 or more times in the week for your child to be included in our Reading Challenge!
Super Sentences will continue this term as a job for the children to do when they come in in the morning. I am hoping that this term this children will be able to have a go at finishing the sentences themselves.
During the week, the children will take part in a variety of other writing activities. At this stage, we are encouraging them to have a go at writing in their ‘own style’, using the letter shapes they remember, both during play and adult directed activities. Any writing children attempt at this age should be praised and encouraged even if you cannot read it. The children are learning to recognise and copy letter shapes in phonics sessions and through their reading so all this goes to help with writing development. If your child would like to ‘show off’ any writing they have done at home, then they are more than welcome to bring it in to show myself, Miss Welling and Mrs Eeles.
Bug Club
Bug Club is the reading part of Active Learn, a supportive teaching and learning tool that the school has signed up too. Bug Club provides a variety of texts online for the children to read, followed by some comprehension questions that they can answer online. In preparation for Year One, where they will use this for their maths homework, I am hoping to set the children up to use this over the next few weeks. A letter will follow shortly with more information, as well as login details for your child.
How you can help at home
Please practise counting and recognising numbers to 20. Get the children to identify the number that is one more or one less than a given number. Practise adding and taking away using single digit numbers and see if the children can record their own number sentences. Ask the children to identify different shapes and their properties and practise reading o’clock and half past times on a clock.
Please remember that should you have any matters to discuss, I am always happy to see you after school, or we can agree a time that is suitable for both of us.
Yours sincerely
Lizzie Griffiths
Foundation Stage Unit Topic Homework
Topic: Am I the Fastest?
Below you will find a list of possible homework ideas, linked to our topic this term. Please select 3 activities to do with your child at home across the whole term. We suggest approximately one activity every 2 weeks. Please ensure that at least one activity provides some work that the children are able to bring in and share with myself and the rest of the class.
If you have any questions please just ask.
Homework activities to choose from:
1)Sort things that are fast and things that are slow.
2)Devise a way to test who is the fastest in your family.
3)Play a variety of games; which one do you have to be the fastest for?
4)Research a particular sport and learn more about it?
5)Think about different ways you could move fast.
6)Create an obstacle course and time how long it takes you to go round it.
7)Design a medal for someone who has won a race.
8)Use construction to build a model of a fast vehicle.