Thursday 18 December 2008

WOW

Well I think we feel that the title said it all really - It was certainly a cracker of a show! We would like to thank everybody for coming and for all your kind words but really we would just like to share how proud we are of the children - they made the show what it was!

Sunday 14 December 2008

The Biscuit Sale

We would like to say a huge thank you to all of the parents, grandparents, etc who joined us to make our biscuit sale a success. The children thoroughly enjoyed selling you things that they had made and they made us very proud.

The purpose of the sale was to make money for our Christmas / End of Term party and so we can send a gift to our twin school in Sri Lanka so if you didn't make the sale and would like to contribute please feel free to pop some money into an envelope and give it to us at school.

Thanks again.


Sunday 30 November 2008

It's a cracker!

This week we will be sending home information about what your child will need and if they have a short line to learn. Each child has a part within the play and may get to speak, act out a role, dance or play a musical instrument. We have tried to ensure that these parts suit your child's abilities and confidence levels at the same time as ensuring that all 63 children are involved so we would appreciate your help and support.
The production will take place once on Tuesday 16th December at 10am in the hall.

Help! I need somebody


We have had a lovely week of visitors which we hope that your children have told you about! On Monday PC Peatfield came to talk to the children about his role and show them some pieces of uniform and photographs of the different police vehicles. On Thursday we had the Fire Brigade and an engine visit school and they explained their wider roles and showed us lots of their equipment. Later this week we will be having a visitor from the local doctor's surgery.

Phonics week 4







We are amazed at how well your children have learnt our letters and their sounds but will now be using the weeks up to the Christmas break for reinforcing our sounds so far and lots of practice in segmenting and blending sounds. This will be a chance for us to assess and for everybody to practice and improve their skills.




Last week's phonics - I apologise for the delay but I had a poorly computer! We also looked at "ck" being a digraph for the same sound as "c" and "k".

Sunday 16 November 2008

Word Wizards


Just a quick reminder that the purpose of the word wizards is for you to help your child recognise the words on sight. Please do not worry about colouring them in as we will deal with that side of things!

Phonics Week 2







Well didn't we just go for it this week - 3 sounds and 4 letters! We also looked at the word "to" as a tricky word.

Saturday 8 November 2008

Phonics Autumn 2 week 1



These are the 2 sounds that we have introduced this week!

Welcome Back!


Well didn't the week off fly!!! I hope you enjoyed it as much as Mrs Foster and myself - we went away for a few days in Northumberland (yes together -otherwise we miss each other too much!!!) and it was absolutely freezing.

We hope that you may have been told by your children, or perhaps have noticed the change in the cloakroom, that we have started a new theme this week which is called "Help! I Need Somebody" and we will be talking about the people who help us both everyday and in cases of emergencies. This is a favourite topic as it includes visits from people in uniforms - often with very exciting vehicles and props!

This week has been exciting in other ways as we have issued their first home reading books for you to share with them and we have started to have a little listen to the songs we will be singing in our Christmas Production. We will let you know more about the production later but please keep the date Tuesday 16th December free in your diaries!

In number work this week we have taken our first look at weight and used the words light, lighter, lightest, heavy, heavier and heaviest to compare different items. In literacy we have looked at a non-fiction text called "It's the weekend!" which is a recount of how different children spent their weekends. In our Knowledge and Understanding work we have talked about who the children think help them and asked them what they would like to do as a job when they are older. We have also obviously talked about Bonfire Night and how to stay safe.

Sunday 19 October 2008

Week 8

Well here we are in the last week of our first half term - hasn't it flown!?! Our question for learning this week is based around our family and beliefs and is "What do we celebrate?"

We will be discussing parties and celebrations, what happens in our families and what they mean to us. We will be leading up to have a small celebratory party with the children on Friday afternoon to celebrate our first half term at big school - please do not tell your children this yet as it will be revealed as part of one of our lessons whilst we are looking at invitations! Can we trust you with this secret?

Therefore in Letter Lisa's work we will be looking at invitations and reading an information book called "Time for a Party!" We are hoping that your children will be able to share their experiences of celebrations with us within our Knowledge and understanding inputs and would ask that if you have any special or different celebrations that you feel that your children would like to discuss please allow them to bring photographs or props to help them. In number work we will be continuing to look at 2-d shapes and their properties.

Our Ethos statement is "I can keep calm and stop being angry" and we will be reading a story called "Bad Mood Bear". Any questions please feel free to ask.

Phonics Week 7




We have introduce the tricky word "the" this week. Tricky words are words which the children must be able to recognise on sight as they are not words that can be blended. We have also looked at the sounds "n" and "p" and are beginning to use them in blending and segmenting cvc words such as pin, pen, nip, pet, etc.



Following the phonics training I am working on being able to add the sounds to the blog so please bear with me!

Sunday 12 October 2008

Outdoor PE

We appreciate your help and patience with regards outdoor PE. We feel that the children need to be given the chance to be taught physical games skills as well as indoor gymnastic and movement skills so would like to remind everybody that Monday is our outdoor PE day and Friday is our indoor PE day.

Last Monday was a learning experience for us all (I think we were probably more stressed/ confused than the children!) and we have altered arrangements slightly to make things run more smoothly.

Outdoor kit does not need to be anything fancy simply a pair of tracksuit / jogging bottoms and a jumper / top - obviously this (like everything else) needs to be clearly named. You may wish to provide trainers but your children can wear their pumps for PE.

Thanks.

Week 7

This week our question for learning is "How have I changed?" and we will be reading our first non-fiction texts about how we have changed since we were babies and asking some special visitors about what they can do at their age!

In number work we are taking our first look at shapes, learning some songs about their names and properties and using them to make pictures. We will also be demonstrating how to draw a straight line using a ruler - which is a very difficult skill at the age of 4/5 so maybe one that you could encourage them to "teach" you at home or simply just practice.

Our ethos statement is "I know how to be a good friend" and we will be reading the story "The Selfish Crocodile" and discussing how he was a bad friend and how he changed to become the sort of friends that we like to see in our classrooms.

Phonics week 6




I hope that you have all signed up for the phonics training as I think you will find it will help you lots when your children begin to read and write.




Here are the pictures for the sounds "t" and "i" that we have covered this week. We have also learned the words "is" and "it".




Sunday 5 October 2008

Winter woolies!


I know it's a pain but please, please, please can we make sure that we are labelling the hats, scarves and gloves that the children are beginning to wear. It does not need to be beautiful just clear - Thanks.

Bags


Please can we request again that you use the pump / PE bags that we have provided as our cloakroom is very full and this is leading to confusion for the children. Thank you.

Week 6

This week we are asking the children "What do you belong to?" and will be encouraging them to think about family, school, classes and clubs and that they belong to them! It may sound a bit strange but this is our first introduction to the idea of society and religions and faith.

In number work and literacy we will be continuing to carry out some assessment "jobs" with your children to ensure that our teaching is matching their learning requirements. We will be introducing the medium of collage in creative work and fine-tuning scissor skills!

Please remember to return your child (and your) completed homework which created quite a bit of excitement with the children on Friday - "our first big school homework!"

Our Ethos statement this week is "I can work in a team to get a job done" and we will be encouraging teamwork this week throughout the curriculum and with some specific tasks for example programming a Beebot!

Phonics week 5




Just to give you the pictures for the letters "s" and "a" that we have looked at last week. If you click on them you can print them out or save them or simply share them with your children from the computer.




Thanks.

Tuesday 30 September 2008

Phonics

We started phonics today! We learnt the 'sssssss' sound today and we looked at the key word 'I'.

Keep watching this space for dates fo the Phonic workshop they will coming very soon!!!! We will hopfully do an afternoon session and an evening session to enable as many of you to come as possible.

sorry

Sorry about the size of the banana picture it wasn't meant to be that big!!!

Snacks and Bags!


Just a little reminder about snacks. Please make sure your child only brings in fresh fruit, vegetables, dried friut or a plain biscuit. That means no flapjacks, nuts, cheese, yogurts or cereal bars. Your child only needs one snack per day as we porvide them with a snack in the afternoon.
Could we also ask you not to send your child to school with any additional bags - just a pump bag and a lunch box. I'm sure you will have noticed that the peg situation is a bit of a squeeze and extra bags mean lots of coats end up on the floor.
Thank you for your cooperation with this.

Week 5

I apologise for the lateness of this blog but the system crashed and wouldn't let me play!!!

Anyway, this week our question for learning is "Where do we live?" which is including a look at types of houses and the materials used for houses. We are linking the literacy this week with a revisit of the Three Little Pigs where we will be encouraging the children to form their first formal sentences about why the third pig's house was best! For example starting the sentence with "The brick house was best because..." rather than just starting "because..." - I hope that makes sense!?!

In number work we are ordering numbers to ten - which have been written on houses (see we are so cross-curricular!) In creative work we are building and drawing houses - both our own and those belonging to the three little pigs.

Our Ethos statement this week is "I can talk about a problem to make it better" and we have discussed problems and who we could ask for help.

To link with our topic "Marvellous Me!" we will be sending a small piece of homework home with your child this weekend which we would like you to complete together. They can draw and we would appreciate if you would help label their pictures. Thank you.

Sunday 21 September 2008

Week 4

As we were discussing at the curriculum evening we are going to dedicate this whole week to the question for learning "Who do you care about?"

We will be concentrating on the Social, Emotional and Personal areas of the curriculum and establishing our class rules and expectations for behaviour within our classrooms, at playtimes and in our lives in general.

This fits really well with our Ethos statement for this week which is "I can calm myself down and help others to calm down!" We will be reading the story When Sophie Gets Angry and discussing strategies to stay calm and control our anger (yes I'm back to the testosterone again!)

We will be using ICT to photograph our learning areas to create maps and visual timetables and using ordinal language to order events such as first, next, after that and finally. We will also be starting work on an "All about us!" display.

Curriculum Evening

Can we just say a huge thank you to all of the parents who came along on Wednesday Evening. It really helps when we have these more informal opportunities to pass on information which we feel is useful to you. Please feel free to e-mail us if you have since thought of anything you would like to know.

We hope that you found the evening helpful and hopefully a little fun and we look forward to seeing you all at the phonics training!

Sunday 14 September 2008

Curriculum Evening

Can I remind you that this Wednesday is Curriculum Evening - we are looking forward to letting you know more about the exciting things that we will be teaching your children and how they are taught and assessed.

If you haven't replied please can you do so asap.

Thanks.

Week 3

Our question for learning for this week is "Who do I live with?" and we will be discussing how many people are in our families and who lives with us. If you feel there are any sensitive matters please do not hesitate to contact us.

We will be reading our first class literacy text this week which is called "I Want My Mum!" and we will be asking the children to retell the story and to role-play and Hotseat the main character Jake (the snake).

Also we will be continuing to name the parts of the body and draw ourselves looking closely at mixing colours for our features and skin tones.

Our Ethos Statement for this week is "I know what to do when I am frightened or worried" and will be linked to the Owl Babies story.

Sunday 7 September 2008

Our First Full Week

Just a quick message to let you know that this week we will be looking at our first question in our topic "Marvellous Me!" which is "Who am I?"

We will be taking a close look at our names and ages and having a go at drawing ourselves.

Thank you for your support over the first 3 days - it has been a little hectic but things will get easier as we all settle into our new routines.

Wednesday 3 September 2008

The First Day!!

We both wanted to say what a GREAT day the first day has been today! Your children have been AMAZING - very sensible and took everything in their stride. They had to cope with lots of not very exciting information about lining up, where to put their stuff, where their pegs are, what colour group they are in, how to do the register.....the list is endless......... but they listened brilliantly and they did get lots of time to explore their new classroom - which we think they loved. The weather kept us inside for part of the day - so they still have the outdoor area to look forward to tomorrow - fingers crossed!!!

Please bare with us in the morning and after school - it will be busy and a bit hectic, but once you have got to know us and us you, things will start to settle down - so we would like to thank you in advance for your patience.

Tomorrow will be another busy day, with more time to explore their classroom. In the afternoon we will be doing our first room swap. Miss Gott's class is literacy based and will be called Letter Lisa's room. My class is Numeracy linked and will be called Number Norman's room. We both felt it would be a nice link from nursery for the children. The idea is that each class will spend equal amounts of time in both rooms - accessing a greater range of provision. This will not effect where you pick your children up from as they will always begin and end the day in their own classroom!

I think an early night is order tonight - for everyone - we hope that your children have enjoyed their first day as much as we all have!!

Your comments are always welcome! If you would prefer to e-mail us directly you are very welcome to do so!

Mrs Foster: fosterrl04@leedslearning.net
Miss Gott: gottl01@leedslearning.net

Thank you!
Mrs Foster and Miss Gott

Monday 1 September 2008

I'm on the Blog!!

Hello it's only me!! I'm officially in reception now!!
x

Saturday 19 July 2008

A HUGE thank you!

I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to you as parents - your kind words, cards and gifts had me blubbering for most of the morning yesterday. It has been an amazing year and now it is time to relax and enjoy the summer (if it ever arrives).

Thank you for supporting me throughout the past year and please feel free to continue to give me a shout or an e-mail in the future - if I can help I will!

Miss G

Thursday 17 July 2008

An eventful year!!

Just a quick one to say how much we have enjoyed this year. The children have made amazing progress and this could not have happened without your fantastic support.

It has been a busy year and over the last couple of weeks. We have been recapping all the fantastic things that we have done. They have written about all their reception memories, prominent ones being the trip to Bridlington, the Christmas play, walks around Methley and to the church, space week, people who help us and many more.

Just to let you know that we are all disappointed that Sports Day did not occur this term but they enjoyed practising all the events! I think we will be more than ready for next year!

Again, mant thanks for an absolutely superb year. Enjoy your holidays and we look forward to seeing you next year.

Mr M & Mrs R

Saturday 12 July 2008

Our Final Week

I hope that you are all prepared or tears at the end of the week - I mean from me not the children! I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year in Reception which has been made even better by your amazing children. Paris Class have spend the last week reminiscing by looking through all of the photos I have taken during the year and talking about everything we can remember. We have used this for our final Big Write of the year and each and every one of your children has blown me away with their progress!

Anyway I wasn't here to tell you about that. Just a few quick reminders:

Monday is French Day - please dress in red, white and blue and bring along some food if you would like to contribute!
Wednesday is Kebab day where we will be making our "healthy veggie kebabs" in DT and having a taste to see if we did a good job!
Thursday is hopefully sports morning - we'll probably need a little exercise after all of that eating!
Friday is games day - please allow your children to bring in "sharing toys and games" not electronic games or anything with a million bits that could get lost (or eaten!)

I hope that I will get to speak to you all this week but if not - A GREAT BIG THANK YOU FOR READING THIS and a heartfelt congratulations for your fab children! I look forward to seeing them progress further in Year 1 and they have promised to still talk to / hug me when they see me!

Miss G x

Wednesday 9 July 2008

French Day

Just to let you know that it is ok for the children to wear jeans on Monday as the blue part of the French flag.
Miss G

Sunday 6 July 2008

The last two weeks!

How quickly has this year gone!?! I can't believe that I'm winding up the year with my final assessments and chats with you all and preparing your children for their new adventures in year one!

This week we will be having sports morning on Tuesday so please come along and support your children. We think it will be from 9.15 ish until about 11.30 ish at the latest. On Thursday your children will spend most of the day with their new teacher - which is always a little sad for us that get left behind and they are usually a little apprehensive. You will be notified beforehand which teacher your child will get but please ask if you have any questions or concerns.

This week's literacy will be entitled "My Memories of Reception" where we will be looking at photographs from throughout the year and writing about what we have enjoyed. In numeracy we will be assessing their addition and subtraction abilities to inform their next teacher of their next steps in learning.

Next week your children will be having a french day on Monday which involves a lovely sounding lunch. If your child has a packed lunch but they would like to join in please complete the form sent home. I will be joining the children for "un peu du poulet".

Tuesday 1 July 2008

Summer Fair

Just a quick reminder that Friday after school is our Summer Fair so please come along and support the school and help raise some funds.
There will be refreshments and stalls including face painting, tombola and of course a bouncy castle!
I look forward to seeing you there!

Wow - what did I learn!?!

Well as I have already told you, this week is Space Week and today we went in an inflatable dome (or a bubble as it has just been described to me by one of my girls) to look at stars!

We were shown how to recognise different star constellations like Orion, the Great Bear and Pegasus along with a story. We were also told about Beetlejuice a star that is dying in the sky and therefore burns red.

They say that every day is a school day - and they are right because I've learnt a lot today!

Sunday 29 June 2008

Space week!

This week is space week which will be great - I'm really excited as it means I get to fancy dress which I love!!!

During the week we will be learning about the planets and about space travel, we will be thinking about aliens, we will be looking at what we can do to improve our planet and of course making rockets and singing space songs. It is going to be lots of fun so if you would like to join us please let us know!

Thursday 26 June 2008

OOPS

SORRY, SORRY, SORRY!!! I made a mistake but a slip will come home to give you this info too.

The colours for T-shirts please:-

Pinfold = green
Oswald = purple
Mexborough = red
Watergate = yellow
Mulberry = blue

Monday 23 June 2008

Sports Day


The colours for T-shirts please:-


Pinfold = green

Oswald = purple

Mexborough = red

Watergate = blue

Mulberry = yellow

Saturday 21 June 2008

Summer term!

Just thought I'd give you all a quick reminder of those very important dates that are coming up in the nest few weeks:

30th June is the start of "Space Week" which includes an amazing Space Dome visit on 1st July (we will be asking for a £1 donation for this).
8th July is sports morning where I have put you all down for the Parent's Race (only joking!)
10th July is Jump up Day when your children will get to spend a little time with their teacher for nest year.
14th July is French Day (ooh la la!) - I don't know what we will be doing here yet but I hope it involves food tasting!
School reports will also be sent home on this day.
16th July is "Informal Parent's Evening" which is your opportunity to come and have a chat with us - this is not compulsory and we don't make appointments but please come along if you have any questions about your child's report or progress or even if you just fancy a natter!
18th July will be the last day in school for the children and I expect the same will happen in all reception classes as mine which is an "End of Year Party" with games and snacks and probably a little tear or 2 from me as I wave them farewell!

Any questions about anything please give me a shout or an e-mail gottl01@leedslearning.net

Thanks, Miss G

Sunday 8 June 2008

This Week

This week we will be continuing to look at the story "My house is your house" which includes the Spanish phrase - Mi casa es su casa - which the children are loving! In numeracy we will be having a busy week and taking a little time with each child to see what their next steps in learning are.

Parent's Afternoon

It is our Parent's afternoon on Wednesday so if you would like to come along and join in the lessons please let us know so we have an idea of numbers.
Thanks!

Sunday 18 May 2008

SEAL lessons

Please do not worry if you are unable to make the SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) lesson this Monday. If you would like to come, but this Monday was not convenient, ask and we can arrange another time for you to come.

Our New Topic

Although we have not quite finished our follow-up work about our visit to the seaside we are moving onto our next topic which is all about Growing Plants. We will start this week by planting in the hope that when we return after half term we have something to look at and compare! As I have mentioned before I am not very green fingered so would be pleased if anybody who is would like to lend a hand!


Wednesday 14 May 2008

Our WONDERFUL day in Bridlington








Ok so you could accuse me of showing off BUT can you believe that this was Bridlington today!?! It was FANTASTIC!!! Your children were AMAZING both in behaviour and enthusiasm and made it all worthwhile. Please feel free to pop in after school when you can to see the full show of pictures. I hope that you have managed to get them all tucked up in bed - which to be honest is where I am heading! I blame all of that sea air.
Miss G


Sunday 11 May 2008

This week

This will be, without doubt, the week that all of your children remember and remind us all about when they get to year six! It is these "extra" parts of learning that helps them make all of those connections - and of course let's not forget they are usually the most fun parts too!

I refer of course to the trip. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have ANY questions about the trip.

Besides the trip we will be continuing to look at positional language and independent writing skills. When we return to school on Thursday we will be making books about our adventures!

Monday 5 May 2008

This week!

I hope that you have all enjoyed a lovely extended weekend!

PLEASE, please do not forget the meeting for the trip this week and if possible please bring with you your child's NHS number - needed for the paperwork I'm afraid!

This week we will be encouraging independent writing in literacy with lots of hints and situations linked with the book "The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch". If you haven't done so already please feel free to pop in and see the seagulls - I promise that they don't bite!

In numeracy we will be beginning to look at position and direction which involves everyday vocabulary such as under and behind which children often fins confusing.

Of course we will also be leading up our very exciting trip next week with lots of Bridlington talk which will include safety and trip rules conversations.

Tuesday 29 April 2008

Stranger Danger


In Paris class we read a book yesterday which talked about a little gir walking away from her mum and getting lost! It gaved great advice to both children and there was a bit in the back for parents. The title was Daisy learns about Strangers and it was written by Sarah Ferguson - well worth looking at with any child I think. It ended with the above rhyme which you might want to discuss with your child/ children.


Miss G

Thursday 24 April 2008

Whats been happening?

Hi,
Just a quick update.

We are working on recognising coins/money, adding the price of two items together (up to 5p, then,10p, then 20p), using the correct coins to 'pay' for the items.
The children are also experiencing giving a variety of equivalent combinations for an amount, e. g, 5p = 2p+2p+p OR 2p+1p+1p+1p etc.

In Geography we are becoming familiar with maps and globes and where significant places and seas are. This is a difficult concept for the children to grasp, for example to understand the size of places in relation to each other, the relative distances between them and how they are represented on paper etc.

In Art we are concentrating on observational drawings of plants, fruits, flowers, encouraging the children to draw what they see, not what they think is there. They are being shown different pencil techniques like shading and line.

From Mrs Reynard and Mr Mills.

Sunday 20 April 2008

This week!

This week in Numeracy we are looking at adding amounts of money together and role playing being customers and shop keepers.

In Literacy we will be writing a letter for Big Writing to thank the Monkey for saving the animals from the fire in our class book.

Sunday 13 April 2008

Meningitis







I found this information at my local doctors and I hope you'll never need it but just in case!




Wednesday 9 April 2008

Next week

We have had a great week this week reading The Rainbow Fish and weaving our own Rainbow Fish pictures. Next week we will be moving onto a new literacy book called Chitter Chatter Monkey and beginning to look at money and real life problems in numeracy.

Miss G

Sunday 6 April 2008

Seaside Trip

Please return your money and slip asap so we can finalise arrangements. Thanks.
Miss G

What we are doing!

This next 2 weeks are Cultural Diversity weeks when we will be discussing that we are not all outwardly the same but inside we are. We will be asking your children to consider why they are "unique" and reading The Rainbow Fish and discussing the feelings of the characters.

In numeracy we will be taking our first official look at time (hours and half past) and the days of the week. Our topic work returns to the Seaside when we will be taking a more geographical look at the cliffs, rock pools, etc.

In PE we will be beginning dance and looking at expressing music through movement - not really my strength so if any of you are more able?!?

Please (as always) if you are unsure ask and please tell me if you have read this!

Miss G

Summer Term

WOW!!! Just before I head off to bed I thought it was about time for a little reflection! Can you believe how far your children have come? Can you believe that they are the same little people that you waved off with a tear in your eye only 7 months ago? (yes I did see!)

I have spent time this holidays assessing where we are up to and where to go next and I just wanted to share with you my pride in these little individuals who have learnt so much. Thank you for your support so far and please do continue!

Miss G

Sunday 17 February 2008

This week

Just another quick reminder that we are lucky enough to have the Brazilian musician coming into school on Wednesday and we would appreciate a donation of £1 towards this. Please send this into school on Tuesday as these things can only happen if they are supported financially through your generosity - thank you!

Paris Class

This will be the final week that we are lucky enough to have Miss Prust with us so I would like to say a big thank you to her for all of her hard work for Paris Class and wish her well as she is going to make a fabulous teacher when she qualifies!

New Half Term

I just thought I'd give you a quick overview of the next week or so (please forgive that I haven't uploaded the last set of sounds yet but I've been having a little rest and a bit of fun- I thought you wouldn't mind!).
In literacy we will be looking at a non-fiction text called "Wheels, Wings and other things" so don't be surprised when the children start pointing out parts of your cars! We will also be starting the first of our formal phonic assessments where we will be asking the children to recognise and record phonemes independently without any help from the picture cues or ourselves - this sounds worse than it is!
In numeracy we are looking at addition and subtraction again and concentrating on how many ways we can make numbers (eg 6 can be made by 6+0, 5+1, 4+2, 3+3, 2+4, 1+5, 0+6).
We will be rounding up our Seaside topic this week until after Easter when we will be looking at the Seaside from a Geography perspective. Our next topic is a science topic called "Sound and Hearing" where we will be looking at how sound travels, different sources of sounds including which are familiar and which we don't recognise and how we can improve our hearing!

Thursday 7 February 2008

Red day

Please can I remind you that tomorrow is a non-uniform day to raise money for our school staging. We would like children to wear red (Valentines theme!) and bring a donation of £1. Also we would appreciate it if you could test your cullinary talents and send in some buns for our bun sale. Thank you.

Also we seem to have had only a few donations towards the Brazilian day which can only go ahead if funded through fundraising so again please send in £1.

I know it seems that we ask for these things regularly but these small donations do help us to extend the curriculum by inviting visitors into school and to provide things like the staging that the school budget does not cover and that make life easier and more comfortable for us all.

Friday 1 February 2008

Phonics


Here are the latest sounds. If you have any questions relating to the note on digraphs or trigraphs please feel free to e-mail me if you're not sure about blogging!(gottl01@leedslearning.net) Please remember if you're thinking of a question there are probably a dozen more parents wanting to ask it to and I don't bite!

Big Writing

Yes it is that time again and we are really pleased with the progress that your children are making. This week we will be asking them to write about bedtime connected with the story "I don't want to go to bed!" which they have really enjoyed. We are currently encouraging your children to use WOW words in their writing and to use sentence punctuation.

As you will see from the phonics (I'll put it on tonight because I can't do it at school) we are now looking at digraphs (2 letters which make 1 sound) and trigraphs (3 letters which make 1 sound) - the children do know these words and will be encouraged to use them to help them understand that these letters when grouped together (they hold hands) always make that same sound.

In numeracy this week we will be having a busy week for the children to "show off" their number, shape and measure knowledge.

Wednesday 30 January 2008

Church Walk

Can I just say a huge thank you to all of the parent helpers for the lovely walk to the church today. Yet again the children made me very proud and look forward to our summer trip even more!
Thanks again! Miss G

Tuesday 29 January 2008

Church Walk

Please remember that tomorrow is our Church walk and all children will need to be equipped with comfortable shoes and warm coats etc. I know the weather is much better today but unfortunately the forecast is that it is to be short lived!!! Roll on summer!

Sunday 27 January 2008

Show and Tell

Can I ask you to please think whether the item your child is bringing for "show and tell" is special as we are spending a long time looking at toys and teddies. I don't want to be a bore and have to limit who brings things on which weeks as this is difficult to manage for me and you. I think it is a very important learning experience for the children but not one that they have to participate in every week - sometimes they gain as much asking the questions and listening to others.
Thank you for your support with ensuring that all children get an equal turn in sharing.

Lunch and snacks

Just a quick reminder that we ask you to provide "treat" food for packed lunches on Fridays only. This includes anything coated in chocolate - thanks.

Similarly only fresh fruit or vegetables or plain biscuits for snacks and fresh water each day for their drinks bottles - thanks. Nagging over!

Phonics Spring week 3


Here are last week's sounds for you to practice!

Friday 25 January 2008

Shapes

WOW I'm getting into this again! It's amazing what you can do with a camera and a bit of patience! I hope this helps. The only other shape that we will refer to that I couldn't find a picture of would be a prism eg a triangular prism would be a shape that if you sliced it you would get lots of triangles (it looks like a toblerone box). In further years they will move onto hexagonal prisms, octagonal prisms, etc!

Reception week 4

Can you believe that we are at week 4 of 5 already??? The highlight of this week will hopefully (weather permitting) be the walk to St Oswalds on Wednesday. If you haven't already done so please send in your permission slip so that we can ensure that everybody is able to come along. Parents who have volunteered (thank you lots) to come along we will need you to pop into the hall on the morning prior to the walk for us to provide you with the relevant information regarding the risk assessment and what we would like you to "investigate" with the children.

In literacy this week we are looking at a text which is one of my favourites "I don't want to go to bed". Probably words which you have heard once or twice before! We will be basing a Big Writing on this text in the final week of this half term.

In numeracy we will be revisiting 3-d shapes and looking at both being able to name them and be able to describe their properties. We would like if you have any objects around your home that the children recognise as a particular shape that you either get them to bring it in to show us or that you could write down what they said about the shape and perhaps photograph them with it. A fun activity may be to create a "shape hunt" around the room where even a carefully placed shape or 2 may have been hidden!

Thanks for reading! Miss G

Monday 21 January 2008

Paris Class

For the next few weeks we are lucky enough to have Miss Prust teaching one of our lessons each day. She is a student teacher from Leeds Met who is doing a fab job of both planning and teaching with my guidance. The children seem to really like her and her enthusiasm is amazing but please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Miss G

This week in Reception


Just a quick note to let you know that this week in Reception we are beginning to tackle subtraction- we are feeling very brave! This will include looking at different words for subtraction such as take away, less than, counting back and minus.


In literacy we are having a "busy week" which means that we are using the time to complete long observations for their profiles.


Phonics as above - happy learning!
Miss G

Sunday 13 January 2008

Well done Paris Class


WELL DONE PARIS CLASS!!! This week Paris Class will be celebrating reaching their class target with a cinema afternoon. We have mastered the ability to move around school in an orderly and quiet line! We will be setting ourselves another target this week.

This week in Reception

This week we will be completing another BigWriting based roughly on the text "I looked through the window" which we have been looking at. We will also be introducing the children to Kung Fu Punctuation which is a kinaesthetic way of teaching children to remember and use punctuation. If you would like to know more about this (and maybe even a demonstration if you promise not to laugh at me) let me know and I will hold a very short "lesson" on Friday after you have dropped off your children for those interested.

In numeracy we will be revisiting number bonds to ten in a very practical way introducing problems to reinforce the children's learning.

We will be sending a letter out soon regarding a visit to St Oswalds church and (as usual) we will be asking if you could spare a couple of hours to help - please let us now if this will be possible as these visits help us make the children's learning much more interesting and without volunteers we are unable to make them happen (it will be a Wednesday morning).

Thanks Miss G
ps don't forget to let me know about Friday!

Spring phonics!


This is the phonics from spring week 1. As you will notice we have progressed to digraphs (2 letters which make 1 sound).

Phonics


And there's more!

Phonics


Here are the missing phonics from December!

Tuesday 8 January 2008

New topics!

As promised I would like to tell you a little about the topics we will be looking at this term. In History we will be looking at "The History of the Seaside" which will lead into the Geography topic "Going to the Seaside" next term for which we will be organising a trip to Scarborough!!! Obviously more details of this will follow. In art we will be making Punch and Judy style sculptures in the style of a modern artist called Claude Bazilier.

We will be looking at Sound and Hearing in the next half term when we will also be making musical instruments in DT.

In RE we will be looking at Places of Worship and taking a walk to the local church. In PSHCE our current heading is "Going for Goals" and we will looking at our successes and setting targets for improvements.

This week in Numeracy we are looking at capacity and estimating amounts of water and we will be continuing to look at number bonds to ten next week.

In literacy we have a bit of a bedtime theme for this half term as we are looking at two books entitled "I looked throught my Window" and "I don't want to go to bed". We will be using these as a basis for our next two Big Writings.

Monday 7 January 2008

Happy New Year!

Can I firstly say a big sorry to those of you that did get into blogging but I began to feel too lonely so stopped but new year - new start and I will if you will! I'll start again if you talk to me.
I have just upgraded my technology at home so it should be a little easier as I've joined this century with broadband - yes I was still on dial-up so things took forever!

I would also like to say a huge thanks for all the lovely cards and gifts that I received at Christmas - you really did spoil me!

Anyway it has been the first day back today and I would like to tell you that it has been fab - you would never think that the children had been away from the school environment for 2 weeks. Although there were a few eyes creeping closed by storytime!

Thanks again for all of your support and I look forward to another 2 terms of amazing learning from all of your amazing children. I will update you regarding topics tomorrow so watch this space!

Miss G