Ducklings Newsletter 8/5/15

Friday 8th May 2015 Our News!

The children have thoroughly enjoyed their dinosaur topic and know lots of interesting facts about these prehistoric creatures. See if they can tell you some! They have been exploring how to retell a story with expression and actions. They have thought of some wonderful describing words for different dinosaurs and have written about their very own imaginative dinosaurs.

Everyone has been keen to write about dinosaurs, labelling their different parts and making their own information books. The children have learnt some new and very tricky words to say such as palaeontologist and carnivore.

The children have also enjoyed being creative outside using the natural materials they have found and collected to create nests and dinosaur swamps! Ask them to perform the different dinosaur songs we have been learning and their actions, including the Dino-Pokey! They are developing their physical skills by digging for dinosaur bones in our dino-dig area and exploring the job of a palaeontologist by putting fossil skeletons back together. In PE they have been moving like different dinosaurs and acting out the Dinosaurumpus story. All of the Ducklings had an amazing day with the dinosaur workshop.

Alex, the visitor who led the day commented on how well behaved all the children were and said that their knowledge was so good, he found it hard to believe they were in the Reception classes! Well done! You have made us all very proud- again!!

In Mathematics we have shown that we are confident with our sharing, practising this practically in different ways. We have continued to explore doubling and lots of us know our doubles to 10. We have been recapping over our knowledge of 2D shapes to make shape dinosaurs and explore symmetrical patterns and pictures.

We have been busy preparing for our class assemblies and look forward to performing them for you!

STARS OF THE WEEK Bella Kirkham for her super knowledge of doubling and Hannah Thomson for her amazing reading skills.

Lexi Nelson for her throwing and catching skills and Harry Swift for thinking about others.

Our next news letter will be on Friday 22nd May and will give details about all the fun activities we have planned for the next few weeks.

Any questions please don’t hesitate to ring, email or come and see us.

Staff email: Mrs Claydon l.claydon@carletongreen.lancs.sch.uk Mrs Catterall m.catterall@carletongreen.lancs.sch.uk

OUR LEARNING Dinosaurs In Literacy we will be reading lots of different non-fiction texts, to help us gather more dinosaur facts and to find out how writing is set out in an information book. We will each write our own page about dinosaurs and put them altogether to create our very own dinosaur information book.

In PE we are pretending to be dinosaurs and move like different types of dinosaurs around the hall; fat, thin, slow, fast, spikes, lumpy, short, long, strong, weak, sneaky and loud. We will also focus on balancing and jumping skills.

Our fine motor development work will be mainly handwriting based, encouraging children to form letters and numbers correctly, develop their pencil grip and if required to sit their letters on the line. Some of us will be practising joining letters together.

In Maths we will continue with our work recapping over our knowledge of 2D shapes by using them to create dinosaur pictures. Outside in Maths we will explore capacity in the water and sand trays. The children will explore which containers hold the most and the least, measure how much a container holds and order containers according to their capacity.

As part of our Personal, Social and Emotional Development topic on ‘Relationships’ we will look at how we can be fair and unfair, why and how we can share and make sure we listen and take account of what others have to say.

Explorers We will start off this topic by reading ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ by Michael Rosen. We will practise performing the story with actions and will go on our own bear hunts around the school!

We will look at the descriptive language used and explore using different musical instruments to create sound effects and play alongside telling the story.

We will write lists of what we might need to take with us on our own bear hunts and use the pattern of the story to help us write bear hunt stories too!

Outdoors we will build bear caves and explorer’s dens, as well as creating our own bear hunt obstacle courses to climb over, under and along.

REMINDERS Reading Please try to read a little every night and sign when they have read with you.

Thank you.

Junk Please send in tubes e.g. kitchen rolls for making binoculars with and other junk for making giant dinosaurs.

Bring a Bear!

Bring in a bear to act out your own bear hunt with!

Do you have any rucksacks or other items which would be good for going on a bear hunt?

Dates Duckling Class Assemblies Parents, Grandparents and Carers are invited Yellow Ducklings – Tuesday 12th May 3pm Green Ducklings – Tuesday 19th May 3pm School Half-Term Closure School closes Friday 22nd May at 3.30pm Re-opens Tuesday 2nd June at 8.50am

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Healthy Living Week June – Healthy eating/Healthy Mind Activities 9th June – Sponsored Fitness for Nepal 10th June – Scooter Day 11th June – Sports’ Day 1pm

TALK HOMEWORK Talk for Numbers Get your favourite toys e.g. cars, dinosaurs or dolls. Practise doubling them. Start with 1, double 1, then 2, double 2. What is the answer each time?

Get out your dominoes. Find the doubles and count the spots.

Roll two dice. Can you roll a double? What’s the answer?

Practise sharing your toys into groups of two, three and four.

Draw a shape picture dinosaur. Name the shapes you have used.

In the bath or in your sand pit find out which container holds the most or least.

Find out how many smaller containers it takes to fill a bigger container.

Practise writing numbers to 20 with chalk, paint or in the mud or sand with sticks. www.iboard.co.uk www.ictgames.com/numeracy Talk for Reading and Writing Practise the new (and old) sounds and tricky words sent home.

Read every night.

Practise writing letters correctly with paint, chalk or with sticks in the sand or mud. Share bear stories together.

Retell the ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ story in your own words.

Go on your own bear hunt in your bedroom or in the garden! Tell your story! www.phonicsplay.co.uk Phase 3 and 4 www.ictgames.com/literacy TALK FOR TOPIC Plan and make a junk model dinosaur and decorate it.

Can you find out some information about bears?

Bring in some facts to share with the class.

How many different types of bear can you name?

Draw or paint a bear hunt picture or your favourite kind of bear.

Make bear shaped biscuits together and take a photograph! www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies

Talk about everything!

Have fun!