Ducklings Newsletter 21/10/16

Friday 21st October 2016 Our News!

Thank you to all of the parents and carers who came to the first parents’ evenings. It was lovely to be able to talk to you all about how brilliantly they have settled into school.

We have been enjoying learning all about Harvest time and how different people celebrate this time of year. Thank you to all you who came to join us in our Autumn/Harvest activity afternoon. It was lovely to see so many of you there and the children thoroughly enjoyed playing and learning with you in their classrooms.

The children have enjoyed reading the traditional tale of ‘The Little Red Hen.’ They all know it so well now they have been having great fun retelling the story and acting it out with puppets and masks using the repetitive language from the story. They have been busy writing what different characters from the story said.

Mrs Moss and Ms Watmough have enjoyed taking the children on Autumn welly walks around the school grounds to explore and investigate signs of Autumn. They were able to fill the wheelbarrows with lots of interesting things which they used to make large scale pictures.

Thank you for all of the lovely, different vegetables you have sent in for our farm shop. The children have adored being shopkeepers and customers!

In Mathematics we have been busy counting groups of objects and using different language to say which group has greater or fewer. We have also been using seasonal fruit and vegetables, conkers and fir cones to explore ordering them according to their size.

Our funky fingers activity has been using cotton buds and paint to dab and print pumpkin shapes, using our pincer grip.

In our creative learning the children have enjoyed learning the words and thinking of actions to some lovely autumn songs. Ask them to sing them for you! They have also been using pastels to sketch seasonal pumpkins and squash. They look fantastic!

A big thank you to all of the children who have brought in some of their Magic Moments to share with the class. It is lovely to find out how well you are learning at home as well as at school. Please see your child’s class teacher if you need more Magic Moment slips.

STARS OF THE WEEK Isaac Taziker for being a kind, caring and thoughtful member of the Yellow Ducklings class.

Anabelle Coughlan from the Brown Ducklings for beautiful handwriting and phonics in her book Our next newsletter will be on Friday 11th November and will give details about all the fun activities we have planned for the next two weeks.

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

Staff email: Mrs Catterall m.catterall@carletongreen.lancs.sch.uk Mrs Lees s.lees@carletongreen.lancs.sch.uk

OUR LEARNING

Autumn and The Little Red Hen When we return we will continue our topic about autumn as the children are enjoying it so much.

We will continue to read lots of different versions of The Little Red Hen and talk about the ways in which they are similar and different. Have a look at home or when at the library for other versions of this story for us to share in school together.

On our return we will share our holiday news and write about this in our learning journals.

In Phonics the sounds we will be learning are c, k, ck, e, u and r.

And the tricky words we are learning to read and write are; I, go, to, the and no.

We will continue to send home sets of letter flash cards as we cover them, so that you can use all the sounds covered to practise letter/sound recognition, reading words and making words.

It is important that they can hear the sounds for themselves in words and say them correctly.

In Mathematics we will continue with recognising numbers and practise ordering and sequencing them. We will explore how heavy the vegetables are in the farm shop and order them according to their weight.

We will explore mixing the primary colours to see what colours we can make and use our fingers to print some autumn trees.

At snack time the children will try and taste different types of bread and think of different words to describe them.

REMINDERS SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Don’t forget to look out for the school newsletter, as well as our Ducklings newsletter. It is full with important information and dates. It should be emailed out to you weekly and is put on the school website too.

BREAD TASTING Please inform your child’s class teacher if you have any concerns about your child tasting the different breads, especially if your child has any allergies.

FARM SHOP Please can we ask each child to bring in another vegetable on the first day we return to school, to keep our farm shop fully stocked!! The more varied the better! Thank you!

PARENT HEPLERS WANTED!! Please see Mrs Catterall or Mrs Lees if you are able to help. It can be just for an hour and doesn’t have to be every week!

READING BOOKS PLEASE can all reading books be in school EVERY day! Try and read a little every night.

JUNK Please keep and send in any junk such as big and small boxes, tubes, yoghurt pots, egg boxes and plastic containers.

NAMES ON UNIFORM Please can you ensure that all items of uniform are clearly named

PUDDLESUITS AND WELLIES Please can all children return their clean puddle suits on the first day back.

MUD KITCHEN We are hoping to make a mud kitchen in our garden and are asking for any old metal pots, pans or lids, plastic jugs, wooden spoons, spatulas and so on. We would be very grateful.

SOCKS AND SPARE CLOTHES Please can all children have a spare pair of socks in their book bags, especially as we learn outdoors and the weather is getting colder and wetter. Please return any spare socks/clothes that have been borrowed from school If you are having a clear out and have any spare socks (any colour will do!) please send in. Thank you

DATES Half term Holiday School re-opens Monday 7th November Writer and Mathematician of the half term Assembly Tuesday 8th November 3pm – A text will be sent to you if your child is chosen Little Chicks’ and Ducklings’ Nativity Monday 19th December and Tuesday 20th December Family Christmas Candlelit Carol Service at Rossall Chapel Wednesday 21st December School Closes for Christmas Thursday 22nd December at 2.30pm Return to school Friday 6th January 2017 –This day is a Design and Technology day so please send your children in clothes that you don’t mind the children getting messy.

TALK HOMEWORK Talk for Numbers Practise counting form 0-20 and back again.

Make numbers out of 2 digits.

Put 4 or 5 different numbers in order.

Practise comparing fruit and vegetables at home – which is the heaviest? Lightest? www.ictgames.com/numeracy

Talk for Reading and Writing Please look at the difference between words and letters.

Talk about why the spaces are there and how a group of sounds together make a word.

Count the words on the page.

Type or write out a sentence, cut it up and count the words that sentence had.

Please don’t worry about the children actually WRITING. They will benefit much more from finding out about sentences, words and writing and reading than by making them do it.

Some of us still find it hard to read and write our names.

Here are a few ideas you could try to help.

Make the name out of magnetic letters, label the child’s belongings and encourage them to find them, spot the letters in order in a newspaper, magazine, book, write their name in chalk outside and let them wash it off with a paintbrush and water.

Continue to listen and learn the sounds each day as the children talk about them at home.

Play I spy with the new set letters.

Have a go at being Metal Mike! Ask them to chop up a word e.g cat- c/a/t or you say c/a/t and get them to say the word Listen for the new sounds at the beginning, middle and end of words. www.ictgames.com/literacy Geraldine the Giraffe – phonics clips and watch Jolly Phonics songs on youtube www.phonicsplay.co.uk

Talk For Topic Talk about how to keep safe in the dark.

Talk about Bonfire Night Safety.

Draw and write about how you celebrate Halloween or Bonfire Night

Talk about everything!

Have fun!