Ducklings Newsletter 17/11/17

Friday 17th November 2017

Our News!

Thank you to all of the parents who came to our Parents’ Evenings. It was lovely to be able to talk to you about how well they have all settled, how well each of them is learning and to share with you their next steps, so that we can all work together to help to achieve them. We hope you enjoyed looking at their books too?!

The children settled back into the school routine brilliantly again after the two week holiday.

We were very proud of them! They enjoyed sharing all of their holiday news with us, in particular how they had celebrated Halloween and Bonfire night and talked about what they had been busy doing during their time at home.

The children have enjoyed learning all about Remembrance day and bonfire night and why they are celebrated. They had a visit from Little Ted who wasn’t sure how to stay safe on bonfire night and they were all able to tell him how to take care!

The children have been busy creating rockets with junk materials and construction equipment.

Outside they have been using the percussion instruments to create their own firework music and explored moving in different ways with coloured scarves and ribbons to dance like fireworks. They had great fun with runny paint and glitter to make amazing splatter effect firework pictures.

In mathematics the children have been learning all about 2D and 3D shapes, learning to recognise and name them, as well as starting to describe some of the properties of each shape.

They have been on shape hunts around school and have made some lovely shape pictures and models.

Last week was Anti-Bullying week so we joined in with this by reading lots of stories about being a good friend. The children now all know what to do to if ever they feel they are being bullied.

We have talked lots about what makes a good friend and the grown-ups in school have been awarding certificates to children who have been a good friend.

In phonics the children have been putting their knowledge of the sounds we have been learning into practise by blending them together to help them read simple words.

WRITERS OF THE HALF-TERM Alexander Haigh and Emily Stewart MATHEMATICIANS OF THE HALF-TERM Jacob Ashworth and Jack Hodgin

OUR LEARNING

Nursery Rhymes On Monday we are going to have a surprise visit from a nursery rhyme character to introduce our new nursery rhyme topic. Ask them all about it?!

We will be reading and performing actions to lots of familiar nursery rhymes and introducing them to some new ones.

We will investigate the best material to protect Humpty Dumpty from a fall and find out the best way for Mary, Mary to grow seeds in her garden.

In the creative area we will decorate and stick back together our own Humpty Dumpty, as well as painting our favourite nursery rhyme characters.

In the reading area we will play lots of rhyming games, matching up the rhyming words and pictures. We will also use puppets and props to perform nursery rhymes with the puppet theatre.

Outdoors, on the stage, we will perform our favourite nursery rhymes for our friends and will see who can build the best wall for Humpty using construction equipment.

We will be continuing with Phase 2 of the Letters and Sounds program in phonics.

The sounds we will be learning are; e, u, r, h and b. We will also be learning to read and write common words called ‘high frequency words’ that can be ‘sounded’ out with the sounds we know, for e.g. is and at.

We will 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 complete our work on shape by exploring making repeating patterns with them.

TALK HOMEWORK Talk for Numbers Find 2D/3D shapes around the house and environment. Can you name them?

Take photos of you having a 2D or 3D shape hunt at home and email then to your teacher!

How many sides and corners have they got? Do they have straight or curved sides? What shaped faces do the 3D shapes have.

Draw around shapes and make a picture. Make a pattern with shapes that repeats itself.

Sing some counting rhymes – 1,2 Buckle my shoe, Ten green bottles and ten fat sausages. www.ictgames.com/numeracy www.tesiboard.co.uk/activityfinder

Talk for Reading and Writing Ask the grown-ups at home to say a word and you think of a word that rhymes with it. Is it a real or a silly word? - cat, bat, zat Find objects when you are at home and out and about that start with the sounds e, u, r, h and b..

Practise writing these letters in sand or with chalk Look for these letters in books at home.

Listen for the new sounds at the beginning, in the middle or end of words.

Have a go at being Metal Mike! Sound talk words e.g. hen - ”h- e-n” Watch Geraldine the Giraffe (+ the letter/sound) – phonics clips and watch and sing the Jolly Phonics songs on YouTube www.phonicsplay.co.uk www.ictgames.com/literacy Talk for topic Learn a new nursery rhyme at home and perform it to the class.

Draw a picture of your favourite nursery rhyme or nursery rhyme character.

Funky Fingers Sing action rhymes and perform the actions with your fingers, for e.g. Five currant buns, 1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive and Wind the bobbin up!

Please practise using a knife and fork at home as some children still find this quite tricky to do.

Talk about everything!

Have fun!

Late Arrivals Please ensure that your child arrives at school on time, as our learning begins straight away each morning.

Every time a child is late, even a few minutes, it has to be recorded on the register.

If they are late, it can mean that they will have missed our Morning Maths activity and learning the new sound of the day in phonics. If they are regularly late it is very difficult for the children to catch up with this learning and can very easily fall behind the learning of the rest of the class.

Thank you for your help with this matter.

Website

Look at the blogs on the Ducklings class page of our school website, also the photo galleries too, to find out more about what we have been learning.

Junk Materials Our junk supply is quite low after making our model rockets, so any contributions would be gratefully received! Thanks!

Reading

Please try and read with your child each night, even if it is only a few pages. It really does make a huge difference. Also, please remember to sign and comment when your child has read so that we know to change their book for them

Twigs and fir cones

Please collect and send in any twigs for our Christmas decorations which we will make out of natural materials.

Parent/Carer Helpers WANTED!! Please see Mrs Catterall or Mrs Lees if you are able to help us in our classes. It can be just for an hour at a time that suits you and doesn’t have to be every week!

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DATES

Thursday 30 November at 09:00 - Physical Development in the Ducklings Meeting for parents in the ‘The Wing’ at the front of school all about how and why teaching physical development is so important Friday 1st December is the closing date for payment and orders for the Gazette ‘New Starters’ photographs, which will be appearing in the newspaper.

Friday 8th December ~14:30-15:30. Open afternoon to share how we carry out Guided Reading sessions in school.

Little Chicks’ and Ducklings’ Nativities ~ Tuesday 12 th December at 09:30, 14:00 and Wednesday 13 th December at 09:30 st Our next newsletter will be on Friday 1 December 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