Literacy / Communication & Language:

Weeks 19th Feb to 7th March

We started a new topic. This half-term we are learning all about growing. Our first book was 'Errol's Garden'. We learnt about growing plants in our gardens. We also looked at different parts of a plant and its functions. We planted some cresses.

 

 

Next we moved on to 'Little Red Hen's' story. This week we have learnt about the adventures of red hen who made delicious bread. We looked at simple recipes for making bread. We wrote shopping lists for the ingredients, and we made our own little loaves of bread.

  

Weeks 22nd Jan to 9th Feb

We have had an exciting time. We went to the Transport and Science museums. We also visited a local library.

 

 

From 29th Jan to 2nd Feb we had Story telling week. We learnt about different characters and settings and we tried to retell the story of 'Naughty bus'.

 

In the last week we talked about who we love and we made Valentines cards.

  

We also looked at how to make pancakes and we made our own pancakes.

  

Weeks 8th Jan to 19th Jan

Happy New Year to all our families.

This half-term we are learning about transport. We learnt what transport means, and we named different kinds of transport. Then we looked at what was going on land, what was in the water and what in the sky.

  

Our first story was 'Naughty Bus'. We looked at the front cover and the pictures inside the book, and we tried to guess what might be happening in the story. Then we read it and checked if we were right and how the text matched the pictures. We tried to retell the story and record our friends doing so.

  

We also introduced prepositional language and looked at pictures of the bus visiting different places. Then we tried to describe the pictures.

  

We also continued to learn phonics. We played phonics and rhyming games.

  

Please help your child with reading at home.

Weeks 27th Nov to 8th Dec

Our core text for the last 2 weeks was 'Little Red Riding Hood'. We liked listening to the story and were eager to find out what would happen to Little Red Riding Hood.

We looked closely at the beginning, middle and the end of the story. We drew pictures for the 3 parts and attempted to write some keywords from the story. Then we tried to retell the story.

  

We also looked at the characters from the story and used describing words to describe them. We also compared the characters with the ones from the stories that we had learnt before.

  

We discussed the items we would take for our Grandmas and tried to write them down. 

 

In phonics, we continued to recap all phase 2 sounds, blend. We also started to read Red Ditty books and write short ditties using finger spaces.

Weeks 13th Nov to 24th Nov

We were reading 'Three Little Pigs Story'. Children enjoyed listening to the story first and then joining in with repeated refrains. They loved to act out the story and were keen on playing the parts of either a pig, a mummy or a wolf. 

We looked at the types of houses the pigs built and discussed what materials they were made of.

  

Next, we decided which house was the strongest and why. To check that, we designed and helped the pigs make their own houses. Then we checked whether they were strong enough to resist our huffing and puffing. 

  

We looked closely at the characters in this story and described them. After that, we decided on which characters were good and which were bad. Then, we compared them with the characters from the previous stories that we learnt.

Finally, we found a letter from the wolf saying he wanted to destroy pigs' houses, so we created wanted posters to track and catch the wolf. We used descriptive words that we had learnt previously. We sounded them out and attempted to write them.

 

Weeks 30th Oct to 10th Nov

After half-term, our core book was 'Goldilocks'.

We looked at the book cover, discussed the pictures, read it a few times and tried to join in with retelling the story. We looked at the characters and described the setting. 

In week two, we discussed shopping lists. We talked about what they look like and what they are used for. We discussed what ingredients and what toppings we needed to make porridge. We tried to write the lists out. After that, we looked at the porridge recipe and the process of making it. Finally, we made porridge. Most of us loved it. See some of our photos below:

                                                                                                  

   

     

After that, we sequenced the pictures of making porridge.

 

We also had two amazing trips. In the first week, we went to St James' park. We played some Autumn related games. In the second week, we went to the cinema and watched the film           Puss in Boots. We were all very tired at the end of the day but excited. 

We also talked about Guy Fawkes night and made fireworks. Additionally, we discussed Diwali and made Rangoli patterns. We looked at what festivals we celebrate and how we celebrate them and compared the celebrations with how people celebrate Diwali.

Finally, we watched a video on Remembrance Day from the point of view of a rabbit. We discussed what happened and how the animals felt. Then we talked about Remembrance Day and how and why people celebrate it. We made poppies, and we put them outside on the handrail.

  

We started reading the 'Pumpkin Soup' story. We talked about the recipe for pumpkin soup. Then we cut the vegetables, added water and salt and tried making the soup. Next, we sequenced pictures of how to make pumpkin soup, and we tried to identify and write some sounds. Some of us could even blend and write CVC words. We also talked about the characters from the story. We discussed what they looked like, what instruments they played and what their job was in making the soup. We will continue reading and exploring the story next week.  

In phonics, we continued learning a new sound every day. We began blending simple words and learnt a few red words, which are tricky words. 

We also continued writing our names daily. 

Have a look at our amazing photos of literacy learning:

     

   

Weeks: 9th October to 20th October

In the first week, we continued exploring the 'Pumpkin soup' story. We looked at the characters and discussed what they looked like, what instruments they played and what their job was in the story. Then we matched the pictures with the correct animals.

In week 2, we read 'Funny bones'. We talked about our body parts and named different bones. We learnt new vocabulary: skull, pelvis, femur and patella for the names of some of our bones. We played Simon says game using the new words. Then we made natural faces using play dough, conkers, seashells, gems, stones and leaves. After that, we described our faces and tried to identify and write the initial sounds. 

   

In phonics, we covered all sounds in phase 2:

Please, practise the sounds and their formation during the half-term holidays.

We also continued to play blending games and attempted to blend some words: