Class R

Scroll down for previous entries and this term's work plan.

Week 1 - this week we have had lots of practical activities from making pancakes to drawing Tortie, the leopard tortoise who came to visit! We have also made the most of all this rain by making a duck pond out of the big puddle that appeared in our outside play area! We had a lovely afternoon on Thursday when many of you came into class to play phonic games with the children. I hope you had as much fun as the children did and that you enjoyed the chance to see displays, look through the learning journals and read your child's unique child report. We will continue to have open afternoon so please let me know if you have any ideas for themes!

Dear parents,

After all the snow of last term, we are hoping that spring will now arrive!

This term we will be looking for new life developing from plants to animals and linking the relevance of this to us having eggs at Easter. I had arranged for us to borrow and incubator to hatch some chicks in class, but at the moment the incubator is unavailable, if any one knows of one we could use, please let me know!

Children can continue to change their library books on a daily basis (you may need to remind them at times!) and P.E. will continue to be on a Mondays and Wednesdays. The children look very smart in their new coloured t-shirts and will bring them home for washing in the Easter holidays so they can show you then!

Reading will usually be on a Wednesday but please ensure you child brings their book bag to school every day containing their reading book, reading record and pot of words. As discussed during the open afternoon, if your child would like extra books, they can hand in their reading book inside their reading records on a Monday or Friday and I will change it for them, but only if their reading record shows that they have read their current book at home.

Thank you to everyone who came to our rescheduled phonic open afternoon, I felt it was a great success and I know the children enjoyed it so I hope you found it useful too. I will be sending out a letter soon to find out what focus you would like to future parent sessions. I hope you all found the ‘unique child’ reports useful, I will be sending home your copies this week.

The home learning tasks were successful last term so I will continue to send home activities each weekend. These are optional but I keep a record of which children return them and those who complete each task receive a reward at the end of the term.

We have parent’s evenings coming up on 22^nd and 24^th March so we will have a chance to discuss your child’s progress then but if you have any comments or concerns, please don’t hesitate to come and see me.

Remember to check Class R’s page on the school website for updates of what we have been learning in class.

Thank you for your continued involvement and support,

Mrs Anna Whannell

Communication, Language & Literacy · Option of changing library books daily · Individual reading & high frequency words once a week · Group reading of SoundsWrite books once a week · Shared reading of ORT stories from big books and on the interactive whiteboard · Handwriting – patterns, names & individual letter formation · Writing about half term news · Writing linked to topic work	Phonics · Letter & sounds activities and games including dictation of simple sentences · Ongoing use of phonics in reading & writing · Phonic songs & games · Reading tricky words (words which cannot be sounded out & need to be learnt as a whole word) – my, you, they, her, all & are · Spelling the tricky words; the, to, I, go & no · Continuing with learning diagraphs (2 or 3 letters that make one sound) including oo, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure & er	Personal, Social & Emotional Development · Quickly and independently dressing for P.E. · Recognising appropriate behaviour when playing and working · Being polite, sharing and taking turns · Learning about Lent and Easter · Planning their own activities in plan-do-review time · Recognising and discussing different feelings · Recognising and celebrating how we are all different
Mathematical Development Number · Recognising numbers to 20, especially 11, 12, 13 & 15 (the tricky ones!) · Counting, ordering and finding missing numbers to 10 and 20 · 1 more & 1 less & next door numbers i.e. 7’s next door numbers are 6 & 8 · Reviewing addition · Introducing subtraction · Number bonds to 10	St Mary’s Catholic Primary School Topic Web For Class R Term 4 2010 Class R topic: Spring & Easter	Mathematical Development Shape, space & measure · Beginning to use mathematical language such as sides, edges, corners, faces to name & describe 2D & 3D shapes · Using positional language to give instructions · Patterns with colours, shapes, actions and sounds · Introducing symmetry with butterfly paintings
Creative Development · Observational drawings including of a tortoise! · Using ICT to design & decorate an egg · Designing creatures to hatch from an egg · Making creatures from egg boxes · Season paintings · Symmetrical butterfly paintings · Easter craft activities · Exploring different sounds & sound patterns with instruments · Making instruments	Physical Development · Gym – using a range of equipment to balance, travel on, under, over, through, and to aim · Dance – movement to music from ‘The carnival of the animals’ · Write Dance – introducing ‘the tree’ Role-play areas: Developing a ‘vets’ inside, farm and jungle outside!	Knowledge & Understanding of the World · Finding out which animals come from eggs · Having a tortoise come to visit · Planting bulbs · Learning about the season · Looking at new life in Spring · Learning about baby animals · Looking at the life cycles of butterflies and frogs · Cooking; pancakes, cup cakes for Mother’s day & Easter nests · Learning about the events of Easter

Happy New Year!!! Welcome back, I hope you have all had a lovely holiday and a happy and healthy Christmas.

Term 3 January 2010

All children must have their bookbags (with their reading book, reading record and pot of words) in school every day. They now also need their P.E. kits (just black or blue shorts and plimsoles). In this cold weather please also ensure that your child has appropriate outdoor clothing - they are welcome to leave a pair of wellies at school.

Communication, Language & Literacy · Library – option of daily · Individual reading & high frequency words (see attached letter) · Shared reading of ORT stories from big books and on the interactive whiteboard · Group reading of Sounds Write books · Handwriting – patterns, names & individual letter formation · Writing stories as a whole class and in groups · Acting out stories · Learning about information books · Stories linked to dragons or dinosaurs including ‘Harry and the bucket full of dinosaurs’	Phonics · Letters and sounds activities and games including simple dictation · Phonic songs & games · Tricky words (words which cannot be sounded out & need to be learnt as a whole word) · Learning the sounds j, v, w, x, y, z · Introduction diagraphs (2 letters that make one sound) including zz, qu, sh, ch, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, ar, or, ur, ow · Blending and segmenting activities (to read and spell words) · Learning the letters names i.e. capital letters through the alphabet song · Ongoing use of phonics in reading & writing	Personal, Social & Emotional Development General: · Independent dressing for P.E. · Sharing · Playing together · Taking care of each other and each others belongings · Being independent in selecting resources · Showing an awareness of our own and other’s feelings · Behaving and expressing feelings in appropriate ways · Circle-time games · News times & discussion times · Begins to know about own culture & beliefs & those of other people · Planning their own activities in plan-do-review time
Mathematical Development Number · Recognising numbers to 20 · Counting to 20 · Ordering numbers to 10 (& 20) · 1 more & 1 less linked to ‘Harry and his bucket full of dinosaurs’ · Using dinosaurs for addition and subtraction sums · Introducing +, - and = · Sharing fairly · Using numbers in recipes · Measuring in cooking activities	St Mary’s Catholic Primary School Topic Web For Class R Term 3 2010 Topic: dragons and dinosaurs	Mathematical Development Shape, space & measure · Maths activities linked to topic where possible · Sorting & matching activities with dinosaurs · Ordering dinosaurs by height and by weight · Recognising & continuing repeated patterns · Naming 3D shapes · Describing 2D shapes · Using positional language · Learning the months of the year · Measuring dinosaurs
Creative Development · Construction activities linked to castles · Dinosaur craft activities · Dinosaur puppets · ICT art · Dragon craft activities · Making large group models of dinosaurs, dragons and castles · Chinese New Year activities · Adding movements and music to dinosaur stories and poems · Dinosaur and dragon role-play areas	Physical Development · Gym – using a range of equipment to balance, travel on, under, over, through, and to aim · Dance – movement to music from ‘The Nutcracker’ · Write Dance – continuing Volcano & robot & introducing the train	Knowledge & Understanding of the World · Chinese New Year – music, dragons & cooking noodles! · Building a live dinosaur island · Using simple computer programs, microscopes and digital cameras · Cooking; dinosaur biscuits and dinosaur food · Learning about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores

This term our topic is dragons and dinosaurs, we will be developing a dinosaur museum in the classroom and the children have planned to turn the climbing frame into a dragon guarded castle! We will be linking as many as our literacy and maths activities to dinosaurs as possible. If your child has books or toys linked to the themes that they would like to add to the museum or role-play areas they are welcome to do so but must label them and be willing for other children to look at them and to leave them at school for a few weeks.

We have quite an intensive phonic programme for this term introducing the children to lots of new sounds. I will keep you up to date with the sounds each week so you can practise with your child at home – the more practice they get with phonics, the more quickly their reading and writing skills will develop.

This term, the children will begin individual reading which will allow them to move through the reading scheme at their own pace. If your child is finding some of the books easy, they may have 2 or 3 at a time or move up a stage. If they are struggling please feel free to see me so we can discuss the best way to support them. Children will be heard to read individually once a week and will also read in a group once a week. The group reading books are from our phonic scheme but won’t be sent home.

The children will need their P.E. kits this term. School is providing their first Tshirt in their house point colours so you just need to provide black or blue shorts and plimsoles – please ensure that everything is clearly labelled!

Many of you did a fantastic job at supporting your child with their home learning tasks last term! I will continue to send home small tasks for them to do. If at anytime your child wants to have a go at writing in their learning journals, perhaps about something they’ve done at the weekends, then this should be encouraged, and you can also add photos or post cards etc. for the children to show back in school.

We will have an open afternoon in the near future (more information to follow) where you are welcome to come into the classroom. I will also be taking that opportunity to discuss you children’s ‘Unique learning journey’ report with you.

As this tends to be our wettest term, I thought it might be better for you to start meeting your children from the outside classroom door at home time. If you have older children to collect, you can wait on the main playground within view of our room or in the outside area, this way you can shelter under the canapés if it is raining!

Thanks for you continued support

Mrs Anna Whannell

Wow - what a busy couple of weeks we've had!! The Nativity plays were a huge success and all the children did a wonderful job. I've added a few pictures for you to see (scroll down). Now with just a few days to go until the end of term, the children (and grown-ups!) are all getting very excited about Christmas!! With christmas dinner today, class parties tomorrow and carols around the tree, there is still lots to look forward to.

On a practical note, the children must bring warm out door clothing to school. I have a few spare scarves and gloves for chidlren to borrow but it's obviously better if they have their own. Children can also bring wellies in - either to keep at school or to wear to school and then change in to school shoes. I have done some phonics assessments this week and have been so please that the majority of the children have remembered all the phonics so far! As a reminder, here are the phonics we have learnt:

s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, e, u, r, h, b, f, l and the digraphs (2 letters that make 1 sound) ck (as in duck), ss (like in kiss), ff (like in puff) and ll (like in till). Please review the letter sounds, their reading books and their pot of words before they return in January ready to learn the next set of letters and words!

All that's left for me to say is I wish you all a happy, health and fun family Christmas and a happy new year!! I hope you enjoy the photos below:

Week 4 - This week we focussed on birthdays, something children know a lot about!! Again, thank you to everyone who sent in photos - please come in to the classroom sometime after school to see all the photos in our celebrations display. The children have made birthday cakes out of playdough and painted birthday cake pictures. We have been talking about one more and 1 less in relation to age (ie next year I will be 6, last year I was 4 etc) in our number work and you may have seen our party zone outside! Lots of the children have drawn lovely pictures of their favourite birthday party in their learning journals - thank you to everyone who has supported the children with their home learning tasks, the children are always very proud to show their work, especially when they include personal photos and drawings.

Week 3 - this week we learnt all about church celebrations namely baptism and weddings. We went to St John's church with class 1 and acted out a baptism. Back at school we turned one of our play houses into a church and acted out baptisms there. Later in the week I brought in my wedding dress to show the children!. Some of the children went on to act out weddings in our little church and we made a lovely bouquet with everyone making a flower to add to it! Thank you to everyone who sent the children in with their baptism candles, robes and photos as well as photos from weddings they'd been to or of their parents, it was lovely for the children to be able to share their precious things.

Week 2 - this week we are learning about Diwali, the Hindu festival of light. The children will be making chapati (flat bread) and Diva lamps (out of clay). If you have any experiences or artifacts relating to Diwali please feel free to send them in with the children.

Week 1 - we started this term by walking to the post office at the co-op. The children all wrote poems which they then posted after buying their own stamps at post office counter! Thank you to all the parents who came along to help. We have now set up a post office in the class room to encourage the children to write in their play. Our first week of formal phonics teaching has gone well. The children have learnt s, a, t, and p and have started to build words such as at, sat, sit, tip etc. If you have magnetic, sponge or flash card letters at home, you could practise building and reading these words with you child.

As we are thinking about celebrations this term, we focused this week on Guy Fawks night and celebrating with fire works. The children had a 'home learning task' to do and I was delighted with how many children remembered to do this and return their books on Monday so well done to all those children and the grown ups who helped them!!

Communication, language & literacy Writing name from memory Speaking & listening during circle times Shared & groups reading of ORT stories Blending sounds in words to read words i.e. d-o-g, dog Segmenting sounds in words to spell them i.e. cat is c-a-t Learning the following high frequency words to read & spell; is, it, in, at, and, to, the, no, go, I	Phonics We will be learning phonics (letter sounds) in the following weekly sets: s, a, t, p i, n, m, d g, o, c, k ck, e, u, r h, b, f, l ff, ll, ss We will learn that digraphs are 2 letters that make one sounds such as the ‘ck’ in duck Stories & activities linked to the phonic such as making Elmer the elephant collages to reinforce ‘e’	Personal, social & emotional development Recognising & describing different feelings Sharing during games, play and talking Learning about eating healthy food Learning about our own culture i.e. Guy fawkes night, baptisms, weddings, Christmas and our birthdays Learning about other cultures – Diwali (the Hindu festival of light) Treasure box activity (see below)
Mathematical development – number Ordinal numbers i.e. 1^st, 2nd Recognising 0 to 20 Writing numbers to 10 Ordering numbers Next door number i.e. 4’s next door numbers are 3 & 5 Careful counting Basic addition & subtraction	St Mary’s Catholic Primary Work Plan for Class R Term 2 2009 < Print This Page © Primary Technologies 2007-2010