31.01.22 - This coming week in Early Years

 Hello everyone!

This week we have added the Numberblocks 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 to our display in class. We have enjoyed learning about each of these numbers and have talked about how, in each of the episodes we watched, 1 more was added to create the next number. 

Next week sees the start of Chinese New Year, so this will be the main focus for our learning, we will be:

• Learning about Chinese New Year. This year it is the year of the Tiger.
• Sharing the story "The Great Race" to find out all about the Chinese Zodiac and how each year is named after an animal.
• Finding out about how Chinese New Year is celebrated and also watching some Dragon dancing.
• Making our own Chinese Dragons.
• Learning 5 new Vocabulary Ninja words.
• Learning about addition in our Mathematics sessions.

This week we will be having a review week in Phonics to support the children with their recall of our digraphs and the tricky words he, she, me, we and be. These words have also been sent home today.

It was lovely to see that some of the children took up the matchbox challenge last week, we really enjoyed sharing the photos in class. If any of the children still want to try, then please do - it doesn't need to be a matchbox, just a small lidded box. 

Finally, please remember that I am always contactable via email, please use earlyyears@downhallprimary.com.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield

24.01.22 - This coming week in Early Years

 Hello everyone!

This week we have learnt the first 4 vowel digraphs in our Phonics sessions. I have added a clip of how we say these sounds to the Early Years website or you can find them by clicking here. As I said last week, we do continually revisit these sounds in our sessions but would be very grateful if you can support your child in practising them at home. 

In our Mathematic sessions this week we have been looking at capacity. Miss Cooper managed to fit 12 things into a matchbox and I have challenged the children to see if they can beat this score at home. It would be great to know how you get on. The clip we watched can be found here, if you want to get some ideas!

Now on to our learning for the coming week, we will be:

• Sharing the book "Dinosaur More!". This is a non-fiction version of last week's book "Dinosaur Roar!".
• Learning what non-fiction means and using our book to find out information about the different dinosaurs.
• Finishing our descriptive sentences about the dinosaurs from last week.
• Adding dinosaurs to the boxes we made last week, to complete our habitats.
• Learning the next set of vowel digraphs in our Phonics sessions.
  
• Moving on to the phase "Growing 6, 7, 8" in our Mathematics sessions, thinking about and comparing the numbers 6-8.
• Labelling the different parts of a dinosaur, using our segmenting skills to help us spell the words.

Don't forget you can always contact me using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com, we love getting the children's WOWs and it would also be fabulous to hear about any matchbox attempts!

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield

17.01.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello!

This week we have learnt the 4 consonant digraphs in our Phonics sessions. The children have brought home these sounds today and I have uploaded a clip showing how we say these sounds to the Early Years part of the school website. Please don't worry if your child finds these sounds more difficult to say, particularly the /th/ sound, we will be recapping them all throughout the coming weeks.

This week we have also heard all of the children read. It is so lovely when we get to read in the children's diaries how well they are doing at home, so please do keep on writing those comments, as we do find them helpful. I have updated some of the children's Big Cat e-book libraries too this week and will continue to do so next week. 

On to our learning for the coming week, we will be:

          

• Sharing the story "Dinosaur Roar!", this is another rhyming book so we will be trying to find all of the rhyming words. 
• Writing a caption to go along with one of the pictures from "Dinosaur Roar!", using describing words to match the picture. 
• Comparing objects by their mass or capacity in our Mathematics sessions. 
• Learning the first 4 vowel digraphs in our Phonics sessions.
• Making some 3D boxes to create some homes for different dinosaurs, using the illustrations from this week's book to help us with ideas.
• Learning some new Vocabulary Ninja words and having a go at writing them each day too.

As always, please remember that you can always contact me using the Early Years email.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield

10.01.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello Everybody!

Well for a 4 day week, that was a very busy one! We welcomed a new member into Pearl Class and enjoyed spending time with each other again. 

This week most of the children have completed a language screening activity, working with Mrs Fincham. I have also done another sound check, to ensure we are ready to move on in our Phonics. This has meant that we were unable to hear the children read. Reading will resume next week, but please don't forget the children have got their Big Cat e-book library if they want to try a different text.

Thank you so much to all of you who worked with their child to discuss their ideas for our latest project, I've been enjoying reading their different ideas and finding out what they want to know about dinosaurs. If your child hasn't returned their sheet yet, please don't worry, just return it next week.

Now onto our learning for the coming week, we will be:

• Sharing the book Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus! 
• Listening out for and writing a list of all the rhyming words in this week's text.
• Learning 4 new sounds in our Phonics sessions, I have told the children the special name we call these sounds....I wonder if any of them have told you! We will also learn 3 new tricky words.
• Continuing with our work in the phase "Alive in 5!" in our Mathematics sessions. This week we will be finding different ways to make 5 by grouping.
• Creating our very own Rumpus in the garden, seeing if we can move as well as the dinosaurs did!

It has been lovely to start the term with some WOWs, please don't forget you can always email me a WOW, or indeed ask me any questions using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com and I will get back to you.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Miss Wakefield

03.01.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you have all had a happy and healthy Christmas break. This week sees the start of our new project "Dinosaurs". I am looking forward to hearing about the children's ideas for our project and what they would like to learn about.

On to our learning for next week, we will be:

• Sharing our holiday news with each other, discussing things we have been doing during the Christmas break.
• Sharing Harry and the Dinosaurs stories. We will be reading several of these, including "Harry and the Dinosaurs go to School" and "Harry and the Robots".
• Discussing the story "Harry and the Robots" and thinking about the ways we take care of each other.
• Revisiting all of the sounds for the letters of the alphabet in our Phonics sessions, in preparation for moving on to the consonant digraphs next week.
• Labelling different parts of one of Harry's robots, using our sounds to help spell the words we need to write.
• Comparing different quantities in our Mathematics sessions, saying which has more and which has fewer. We will also be finding 1 more or 1 less than a given number as our mission for this week. 

Have a great weekend. See you on Tuesday!

Miss Wakefield