We hope that you all enjoyed a lovely break. It’s hard to believe we are already into the final term of the year! We have had a wonderfully busy week back, filled with exciting activities and a renewed sense of energy amongst the children.

RWI

This term, we have established new RWI groups tailored to meet the needs of each child. Your child should be clear about the goals we are working towards and are already demonstrating great enthusiasm and effort to meet their targets. One of our key focusses this term is to cultivate ‘speedy readers’. We believe that encouraging children to develop their reading fluency is crucial for their overall literacy progression.

To support this, we are promoting the use of ‘Fred in your Head’. This technique helps children to blend sounds mentally, which is essential for improving their reading speed. The more they practise this, the more confident and competent they will become.

We also highly recommend that you encourage your child to reread books they have already read. Familiarity with the text allows them to internalise words, leading to quicker recognition and better comprehension. Rereading not only helps build confidence but also reinforces their learning.

Thank you for your continued support at home. It really does make a difference to your child’s learning.

Maths

This week we have been focusing on comparing numbers and enhancing our estimation skills.

We have been using a variety of resources, including numicon and tens frames, to explore the concepts of more than, greater than, less than, fewer than, and equal to. The children have been keen to engage with these materials, and it has been wonderful to see them enthusiastically comparing different quantities. By using numicon, we have made these comparisons much more visual and tangible, helping children to understand the relationships between numbers more clearly.

In addition to comparing numbers, we have also had fun showing off our subitising skills with the tens frames. This has allowed the children to recognise how many items are present at a glance, reinforcing their number sense and confidence in handling numbers.

We then moved on to the concept of estimation. We would look at an amount, compare it to another, and discuss whether it was greater than or fewer than before making our estimations. One of the significant lessons we have learned is that it is perfectly fine not to have the exact answer; being close is also acceptable. This realisation has greatly helped develop our resilience, as the children understand that the focus is not solely on accuracy but also on the thought process involved.

To further apply these skills, we estimated the length and height of various objects around the classroom. This practical application has been both fun and educational, allowing the children to see maths in the world around them.

Next week we will be learning about addition.

PSHE

This week we have engaged in Healthy Relationships Week, which forms an essential part of the Personal, Social, and Health Education (PSHE) curriculum.

During this week, we focused on the significant impact that words can have on one another, discussing how they can both uplift and hurt feelings. The children participated in creating self-portraits, which served as a wonderful way for them to express who they are. They then had the opportunity to move around the classroom and share kind compliments with their peers. These compliments were then written around their portraits, creating a lovely visual reminder of the positive words shared by their friends.

In addition to celebrating kindness, we also took the time to explore the effects of unkind words. We discussed how such words can hurt feelings and what individuals can do if they encounter unkindness. The children began to understand the importance of communicating with a trusted adult when they feel uncomfortable, moving away from negative situations, or addressing unkind behaviour directly by telling others to stop.

To deepen their understanding, we examined various scenarios in which unkind behaviours might occur and considered possible responses. This discussion was not only valuable in reinforcing the messages of kindness and respect but also encouraged the children to think critically about real-life situations they may face.

Next week we will begin our thematic topic about dinosaurs.

Important messages

- Please ensure your child comes to school ready for the weather. As it has been hot, we will need sunhats and suncream (named and in bags).

-Please ensure your child comes to school with a water bottle.

-All clothing should have your child's name.

- Reading record books are changed every Tuesday and Friday, please sign the record and put them in the basket to be changed. 

- Please complete the WOW moment sheets regularly so that we can add these to the children’s learning journey books.

 

Thank you very much for your continued support.

From the EYFS team.