Friday 14th October
The children in Reception have been amazing yet again this week, and we have had a great week with them all.
Exit Point – Parents/Carers welcome!
To celebrate the end of our topic ‘On the Farm’, the children will be making bread (after reading the story Little Red Hen). Parents/carers are welcome to come in to school slightly earlier at 3:00pm on THURSDAY 20TH OCTOBER to taste the delicious bread!
Halloween
Year R children are invited to come dressed in Halloween costumes (or just their own clothes if they wish) on Friday 21st October. Please could they still wear trainers so that we can do some gentle PE in the afternoon! Thanks!
Pictures Please!
Our first topic next term is ‘Celebrations Around the World’. To start this topic, we would love to see some pictures of your child at a celebration (birthday, wedding……). Please email your pictures to your child’s class teacher by Friday 21st October. Please do not reply to the text message which was sent regarding this as we are unable to access these. E-mail addresses are at the bottom of this email and are always on the whole school newsletter.
Love to Learn
At the end of each term/half term, we send a Love to Learn task home for children to complete in the holidays. How you choose to complete the task is up to you and your child. The Love to Learn tasks will come home in Love to Learn books next week but is posted below in case you want to get a head start!
One of our topics next term is all about transport. We will be looking at different ways that we can get from here to there! Over the October half term, we would like your child to talk about different forms of transport and then complete one of the tasks below:
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Take some photos of you on different types of transport/standing in front of them. Which is your favourite and why?
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Draw pictures of different types of transport. What are the main features (e.g. a car has 4 wheels)?
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Make a model of a type of transport.
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Have a go at writing some transport related words (e.g. big red bus).
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Stand on the pavement (safely!) and look to see what transport goes past.
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Come up with your own idea relating to transport!
We cannot wait to see your Love to Learn activities. Please make sure that they are in school by Wednesday 2nd November.
Harvest
Many thanks for your generous donations for our Harvest Festival assemblies. You are warmly welcome to the assembly for Year R and 1 children on Monday 17th October (in the school hall).
Phonics
This week, we have been learning these sounds: f, e, l, h, sh
This is the first time we have learned a ‘special friend’. This is when 2 letters make one sound – ‘sh’. We tell the children a short story to help them remember how to spell the ‘sh’ sound. The children have learned that the snake is making so much noise and the horse is not happy! “Shhhhhhh says the horse!”
These sounds have been added to your child’s pink sounds book. Many thanks to those parents/carers who supported their child to complete the sounds last week. A reminder that these sounds books are due to be returned on a Thursday morning each week.
We have been learning to write these sounds and we have started to put sounds together to read simple words with the class teacher. We are also continuing to develop our oral blending skills. This is a really important foundation to being able to read. You can use this at home e.g. “go and put on your c-oa-t”. Or “Time to brush your t-ee-th.” Sound out the word coat/teeth using the 3 sounds which make up the word (only use 3 sound words with your child at the moment).
Maths
This week we have been learning to subitise. This is where we can look at a number of objects and know how many there are without counting them. For example, when you roll a dice, you know what number it is without having to count the dots.
Next week in maths we will be learning to recognise attributes of different objects and describe using words such as tall, short, long. We will also be learning what the words ‘length’ and ‘height’ mean and will be learning to compare the length and height of different objects.
Topic
We have been continuing our topic, On The Farm! This week we have been looking at the artwork of Vincent Van Gogh named ‘Wheatfields with Crows’. We have discussed the different techniques Van Gogh used in his artwork and experimented with tinting and shading (adding white to a colour to make it lighter and adding black to a colour to make it darker). We then had a go at making our own versions of the artwork. We spoke about what had gone well with our artwork and what we could improve. We also learned about what foods come from a farm.
Next week, we will be reading the story The Little Red Hen. We will be learning about animals and their babies and learning about what jobs there are on the farm. We will also be making bread next week for parents/carers to come in and enjoy!
PE
A reminder that children should come in to school on a Friday in their PE kits.
Returning clothing to school
If your child has needed to wear some of the school’s uniform (underwear as well as clothes), please could these be washed and then returned as soon as possible. We are already running very low on pants and knickers. Thank you in advance.
Water bottles
Children will need to have a named water bottle in school with fresh water each day. We can fill these up in school if they finish their bottle. Drinking water regularly is very important for children so we encourage them to drink throughout the day.
Junk modelling
If you have any junk modelling (boxes, egg cartons, yoghurt pots etc) at home, please send them in to school so we can use them. Thank you!
Email addresses for contact:
Please do email us with any concerns/questions and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
nicki.cotton@chiltonprimary.co.uk
kirby.walker@chiltonprimary.co.uk
emma.dudley-smith@chiltonprimary.co.uk