Cygnus - Reflect and Review

Dear Reception families

This week we looked at the Hey Diddle Diddle Rhyme in Drawing club. Our vocabulary included: diddle, fiddle, lunar, hilarious, escape and giggle. Our cows jumped over the moon and then we wondered where the dish and spoon could have run away to? The children had some great ideas! 

We explored the rhyme through music with our first Oxford Song lesson. The Oxford song project uses a mix of song and musical activity to explore rhythm, pitch, dynamics and tempo. We used two songs in Swahili this week (Calele and Simama Ka) alongside our Hey Diddle Diddle rhyme. 

Our lunchtime poem was all about farm sounds this week. We had some great alliteration and rhyme with the poem about tractors, ploughs, chickens and cows! The children tried their first performance of a poem this week. They remembered all the words and loved the actions alongside the rhyme. 

Mathematics classes focused on counting. We thought about ways to help us count carefully and reliably. The children counted objects, sounds and made their own counting wands to count bigger objects in the classroom. Encourage your child to count often at home. It makes a real difference if they see it as a routine activity. 

The children have now learned their first 14 sounds so we have started word building.

This week we learned the sounds: c, k, u, b

Please practice the sounds with the children at home. 

We have sent a letter home this week in book bags to suggest some words to work on for word building. Do try some practice at home. The more the children practise the sounds, the faster they will become confident to build words independently. 

This is the link to saying the pure sounds for set 1:Read Write Inc.: How to say the set one, set two and set three sounds

We built on our learning about emotions with Colour Monster by having a session this week about calm. The children let us know about the things that help them stay calm and we did a group mindfulness exercise using two breathing techniques, bee breath and flower breathing. The focus was on breathing as a way of helping us feel more regulated and calm.

Here is some more information about flower breathing if you’d like to try it at home: Breathing Exercise for Kids | The Flower Breath | Yoga for Kids | Sheetkari | Yoga Guppy

On Friday we had our first cooking activity with the children. We made moon biscuits, though no cows turned up to jump over them! The children had them for an afternoon snack instead! 

Next week our rhyme focus is Hickory Dickory dock.

Next week at a glance

Notices:  

Please ensure that any emails to inform the school of changes to pick up arrangements for the children go to the school office: office@nhps.org.uk and not the Early Years email account. Thank you. 

Please make sure the children have a waterproof coat every day. We have outdoor play as often as possible and we need to be ready for changes in the weather. 

Children also need a pair of indoor shoes/plimsoles to change into to come into the classroom and a spare set of clothes, including pants and socks, for any accidents.

Wishing you all a great weekend.

Best wishes

The Reception Team