Dear Parents,

We have had a lovely week exploring Autumn some more. We have been on a walk every day as part of our fundraising for The Big Wild Walk for The Wildlife Trust! Each day we focused on one of our senses. We have harvested apples from our apple tree, dissected them, thought about what they smelled and tasted like, using words like sweet and fresh, we spoke about the different colours and textures that we could see and feel. The children really enjoyed doing this and have been drawing pictures of apple trees, labelling the anatomy of an apple and printing with apples! We have been exploring lots of Autumnal items and their characteristics as well as how our environment changes in Autumn.

The children have also worked with Mrs Conway to create our very own SCPS Scarecrows as part of Sonning Common Pre-school’s scarecrow trail. You hopefully have seen the fantastic scarecrows outside the front of school, by the library!

In Phonics, the children have learnt the sounds r, j, v and y. We have continued to focus on spelling and oral blending. Here are some Fred Talk and blending games you can watch with your children to support them with their oral blending.

• Fred Says
• Fred’s Adventures
• Learning to blend 

In maths, we have completed TenTown up to 20 and had a look at ‘zero pond’. We have been reading number stories and singing counting songs and practising our letter formation. Please use their log in details to use TenTown, as the children have been really enjoying it!

In PE, we have been focusing on dance skills for the school disco! We have combined this with other skills, such as lining up, by playing games such as follow the leader and passing the ball over and under whilst staying in a line. Instead of cooking this week, we did some clay work. We created clay leaves and clay thumb pots. The children had to use their fine motor skills to manipulate the clay.

After the half term, the children will be grouped into ability groups, focusing on counting with one to one correspondence, ordering number and representing number.  The children will also be split into ability groups for phonics after the half term.

After half term, we will be focusing on Bonfire Night and fireworks. Some of the skills we will be thinking about are, using drawing to represent ideas like movement or loud noises. Remembering sequences and patterns of movements which are related to music and rhythm. Thinking about how they use their fine and gross motor skills, as well as recognising that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways. 

We will be designing posters on how to keep safe on  bonfire night, creating firework pictures with chalk and black card, exploring onomatopoeic words – bang! Pop! Learning about the history of bonfire night, using streamers and scarves to create a firework dance using large body movements and creating fireworks in a jar experiment!

Reminders:

• Please take the time over the holiday to ensure your child is equipped for PE (t-shirt & shorts/ trousers or leggings) & Forest camp (water proof coat and trousers/ all-in-one)
• Books will now be changed on a Thursday due to Forest Camp, so please could bookbags and planners be brought in on Thursdays after half term.

Challenge:

Here is an at home Bonfire night themed activity sheet for your child to complete over the half term and for show and tell.

We have put some letter formation, CVC writing and number formation sheets in your child’s bookbags for them to practise over half term. If your child completes them, please bring them back to school and your child will earn Team Points!

We hope you have a lovely and restful half term. We will see you on the 30th October!

The Kites Team.