Dear Parents,

Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely break.

This week we have been looking at Reading and Rhyme. We have been exploring lots of lovely rhyming books, our favourite this week being ‘Oi Frog’

We have been matching rhyming pairs, by splatting the picture which rhymes with the word said, e.g. frog and dog. Also we have used our Fred Talk to read different words and match them to other rhyming words; retelling stories including ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ by acting them out in our ‘Helicopter Stories’ session; and retelling them through story maps using different materials. One of our funniest activities was painting rhyming pictures, including ‘hen in a pen’ and ‘pugs in jugs’. The children have had a go at writing and creating their own story books for their friends to read.

In Maths, we have been exploring PATTERN! The children have been on pattern hunts around the school, creating their own patterns using natural materials, loose parts and multilink. We have focused  on copying, creating and continuing AB and ABC patterns. The children have been using peg boards, bead strings and shapes to create colourful repeating patterns through the book Cave Baby.

We have looked at the Brazilian artist Romero Britto’s work this week and have been drawing round different stencils, dividing up our drawings with lines, creating patterns within each section and then colouring them in. The children really enjoyed this and created some beautiful artwork. If you would like to have a go at home, here is a video showing you how.

In Phonics, we have been covering gaps in set 1 sounds, mostly focusing on special friends. Some children have been reading the RWI ‘Red’ Books and these will be sent home this week for you to practise with your child at home. Here is a video to explain how you can support your child with reading the Red Books.

Other children have been working on reading simple sentences and working on their comprehension skills using the ‘Ditty Sheets’.

Here are some videos to help your child practise their word reading at home:

Set 1.5 Word Time Reading

Set 1.5 Word Time Spelling 

Special friends ‘ch’

In Cooking, we used our focus on patterns to create toast art! Have a look on Learning Book for some great photos!

In PE this term we are focusing on gymnastics, this week we looked at our jumping skills; different types of jumps, jumping onto and off apparatus and performing our jumps to the class to some funky jumping tunes.

Next week, we are looking at expressing ourselves through art and music, we will be painting to different music, thinking about how the music makes us feel and what that looks like when we paint. We will be creating our own musical instruments, if you have any “junk” from your recycling bins- please send it in to help us create these. We are looking for tissue boxes, small boxes, tubes, out-of-date pasta/ rice/ beans and plastic tubs. Next week we will also be painting using different items, making our own paint brushes using natural items, composing music, testing out lots of different art techniques. We can’t wait!

Reminders:

Please ensure your child has a PE kit– this should include: Black/ Navy shorts/ leggings or jogging bottoms and a PE T-shirt or spare Kites t-shirt. We are doing Gymnastics this term and the children will need to be in suitable clothing for this. Please let us know if you are struggling to get hold of these items and we will try our best to help in any way.

Forest Camp – With the weather being very cold, our Forest Camp Leader has asked us to remind you, to make sure your child has enough layers in their Forest Camp kit to keep them warm when outside, as we go outside no matter the weather! We have attached a photo that might help visualise what the children need to wear in different temperatures.

Staying warm at Forest Camp (clothing)

Please can we ask that you make sure you are naming hats, gloves and scarfs you send in with your child, and/or send in a hat/gloves that stand out so your child can easily identify what is their’s. Thank you.

Challenge: You can either create a piece of artwork exploring colour or have a go at making your own musical instrument to show to the class as a model for when we make them next week.

We hope you have a restful weekend and thank you for all the support you give to us and your children,

The Kites Team