Dear Parents,

Thank you so much for your attendance at our curriculum sharing evening. We are so happy you could join us and find out a bit more about what we do in Kites.

It has been another exciting week in Kites! The children have been working really hard this week at getting into a routine of coming in to school, starting phonics and showing off what they know. Our main focus story has been Elmer by David McKee. Our key words have been; jovial, self-acceptance, unique, extraordinary and practical joker; all of which describe the character Elmer in the story.

This week, as well as doing Baseline Assessments,  we have made a Class Charter to remind us about our school behaviour; You can see these here: Rules for a happy classroom. Other activities the children have enjoyed have been: making their name from magnetic letters, elephant dancing, matching amounts to their numerals and drawing themselves for our whole school Art Project. They loved printing and drawing Elmer elephants as well as showing off their colour mixing skills.

In phonics, the children have been introduced to m, a and s and are starting to recognise these in their environment. In maths, they have been introduced to numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 through our maths progamme, Ten Town. Children will soon receive logins to enable them to access a range of songs, stories and activities at home related to these numbers. Look out for them in their reading planners.

We have had a few questions about books in bookbags. Just to ease your mind, there is no expectation for the children to be able to read the books that are in their bookbags- this is a family or sharing book that we hope an adult or older sibling may read to your younger child and have a discussion about. Phonics books will be sent home once the children are more familiar with sounds and have started more formal phonics sessions.

We will slowly be shutting down our Google Classroom contact as this was predominantly for over the Summer period to help your child feel familiar with their new environment. It will remain open until October half term, from then- if you wish to contact us, please do so through the office and we will endeavour to get back to you within 24hours. We are always happy to chat to you at the gates in the afternoon, but we are aware it has been a struggle in the last couple of weeks due to the needs of the children. If you feel you need to chat to us about anything, please book an appointment after school or at a time that suits you. We understand that it is a big difference coming from nursery where you will have received daily updates on activities and progress. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to provide this on a daily basis, but we are building up a bank of photos ready to share on Learning Book for you when it is up and running.

Reminders:

• Please name all school uniform and shoes worn by your child.
• Forest camp kit needs to be in a named bag and wellies need to be provided to be used all year round.
• If you know your child is a fussy eater, please let us know what they DO like so we can provide an alternative.
• We love junk! Please send in washed recycling such as fruit punnets, clean egg cartons (NO meat trays), yogurt pots, boxes, bottles, newspaper, tissue paper, straws, cardboard tubes, corks… etc

Next week : We are continuing to look at Marvellous Me – please do send in baby and family photos to help us with this topic.

Challenge: Can you share (during Show and Tell) what you are really good at outside of school; this could be a special talent, a trick, a gymnastic move, a musical instrument, a funny voice or a silly joke.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

The Kites Team