Dear Parents,

It’s been a very chilly week in Kites, as we have been learning all about Arctic Animals! We have saved some animals from the ice, drawn some pictures of penguins, and made homes for animals who live in cold climates.

We started the week with our beautiful Christingle service. We went into the hall with year 1, 2 and 6, to learn about the beginning of Advent and the meaning of Christmas, we then lit our candles on our Christingles and sang the songs we had been learning. It was a magical celebration.

This week in phonics, the children have been continuing to revise the set 1 sounds they have previously been taught. The children have been enjoying using their phonics writing books to learn how to form the sound they are learning. As we head into the next few weeks, we will continue revising the sounds in preparation for beginning the next set of sounds in the new year.

In maths, we have continued to focus on counting with 1-1 correspondence, and we have created number lines to 20! We have been busy practising finding the next number on the number line, or maybe the number before. This is something you might be able to practice at home in December. If you have an Advent calendar, the children can practice finding the next number each day, and as we get further into December, maybe they could practice finding the number before as well. If not an Advent calendar, then perhaps you could make a December calendar together. You could use it to cross off the days until the holidays!

In the next few weeks, we will be exploring the meaning of Christmas and Advent as well as practising our Nativity. Please let me know if you need any help finding a costume for your child, we do have lots in school.

This term’s top tips!

Reading – reading with your child is one of the most powerful ways to support them to learn language. Reading anything from storybooks to articles, newspapers to audiobooks, is a great way to support children’s development. Remember, it doesn’t always have to be sitting down and reading a book, listening to audiobooks or reading a menu or a recipe is still fantastic to support children’s love of reading. If you’re stuck for ideas, on our Sonning Common Primary Instagram page, there is a fantastic video about reading activities you could do at home (you might need to scroll back a bit, as the post I am referring to is from the 25th April).

Reminders

Saturday 29th November – Christmas Fair

2nd and 4th December – Parents’ evening

Friday 12th December – Christmas Jumper day

Tuesday 16th December – Kites Nativity performance, 2pm.

Wednesday 17th December – Christmas Lunch

Friday 19th December – End of term 1:15pm.

Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing some of you at the Christmas Fair tomorrow

The Kites Team