It has been a very busy week with lots of new things to get used to! 

We have started dough disco and squiggle this week which are both activities designed to improve the children's motor skills. Dough disco is where each child has a pot of play dough and the adults lead the children in a routine of moves to do play dough to strengthen their fingers and muscles. Squiggle is where the children make big movements with squares of materials in each hand to make letter like shapes in the air and then they transfer these to paper using a crayon in each hand.

Here is a link to a dough disco video - dough disco example

Here is a link to squiggle - squiggle example

We have also started teaching maths this week - our focus has been on the number 1. We have looked at one object of different things. We have also shown 1 on our fingers and learnt the rhyme 1, 1, wiggle your thumb. We tie the maths in with numberblocks so we have watched the relevant episodes which helps to embed the children's knowledge.

In phonics the main group have done n, ck, e, h, and r. The Year 1 phonic group have done z, w, ng, v and oo/oo. If you would like to hear how we say the sounds in school there are videos here plus there are lots of resources on the jolly learning website for parents to you at home. We will be sending the word box words home this week in a little plastic wallet in the children's book bags. These are words that contain the sounds that we have covered so far and for the children to practice saying each sound and blending them together to make the word. e.g. p - a - t makes pat. Please feel free to cut these up and make a game out of them but the more practice your child has with their reading, the more confident and fluent they will become. 

The Year 1s have continued to write daily and practice their reading - please try to read every day with your child for 5-10 minutes as this will really help to improve their confidence.

We have been assessing the children's language skills this week and continuing to finish the baseline assessments. 

We have also introduced RSHE and RE where the children have been discussing what makes us special.

The Reception children have also been to whole school assembly this week which is either a story with Mrs Dewing or Miss Banner which has an RSHE message or it is singing assembly with Mrs Morgan and Mrs Flunder.