Seedlings and Saplings

Hello Seedlings and Saplings,

We hope you keep safe and happy while school is closed, please see below some fun things for you to do at home with your parents or carers help and support.

Keep Fit activities can be found on YouTube for example 5 Minute Move with Joe Wicks the Body Coach. You can also join Joe each morning at 9am for PE.

Search for Spread the Happiness TV Channel on YouTube to join Shonette live every day 9.30am for dough disco and 1pm for a story based challenge.

Search for Jack Hartmann kids Music channel on YouTube for fun counting songs including- Count to 100 everyday and subitize rocks.

See 50 fantastic ideas to try at home on the abcdoes.com website.

Saplings children have access to active learn Bug Club.

Our school code is rhxx and your username and password can be found in your reading records.

Parents and Carers please see below documents for how you can continue to support your child at home with both phonics and maths.

You will find activities to try, along with lots of fun, useful web links.

Finally take care, we miss you and hope to see you again soon.

Miss Bell, Mrs Jackson, Mrs Shivnan-Taylor, Mrs Mackay, Mrs Severs and Mrs Liotti.

As a school we follow the Power of Reading literacy scheme of work. Power of Reading have put together some ideas for how parents and carers can continue to support their children's language and comprehension skills while at home. 

Each set of notes contains five simple activities designed to develop children’s comprehension skills and strategies and develop their imagination and creativity for writing, linked to the EYFS Statutory Framework.

Most activities are reading, talk and play based and need little more than familiar household objects, and sometimes a pencil and paper to complete. Other drawing materials such as coloured pencils or crayons would be useful, but are not essential. 

Children don’t have to have a copy of the book at home to do the activities, as extracts are provided, please see attachments below. We hope you enjoy these activities. 

• Explore it: Reading of text and/or illustrations and questions to develop children's awareness of language and vocabulary, including how this can be used for effect.
• Illustrate it: Drawing tasks to develop children's visualisation skills - a key aspect of comprehension.
• Talk about it: Questions or talking points to support children's understanding of key parts of the text, encouraging them to refer back to the text to support their ideas.
• Imagine it: Talking points and questions that encourage deeper responses to texts, thinking beyond the text and linking to real life knowledge and understanding.
• Create it: A range of different ideas for writing in response to a text, developing children's imagination and creative ideas.

Spring Term 

For our most up to date newsletter please scroll down.

Welcome to the second half of the spring term. As a team we have been reflecting on a wonderful year so far with the children and all the learning and progress that has taken place. We have been busy planning for the coming weeks and adapting the environment to match the developing needs of the children. We were incredibly lucky to have been allocated money by Friends to refresh our outdoor area. The resources have begun to arrive and we are busy planning and developing the area to accommodate the new resources and ensure the area continues to be an exciting and stimulating learning area for our children.

This half term our learning and activities will be based around the theme 'Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf'. We will also be learning about Shrove Tuesday and Easter. Details of the learning opportunities, activities and lines of enquiry the children will be involved in are available to view on the parents notice board. You can also view weekly updates below.

All the important information you will need is available in our newsletter. Copies are available to view on this page and on the parents notice board in the unit entrance hall. You will also receive a copy in your child's book bag. Please ask if you do not receive one.

We are excited to announce that a sports coach will be continuing to work with the children on Thursday mornings. Also, our popular Stay n Play sessions continue- dates detailed below. 

Thank you for all your support during the Autumn Term.

If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to speak to a member of the team.

Thank you in anticipation of your support and help

The Early Years Team

Important Dates

Week Beg. 2nd March            Parent/Carer Stay n Play Sessions

Thursday 5th March               World Book Day- dress as your favourite traditional tales character

Monday 23rd March               Parents Evening

Wednesday 25th March         Parents Evening

Friday 27th March                  Friends Easter Bingo 

Friday 3rd April                       School close at 3.30pm for Easter  

We are currently planning our trips and will advice you of the dates and details shortly. 

Phonics/Early Reading

Nursery- Nursery will be working on various aspects of phase 1 including, 'rhythm and rhyme', musical instruments, environmental sounds. Mrs Geelan, our music specialist, will be supporting us with these aspects on Monday mornings.

Reception- This half term Reception class will be working on phase three of the Letters and Sounds programme and consolidating this work by drawing on elements of phase four of the Letters and Sounds programme. 

Guided Reading for Reception takes place weekly and the children bring home a new reading book each Monday.

Nursery and Reception are read to daily and we ensure we read a range of texts including rhyme books, poetry, non-fiction, fiction and non-worded picture books. 

The children have access to an attractive reading area which contains a range of texts, comics, soft toys to read to, story puppets and rhyme spoons.

Thank you to all our parents who have been 'Mystery Readers'. The children love you coming in to read and are always excited to find out who it will be. If you would like to be a mystery reader this half term let us know which day would be most convenient for you. Mystery reading slots take place at 3.10pm.

Writing

Nursery- This term Nursery will continue to work on writing their names using correct letter formation and mark making in a variety of ways including paint, in sand, using pencils, felt tips and crayons. We will continue dough disco to strengthen our hand and finger muscles. 

Reception- This term Reception will be learning lots of new digraphs (two letters that make one sound i.e 'sh' and trigraphs i.e 'igh') we will also be working on caption writing, recipes and ingredients, story mapping and short sentences.

Home Reading Books

Nursery- Will continue to bring home a rhyme card each Friday. Please ensure the card and home reading record book are in your child's bag on Fridays ready to change.

Reception- Are allocated one book for their reading bag and one E-book on Phonics Book each week. Please make a comment in their reading record book to let us know if they enjoyed the book; what discussions you had together about the story/information; what other reading has been taking place at home.

Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions about phonics and reading. 

Maths

This half term the Reception children will focus on counting and recognition; adding and subtracting; time and 3D shapes.

Number

Children find one more or one less from a group of up to five objects, then ten objects. Using quantities and objects, Children add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer.

Space, Shape and Measure

Children order and sequences familiar events and measure short periods of time in simple ways. Children explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.

This half term the Nursery children will focus on:

Number

Matching numeral and quantity; comparing groups of objects; solving simple number problems; being introduced to a 10 frame to solve number problems

Space, Shape and Measure

similarities of shapes in the environment; constructing with shapes and making arrangements

PE

All the children have daily access to our outdoor learning environment and a range of physical and sporting activities including balance and two wheel bikes, climbing, balls, netball hoop and running space. In addition we have PE with our sports on Thursdays. This half term coach James is teaching team games.

RE

We are using 'Chatter Boxes' to teach . Our themes this term are- 'Stories Jesus Heard', Stories Jesus Told', Easter'. The children are learning our daily prayers and we have a weekly assembly led by Mrs Howard.