Friday, 4th May 2018
Early Years Newsletter
This week's news from Kindergarten and Reception
Dear Parents,
Here is an outline of our learning this week:
- We have made an interest table for the children to observe the effects of change on different foods (fresh and processed). We will see what happens over the next few weeks and talk about what we observe.
- In order to observe how ingredients can change, we made bread and enjoyed eating it as a snack.
- Using the story The Cloud by Eric Carle we started to observe and talk about cloud shapes and how they change. We laid on the floor and watched the clouds moving and changing in the sky and used paints to paint our own cloud shapes.
- We are starting to prepare for our assembly and are learning to tell the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and we made some props. We also learnt a song about ladybirds.
- In the clay area we made leaves and butterflies and painted them.
- We found snails in the garden and made a home for them and then painted pictures of them.
- We planted cress seeds and talked about what they need in order to grow. We are conducting an experiment to find out if they will grow in the dark and light.
- Painting has been very popular - we have some budding artists in our class.
- The potion station has been busy as has the woodwork bench.
- We visited Finchley Nurseries in order to buy plants and seeds for our garden. We will be busy gardening next week!
- Thank you for sending baby pictures, we will be looking at these next week so please make sure you have sent pictures for your child by Monday.
Learning in Kindergarten:
- We talked about pairs and reinforced this by finding pairs around the classroom. We then matched pairs of socks that we had cut out and then counted how many pairs we had. This was challenging for the children as they wanted to count the socks individually rather than in pairs.
- We played Caterpillar Count where the children made caterpillars by rolling dough into small balls and joining them together. We then compared the caterpillars to see which was longest, fattest, shortest, prettiest. (Mrs. Voica won this category!)
- When talking about symmetry, the children observed butterfly wings and then made their own painting by folding a paper with paint on it.
- In Phonics, we introduced the new sound, g and played games to help us recognise this sound in words.
- We read The Haircut and made up our own story by looking at the pictures and we listened to the story on tape.
Learning in Reception:
- We have been writing a lot of captions trying to make sure we remember to start with a capital letter, remember finger spaces and include a full stop.
- We continued to look at pairs and doubles. Using a story called Double Trouble we investigated what happens when we double numbers and noticed the patterns made on a numberline. We have been counting in 2's.
- Using mirrors and glass beads, the children watched their collection of beads magically double when they placed a mirror next to it. They then recorded doubling examples on a whiteboard.
- After observing clouds, the children wrote words to describe the clouds and we will write a caption for their cloud paintings next week.
- In phonics, the groups have been working in Phase 3 of Letters and Sounds. We have had a focus on writing words and short captions on whiteboards.
Action
Kindergarten
Can you bring something from home that begins with the sound of the week: g.
Reception
We will be having a focus on storytelling and writing stories with a beginning, middle and end. Choose a favourite story at home and read through it with your child. Ask them to retell the story in their own words. If possible, write down their words or record them telling their story. For an extra challenge, they can try to draw pictures of the story in the correct sequence or even write it!
Notices
Reminder that we have an Assembly on Friday, 18th May starting at 9am until 9.30am, we look forward to seeing you there.
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