Weekly update 3rd July 2006

Weekly update

This week we will be having our annual Sport's Day. If the weather is fine then it will go ahead as planned on the Tuesday afternoon. If it pours down we will have it on the Wednesday afternoon. If it rains on the Wednesday I have no idea what we will do so fingers crossed! Please make sure your child has suncream, a hat and a water bottle.

Communication, Language and Literacy
I bet you've all heard about our beanstalk?! Well if you didn't here is a brief explanation of what happened last week... The children were told that I had been on the internet over the weekend and that I had seen a 'Grow Your Own Beanstalk Kit' and that I had ordered it and it was to arrive on Tuesday. Well, Tuesday came and still the kit had not arrived. So I pretended to email the company and they 'promised' it would be there on Wednesday. However, this did not happen so I pretended to telephone them! On Thursday the kit was 'delivered' to rapturous applause and cheers. We proceeded to follow the instructions carefully but something was wrong!!!! The kit included paper, a pot, glitter and a tin of baked beans!!! Surely that wasn't right!

Anyway, we followed the instructions which involved kissing the baked beans before planting them, sprinkling then with glitter and then making a wish. We left it overnight to see if it would grow. Can you believe it? By the next morning the beanstalk had grown a few leaves!!!

The children left for the weekend with the question, What will the beanstalk be like on Monday? Yes, you've guessed it! It will have grown through the ceiling, but where will it take them? This is going to be the link in with Jack and the Beanstalk and provide opportunities for the children to develop their writing skills. This week in Communication, Language and Literacy, the children will receive a letter from the Giant. They must respond to the giant.

What happens when something falls from the beanstalk? Could it be that someone else has climbed it without us knowing? There will be a Gingerbread Man hanging from the beanstalk in the classroom. This will link into the following week's work on The Gingerbread Man story.

We will also be working on our phonics as usual but we will be developing the children's understanding of alphabetical order. Check out these websites for great activities:
www.kidstime.com/games/alph_soup.htm
www.learningplanet.com/act/abcorder.asp
www.primaryonline.co.uk/sitetour/pol/alpha1.html - the children select the missing letter out of a sequence of five letters.
www.little-g.com/shockwave/library.html - the children must place the books in the correct place on the shelf in the library.

Mathematical Development
This week we are focusing on learning to tell the time. We will initially start with learning how to read 'o'clock' and then move onto 'half past' if we can. Here are some websites you may wish to visit but nothing beats a watch or clock at home.
www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo/den/clock/index.htm - the children must set the clock to the time given.
www.harcourtschool.com/activity/willy/willy.html - this is a game for two players.
www.learningplanet.com/act/tw/index.asp

We are continuing to practice the formation of the numerals.

Everything else
The children are continuing to work on the topic of transport. They are painting pictures of modes of transport on the computer. They are also going to draw my car and I've promised them they can sit in it too. We will be doing some art work inspired by 'The Two Cyclists, Mother and Child' by Fernand Leger, and completing our keepsake.

Reports
You will receive your child's end of year report on Friday. Included in the envelope will be the name of the teacher your child will have next year. All the Foundation Stage team have been involved in the decision regarding the distribution of the children and it was done with careful consideration based on a year long observation of your child. There is also a parental response to the report and how you feel your child has done this year. These are great to receive after a year of working with the children so we would appreciate it if you would just make a little response.

I think that is all for now.

Pray for good weather!

Best wishes

Jayne Narraway x