Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Location, location, location

Weekly update

This week is fantabulous!!! (not sure if this is actually a word but I like it and it sums up this week - BOOK WEEK)

The children will have the opportunity to dress up on Friday as a character from a traditional tale or nursery rhyme and there is a competition for the best costume. You will have the opportunity to purchase books from the fair held after school from Wednesday evening. We get 100% commission on the fair which results in lots of new and exciting resources for our school. Please come along and support us - every little helps! If your child goes to link club then please do not fret. The children will have the opportunity to browse the fair prior to its opening. If they want a particular book let us know we will let you know how much it is and then you can send in the correct amount. In saying all of this, the link clubs are great as they do set aside a particular day for the children to come to the fair, so try having a chat with them.

On to the nitty gritty of the week! What are the children learning?



A delivery? By whom? From whom? A mystery? Who you gonna call? No! Not Ghostbusters! The problem-solvers! On Monday, the children will be greeted with a rather large parcel.(Actually, the packaging from the new CD player in the hall, but one man's rags are another man's riches!) Who is it from? Ooooh let's open it and see... Haha! Straw? Sticks? A Brick? It can only be THE THREE LITTLE PIGS! (Los tres pequenos cerdos in spanish)

Your child can learn all about this story with a visit to the following website, highly recommened by my daughter Faith and myself:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/storycircle/fairystories/index.shtml?fairystories2

And for the adults... http://www.cupola.com/html/wordplay/3pigs.htm - if you have never read Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes then this is a real treat for you.

Communication, Language and Literacy
The children will learn about the key features of the traditional stories. These include:
Starting with 'Once upon a time' and ending with 'happily ever after';
The opening of the story includes a setting (time and place) and introduces the characters; -this may include the language ' a long time ago' etc
A series of events build up - the pigs mother said they had to leave home which resulted in them building the houses out of different materials
There is a complication with resulting events - the wolf manages to blow the straw and stick houses down resulting in them going to the third pigs house
There is a resolution and ending - the wolf is tricked and the pigs live happily ever after!

The discussion of these features can be applied to any traditional tale and later used when retelling a traditional tale in writing.

By the end of this week, the children:
MUST be able to match two rhyming words
SHOULD be able to continue a rhyming string e,g mat, cat, rat, sat
COULD be able to change the initial sound (the onset) of a word to create a new rhyming word

Help Your Child Improve Auditory Skills by Teaching then how to rhyme. Knowing how to rhyme will help your child read word "families" such as let, met, pet, wet, and get. They will notice that rhyming words have the same sound endings (rimes - no, this is the correct spelling) but different beginning sounds (onsets). Some words don't look the same: ache, cake, steak but they rhyme. To teach your child how to rhyme have a go at playing this game.

Body Name Game
How to Play:
Begin by modeling how to rhyme.
Point to parts of your body, say a rhyming word and your child should say the body part.
This puts rhyming into her ears with a visual cue (pointing).
If you point to your nose and say rose, they will automatically say nose.
Tell your child, "We are going to play a rhyming game.
Rhyming words have the same sound endings. I'm going to point to something on my body, and say a word. You're going to say the body part that rhymes. Okay?"
Give them two examples: "I'm pointing to my leg, and I say beg. You say leg. I'm pointing to my nose. I say rose, and you say nose.
Here's a list of body parts and rhyming words:

deer-ear, pail-nail, sack-back
go-toe, gum-thumb, put-foot
bye-eye, deck-neck, see-knee
bear-hair, fin-chin, band-hand
peek-cheek, farm-arm, feel-heel

When your child is able to do this, turn it around. Point to your knee and your child will say a rhyming word such as bee or me! When your child rhymes body parts, play this game:
Say, "I'm going to say a word and you'll tell me as many rhyming words as you can. I say bee." Your child then says words such as "he, she, we three, free, or agree."
Choose one-syllable words that are easy to rhyme with such as had, rat, man, fall, ten, red, big, fill, hop, dog, bug and sun. All of these have multiple words that rhyme.
A website you may want to visit it:
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/wprds/dgi.shtml
Happy rhyming!!!

Mathematical Development
WOW!!!!!!! We can't believe just how quickly the children have learned how to add two numbers by counting the two sets and combining them to find the total. This week, we would like to continue to develop the children's addition skills further. This week the children will focus on the vocabulary of addition and learn the strategy of 'counting on from the larger number' in order to speed up their addition of two numbers.

By the end of the week, the children:
MUST be able to practically combine two sets to find the total;
SHOULD be able to count on from the larger number when addit two numbers together;
COULD be able to understand and use a range of vocabulary associated with addition when completing the addition of two numbers.

The following websites should be useful:
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/numbers/ch1.shtml - click on the owl.
www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc-home/vtc-ey-home/vtc-ey-md/vtc-ey-md-number.htm - this site includes the story of different numbers and supports number recognition to 10. http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/toftwood/beaver.html - making totals of 10 www.ictgames.com/10pipe.html - select the number to match the pipe to save the whale.

Yes, this week is all about developing those property developers of the future! (Hence the title of the blog)

Knowledge and Understanding of the World and Creative Development
The children will review all the work they have done so far on transport - identifying modes of transport that travel by land, sea and air, and how transport has changed over time. The children have really loved this topic and have really developed their hidtorical understanding well. This week the children integrate their knowledge and understanding of the world activity with their creative development. They
will encounter the work of the artist Fernand Leger. He created a piece of art titled ' The two cyclists, mother and child'. You can have a look for yourself by visiting the following website:
http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/exhibitionInfo/exhibition/17004
The children will discuss what they like and dislike about the piece of art and then create their own art work inspired by it. The children have been preparing for this week by developing their drawing skills.

In addition to this, the children will be working in teams with Miss Davies to create a house that the Big bad Wolf can not blow down. They will be allowed to select any materials they wish and each child is to have a role within the team i.e The BOSS! The GOFER! The PHOTOGRAPHER and the CLEANER. The children will get to test their models in our Golden Time Extravaganza when they will see which team has created the most stable house for the pigs...Basically they are going to use my hairdryer (so forgive the frizz for a week) to measure how far their house is blown. The house that doesn't 'budge' is the winner.

As if that wasn't enough the children will finally complete their final ICT painting of a mode of transport. We hope to have these displayed in the hall so why not pop in and have a look next week.

Physical Development
The children are really getting much better at changing for PE and getting dressed - thankyou, thankyou, thankyou. They had a great week last week, as the large apparatus was out and the changing of the children into monkeys in literacy really helped them climb those monkey bars!! (sorry couldn't resist!) We are going to be focusing on the children's ball skills. never one to miss an opportunity to review the children's previous learning, they will not call their balls 'balls' but 'spheres'. The children will develop the ability to roll, throw, kick and catch a ball in their PE lessons.

The children's fine motor skills are still developing well but we do need to continue to develop these so that they are able to communicate their knowledge in writing. Any support you can give at home to encourage your child to draw, cut with scissors etc would be greatly appreciated.
Here I Am
This week we move on to our final part of our topic on books. The majority of the children recognise the Bible and know that it is God's Holy Book. Please find below a prayer that you may wish to share with your child at home: The response is 'Thank you, God!'
For all the books that we use and enjoy
For all the people who write them
For all the artists who draw the pictures
For the photographers who take photographs
For everyone who works hard to make our books
For all that we learn
For this special Book, the Bible
For the stories of God's love.
The children will also be singing the song they have learned with Mrs Bishop in the Tuesday Infant Assembly titled 'Picture Books'.

In addition to this, the children will be celebrating that they have so many books, remembering the many different kinds of books we have and that are used on Sundays in church, and have the opportunity to renew their learning - What do they know now that they didn't know before?

Alas...we have now come to the end of our 'little' blog spot (always have been prone to exageration).

Have a great week. We know your child will!

Take care and best wishes

Jayne Narraway and the Foundation Stage Team xxx

No comments: