Kung Hey Fat Choy!!

Weekly update 19th February 2007

Welcome back to a new half term and Kung Hey Fat Choy! Yes, this week the children will be learning about the traditions of the Chinese culture and in particular the Chinese New Year. We look forward to this week every year as it provides us with the opportunity to cover all areas of the curriculum in a really integrated and fun way.

However, over the holidays SOMEONE has caught wind of the fact that they are being blamed for the blowing down of the Three Little Pigs house, and they want JUSTICE!!! Just to start the sparks flying on the first day back, the children will encounter footprints and a package which contains the wolf’s version of events in the traditional tale. Will they believe him????? If you have never read the story ‘the true story of the three Little Pigs!’ by Jon Scieszka then it’s worth a visit to Borders.

Communication, Language and Literacy
This week, the children will start to learn all about information books.
By the end of the week, the children:

MUST be able to sort books according to whether they are fiction or non-fiction;
SHOULD be able to understand that information can be retrieved from books and find the contents page;
COULD know that information books have headings, photographs and captions, and be able to use the contents page to find answers to their questions.

They will develop their knowledge and understanding of the different features of an information book. For instance:
That they provide us with information about things that are real;
That photographs and diagrams are usually found in information books rather than illustrations;
That information books have a contents page that can be used to navigate their way around the book;
That an information book does not have to be read from start to finish – you can simply ask yourself a question and then seek to find the answer out in the text by using the contents page;
Pages in information books often have a heading, a photograph and a caption.
By the end of the week it is hoped that the children will have collaborated to create a class information book about the Chinese New Year.


If your child is still working on their letter recognition then please try out these websites also:
http://www.ictgames.com/phonic_fighter4.html
http://www.ictgames.com/letterlifter.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/words/dgi.shtml - this is a great website for identifying the sounds at the beginning, middle and end of words.
www.starfall.com - the old favourite.

In addition to this we will also be concentrating on the children’s spelling of simple three letter words such as big, man, cat, top etc as well as focusing in on the high frequency words more. The children are doing great as this is the end of year target for Foundation Stage and we are already working on it!! The following websites should prove very useful.
http://www.crick.northants.sch.uk/assets/Flash%20Studio/cfslit/CVC%20Maker/cvcmaker.html - this website asks you to see how many words you can make
http://www.ictgames.com/cvc_machine.html
http://www.ictgames.com/plankgameR.html - this focuses on high frequency words
http://www.ictgames.com/lcwc.html - this concentrates on the spelling of the high frequency words. You can simply type in the high frequency words that your child needs to work on for them to play the game with.
http://www.ictgames.com/machine.html - great for blending sounds together.

For those children who are already able to spell and read simple three letter words then try out these websites as they will focus on the spelling of consonant clusters in words e.g bl, cl, st, sm etc.
http://www.ictgames.com/blending_dragon.html
http://www.ictgames.com/cluster.html

Mathematical Development
This week we will be working on developing the children’s number recognition and understanding of the number system. The children will be working on:
Comparing two numbers saying which is greater/smaller;
Number recognition;
Identifying the number that lies between two given numbers up to 10 and then beyond;
Ordering numbers to 10 and extending to 20;
Continuing a number line with missing numbers on it;

It is hoped that by the end of this week, the children:

MUST be able to identify the numbers 1 to 5;
SHOULD be able to identify and order all the numbers to 10;
COULD be able to identify and order all the numbers to 20 and some beyond, and be able to order some random numbers up to 20;

Here are some good websites you may wish to check out:
http://www.ictgames.com/caterpillar_slider.html - this is a great website and you can select the numbers you wish your child to work with.
http://www.ictgames.com/mucky.html - to revise more and less;
http://www.ictgames.com/nutty_v3.html
http://www.ictgames.com/postletter.html
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/online/online_downloads.htm - click on the ordering numbers game

In an attempt to ensure that all the children are able to write the numerals correctly I have sent out a sheet with the numeral formation we encourage. This does take time so please do not worry if your child struggles with this as they are still working on their letter formation too. Do not be surprised if they start to reverse letters they once could write e.g c as it goes in a different direction to the numbers 2 and 3.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World
As I have already stated the children will be learning about Chinese culture. They will experience Chinese cuisine, even prepare and cook some for the rest of the class to share. On Friday, we hope to invite the year 1 and 2 children into our classroom, which will have been set up like a restaurant, and serve them with some Chinese food. They will be able to consolidate their learning as the week progresses as the class café is to be transformed into a Chinese restaurant.

The children will learn a poem by Meg Jones that goes to the tune of ‘Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross’.
Chinese New Year
The house must be clean,
The food all made ready
For a happy New Year.
With bangs and firecrackers
And lions that dance,
With dragons all fiery
To China we dance.
The children will use the poem as a stimulus to finding out about the Chinese dragon dances, the firecrackers and the tradition of cleaning houses and giving money. They will learn about how the years were named after the different animals.

Creative and Physical Development
The children will have the opportunity to listen to and respond to Chinese music. In dance they will learn how to keep to a beat alongside a drum in preparation for our very own dragon dance on the playground during Golden Time. They will be creating Chinese lanterns, dragon masks and many other creative artefacts linked to the Chinese New Year.

Here I Am
Although we are looking at a different culture this week, we will still be continuing with our Here I Am topic ‘Memories’. Before the holidays the children learned that they have a memory. They had a great time trying to guess which piece of clothing Mrs Forgetful took off each time. This week we move into our first week of RELATE when the children learn about people remembering Jesus at Mass.

I know this may be hard to believe but I have actually finished now!

Have a great week and watch out for the parents’ evening letter.

Kind regards

Jayne Narraway and the Foundation Stage Team xxx