Thursday, May 17, 2007

Float or sink?

In this week, we usually do assessment and review week. However, we managed to do quite a lot of our assessment last week. This enables us to reinforce and consolidate the children’s new learning from last week.

This week we will be working on the following:

Communication, Language and Literacy

As we did last week, the children will be working on their writing skills. This is a high focus now as we aim for ALL the children to be able to write a sentence by the time they go into year 1.

Therefore, as last week, by the end of this week, the children:
COULD be able to write a sentence with a capital letter, a full stop and interesting words. Some children will be encouraged to write a series of sentences.
SHOULD be able to write a simple sentence with a capital letter and a full stop.
MUST be able to think of a sentence and write it with adult support.


This literacy work will be based on the story ‘Mr Gumpy’s Outing’. This is a great text which gives the children a fantastic opportunity for getting into character. Miss Davies will be working with the children in small groups to develop their acting skills. I’m sure this class have many budding thespians!!! This story also provides the opportunity to review their understanding of floating and sinking.

The following websites may be of use to you in supporting your child’s literacy skills this week:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/cvc/crank/index.shtml - this is great for helping the children to develop their sounding out and blending of the sounds together, as well as hearing the medial vowel sound;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/cvc/whirl/index.shtml - the music to this is really funky!! The children have three levels at which they can work, and again they need to blend the sounds together;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/clusters/blender/index.shtml - this is a brilliant website for those children who have moved on from the three letter words and are developing their sounding out of words to four letter words (not of the rude kind I assure you!)
http://www.ictgames.com/cluster.html - another one for hearing the beginning of the words.
http://www.ictgames.com/cvc_machine.html - for working on those three letter words.
www.strafall.com - an old favourite but why not try out some of the other activities?
http://www.ictgames.com/cvc_machine.html - love this one!
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/cap_letters_stops/eng/Introduction/default.htm


Mathematical Development

Due to the difficulty the children had in learning the mathematical names of the 3d shapes, we are going to continue with last week’s work. Please DO NOT worry!!! Nearly all the children can name and recognise the two dimensional shapes of a circle, square, rectangle and triangle. We are working on Year 1 objectives now so don’t worry if it takes a while.

By the end of this week, the children:
COULD be able to name 3d shapes and their properties, and name a shape when its properties are described to them, extending to using the vocabulary themselves;
SHOULD be able to name and describe all the 2d shapes and name the 3d shapes;
MUST be able to name the 2d shapes and their properties.


It seems a long time since we did focussed work on shape and therefore your child may need some review of the work we have done before. The following websites can be used to support your child. However, the best way of developing your child’s understanding of shape is by having a walk around the house and local environment. Asking questions such as:
Why did the builder use cuboids(brick shapes) and not spheres(balls)?
Why can a ball roll?

http://demo.iboard.co.uk/screens/thread_home.htm?thread_id=2
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/maths/maerdy_2d/e_index.html
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/patterns_and_patterns/eng/Introduction/default.htm - a review of pattern making
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/building_game/eng/Introduction/default.htm
http://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/astonhall/shapeppt/SHAPEP~1.PPT


Knowledge and Understanding of the World

The focus for this week will be on the development of the children’s investigative skills. They will investigate which materials float and which sink. They will use the water tray (what a daft thing to say – what else would they use? Mmm…definitely ready for a holiday I think!) to identify and sort objects. You can support this by putting household objects in the bath at bath time.



Creative Development

Our collage on the theme of Spanish Foods is now complete and ready to be sent off. There is a competition that we can enter with a winning prize of £2,000. Of course, we are going to win!!! Even if we don’t get the real prize I’m sure a little treat may be delivered to our door!!!.

Here I Am
This week we begin our new topic ‘Freedom and Responsibility’.
The children will learn to:
RECOGNISE the need to take turns;
REFLECT on what happens when children don’t take turns;
RESPECT – appreciate taking turns is an important rule.


Spanish DVD
The children will finally be filmed!! Fantastic! Or should I say ‘estupendo’?

And finally…many thanks for all your valued and continued support.

Have a great holiday!
Jayne Narraway and the Foundation Stage Team xxx

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Trip, trap, trip!!!

Hi there!

Welcome to another exciting week in the land of the foundation Stage at St Vincent’s. We had a great time last week, which was finished with a little party for all the children for Golden Time to say a big THANKYOU for all their hard work in preparing our classroom for the new intake evening.

This week we will be working on the following:

Communication, Language and Literacy

By the end of this week, the children:

COULD be able to write a sentence with a capital letter, a full stop and interesting words.
SHOULD be able to write a simple sentence with a capital letter and a full stop.
MUST be able to think of a sentence and write it with adult support.


This literacy work will be based on the story ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’. This is a great text which gives the children a fantastic opportunity for getting into character (as everyone wants to be the troll). This story also provides the opportunity to review their understanding of traditional tales. The text itself offers further opportunities for all the other areas of the curriculum.

You may want to share the story with your child at some point throughout the week.

The following websites may be of use to you in supporting your child’s literacy skills this week:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/cvc/crank/index.shtml - this is great for helping the children to develop their sounding out and blending of the sounds together, as well as hearing the medial vowel sound;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/cvc/whirl/index.shtml - the music to this is really funky!! The children have three levels at which they can work, and again they need to blend the sounds together;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/clusters/blender/index.shtml - this is a brilliant website for those children who have moved on from the three letter words and are developing their sounding out of words to four letter words (not of the rude kind I assure you!)
http://www.ictgames.com/cluster.html - another one for hearing the beginning of the words.
http://www.ictgames.com/cvc_machine.html - for working on those three letter words.
www.strafall.com - an old favourite but why not try out some of the other activities?
http://www.ictgames.com/cvc_machine.html - love this one!
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/cap_letters_stops/eng/Introduction/default.htm

http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/english/goats/default.htm - an online version of the story

Mathematical Development

By the end of this week, the children:

COULD be able to name 3d shapes and their properties, and name a shape when its properties are described to them;
SHOULD be able to name and describe all the 2d shapes and name the 3d shapes;
MUST be able to name the 2d shapes and their properties.

It seems a long time since we did focussed work on shape and therefore your child may need some review of the work we have done before. The following websites can be used to support your child. However, the best way of developing your child’s understanding of shape is by having a walk around the house and local environment. Asking questions such as:
Why did the builder use cuboids(brick shapes) and not spheres(balls)?
Why can a ball roll?


http://demo.iboard.co.uk/screens/thread_home.htm?thread_id=2
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/maths/maerdy_2d/e_index.html
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/patterns_and_patterns/eng/Introduction/default.htm - a review of pattern making
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/building_game/eng/Introduction/default.htm
http://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/astonhall/shapeppt/SHAPEP~1.PPT

The children will be involved in a Mantle where they will be asked to solve the problem of which shape will be best for the tiles in Mrs Flush-it’s bathroom! I know madness! This is aimed to develop their understanding of the properties of the 2d shapes.


Knowledge and Understanding of the World

The big focus this week will be on the use of the construction equipment to create bridges for the goats to travel across. They will be investigating all the equipment as well as using the outdoor play area (weather permitting) to role play the story. The children will also be transferring their class target from last week into a written form, when they will be writing about the different uses of water.


Physical Development

Unfortunately, due to the dreaded SATs in the hall for our Year 6 children, we will not be having a formal PE lesson this week. If the weather picks up then we will go outside in the afternoon. So for this week, it’s another big push on those all important handwriting and fine motor skills.


Creative Development
As you may have noticed in the classroom, this is very much high on our agenda. Learning through the arts is fun and exciting!!! If you take a walk down to the office, the sea life art work and the fruit pictures were created by YOUR children. Please take a visit if you can. They are not to be missed.

This week, we will be creating a collage on the theme of Spanish Foods. There is a competition that we can enter with a winning prize of £2,000. Of course, we are going to enter. Who wouldn’t? therefore, this week, the children will be using a range of materials to create our very own 2 metres by 1 metre masterpiece. Move over Van Gogh that’s what I say!!!

Here I Am
This week we begin our new topic ‘Freedom and Responsibility’.
The children will learn to:
RECOGNISE the need to take turns;
REFLECT on what happens when children don’t take turns;
RESPECT – appreciate taking turns is an important rule.


And finally…thanks to all the parents who have signed the diaries to say that we can film your child. If you haven’t done so yet then, after Friday, no signature will be deemed as you not giving consent and therefore, we will not include your child on the DVD.

Many thanks

Have a great week!

Jayne Narraway and the Foundation Stage Team xxx

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Is it really a year?

Can you believe that a year ago this week, we were doing what we are doing this week? What’s that you may ask? Believe it or not, this week, we will be preparing for the New Parent Intake meeting. When you pick the children up on Friday, why not pop in and have a browse around the classroom? The children have done some amazing work this year which is shown off to its full advantage.

Here I Am
This week, the children will rejoice and celebrate ‘Energy’. They will have a remembering session about what they have learned about energy, the Promise of the Holy Spirit and the feast of Pentecost. The children will each make a flag with the words of Peter which gave joy and new energy to the people: Jesus is alive!


Communication, Language and Literacy
Last week, the children did a piece of writing following their visit to The Blue Planet Aquarium. We were not only amazed at the quality of their writing, but their attitude to writing. In fact, when I said we were going to do some writing, there was a great big cheer! Not one to pass up on an opportunity to increase their motivation and attitude towards writing, this week also will have a high writing focus. This week, the children will be asked to talk about a holiday they have been on and they will write about it.

By the end of this week, the children:
MUST be able to say a sentence to a friend.
SHOULD know that a sentence requires a full stop and a capital letter and be able to write one with limited support.
COULD be able to write one or more sentences independently.

As we approach the latter part of the school year we really up the stakes when it come to the children’s reading and writing. The high frequency words are vital in developing your child’s fluency in reading. The children’s phonic knowledge is moving at a rapid speed now and their ability to sound out words when writing is fantastic! These websites are little treasures that you can use to support them.

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.
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.
http://www.ictgames.com/blending_dragon.html
http://www.ictgames.com/cluster.html

If your child is still working on a few of the letter sounds and names, I will be assessing them this week to give you an update on the remaining letter sounds and names.

Mathematical Development
The children are doing great with their understanding of the values of the coins and we are going to practice the use of 1p and 2p coins in our new role play area. The children are going to create a Flower Shop to enable them to use their new skills in paying for items. If you have any unwanted silk flowers that you could donate, we would be really appreciative.


http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/maths/counting_with_money/index.htm - a great website to start with. The children must count the number of 1p coins and then match it to the price on a ticket. However, nothing beats getting the real coins out and asking the children to count the one penny coins.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo/den/snap/index.htm - a great, yet addictive snap game to help the children recognise the coins.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo/den/shopping/index.htm - the children must make the price of the item on the tag with a mixture of coins. This is great at the children can start on 1p coins and then begin to introduce 2op coins.

http://www.ictgames.com/moneysplat.html - this is for when the week goes on and the children learn how to count totals of up to 10p using a range of 1p, 2p and 5p coins. Worth a practice though.

http://www.ictgames.com/moneypayer.html - a little advanced for some children but definitely worth a look towards the end of the week when the children learn how to combine coins to make values.

Although we will continue to look at using money, we will now turn our attention to reviewing the children’s understanding of addition. Last time we did addition, the children really understood the concepts. Therefore, this week, we will be asking them to work a little more independently to answer addition questions. This will prepare them for our work on problem solving next week. Therefore, by the end of the week, the children:

By the end of the week, the children:

MUST be able to practically combine two sets of objects in order to find the total;
SHOULD be able to start for the larger number and count on to find the total of two numbers;
COULD be able to understand that there are many ways of making one total e.g 4+3 is 7 as is 5+2 and 6+1, etc.




http://www.rainforestmaths.com/ - great to help your child to review their understanding of addition. Remember to use the vocabulary – plus, add, and, total, the sum of, more, etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/numbers/ch1.shtml - this is a lovely website for developing those skills of addition. Remember the phrase: COUNT, COUNT, TOGETHER, COUNT.

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/count_on_me/eng/Introduction/default.htm - although this is aimed at Year1/2 I still think some of the children will be able to access it. Why not give it a try?

http://www.ictgames.com/10pipe.html
http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/toftwood/beaver.html


Why not challenge your child for the COULD target.
You will need:
Two plates
Ten sweets
Paper
Pencil

What to do:
Explain to your child that you have ten sweets and you are wondering which is the fairest way of sharing them. The children need to find as many ways of making a total of 10. Here’s a clue! There are eleven ways.
For example:
Three on one plate and seven on another. Write the sum 3 + 7 = 10

This will not only help their problem-solving but give you an opportunity to practice those all important number formation skills.



Knowledge and Understanding of the World linked to Creative Development
Realism is not something I favour or practice by the looks of things! The fabulous fish are taking a tad longer than we had expected and therefore, we will be continuing with them this week. They are all looking fantastic and I can’t wait to get them dangling from the ceiling. Let’s hope the ceiling stays up!!

Last week, the children also painted under the water scenes using a computer art package. Those children who did not complete theirs will complete it this week.
The children will also be continuing to extend their ability to program the programmable robot called a Beebot. The children will be able to review their understanding of shapes whilst doing so using the mat.


Physical Development
Did the children tell you that Mr Barker donned his shorts and t-shirt and took the children out for football on Friday as part of their Golden Time. It was fab! Mr Barker said how impressed he was with the children’s behaviour and skills during PE. A real credit to Mrs Latham for sure.

Mrs Latham will also be finishing off her sewing with the children. Golly Gosh! We may have some future Jasper Conran’s by the end of the year.

Believe it or not, here endeth this week’s blog.

Have a good week.

Kind regards
Jayne Narraway and the Foundation Stage Team xxxxxx