Sunday, March 15, 2009


Hi there!

Well it is only a few more weeks until Easter and this week the children will start their new Here I Am topic of GROWING. This, as you know, has been a theme of their learning for the last few weeks. However, in Here I Am, the children will learn to:
RECOGNISE that people grow
REFLECT on the ways they have grown, and
RESPECT and appreciate how they have changed

You may wish to get out some old photographs and help the children see how they have changed and grown. Even better would be to get some photographs of yourself and the changes in your appearance as you have grown older. Better still get the children’s grandparents involved,


Spring Walk
To support this theme we will also be taking the children on a Spring Walk to look for signs of growth. There will be a label in your child’s diaries on Monday to give permission for the children to go on a walk around the local area. We would like to take the children out on Tuesday, so please sign it on Monday evening, as children cannot be taken out of school without permission. Could children please bring raincoats and wellies for our walk around the area – just in case!


Communication, Language and Literacy
The children continue with their phonics as we now move into pushing the children in their writing. By the end of the week, the children:


MUST be able to recognise the letters and sounds learnt so far and to incorporate these into writing CVC words
SHOULD begin to recognise or, oa and ea, and begin to use them to create words
COULD know ar, oa, or and ow and to incorporate these into their writing

Click on
www.stvincentsprimary.co.uk and then FOUNDATION, and then WEBLINKS and finally COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY on the navigation bar on the left. Scroll down and you will find lots of PHONICS websites. Simply click on the links and you will be taken to the website of your choice.

You will also notice that we have websites to support the learning of the high frequency words. Please make use of these websites as they are an interesting way to develop the acquisition of these very important words.


High Frequency Words
Talking of high frequency words, when the children have been assessed on their reading over the last few weeks, the staff have noticed that it is their ability to recognise the high frequency words on sight, that is the final hurdle to helping them move on. Just 5 minutes each day will really help to give your child a boost and could make all the difference! Many thanks in anticipation of your support in this. If you have misplaced the copies of the high frequency words given to you in December please call in and collect a fresh copy from a member of the team. Thanks.


Problem-Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
The children will be continuing with their understanding of calculations. By the end of the week, the children:


MUST be able to understand the concept of one more and one less
SHOULD be able to combine 2 sets of objects to solve an addition equation
COULD begin to compare two sets of objects to solve subtraction problems

Click on
www.stvincentsprimary.co.uk and then FOUNDATION, and then WEBLINKS and finally PROBLEM-SOLVING, REASONING AND NUMERACY on the navigation bar on the left. Scroll down and you will find lots of ADDITION and SUBTRACTION websites. Simply click on the links and you will be taken to the website of your choice.

Role-Play
We are currently developing our role-play area into a flower shop. If you have any unwanted silk flowers you could donate to us that would be fantastic. Also, on my return I hope to develop a gardening area outside of our classroom. If you have any seeds, bulbs and planters you could donate to us that would be really appreciated.



Recommended reading
As part of our drive to raise standards in reading, particularly fostering a life-long love of reading for boys, we are currently compiling a list of recommended reads for each age phase. We aim to recommend many more titles, for when you are browsing in Borders at the weekend, but for our age group, we recommend this:


We’re off to look for Aliens by Colin McNaughton

A fantastic book! Faith loved this when we shared it so it’s a hit with the girls too. If you do read this with your child, please do let us know what you think by leaving a comment on this blog, or send us an e-mail through the Foundation Stage pages on
http://www.stvincentsprimary.co.uk/
Friends of St. Vincent’s
Once again, the Friends are working hard to raise funds for some great new playground equipment for the benefit of our children, and so they are organising a GO 4 GOLD SCHEME. Any old/unwanted gold can help us to raise funds. On Friday, you should have received an envelope to put the gold in and we would ask that these are returned as soon as possible and no later than THURSDAY 26TH MARCH.

In order to prevent the children from just ‘helping themselves’ to your finest jewellery, we need you to sign the envelope and complete some information on the envelope. Unfortunately, we will not be able to accept the gold without it. If your child’s name and class is on the envelope too, their name will be entered into an Easter draw, to will a HUGE Easter Egg! I think this may have prompted the GOLD search on Friday evening! As an idea of the amount which could be raised, if every child in school brought just one small stud earring, school would raise approximately £1600!


There will also be an Easter raffle held, to win an Easter Egg and a cuddly toy. Tickets cost 50p per strip and are available from the school office. The draw for this, will take place on 9th April.

Mass
We will also be celebrating Mass in the hall this Thursday at 9.15am, on the theme on Reconciliation. You are most welcome to join us. If you would like to leave any pushchairs in the infant area during Mass, please feel free to do so.

Children in Year 5 will be receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time this Wednesday, in an Away Day at St. Joseph’s Church. I am sure you will join us, in remembering them in our thoughts and prayers this week.
That's all for this week!
Take care
The Foundation Stage Team xxx

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