Well done for reaching the end of the penultimate week of term. Today was Number Day and the children all looked fantastic! Thank you for your efforts and your donations, these are very much appreciated.

Our learning for number day focussed on the book One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab. We were able to get outside for some learning in the sun, and the children enjoyed writing addition calculations to represent the animals’ legs they were adding together. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it in for our CHALLENGE this afternoon, we hope you had lots of fun solving this problem with your child.

Important Dates:

• Thursday 9^th February – children will be tasting Chinese food. Please refer to the message sent out this week regarding paying for this. If you have any questions regarding this, please speak to your child’s class teacher. Many thanks!

• Friday 10^th is the last day of term. Reception are invited to the school disco 3:15-4:15.

• Sponsored Walk for The Royal Marsden – Monday 20^th February

You may be aware that one of our children has spent the last three and a half years being treated for leukaemia. That treatment has now finished and we would like to celebrate this momentous occasion and mark the end of a difficult time for part of our community by running a sponsored walk in aid of The Royal Marsden. This will be held on the first day back in Term 4 – Monday 20^th February. 

Children are invited to come in to school wearing their own clothes and we would encourage them to choose the brightest colour clothing that they have. We would also recommend wearing trainers! 

We are going to walk in a relay from the school, differing distances depending on the children’s ages, over Chalk Hill and to the Viking Ship and back (the youngest children will walk the shortest distances and so on). 

We are asking for a voluntary donation or for the children to voluntarily collect what they can to be donated to The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. 

We hope that this will be a celebratory occasion as well as raising some funds for an excellent and much needed cause! 

 

Phonics

Most children are continuing to practise set 1 sounds, with some children moving on to learning set 2 special friends. We are taking this slowly, as they can be tricky to retain and apply when reading. Lots of practise will help us to remember these sounds, and spot them when reading words.

We are also continuing to learn new red words each week. The red word is read to the children, then we discuss what makes the word tricky eg why can’t we Fred talk this word?

Fred talking is a strategy we teach children to decode words using the sounds they have learnt. We move this learning on to fred talking in their heads. Once children have seen a word a number of times, they may remember it without having to rely on this strategy. Practise is key to moving children’s learning on, and we aim to read as much as we can with children to support this journey, and to promote a love of books and reading.

Maths

Our maths learning this week has moved on to subtraction. We started the week looking at some subtraction stories, developing an understanding that something is being taken away from a group. We talked through stories we saw in the pictures for example-

First there were 5 people on the bus. Then 2 people got off the bus (they were taken away). Finally, there were 3 people left on the bus. We then made up our own stories demonstrating our understanding that we start with a number and take something away. Our learning then moved on to physically taking away objects from a group. We used the vocabulary take away, minus and left. We then moved on to taking away by crossing out, and writing out calculations using the symbols – and =.

Next week we will be learning about capacity.

Topic

Children explored a new book this week called Michael Recycle. We learnt all about recycling and the different materials which could be recycled into something new. Children confidently spoke about the recycling they do at home, and the different bins they use. We discussed the story and the character Michael, he is a superhero who visits a town where the people have become lazy, they have let their town become smelly and the rubbish is building up. He encourages the town to become ‘Green and clean.’ We decided that we wanted to be like Michael, and went on a litter pick around our playground. We talked about the different things we found in the garden, and whether they could be recycled. To finish our topic Superheroes, we designed and made our own capes for a fashion show. Children confidently spoke about the materials they would be using, and how they would represent their powers.

Next week we will be learning about Lunar New Year.

PE

A reminder that children should come in to school on a Friday in their PE kits.

Children should come in to school on a Wednesday in their school uniform, but with trainers.

Junk modelling

If you have any junk modelling (boxes, egg cartons, yoghurt pots etc) at home, please send them in to school as we are often constructing with them. Thank you.

Please can we ask that children do not bring in toys from home.

Email addresses for contact:

Please do email us with any concerns/questions and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

nicki.cotton@chiltonprimary.co.uk

kirby.walker@chiltonprimary.co.uk

emma.dudley-smith@chiltonprimary.co.uk

 

Many thanks,

The EYFS Team