EYFS – Newsletter – 13.11.24

Friday again, and the end of another fabulous week in Reception class. The children have been enjoying our topic of Toytown and this week our focus story was ‘Dogger’ by Shirley Hughes. We read and discussed the story in relation to our own experiences of our favourite toys. As part of our Personal, Social and Emotional curriculum we have been thinking about the perspectives of the main character Dave at different points in the story and using empathy to consider how he might be feeling throughout – and coming out with some amazing vocabulary as a result!

Lots of children also took the challenge of matching up pairs of toys by reading words on the tag of one toy and searching for the corresponding picture tag on another toy. This had everyone rehearsing the letter sounds we have learned so far and practising blending these sounds together to read the words.

We also had a ‘Mystery Toy’ prize give-away in Reception this week, which had everyone practising their handwriting. To be in with a chance of winning the mystery toy to take home, all the children had to do was write their name on a gift tag and pop it in our post box. However, we were very strict and many entries were initially rejected for letters formed incorrectly or written backwards, which resulted in many children rehearsing their writing over and over (with help and encouragement along the way) until they had improved it and posted their entry into the box. Once all the entries were in, we put the names on a random spinner and the lucky winner this week was Freya! Well done Freya!

Another exciting event this week was the opening of our very own toy factory in the Reception DT area. Last week we received a letter from Santa himself in which is admitted that his elves were struggling to keep up with demand for robot toys this year. As a result, Santa has asked if the children in Reception would help him out, as he must have heard about their stellar woodwork skills. So this week, we have begun work, with many children getting down to business designing and building their own robot toys and in the coming weeks in the run up to Christmas, we will all get chance to produce a toy for Santa. Hopefully the big man will be as impressed as we are when he receives these amazing toys!

Friday’s Topic session continued our strand of looking at different toys from around the world and today Miss Walsh taught us all about ‘Worry Dolls’ which are a traditional children’s toy from Guatemala. The children learned a little about Guatemala and found it on the globe before hearing the Anthony Browne story ‘Silly Billy’ which explains the use of worry dolls really nicely. A lot of children then chose to have a try at making their own worry doll from a dolly peg and coloured wool.

Phonics sessions this week saw us introduce the phonemes ‘e’ (egg) and ‘u’ (umbrella) as well as our first digraph (two letters that together make one sound) with ‘ck’ (as in duck). The children have wowed us with their efforts in practising reading and writing these new sounds as well as consolidating the sounds we have learned so far.

In Maths this week, we have been investigating the numbers 4 and 5. The children have considered how these numbers can be deconstructed using part-whole models and started to consider how this relates to addition and subtraction (i.e. 5 is the whole, so the parts can be 2 and 3 and so 2+3=5). We’ve also presented real life contexts for using these numbers as children paid for toys with 1p coins and as such had to practise accurate counting of the numbers 4 and 5 from a larger amount.

On Monday, we observed Remembrance Day in class, with the children respectfully observing a two minute silence in honour of those who lost their lives fighting for our country. The children also greatly enjoyed another ‘draw-along’ drawing tutorial to create their own poppy pictures to also commemorate Remembrance Day.

Have a great weekend!

The Reception Team 

Dates for the Diary:

Tuesday 26th November & Wednesday 27th November – Parent consultations

Thursday 5th December – School Christmas fair (3:30pm)

Tuesday 10th December – Flu Immunisations (information in recent notification – if the consent form is not completed your child will not receive the vaccine)

Thursday 19th December – Reception CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION – Parents invited to join us from 2:30pm for a performance of Christmas songs

Friday 20th December – School closes for the Christmas break