Hello Active Ants!

It's Mrs Heighway here, I will teach you every morning with the support of Mrs Ostle and Miss Murphy. 

Mrs Ostle will lead your afternoon and teach you lots of wonderful things, with the support of Miss Murphy and Miss Hope. 

Together we form a team of 4! With three members of staff in the morning and three in the afternoon. 

We are in the Autumn Term!

 Below you will find some of the fantastic learning we will be doing throughout this term.

Parents please check Class Dojo to see what we are up to and to keep up to date with class updates. Check your child's Evidence Me profile to see their individual learning journey observations. 

Phonics

This term we will be learning Phase 2 sounds. These are mostly single letter sounds. We will be learning how to hear these sounds in words. An example would be the word sit, first we will learn to hear the initial sound which is ssssss. Next we will hear the start and end sound before learning to sound out the whole word s-i-t. 

We will also learn to recognise these sounds in words and blend them together to read CVC words (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant). These are three letter words with a vowel in the middle like cat, dog, mop, bin, pet. 

*When learning to read and write we always use the lower case sounds like a for ant, not the upper case/ capitals like A / ANT, as these make different sounds. 

Here are some phonics games your child could play at home... 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks 

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/flash-cards?phase=2 

Writing

We will be putting meaning to the marks we make. Mark making is a huge part of play and will help develop an interest in writing. We will be learning to write single sounds. We will start to sound words out and write sounds that we know. Writing through play could be writing lists, labels, names, orders, invites, character names, letters.. writing opportunities are endless! We love to have fun writing!

We will also work hard on learning to write our own names. Some of you might already know some or all of your names! 

Reading 

After our Baseline assessments are done we will start our Phonics lessons. We will be following the Essentials Letters and Sounds Phonics Scheme. See the Phonics page for more information about this, We will send home activities which will help to reinforce the learning we are doing in class Monday-Thursday.

Each Friday we will send home a Phonics book that will be in  line with your child's current stage of development. 

We love to read in Class A. 

This half term we will read... Some familiar Julia Donaldson books including Room on the Broom, Snail and the Whale and The Gruffalo. 

We will read The Colour Monster, Giraffes Can't Dance, The Way Back Home and a book called The Moon, This is a non-fiction book which I know we will learn lots from! 

Mathematics

We will learn about umbers 1-10 this term. When learning each number we will learn a number rhyme to help with formation, I will add these further down. We will be exploring number and deepening our understanding of each number. We will use vocabulary such as more, less, bigger, smaller, even, odd... We will be thinking about the number in different ways in counting objects, fingers, counting out groups, subitising... anything can be counted and opportunities to develop our understanding are all around. 

We will use Snack time as an opportunity to use vocabulary to describe capacity... full, empty, nearly full, nearly empty, more, less, the same. We will also use the snack in the bowl to compare quantities... are there more oranges or apples? How many ... are left? Can you make a pattern?

Number Rhymes 

1- A straight line one, it is fun. 

2- Around and back on the railway track makes two, two, two. 

3- Around the tree and around the tree, this is the way to make a three.

4- Down and across and down some more, this is the way to make a four.

5- With a straight neck and a round tummy, put it's hat on five sure looks funny!

6- Around and a loop, the six rolls a hoop. 

7- Across the sky and down from Heaven, this is the way to make a seven.

8- Make a 'S', do not wait, climb back up to make an eight. 

9- A loop and a line, makes a nine. 

Here are some games your child you play at home to support counting, number recognition and shape recognition. 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/teddy-numbers

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/gingerbread-man-game

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/underwater-counting

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/shape-patterns

British Sign Language

We will begin to learn some signing. We will learn some basic signs such as 'Good Morning/ Afternoon'. We will learn our first letter in our names, colours and feelings. 

Welly Walk

Children will be exploring our natural environment every week. We go on an adventure into our forest area every Friday! Make sure your wellies are in school to stay please, don't forget to put your name in these.  

*When the children are settled we will start...

Reading at home / home learning

Children will bring home a phonics activity each day Monday-Thursday. This will be a task that consolidates learning we have done in class.

Every Friday children will bring home a reading book which is matched to their phonics ability. They should apply their phonics to read this book to an adult.  

Thank you for your support!