Reception

26th April

We have had another fabulous week in reception. In maths we have been counting forwards and backwards, counting backwards from 10, finding 1 more and 1 less as well as finding an unknown amount. You could practise 1 more and 1 less than at home.

In our topic work we have learned about animals which hatch from eggs and the children made little booklets shaped like eggs and drew different animals that lay eggs. We also learned about what animals eat and found out which animals eat plants, meat and a mix of both. The children know the words carnivore, herbivore and omnivore.

It has been nice to have some drier weather this week and the children have loved being outside for play much more. We enjoyed a trip up to the sports field for our Forest School time this week. We have also enjoyed playing with our new outside play equipment in the reception playground and are very grateful for your generous contributions. 

We look forward to our trip on Monday. Below are some documents you can show your child before we visit if they need reassurance before the visit. It is incredibly important that the children stay with their adults all the time we are on the trip; we are not permitted to run off around the site we must stay together, so please reinforce that with your children. We will talk to the children about all of this before we depart, but it would be helpful if you talk about it as well over the weekend. 

Please could orange tricky words books be returned as we have new words to add. Please do practise these at home. They come up in our reading books, when we are writing and it really helps the children if they have quick recall. 

Show and Tell next week:

Tues: Oscar and Nina

Wed: Naia and Milly

Thurs: Matthew

Fri: Posie and Jesse

Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing at the maypole celebrations if you can make it. 

Mrs Whitewood and Mrs Edwards

19th April 2024

Welcome back to another exciting term in Reception. We have started our new topic ‘Animal Safari’. The children have started thinking about what they already know about different animals and what they would like to find out. During Children’s Choice they have enjoyed pretending to be dogs and participating in a dog agility course. We looked at San Diego Zoo’s animal cameras using the whiteboard and saw lots of different animals interacting in their enclosures, such as hippos, elephants, tigers, pandas and polar bears. We also made our own version of Dear Zoo and the children are really improving in writing independently and drawing with care. 

In maths we have started to think about adding by counting on, so if we add 5 and 2, we could start from five and count on two more. You can practise this at home by playing a board game with dice. 

Next week we will start Show and Tell and would like the children to tell us about a pet and how to look after them or a favourite animal. Photos and videos uploaded on to Tapestry are very welcome or a picture and/or writing.  If you do not have pets but extended family members or friends do, your child talk about these, or they could talk about a favourite animal and share some facts / pictures about them. If anyone has an unusual pet they would like to bring in, please let us know and if anyone works with animals we would also love to hear from you. 

Week beginning 22nd April

Monday:   Wulf

Tuesday:   Seren

Wednesday: Sebby and Robbie

Thursday:  Riley

Friday:    Olivia and Oscar

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Thursday 28th March

Well done everyone for getting through another super term! It has been busy and we have really enjoyed our topic. We were so proud of the children in the Easter Service today, they sang confidently and did the actions perfectly. We were delighted to have the whole class in attendance and everyone joining in - we all felt very proud. The Easter Bonnets and Boots were also fabulous and it was clear that a lot of time had gone into them. 

If anyone has a whole class photo from the service today please could you upload it onto Tapestry and we can then share it with the rest of the class. Thank you.

Our topic for Term 5 is Animal Safari and we will be learning about the animals that live around the world, how to look after animals and the importance of caring for our local and global environments.

If you have not had a chance to catch up on Tapestry recently please do so over the holidays. If you want to upload a photo of anything interesting you do over the holiday, or something relating to our new topic, please do.

Holiday homework - practise tidying up and being helpful around the house. We'll be checking in at the start of the term to see how this went.

Have a wonderful Easter Holidays and we look forward to seeing you next term...let's hope the rain and wind goes and Spring finally arrives!

Mrs Edwards,  Mrs Whitewood and the rest of the YR team.

Friday 22nd March

What a great week in reception. Warmer days and some sunshine has meant that we have been able to get outside more this week which has been so welcome.

Ready Steady Grow

The children all need enough boxes so that they can make a tractor model as part of our topic work next week. They don’t have to be enormous but it would helpful if they were differing sizes so they can make the different components of the tractor. Please can they bring this in on Monday in a bag so that we can begin making them on Monday and Tuesday.

It has been a great week for our topic work. At the start of the week we made maps of our local area so that Rosie the hen from the story of Rosie’s Walk could go for a walk through Chiddingstone. The children enjoyed chopping and tasting fruit and we talked about being healthy.

It was great to take the class to Bore Place for our first school trip. We all enjoyed the experience and were so pleased the weather was so lovely. We'll put some photos on Tapestry over the weekend. Thank you very much to all the helpers.  We couldn't do these trips without you and really appreciate your support.

Maths and Phonics

In maths this week we looked at capacity and understanding full, empty, half full, half empty, nearly full and nearly empty. Anything you can do to reinforce this at home would be brilliant.

In phonics we looked at longer words and words with a s that made the z sound.

School Lunches

We have had some comments from parents about children choosing jacket potatoes every day and the lunch time staff have also noticed this. Linking in with our topic, we had a chat today in class about the importance of eating a variety of different foods. Please could you discuss this over the weekend with your child and perhaps go over the school menu each day and talk about whether they'd like to try something different. Of course, jacket potatoes are on offer and the children are free to choose these but perhaps sometimes they could opt for the main meal of the day.  

We look forward to seeing those of you that can make it at our Easter Service next Thursday. 

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

14^th March 

Ready Steady Grow

So lovely to have some dry weather for Forest School this week. Let's hope we get some more over the weekend!

This week we have been busy making musical instruments using dried beans, seeds and lentils; reading and writing about Handa's Surprise;  thinking about how to look after our teeth and tasting different vegetables. 

During the last week of term we will be making tractors out of junk modelling. Please could you start to gather SMALL boxes, tubes and bottles top, plastic lids for this. Please don't send in next week but please save for Monday 25th.

RE

We have continued to think about the Easter Story and today we went over to the church to look for crosses. The children were very observant and found crosses everywhere.  We have also been practising our class song for the Easter Service on the last day of term

Maths

In maths we have been measuring the length of objects using a variety of standard and non standard measures. At home you could practise this with your child using all sorts of items eg How many lego bricks long is my bed? How many duplo pieces long is my book? How many hands is the sofa? Remind your child to line up the lego or whatever they are using with the start of the object they are measuring and to count carefully. Can they compare 2 different objects eg the pencil is longer than the book, I am taller than my brother, etc. Please share any examples of this on Tapestry. This is optional but we do love to see how the class are practising their learning at home. 

Tricky Word Books

Please use these to practise at home. No need to send back to school til after the holidays are there are no new tricky words in phonics this term. 

Bore Place Wednesday 21st March

We are very much looking forward to our trip on Thursday. Drop off and pick up will be as a normal school day.

All children should bring their water bottle and a snack in their school bags as usual. We will probably have our snack before we leave. School bags will be left in the classroom.  A packed lunch will be provided by school. 

All children MUST bring a carrier bag with a pair of wellies in it and waterproof trousers (everything to be NAMED including the bag). Please dress your child appropriately for a day out on a farm - warm clothes that can get a bit muddy and a waterproof coat and a red school cap. 

Message from Mrs Durrant: We would very much like to have a small trampet (just big enough for one child to bounce on whilst holding on). If you have one at home that is no longer needed and in good condition, we would be very grateful if this could be donated to school.

As always please look at Tapestry for more information about what we have done this week and please do add any observations from home if you would like us to see them. Feel free to also comment on the pictures we post as this is all part of the dialogue we have with you all.

Have a lovely weekend!

From Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 8th March

10^th March 

Ready Steady Grow

Another busy week in Reception! On Tuesday we had a topic filled afternoon which began with looking at dried food such as pasta, pearl barley, rice, popcorn kernels, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. The children put their writing to good use this week when designing a seed packet to send to the giant at the top of the beanstalk. They are doing really well - thinking carefully about what they want to write and then sounding out each word eg, "get a pot", "put soil in pot", "put seed in pot", " worter it" (they would sound out "water" as "worter" and that is what we would expect), "put in the sun".

Phonics

In phonics this week we have been practising reading words with two or more digraphs or trigraphs (eg sh-ar-p, sh-ow-er, t-or-ch). See if your child can spot any digraphs or trigraphs when you are sharing any story books over the weekend. 

Funky Fit Friday

The class have really enjoyed their first week of Work Out Wednesday and Funky Fit Friday where we follow a dance / work out routine to some popular songs. Some very enthusiastic from some children!

World Book Day

Thank you again for all the efforts made with jars and costumes. It was a lot of fun and hopefully helped to promote a continued love of reading. 

Class Resources

We have had some lovely donations for our classroom so far thank you so much; we are so grateful and the children are thoroughly enjoying using them.

Thank you to Linda Elander and Simon Smith for the glorious giant teapots they purchased for our class; the children have loved using them in the water area and as the weather continues to improve they will be used even more.

Thank you to Stephanie Bates and Oliver Newick for the wonderful baking items. We have put some in our loose parts area, some in our sand area and some in with our playdough for the children to explore and enjoy.

Thank you to Petra Ivaldi and Richard Taylor for the fantastic book cases. They have revolutionised our reading area and made it so much more accessible and inviting.

Thank you to Kelly and John Wilkinson and Carly and Mark Ord for donations of wellies for our mud kitchen.

Thank you to Philip and Catherine Golding for some pans and sieves which we have added to our mud kitchen and potions area.  

Thank you to Emma Field and Craig Fast for dressing up donations.

If you would like to purchase anything, there is an updated list attached.

Thank you once again,

Mrs Whitewood and Mrs Edwards

Friday 1st March

Hopefully now it's spring the weather will improve. The children (and staff) all enjoyed dressing up in PJs yesterday raising money for the Great Tommy Sleepout to support homeless veterans. We had an interesting AoW with Lisa from the charity who explained where the money goes. Please do go onto the Just Giving Page if you haven't had chance to do so already.  

In AOW today Mrs Haysom spoke to the whole school about Respect and how we should all speak to, and treat, each other (including ALL adults and our friends).  You could ask your child about this. In YR we would like to extend this conversation to being respectful with our class resources. We've had a good chat about looking after things in school and tidying up responsibly.  A good mantra to practise at home and school is ‘Choose it, use it, put it away.’ 

Maths

This week in maths we have been learning numbers bonds for numbers between 6 and 10 with a strong focus on number bonds for 10. Anything you can do at home to support this is very beneficial.  You could try Hit The Button on the internet which takes you to a Number Bonds game on the Top Marks website. Also take a look at the activities on here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAV-gwoLTIs

Ready Steady Grow

We're all enjoying our topic and this week we have been looking at different seeds, planting beans and learning some farm related songs - Dingle Dangle Scarecrow being a favourite so far!

Bore Place

We're looking forward to our trip on March 21st. Thank you for the offers of help. Please do let the office know if you would like to help but haven't let us know yet.  

Tricky Word Books

Please continue to practise these at home, even the words your child is more confident with as they sometimes forget. We havent introduced any new tricky words yet this term so please go over all the ones in the books until your child is confident.

Funky Fit

Next Wednesday we will join in with the rest of the school for a bit of keep fit and exercise to music with Mrs Golds (if it's not pouring down!).

Class Wishlist

We will add our updated wishlist to the top of the page over the weekend in case anyone would like to take a look. We, and the class, are very grateful for anything you choose to buy or donate. 

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 23rd February 

The children have made a great start to Term 4 and are getting into the swing of our new topic Ready Steady Grow. We have read the story of the gigantic turnip and thought about how we could help the old man and old woman to get the turnip out of the ground. The children really enjoyed looking at photographs of different aspects of farming and they then were able to look at books about farming and animals. We have been thinking about where our food comes from - either plant or animal as opposed to Tesco or Waitrose! We have also enjoyed printing to make pictures using fruit and vegetables.

 

In phonics we have been recapping some of the digraphs and trigraphs from last term. Please go over these with your child as it really helps with their confidence in both reading and writing if they can quickly recognise all the sounds we have covered so far in YR. In maths we have been practising adding numbers together and in particular numbers bonds for 4, 5 and 6.  Again, any opportunity you get to practise this is always useful.

 

If you would like to see what the class had been up to at Forest School you will find some photos on the school website.

Please could you make sure your child has spare pants and socks in their school bags. 

Let's hope the weather improves soon and you all have a lovely weekend.

 

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 10th February

Well done everyone for making it to half term. It has been a busy term, with quite a few coughs and colds etc but the children have been very resilient and joined in everything with great enthusiasm. We have all really enjoyed our Long Ago topic. Thank you for all your support with Show and Tell and in particular to all the Grandparents who have bravely come into our class to talk to the children about what life was like 'long ago'! The children, and all the staff, have really enjoyed it and we have all learnt a lot. 

Next term's topic: Ready Steady Grow

Our topic next term is Ready Steady Grow. This project teaches children about food and farming and explores a variety of themes, including where food comes from, what plants and animals need to grow and survive and what constitutes a healthy lifestyle. We're looking forward to our trip to Bore Place on March 21st and will be in touch at the start of term with more information. 

Volunteers in class

A while ago we asked if any parents / carers / Grandparents would be interested in coming in to class to help out. We are very grateful to those parents who have been coming into help with our reading groups on a weekly basis. If you would like to come in on a more ad hoc basis then please do let us know. It would be lovely to have parents in to help with a craft activity or something similar.

Spare clothes

Please could you make sure your child has spare pants and socks in a bag in their school bag. Please can any spares be returned to school.

Wellies

If you have spare wellies at home we could have for our mud kitchen that would be great - typical YR sizes required and please label "spare" so there is no confusion with FS kit.

We hope that you all have a good half term and we look forward to seeing you next term.

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 2nd Feb 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

The children enjoyed activities linked to the Big Garden Birdwatch this week and many of the have chosen to look for birds outside using spotter charts and clipboards for this. Even though the birdwatch has officially finished, please do encourage your children to continue to looking in their gardens and noting what birds they can see if they are interested in this.

In phonics we have covered the trigraph air, th digraphs er, as well as looking at double letter digraphs in words; bb, rr, gg, dd, pp, ff and tt.

Please also continue to practise the new digraphs and trigraphs and tricky words in the orange books. We do practise the tricky words in class as part of phonics lessons but don't have time to go over these individually so any support you can give at home is great.

In maths we have been looking at adding to 5, adding to 10, making a part part whole model and comparison, using ten frames and adding by counting on. Again, anything you can do to help support and practise these skills at home, would be very much appreciated.

We enjoyed everyone’s show and tell times this week, learning lots about each other’s families, as well as practising our speaking and listening skills. We also enjoyed visits from Naia’s granny and Henry's Nanny.

Show and tell for this coming week:

Monday: Matthew, Wulf

Tuesday: Naia, Nina

Wednesday: Olivia, Oscar

Thursday: Robbie, Sebby

Friday: Seren, Milly

In our Long Ago topic, the children really enjoyed the story of Major Glad and Major Dizzy; this story told us about changes in a house over time but told through the eyes of toy soldiers. The children loved seeing what things used to be like and the things that have changed today. The children really enjoyed looking at clothes from the past and again making the comparison with what people wear today. They enjoyed playing games, which helped to develop body strength, coordination, balance and agility. They also joined in with games that involved energetic movements, such as jumping, skipping, hopping, running and climbing.

If your children is still signed up for milk please could you check with them that they still want to have it. We do seem to end up throwing cartons away at the end of the week. 

We look forward to seeing as many as possible of you at our open classroom event next Wednesday at 3.10 pm. With only one more week to go before half term, the children are definitely really enjoying being outside.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Mrs Whitewood and Mrs Edwards

Friday 27th Jan

Dear Parents

We have really enjoyed Show and Tell and it has been lovely to see the children’s confidence grow when presenting this week. The children have loved sharing information about their Grandparents and we have been delighted to have Eliza's Great Grandma and Grandma coming in to visit us today. We have a couple more booked in for next week but please let us know if anyone else would like to come in.

 

We look forward to show and tell from the following children next week:

Week beginning Monday 29th Jan

Mon: Freya and Henry N

Tue: Hunter and James

Wed: Jaxson and Riley

Thurs: Jenson and Jesse

Fri: Henry A and Josephine

 

This morning in class the children did some fantastic writing about Forest School. They are very much in the early stages of writing and if you would like to support them at home please do not correct their spelling or write words out for them to copy as they can have a go using their phonic knowledge. So for example if they wrote "rais" for race we would be very pleased as they have sounded out and heard the "ai" sound in the middle and a "s" at the end. Similarly, if they wrote "heep" for heap that would be great. Other examples would be "tighm" for time (using the igh trigraph). It's all about having a go and building confidence. 

 

In maths we have been working with 5 and 10s frames and thinking about what is more or one less then. We have also been writing numbers up to 10 and any help you can give at home is greatly appreciated.

 

Please also continue to practise the new digraphs and trigraphs and tricky words in the orange books. 

 

This weekend it is the RSPB Big British Birdwatch. We will be doing a few activities at the start of next week to focus on this, but if you have any time to look in your garden or if you are out anywhere and see what birds you could spot over the weekend, we would love to share this on Monday as a class. You can add something to Tapestry or send something in if you record anything. There is a document on here that can help you to do this if you wish. 

 

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 19th January

It's been a rather chilly week but the children are getting pretty good at putting on their coats and hats and gloves. Zips are still tricky but we help with these, however, if you want to practise at home then please do! As usual, make sure everything is correctly and clearly labelled and anything that goes missing should be returned. 

 

Thank you for all of the lovely special memories photos you sent in. We have enjoyed looking at them as a class and it has been lovely to share them all. As you know we will be continuing our topic work over the next few weeks with 3 weeks of Show and Tell about Grandparents. We have a few of Grandparents booked in already to come and visit the class and share a story or experiences. Please do get in touch if any of your child's grandparents would like to join us. 

 

In maths we have been counting and forwards and backwards to 10 , using ordinal numbers (1st, 2^nd etc) and thinking about 1 more than and 1 less than. Please practise this at home. 

On Wednesday next week in class we will be thinking about how our families are special and unique. We will be talking about who is special to us in our families. It would be really helpful if you could talk to your child beforehand about who is special / important in their lives and we will be drawing a simple family tree to illustrate this. 

 

Show and Tell - Grandparents

We would like the children can tell us about their Grandparents during show and tell over the next three weeks (grandparents do not need to be here!!). They can share any information they would like -  this could include what do they call them, what do they like to do with them, do they live nearby or far away, what is special about them. Photos can be uploaded on to Tapestry and the children can use these during Show and Tell. 

 

We look forward to show and tell from the following children next week:

Week beginning Monday 22nd Jan:

Mon: Albie and Arlo

Tue: Blake and Charlotte

Wed: Daisy and Daniel

Thurs: Florence and Flynn

Fri: Eliza and Freddie

 

Please also have a look at our new curriculum overview plans on the school website to see a summary of our learning so far.

 

https://www.chiddingstoneschool.co.uk/early-years-foundation-stage-3/

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 12th Jan 2023

We've had a busy week in school and the class are working really well at phonics, reading, maths and all our topic work. If your child wants to practise writing at home, please encourage them but do not correct their spelling. At this stage it's all about having a go and gaining confidence. If they were to write "maid" for "made" that would be perfect as that matches their phonic understanding. If they wrote "reech" for "reach" again that would be what we would expect at this stage and just say well done! Any questions on this, please ask.  

 

Homework: "My history - Memories"

As part of our Long Ago topic we will be thinking about our own history. For homework, please could you help your child to choose a photograph showing a special memory. The children will be able to share their photographs with the class and talk about their special memories. You can either help them write a word or simple sentence about their memory or scribe for your child. If you prefer, this could be uploaded on to Tapestry. You can use the attached template or just use an A4 piece of paper.

 

Next week please could your child bring in a photo of when they were a toddler, as we will begin to think about changes over time (a photocopy is fine or upload a photo onto Tapestry). 

 

Our Learning this week

In maths, we have been learning all about zero.  The concept of nothing is hard for children to conceptualise so we have been practising understanding that zero is an empty set and is the absence of something.

 

In phonics we are learnt the digraphs ai, ee and oa and the trigraph igh. Please practise these at home with your child. You could try reading words with these sounds (rain, tail, feet, deep, coat, goat, high, night). Quick recall is really important as we will be learning 4 more sounds next week. We've have been recapping tricky words learnt last term. Again, any help at home is great.

 

Getting Changed

Please could you check that your child can put their own shoes and socks on? This is something that we do every week after PE when we are in the hall, and ideally the children will do it themselves, as we want to do as much as we can to help them be as independent as possible. If socks is something, they find tricky, then one way to help them practice is to use a hair scrunchie and practice, pulling it over their foot. This is then a good first step to them being able to put their own socks on. 

 

If your child has a coat with more than one layer, please can you help them practice to turn it to the correct way out once they take it off, and help them practice to put it on as well. 

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 5th January 2024

We hope that you all had a healthy and restful Christmas and a Happy New Year! It has been lovely to welcome the children back and they have settled well into school. Thank you very much for the lovely cards and gifts you gave to all of the YR team for Christmas. They were very much appreciated and enjoyed.  

Our topic this term is Long Ago and the children have really engaged with it already.  Please continue to look at Tapestry regularly to see what we have been up to. If your child has anything special that you would like to share with us eg an interesting place you have visited, something you/they are particularly proud of, a family event, please do feel free to upload to Tapestry so we can talk about it with your child. It does not have to be shared with the whole class, but if your child wanted to then they could tell us all about it. 

We will do Show and Tell later on this term where the children can tell us about their Grandparents – more details to follow.  In the meanwhile, we would also like to invite any willing Grandparents into our class to read a story to the children, or talk about memories from when they were a child or even plays games or do a craft activity. This can be any time over the next few weeks (doesn't need to tie in with Show and Tell allocations). Please email the office or let us know when you see us at the start or end of the day if your child's Grandparents would like to do this.

Please check labels on everything that comes into school – particularly forest school kit as well as snacks and drinks. 

Next week we will start learning new sounds in phonics and get back into our reading scheme book. Until then, have a restful and dry weekend. 

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood 

Friday 15th December

Well, we've nearly me made it! Just a couple of days to go.

We hope you enjoyed the nativity this week. We were extremely proud of our class and Y1 and Y2 and thought they made fabulous inn keepers. It's very easy to under estimate how daunting it is to stand up in front of a church full of people and perform (when you're very tired too!). They certainly rose to the occasion and did themselves proud. Thank you so much for coming to support them, they were so excited to see you all. We hope you enjoyed it. 

Reading books

We have sent home books this weekend. We haven't really had much time to read them in class this week so do have a good go at home and return on MONDAY. We won't be sending any books home over the holidays. Please keep the tricky words books at home over the holidays and practise if you get the chance. 

Next term's topic

Next term our topic is Long Ago and we will be asking the children to find out about their Grandparents. Every child will have the chance to do a Show and Tell and share pictures and information about their grandparents with the class. They could, for example, talk about what jobs they do/did, where they live, if they visit or stay with them, what they like to do with them, what makes them special.  We would also like to invite any willing Grandparents into our class to read a story to the children, or talk about their time at school or memories from when they were a child or just play a game or do a craft activity.

More information to follow!

Kind Regards

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 8th December

We have had a busy week with rehearsals and have continued with daily phonics lessons, revising all sounds previously learnt. Please do go over the sounds with the children, especially recently learnt digraphs ch, sh, th, qu, ng, nk

In maths we continued with 2D shapes, identifying them in pictures and counting them. 

In the last week of our current topic we have had a lot of fun - making puppets and acting out stories (see Tapestry for more).

Our class Christmas tree is up! Look on Tapestry to see it in all of it's glory! Obviously decorated by the children!

Show and Tell next week:

Monday: Riley

Tuesday: Robbie

Wednesday: Sebby

Thursday: Seren

Friday: Wulf

If you havent already done so, please upload a favourite book in a favourite place photo onto Tapestry for our class display.

Nativity - costume reminder

Please make sure these are in school, all named, by Tuesday 12th December (so you can put in PE trousers) in a named bag which can be hung of a peg. Everything names please!  PE joggers, school shoes and a plain long sleeved top of any colour. Please could you also provide a tea towel for a headdress, preferably a regular check one and something to secure it with - a leg from a pair of tights would be fine, or a stretchy belt or some curtain braid.  More information to follow on drop off and pick up arrangements. 

Christmas Jumper Day and lunch on Friday

Help in class next year

If you would like to volunteer to help in class next year we are looking for willing volunteers. This might be to help with a craft / topic activity, play a game with a group, etc. To do this you will need to be DBS checked so please contact Mrs Clarke finance@chiddingstone.kent.sch.uk to arrange this.  In addition we are looking for parents / carers / grandparents to volunteer on a more regular basis to help with our Little Wandle Reading Groups. Ideally we would like a weekly commitment and some online training will need to be undertaken. Please speak to us if you think you can commit to this. We'd be very grateful!

Not much more to say except have a lovely weekend and stay warm and dry! 

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 1st December

We have been busy with Nativity rehearsals which are going well along with keeping up with our phonics, maths and topic.  

You could practise singing the first 2 verses of Away in a Manger at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnwO_0DrpCk

In Children's choice the children had great fun making magic wands and crowns (linking to Cinderella.) Next week we will make make a Christmas postbox - if your child wants to bring in Christmas cards for the class they can put them in this post box and we will distribute them out at the end of term.

In maths our work on 2D shapes has continued through the week. Do have a look around your home for 2D shapes. The children have learnt the terms: side, corner, straight and curved and we have been looking at squares, rectangles, triangles and circles.  As always, this is on Tapestry.

Today we joined in with 1,800 other schools, in a live zoom with Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart. They talked through their Christmas You Choose book and then showed the children how to draw various Christmassy items. This afternoon we had a visit from local MP Tom Tugenhadt who presented an older child with a prize for his Christmas card design and then took part in a Q&A. A busy day!

Nativity Costumes

Our class are inn keepers and for this we would like them to wear PE joggers, school shoes and a plain long sleeved top of any colour. Please could you also provide a tea towel for a headdress, preferably a regular check one and something to secure it with - a leg from a pair of tights would be fine, or a stretchy belt or some curtain braid (we will put an example on Tapestry). Please make sure these are in school, all named, by Monday 11th December in a named bag which can be hung of a peg.  

Show and Tell this week

Monday: Millie

Tuesday: Naia

Wednesday: Nina

Thursday: Olivia

Friday: Oscar

Homework

For a class display please could you upload a photo onto Tapestry of your child reading a favourite book in their favourite place. This could be cuddled up on the sofa, with a teddy in bed, in a den or anywhere you like! We'll show the children all the photos on the whiteboard - they love looking at these in class. 

PLEASE MAKE SURE ALL READING BOOKS AND DIARIES ARE RETURNED ON MONDAY

Hope you can make it to the Christmas fair tomorrow

 Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 24th November

Another lovely week in Year R. The children continue to make amazing progress in their phonics work, enjoying reading groups and our whole class sessions. Tricky words are still proving quite tricky(!) so please do support your child with this at home, perhaps have a couple of the words stuck around the house and use the orange books to see where support is needed. As these words can't be phonetically sounded out they need to be able to read them by sight. 

Reading Books

Reading scheme books and diaries must be returned to school on Mondays. We need these books to use in school the following week. 

Show and Tell

Thank you for all the lovely books brought in for Show and Tell.  The children are really enjoyed sharing their favourite books and we've enjoyed reading them.

Next week will be turn of:

Monday: Jaxson

Tuesday: Jenson

Wed: Jesse

Thursday: Josephine

Friday: Matthew

Pantomime

On Monday afternoon we have a visiting theatre company coming in to school to perform a pantomime of Cinderella in the school hall for YR, 1 and 2. 

Coughs and Colds

Unfortunately there are a lots of germs going round at the moment. Please encourage your child to cough into the corner of their elbow and use tissues to wipe noses.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 17^th November

We have had a great week in school with lots of number work and super work in phonics. The class are really getting the hang of writing their names. Do please support this at home, they are so proud when they can do it!

It was a very wet start to the week but thankfully dried out and the children have had fun with activities relating to our Once Upon A Time topic. See Tapestry for more updates about the week.

Today we have started practising our song for the Christmas Nativity and the children picked it up quite quickly.  In RE we read the story of the first Christmas and then had fun acting out the story, playing with puppets and making nativity scenes. We also looked at Christmas cards and picked out the ones that showed scenes from the nativity. 

It was lovely to see many of you on Wednesday for parents evening and we look forward to seeing the rest of you on zoom next week.

Tricky Word Books

Your child will have brought home an orange book with the tricky words we have been learning in phonics. Please could you practise reading these at home and initial the appropriate box. You can keep them at home until they are getting confident with the words and then send them back in and we will add the next set. Tricky words cannot be sounded out - the children just need to learn them by sight. Some are considered tricky due to different regional accents eg push, pull, full. 

Show and Tell week beginning 20th November (favourite book from home - fiction or fact):

Monday: Freya and Freddie

Tuesday:  Henry A

Wednesday: Henry N

Thursday: Hunter

Friday: James

Coats

As it is getting colder and we encourage the children to wear coats at playtime, please could you teach your child how to put their coat on by themselves. Laying the coat on the floor, arms in first, over the head trick works well.

Homework

This weekend it would be helpful for our learning next week for the children to take a photo of either 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 objects. This could be of natural or man made objects. It could be taken inside or outside. Please upload their photo to Tapestry. It could be a photo, for example, of 3 birds, 2 rocks, 5 pencils, 4 cups, 1 dog etc. We look forward to seeing their photos and will add them to our maths display. 

Thank you and have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 10th November

Today we spent the morning thinking about Remembrance Day and joined the whole school for a special Act of Worship and a minute's silence. This is obviously an emotive and complex topic so it was pitched at an appropriate level and with sensitivity. Your child may come home with comments and questions. We watched Poppies on CBeebies which is a beautiful animation explaining about the significance of today for younger children. The children loved it and we had some good discussions.

Maths

We have been thinking about time, learning the Days of the Week and Months of the Year. Please use the language throughout your day to reinforce this with your child.

Show and Tell week beginning 13th November (favourite book from home)

Monday:  Daniel

Tuesday:  Eliza

Wednesday: Florence

Thursday: Flynn

Friday:  Freddie

RE

We had our first RE lesson today and, in preparation for the run up to Christmas, talked about Jesus as a baby and the person he grew up to be. We read a few stories about his life and the children had a lot of fun listening to the story of the feeding of the 5000 and acting out the story where Jesus calms the storm.

Reading Books

Your child will have brought home the book they have been reading in our reading groups this week. Please use the yellow reading diary to let us know how they get on at home with the book. As mentioned previously, we aim to read the book 3 times in school over the week, focusing on decoding, prosody (reading with expression) and comprehension. As the books are fairly simple at this stage we sometimes combine prosody and comprehension. 

Tapestry

A lot of the learning that goes on in school is shared on Tapestry. We would recommend that you take a look at this on a regular basis so you can support your child at home. It's also very useful for end of the day discussions with your child when they can't remember anything about what they did at school! We always enjoy reading your comments too.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 20th October

Well, we've made it to the end of term, more or less in one piece! It's hard to believe that the children have only been in school for one term. They have settled in so well, taken many different experiences in their stride, have become increasingly independent and have been an absolute pleasure to get to know. They are no doubt very tired so we hope you all have a very relaxing half term and some quality time together!

 

Phonics

As your child starts on their journey learning to read, it is important that they are able to quickly recall all the sounds we have covered so far in phonics. Over the holidays, please find a little bit of time to practise all the sounds we have taught so far. You could stick flashcards around the house and make it into a treasure hunt, use little cards to play snap or matching pairs. Little and often is a good way forward. We have put some links to resources on Tapestry that should be of help (so far we have taught the sounds for Autumn 1). 

 

Topic and Show and Tell

Next term, our topic is 'Once Upon A Time' and over the term we will aim to develop a love of stories and reading. The topic encourages children to learn, retell and act out familiar and traditional tales. For Show and Tell we would like the children to bring in a favourite book from home. This can be a fiction or non fiction book and doesn't need to be a traditional tale.  Each child will be allocated a set day so we can read the books in class.

 

Show and Tell with a favourite book - week beginning Monday 6th November

Monday – Albie

Tuesday – Arlo

Wednesday - Blake

Thursday – Charlotte

Friday – Daisy

 

As the weather is getting colder and wetter, please can you help your child to learn to put on their school coats independently as it saves a lot of time if children can do this by themselves.  Zips and buttons are harder but if they can also be practised that would be great! It would help your children if you can show them how to take their coats off as well. If their sleeves go inside out, show them how to get them back through so they can put their coats back on. 

 

Please do empty school bags over the holidays and keep all toys from home at home.  Remember to return reading books and diaries on the first Monday book

 

Have a wonderful half term. Please do use Tapestry to share any news from home over the holidays. It's lovely for the YR team to be able to chat with your child about things they have done and this can be a useful prompt.

 

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

13th October

We have had a great week in Reception and today we went to our first whole school Act of Worship. The children sat very well through it and enjoyed being part of the service.  

 

Topic: Me and My Community

We enjoyed finding out about the different jobs people do, including parents and carers. The children also thought about what they would like to do when they are grown up. Interestingly, quite a few want to be teachers!  

We had a special show and tell with Oscar's new baby sister. The children had lots of interesting questions to ask Oscar and his mum and they also sang a very quiet version of Twinkle Twinkle to help settle her. 

The children also started to learn about how to use bee bots programmable robots to give simple instructions; they will be continuing to develop this next week too. 

We enjoyed time with our Y6 buddies this week using play dough to make different things together. 

 

Maths Homework

This week we have been practising careful and accurate counting. Over the weekend please find any opportunities you can with your child to count objects, whether it's the stairs as you walk up them, sweets from the shop or sticks in the garden. If you haven't got enough cups on the table, how many more do you need? Number recognition is always good to practise too. We also looked at different dot patterns and had a good go at recognising the number of dots without counting (this is called subitising). Games with dice are great for practising this. 

 

Reading Books

Please read the Collins Reading Scheme book with your child over the weekend. Some will have books with words and some wordless. Children need to be confident with recognising sounds and blending them together before moving onto books with words and they do don't all do this at the same time. Use the yellow reading diary to let us know how they are getting on and please return on Monday.

Have a lovely weekend, one week until half term!

Mrs  Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 6th October

This week in maths we have been working on patterns - spotting, extending and predicting patterns. Being able to recognise patterns is a key skill in maths. Over the weekend could you support your child to make a pattern using something they've found on a walk or toys in the home. The patterns could be by object (acorn leaf acorn leaf) or by colour (red brick yellow brick red brick yellow brick). Ask your child what comes next, can they extend the pattern? You could upload a photo onto Tapestry. You will also see ones we have done in school. We talked about the pattern being 'repeated' again and again.  

Phonemes (sounds) we have covered in phonics this week are ck, e, u and r. We have also learnt to read the tricky words "is" and "I". Any practise at home is very beneficial. 

Forest School

Please make sure all items that come into school are labelled.

Reading books and yellow reading diaries

Today your child will have brought a reading scheme book. These are all wordless books. Please go through the book with your child, talking about what they can see in the pictures and use the instructions in the front/back of the book for other ideas. These books must be returned on Monday for use in school.  In class we have talked about how to turn pages carefully to avoid creasing or ripping the pages. You can use the yellow reading diary to record how your child has got on with the book. 

Buddies

We enjoyed time reading outside with our buddies as the weather was so lovely. We look forward to seeing them again on Monday afternoon.

The children are very enthusiastic in class and listen really well on the carpet. However, they are all getting quite tired so please do encourage early nights!

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 29th October

We were very proud of the children at their first ever Harvest Service. They sang enthusiastically and did the actions so well - quite a daunting experience! They all sat beautifully, listening to the other classes. The first of many chances to see them performing, thank you to those of you able to come. Well done Reception!

In phonics this week we have covered g,o,c and k. In maths we have been comparing and ordering by height and length using the language taller, smaller, longer and shorter, etc. In French today the children learnt how to count to ten. 

Homework

To encourage everyone in the class to help at tidy up time the children have a tidy up team according to their houses and each week will have a different area of the classroom to tidy up after Children's Choice. They were generally very good at tidying up today but some still need lots of encouragement. We would be very grateful if you could put in a bit of practise at home with tidying away toys.

Forest School

Please make sure everything is labelled. Please could all children come into school wearing trainers or similar and bring wellies in their Forest School bag. 

Snacks

Children are provided with fruit in the afternoon so do not need to bring in a second snack for the afternoon. 

Class timetable

Our class timetable cam be found here:

https://www.chiddingstoneschool.co.uk/class-timetables-3/

We don't follow this rigidly but it gives a general idea of what happens when (PE, French, buddies etc).

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 22nd September

We have had a lovely if rather soggy week. The children have coped very well with full days but are definitely tired today! At the end of today we talked about all the new things we have done this week - PE, Forest School, French, going to the church and staying all day. 

 

Their phonics learning is progressing swiftly and they are beginning to blend letters to make words orally and on the interactive white board which is very exciting! On Fridays we recap the week's learning so no new sound today.

In maths we have been matching and sorting - for example deciding which is the odd one out of a group whether it's by size, colour or function. Or putting items together that match, again by size, colour, or more abstract reasons such as whether they can be eaten, used to drink out of etc. 

 

Harvest

We look forward to seeing those that can make it at the Harvest Festival Service on Wednesday morning. Our class will be a singing a song as part of the service. 

 

Forest School

It sounds like the children enjoyed their first Forest School session. Please could you make sure everything is labelled including the shoes they come to school in before changing for FS. Please always send your child in on Forest School day wearing a pair of shoes rather than wellies.

 

Curriculum Meeting

Thank you for coming to the meeting this week, either in person and on zoom. We hope you found it useful - there's always so much to cover. We didn't have time to mention our different topics or French, PE, RE, Children's Choice, but hope you got a flavour of learning in YR. Please do use Tapestry to share things from home - it can be a really helpful conversation starter with your children if they have done something at home they are proud of, or been somewhere interesting at the weekend, or have family news they'd like to share with us. 

 

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood

Friday 15th September

What a great week in reception! Everyone has done really well with beginning to learn their phonics and we have enjoyed some maths activities.

The children have all also done incredibly well in the dinner hall. Everybody has sat and eaten something and they have showed really nice manners. We will keep an eye on those who are less keen on lunch but we usually find that in time they manage well; if you have any concerns do let us know. 

They are all getting to know everyone and starting to forge friendships. Everyone has been enjoying playing inside and out and exploring all of our resources.

Thank you to people who have sent in spare clothes for their children. These do need to be in a plastic bag that we can hang on their peg. We have noticed some people have put them in their child’s rucksack, but we do need these to be able to go on their pegs in a bag otherwise their trays don’t close properly. We can stick a name sticker on it for you if you don’t have any yourself.

The children have all brought home a 'sharing' book. Throughout the year the children will be able to choose a book from our class selection to take home and enjoy with a parent/carer. This book is not for them to read to you but to be enjoyed together. We will change books twice a week on a Monday and Friday so please have them in school on those days. 

On Monday we start PE lessons so the children come to school in their PE kits (school uniform will not be needed). Forest School starts on Thursday.

Keep looking at Tapestry, lots to see on there and thank you for joining us on zoom this week. 

In the mornings, the school offers a drop and go system. If you feel your child is ready for this, you may use it from next week. There are school adults on duty who open the car door and will help your child with getting out of the car, There is no expectation that you will use the drop and go system, so if you prefer to park and walk your child into school please continue to do so.

When collecting at 3:30pm, you can wait on the school drive with all the other parents and then come round to the Reception gates from the main playground.

The children will be given fruit in school in the afternoon so you do not need to send in an extra snack, just one for the morning.

We look forward to seeing those of you that can make it at our curriculum meeting on Thursday where will explain a bit more about how we teach phonics and early reading as well as other areas of the YR curriculum. The meeting will start at 3.00pm in the YR classroom. 

Have a great weekend,

Mrs Whitewood and Mrs Edwards

Friday 8th September 

We've had a lovely week getting to know your children. They have been amazing, settling quickly, making new friends and trying new things. Today we did a short tour of the school so they could familiarise themselves with the lunch hall ready for next week. They will no doubt be very tired - everyone is finding it hard to sleep in this heat!

  

Tapestry 

Hopefully you have all been able to activate your Tapestry account. Please email the office if you require an additional email address to be added. We have tried it out with a photo from your child's first week at school which we hope you have been able to access. Please let us know if you have had any problems. Tapestry is where you will find out what your child has been up to in school, so please do check it regularly. Feel free to comment on posts. It is an important part of our communication with parents and is a two way forum so if there are things you would like to share with us from home you can add posts which only we will see. These allow us to talk with your child about something they are proud of or places they have been etc.  

  

Labelling items 

Please make sure all clothing is clearly labelled along with snacks and water bottles. Please relabel any items handed down from siblings or friends or from the secondhand shop with your child's name (always include their first name) so they can recognise their own items.  

  

Rucksacks

Please could you regularly clear out your child's bag of unnecessary items so they fit easily in their tray. They don't need to bring in pencil cases, purses or any toys from home.

 

Spare Clothes

Please could spare pants and socks be placed in a named carrier bag. We'll keep these on the children's pegs to avoid rucksacks and trays becoming over full.

 

Drop off and Pick up next week

In the mornings please drop off between 8.30 and 8.45 (the front gate is locked at 8.45). Pick up for next week only will be via the minibus car park gate at 1.15pm. 

 

Phonics 

Next week we will start teaching phonics. From Monday we will let you know, on Tapestry, what we have covered in class so you can support your child at home.  

  

PE and Forest School

On Monday 18th September we will start PE lessons in the afternoon. Please could the children come to school in their PE kits every Monday from this date (school uniform will not be needed). 

Forest School will start on Thursday 21^st and more details will be sent out by Mrs Woodhouse, our Forest School lead. 

  

Thanks again for your support this week and we look forward to speaking to you on our zoom consultations next week. 

  

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood