Chiddingstone Church of England School
Going Above and Beyond Together
Friday 14th February
Well done everyone for making it to half term. It was a bit of strange day today with so many off poorly - we hope you all recover quickly. It has been a busy term and the class has joined in everything with great enthusiasm. We have all really enjoyed our Long Ago topic. Thank you so much 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.
This week the children enjoyed making bird feeders on Monday and Tuesday with parent helpers. Thank you so much to those who gave up their time to support with this.
In PE this term, the children have enjoyed dance, working on creating sequences of movements using different themes, such as transport, to different pieces of music, in their lessons with Mrs Major on a Monday.
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 19th.
Volunteers in class
We are very grateful to those parents who have been coming into help with our reading groups on a weekly basis. Your support is invaluable. If any parents / carers / Grandparents would be interested in coming in to class to help out on a more ad hoc basis eg to support a topic lesson or a craft activity then please do let us know.
Stay and Play
We would love you to join us for a stay and play on Wednesday 12th March. We will have activities set up for you to enjoy with your child. It will run from 2:15 to 3:15pm. It will be lovely to see you if you can attend but appreciate not everyone is able to and we will aim to do this again later in the year.
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 7th February
Dear Parents and Carers,
We have had a lovely week in Reception. The children have enjoyed two PE sessions and on Wednesday leant the six basic gymnastic moves with Mrs Golds.
We have been fortunate to have more grandparents and parents come in and visit us this week for our topic Long Ago. We heard lots of wonderful details about their lives and interests and the differences and similarities with life today. The children enjoyed listening to stories, finding out about life in the past, as well as learning that the nursery used to be where our classroom is today.
In maths we have been working on composition, looking at how numbers 6 and 7 are made. The children have been securing their understanding of the pairs of numbers that make 5, and then used double dice frames to begin to explore 6 and 7 as numbers that are composed of ‘5 and a bit’. They really enjoyed the song 5 little men in a flying saucer.
In phonics we have been starting to learn how to sound out longer words, made up of 2 separate words, such as farmyard, bedroom and rooftop. They are trickier, but the children have been learning to break them into chunks, e.g. for rooftop, they would sound out roof and then top.
We have been enjoying some drier weather and the children have enjoyed making potions and playing in the mud kitchen with resources based on a Valentine's theme. They have all thoroughly enjoyed playing with our Valentine’s playdough too.
We look forward to our final week of show and tell from the following children next week:
Week beginning Monday 10th Feb
Mon: Cissy
Tue: Cameron
Wed: Allegra
Thurs: Alf
Fri: Ada
If any parents can come in and help us make bird feeders on Monday and Tuesday am, please send a message on Tapestry to us. You will need to already have a DBS check through the school.
Have a lovely weekend.
Jo Edwards and Vicky Whitewood
Friday 31st Jan
Dear Parents
We have been enjoying Show and Tell and it has been lovely to see the children’s confidence grow when taking their turn. The children have loved sharing information about their Grandparents.
We look forward to show and tell from the following children next week:
Mon: Florence
Tue: Elliot
Wed: Eli
Thurs: Ela
Fri: Dylan
This morning in class the children did some lovely writing about Forest School and are becoming more confident at having a go and using their phonic knowledge. We have taught all the sounds we will be learning in Reception and it is now all about reading and writing words with these sounds. Please continue to practice the sounds at home, particularly the digraphs and trigraphs, as quick recall is very important.
In maths we have been thinking about different ways of making 5. We enjoyed the song 5 speckled frogs as part of our learning this week.
As part of our Long Ago topic we talked about our own history and made family trees of people who are special to us. The children made a really good job of this. We looked at what shops were like long ago and the children made price tags to set up our own shop.
Today in RE, as part of our stories from the New Testament, we talked about the Parable of the Yeast and how some things start of very small (grains of yeast) and become much bigger (a loaf of bread) and compared it to the church today which started off with just Jesus and his disciples. We also thought about how love and kindness can start off as a small thing in our hearts and spread out to a lot more people. We looked at flat bread and a loaf and compared their size and then off course, we ate them! Quite a difficult concept to grasp but at least we now know what yeast is!
The children enjoyed learning about Lunar New Year this week, learning about what things people living in parts of Asia, such as China and Korea, do to celebrate it, such as give children lucky red envelopes with money inside. We watched the special episode of JoJo and Gran Gran about it, looked at different Chinese characters for numbers 1-10, read the story the Great Race to learn about the Lunar Zodiac, used stencils and did some colouring for year of the snake. With our buddies, we started to make a Chinese dragon; we will put them together on Monday next week.
Please send in a clean yogurt pot if you have one on Monday or Tuesday to make a bird feeder.
Have a lovely weekend
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Friday 24th January
Phew - we survived "Break The Rules Day" without too much of a sugar rush! The children loved showing off their crazy hair dos, outfits and many tattoos!
As it's been a little chilly recently and many children are wearing gloves and scarves, please could you make sure everything is correctly and clearly labelled. Anything that goes missing should be quickly returned.
Long Ago
Thank you for all of the lovely special memories you sent in. We have enjoyed looking at them in class class and it has been lovely to share them all. If your child hasnt done this yet please send it in next week and we can add them to our display board.
We also had a lovely show and tell with George's baby brother William to find out how to look after a baby. William was very patient and didn't seem to mind being poked and stroked!
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. We will be drawing a simple family tree to illustrate this in class.
Maths
In maths this week we have been thinking about counting, ordinality (the position each number holds in our number sequence does not change) and cardinality (the last number in the count tells us how many things there are altogether). We don't use these terms in class but they are key mathematical principles. We have spent time discovering that each number has a value of 1 more than the previous number. We have used blocks to order quantities from 1 to 5 to embed this key understanding.
Phonics and writing
We have covered the sounds ur, er, oi, ear in phonics this week. Every day we also do handwriting, focusing on individual letter formation. We also do spellings in phonics, writing words with the new sounds. We put all this into practice on Friday and have a go at writing a sentence about Forest School. The children are making great progress!
Show and Tell - Grandparents
We look forward to show and tell from the following children next week:
Week beginning Monday 27th Jan:
Mon: Jade
Tue: Heath
Wed: Harriet
Thurs: George
Fri: Freddie
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Friday 17th Jan 2025
We've had a busy week in school and the class are working really well in all lessons and through play.
Homework: "My history - Memories"
Next week as part of our Long Ago topic we will be thinking about our own history. For homework, please could you help your child to draw a picture or choose a photograph showing a special memory. The children will be able to share their photographs with the class and we will display these in the classroom. You can either help them write a word or very simple sentence about their memory or scribe for your child. Please use the template brought home today (also attached) and send in sometime next week.
In addition, over the weekend please could you upload a photo of your child on to Tapestry from when they were a toddler or baby, as we will begin to think about changes over time.
And one more thing, if any parent with a baby would like to come in and talk to the children about how to look after babies we would be very grateful!
Our Learning this week
In maths, we have been practising subitising (recognising amounts without counting) including dice patterns. We played simple track games in class with dice. We thought about the starting place, how many spaces we need to jump on, and of course, taking turns!
In phonics we are learnt the digraphs oo (zoom), oo (book), or and ar. Please practise these at home with your child. Quick recall is really important as we will be learning 4 more sounds next week. New tricky words will be sent home today.
Show and Tell:
Monday: Kitty
Tuesday: Mabel
Wednesday: Jossy
Thursday: Jesse
Friday: Savannah B
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Friday 10th 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.
We have enjoyed show and tell and finding out about Grandparents. It's lovely to have visiting Grandparents in to our class but we do appreciate it's not possible for everyone. If any Grandparents would like to come in at another time then they would always be welcome. Please do email the office, or let us know when you see us at the start or end of the day, so we can make sure the time fits in with our timetable.
Show and Tell Week beginning Monday 13th Jan
Mon: Jasper
Tue: Savannah P
Wed: River
Thurs: Poppy J
Fri: Scott
Writing
We are starting to do more writing in class and today some children had a go at writing about Forest School. Mrs Haysom was very impressed with their 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. Encourage them to sound out the word and count the sounds. 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.
Reading books and diaries have been sent home today. Tricky words books will be sent home next Friday as there were no new tricky words this week.
School bags and keyrings - please could you only attach one small keyring to your child's bag so they can fit in their tray without breaking - thank you.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Thursday 19th December
Well me made it! We hope that all those who have been poorly this week make a good recovery in time for Christmas. We've missed having you all in class. It's such a fun and busy time of year, with many changes in routine. The children generally cope very well with it all but are definitely ready for a well deserved break.
Reading books
We haven't added a new reading book this week as we haven't had the opportunity to carry out our reading groups due to the many absences and end of term fun! If anyone still has yellow diaries or reading books at home please return on the first day back in January. Tricky word books can also been returned then.
Bits and Pieces
Over the holiday please could you relabel any items of clothing that have lost their labels and empty school bags of pictures etc.
And Finally........thank you!
A very big thank you from everyone in Year R for our lovely cards and Christmas presents. We really appreciate the messages in your cards (and of course the very generous gifts).
Happy Christmas! Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you all in 2025!
From the Year R team.
Friday 13th December
What a busy week we’ve had – in more ways than one!
We hope you enjoyed the nativity this week. We were extremely proud of our class along with Y1 and Y2 and thought they made fabulous supporters of the wise men. It's 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!). The children 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.
Next week
We will be enjoying some festive activities in class next week including Christmas baking with Mrs Scott and a Christmas art activity with Scott’s mum.
Reading books
We have sent home books this weekend. We haven't really had much time to read them in class this week, as you can imagine, 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 (there are no new words this week) and practise if you get the chance. Any chance you get to keep up with phonics (sounds and blending) is always very useful too.
Next term's topic
Next term our topic is Long Ago and we will be asking the children to share information about their Grandparents. Every child will have the chance to do a Show and Tell 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. Photos uploaded on to Tapestry are always helpful. 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 6th 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
Have a look on the school website under the Curriculum tab and select English. If you scroll down, there is some helpful info on phonics and a link to Little Wandle website.
Maths
In maths we have been looking at the composition of numbers. Composition of number is a key area of mathematics, and children need a lot of practice over time, based on meaningful experiences, to build their understanding of this concept.
This week, we began to explore composition by focusing on the preliminary skills: the concept of ‘wholes’ and ‘parts’. We investigated our own bodies and familiar toys to begin to understand that whole things are often made up of smaller parts and that a whole is, therefore, bigger than its parts.
We have also continued with 2D shapes, identifying them in pictures and searching for them around school on a fun 2D shape hunt.
Topic
In the last week of our current topic we have had a lot of fun making puppets and acting out stories. As always, see Tapestry for more information.
We continue to enjoy Show and Tell with favourite books and are very grateful for your support and commitment!
Show and Tell next week:
Monday: Scott
Tuesday: Theo
Wednesday:
Thursday: Zoe
Friday: George
Nativity - costume reminder
Please make sure these are in school, all named, by Monday 9th December (we wont be doing PE on Monday so you can send in PE trousers) in a named bag which can be hung of a peg. Everything named please! PE joggers and a plain long sleeved plain top of a bright colour.
We have a Christmas lunch on Friday with Christmas jumpers. We will have a post box in class for children to send cards to their friends.
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, read a story to a group. 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.
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Friday 29th 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. This week's sounds were also a bit more challenging so please practise at home if you get the chance (sh, th, ng, nk). Handwriting and spelling is also coming along and everyday in phonics we practice spelling a 3 letter word.
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.
Maths
In maths today we explored 2D shapes. Do have a look with your child 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. You could always post a photo on Tapestry for us to share of anything you find.
Nativity 11th December
Singing practice is coming along very well. Our class will be supporting the wise men so we would like them to wear black PE tracksuit bottoms, black school shoes and a brightly coloured long sleeved top - preferably plain. We will be making other accessories in school.
Please make sure these are in school, all named, by Monday 9th December in a named bag with handles which can be hung of a peg.
You could practise singing the first 2 verses of Away in a Manger at home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnwO_0DrpCk
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 having you in to read them. There will be time towards the end of term if you feel like you missed the opportunity.
Next week will be turn of:
Monday: Poppy A
Tuesday: Poppy J
Wed: River
Thursday: Savannah B
Friday: Savannah P?? (previously swapped with another child but I cant remember who!)
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 and enjoy the Christmas Fair.
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Friday 22nd November
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. We read the Three Little Pigs and made story maps and the children have had a lot of fun retelling the story with puppets during Children's Choice.
We have started practising our song for the Christmas Nativity. 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 helpful to then link the story to our song which is about the Three Wise Men.
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.
Tricky Word Books
Just to clarify - tricky words cannot be sounded out and need to be sight read so lots of practise is required. Please don't expect your child to be able to work them out from sounding out. That's why we call them tricky words! These need to be returned by Thursday or Friday so we can add the next set of words.
Show and Tell week beginning 25th November. It's lovely to see parents / grandparents in to read if you can make it but we realise not everyone can and we will obviously read the book to the class.
Monday: Jasper
Tuesday: Jesse
Wednesday: Joss
Thursday: Kitty
Friday: Mabel
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.
There will be no PE this week because of the Pantomime on Monday.
Thank you and have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Friday 15th November
On Monday 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 have come home with comments and questions.
We have had a great week in school with lots of number work and super work in phonics. We have also been practising writing names. Do please support this at home using the correct letter formation. If you have one, a whiteboard is a good way of doing this, as it's a little easier than pencil and paper.
It was lovely to see many of you on Wednesday for parents evening and we look forward to seeing the rest of you on Thursday next week.
Tricky Word Books
Tricky word books should now have 3 sets of words in them for you to practise at home with your child. They don't have to write them, just be able to read them. There were a few that haven't been updated so please send them in next week. If any are missing we can sort out a new one so please let us know.
School Reading Scheme Books
Please return on Monday with the yellow diary as we need the books for other groups during the week.
Show and Tell week beginning 18th November (favourite book from home - fiction or fact). Please do let us know in advance if you are coming in to read.
Monday: Freddie
Tuesday: George
Wednesday: Harriet
Thursday: Heath
Friday: Jade
Freckles the travelling bear
We're all loving hearing about what Freckles has been up to. His little milk bottle has been mislaid so if anyone is good at sewing and would be happy to make a new one, we (and Freckles!) would be very grateful.
And finally........
Any opportunities to practise using a knife and fork please do! The lunch hall staff notice lots of children eating are finding this tricky.
Thank you and have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Friday 8th November
We have made a good start to our new topic Once Upon A Time. The children have listened to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and made porridge with different toppings. We read Jack and the Beanstalk and made castles, thinking about where different stories take are set. You could talk about this when reading books together at home. We're enjoying Show and Tell with favourite stories. There is absolutely no expectation that parents / carers come in to read these books as we will of course read the book to the class. However, you are very welcome if it's convenient. Please let the office know if you'd like to come in or speak to one of us to arrange a suitable time.
Maths
In number we have been working on composition of numbers to four and we have also been thinking about time - what we do in the day and at night (hopefully sleeping!).
Show and Tell week beginning 11th November (favourite book from home)
Monday: Dylan
Tuesday: Ela
Wednesday: Eli
Thursday: Elliot
Friday: Florence
RE
In RE, and in preparation for the run up to Christmas, we talked about Jesus as a baby and the person he grew up to be. We talked about how we were once babies and then grew up. We looked a pictures of Jesus as baby, a boy and a man and then drew pictures of ourselves as babies and now. We read one of the stores about his life from the bible and the children had a lot of fun 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.
Tricky Word Books
Your child will have brought home some new tricky words we have been learning in phonics this week. Please could you practise reading these at home and initial the appropriate box. 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. A couple of orange books were missing so please let us know if your child hasn't got the 2nd set of words in their orange book.
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 18th 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 7 weeks. They have settled in very well, taken many different experiences in their stride and are becoming increasingly independent. 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 so they don't forget them. 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. A bit of blending practise is also a good idea, perhaps using the sounds they are most familiar with (satpin) and making 3 letter words. The blending video on the parents section of the Little Wandle website is helpful.
Maths
This week we have been working on composition in maths, exploting how numbers can be composed of 1s.
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 book in class. We would very much welcome parents / carers in to read the book to the class and if this doesnt work for you on your child's day just let us know and we can be flexible. Or, if anyone would like to record themselves reading the book and we can play this back in class, that would also be great!
Show and Tell with a favourite book - week beginning Monday 4th November
Monday – Ada
Tuesday – Alf
Wednesday - Allegra
Thursday – Cameron
Friday – Cissy
As the weather will no doubt be getting colder, please can you help your child to learn to put on their coats independently. Zips and buttons can be tricky but if they can also be practised that would be great! Teaching them how to turn sleeves back the right way after taking off their coats would also be useful. We have practised this in class. Please also take time over the holiday to make sure your child is independent when going to the loo and not leaving it til the last minute to avoid accidents in class. Thank you!
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 back.
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. Finally, thank you very much for all your support over this term. We realise there is an awful lot to take on when your child first starts school and we hope it hasn't been too overwhelming. Thank you also to Jade and Eli's family for coming in to talk about their jobs and also to those who have helped with our reading groups and undertaken the training to do this.
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
11th October
Me and My Community
We have had a fabulous day with a visit from Jade's dad and his Kent Fire and Rescue colleagues. We had an informative and interesting whole school Act of Worship on fire safety and then the children were able to explore the fire engine and had a lot of fun using the hose. We are also very grateful to Eli's mum who came in on Wednesday and told us all about her job as a nurse. The children were able to try on some of the kit that a nurse would wear at work and try out bandages and a honey dressing. Thank you very much - the children have really enjoyed these visits and they bring our topic to life!
We have enjoyed finding out about the different jobs people do, including parents and carers. It appears that chatting on the phone is what a lot of people do at work these days. We also have a lot more police officers than we realised!
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. 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 Reading Scheme book with your child over the weekend. Use the yellow reading diary to let us know how they are getting on and please return on Monday as we need the books for the next group.
Tricky Word Books
Your child will have brought home an orange book with tricky words we have been learning to read during phonics. These are words that cannot be sounded and just need to be recognised. Please do practise them with your child until they are confident at reading them. We learn quite a few tricky words over the year and so becoming confident with each set we send home is very helpful. Please return the books by Wednesday. There is additional information on tricky words on the parents section of the Little Wandle website.
Freckles
Freckles is a travelling bear with a suitcase ready for a sleepover and a diary who will be coming home with each child in YR. Please have a look at Tapestry for more information. Names will be picked randomly from a hat to decide who Freckles comes home with next and the children will be able to share their diary entrance with the class and tell us what they got up to.
Have a lovely weekend, one week until half term!
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Friday 4th October
We were very proud of the children at their first ever Harvest Service. They sang really beautifully and did the actions so well - quite a daunting experience! They all sat very well in church, listening to the other classes. The first of many chances to see them performing, thank you to those of you able to come.
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. In maths we have started on our new maths mastery scheme and this week have been working on subitising (subitising is the ability to look at a small set of objects and instantly know how many there are without counting them).
As part of our Me and My Community we have started to think about People Who Help Us. Next week were are really looking forward to Eli's mum coming in to talk to us about her job as a nurse and Jade's dad about his job as a firefighter. Thank you very much in advance. You could talk to your children about what jobs you as parents do as we will be talking about this in class next week.
We also joined in with Mrs Golds' Funky Fit Friday session today - there are a few photos on Tapestry.
Yesterday was World Poetry Day and we contributed to a whole school AoW by performing "One, two three, four five, once I caught a fish alive" for the rest of the school. The children have been enjoying singing nursery rhymes this term. They are extremely valuable to support language and communication skills, build confidence and prepare children for reading and writing as they get older. We often singalong to the ones on the Parents Section of the Little Wandle website so you can access these at home.
Hope you have a lovely weekend and enjoy some autumn sunshine.
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Friday 27 September
We have had a lovely if rather soggy week. School lunches are going well and hopefully your child is enjoying them. Milk - we have a few children on the list who often don't want the milk and some not on the list who do want milk. We will try and catch up with you individually to discuss.
Reading Scheme Books
A reading scheme book should have been brought home today for you and your child to read together. There are tips on how to do this in the back of the book (they are wordless books). We have looked at this book together in school. Please look after this book. We have a set number in school and if any go missing we then don't have a full set to use in reading groups. Please return on Monday so a different group can start to use them the following week. Please use the reading diary to let us know how you got on.
Harvest
We look forward to seeing those that can make it at the Harvest Festival Service on Tuesday morning. Our class will be a singing a song as part of the service. Envelopes for harvest donations were given out on Wednesday at the end of the day. Please could your child decorate the envelope and then you can send it back into school on Monday with a small donation which will go to Bondi School, our partner School in Tanzania. If you did not get an envelope, please ask in class and we will give you one or just use an envelope from home. Please add your chilld's name to the envelope. Any dry food contributions (in date) for the Edenbridge foodbank should be brought in on Monday. Thank you.
Forest School
Please could you make sure the FS clothes and wellies are in a separate named bag and not put in school bags and please could shoes/trainers be worn to school on FS days and not 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 have put some of the information on to Tapestry. Any questions, please just ask.
Me and My Community - People Who Help Us
Next week as part of our topic we will be thinking about people in our community who help us - including police, firefighters, nurses, doctors, etc. If there is anyone who works in our community in any capacity, or for the emergency services, we would love you to come in and talk about your job. Please email the office if you can help.
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 and listening to instructions when it is time to stop playing and help. Thank you for your support.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Friday 20th September
It has been lovely to have a dry and sunny 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 - quite a lot to take on board. Please could you help your child with becoming more independent. They are all expected to help at tidy up time so making sure they do this at home is a good start. They are also need to be independent using the toilet. We get a few shouts from the loo for help, and whilst we can direct the children with what to do, we cant do it for them so practise at home is much appreciated! We have 4 cardigans / jumpers in classroom so don't worry if you're missing one (PA, MD, CC, AF)
Learning
Phonics learning is progressing swiftly and the children are beginning to blend letters to make words orally and using flashcards which is very exciting! Please use the Little Wandle website site to check your child is pronouncing the sounds correctly. On Fridays we always recap the week's learning so no new sound today.
Phonics game to practice sounds:
Write sounds in felt pen or whiteboard pen on doors to your garden or write them in chalk on a paving slab or a fence panel. Then give your child a spray bottle with water in it. Say a sound and they have to spray the correct sound. This is great for practising sounds as well as developing hand strength and coordination
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.
They loved their first French lesson with Mrs Glover and learnt how to say hello and goodbye!
Forest School
The children enjoyed their first Forest School session and photos are usually shared on the school website. Please could you make sure everything is labelled including the shoes they come to school in before changing for FS and the bag they bring their kit in. Please always send your child in on Forest School day wearing a pair of shoes rather than wellies.
Curriculum Meeting
We look forward to seeing those of you that can make it at our meeting at 3.00pm next Thursday. We will be focusing on phonics and early reading.
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 13th September
We've had another lovely week in YR and continue to be impressed at how settled and confident the children are coming into school. Everyone has done really well with starting on their reading journey, taking part in phonics lessons and we have also enjoyed some topic activities. Our topic this term is "Me and My Community" and we have been thinking about our school community, friends and families. The children are getting to know each other and starting to forge friendships. Everyone has been enjoying playing inside and out and exploring all of our resources. If any of our classroom resources end up at home please could you send them back in!
Lunch
The children have done very well in the lunch hall. 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.
Spare Clothes
Thank you to people who have sent in spare clothes for their children. Please send these in a named bag that we can hang on their peg.
Sharing Books
The children have all brought home 'sharing' books this week. 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 with the reading diary.
PE/Forest School
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. French starts on Friday afternoon with Mrs Glover.
Drop and Go
In the mornings, the school offers a drop and go system. If you feel your child is ready for this, you can use it. There are staff on duty who open the car door and will help your child with getting out of the car and making sure they go through the gate. 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, please wait on the school drive with all the other parents and then come round to the Reception gates from the main playground.
Snacks
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. Please check the list of foods that are allowed in school.
Curriculum Meeting
We look forward to seeing those of you that can make it at our curriculum meeting on Thursday 26th September 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. If you cant attend we will make sure we pass on any relevant information to you.
Parent Helpers
We would be very grateful for a parent / grandparent / carer to help change the sharing books in school on a Monday morning (we have had an offer of help for Friday). This can be straight after drop off and would take approximately half an hour and involves helping each child choose a book and recording it in their diary.
We would also be very grateful to any parent/ carer / grandparent who would be interested in supporting our reading groups. We listen to the children read in a group three times a week and to do this regular parental support is invaluable. If you think you could provide regular help doing this (ideally once a week for 30-45 minutes) we would ask you to undertake the Little Wandle phonics training. Please let us know and more information can be provided.
Have a great weekend,
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood
Friday 6th 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. We also popped into other classrooms, the office and to see Mrs Haysom.
Please support your child to be as independent as possible - eg putting a coat on, taking care of their own hygiene, using tissues to wipe noses, etc. We will of course continue to help them, but being more independent will increase their confidence.
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 photos 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
Please note this does not replace the school email system for contacting school about absences, collection details, medication 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 green metal gate on the school drive and then you walk round to our outdoor area. Children should be picked up at 1.15 pm.
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. A meeting will be arranged shortly to explain how we teach phonics and early reading.
PE and Forest School
On Monday 16th 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 19th September.
Sharing Books
Your child should have brought home a reading diary and book they chose from our class library. These are for you to share together at home. You can use the yellow diary to let us know if they enjoyed the book. Please return on Monday (apologies but a couple were left behind in school today so will be brought home on Monday).
Thanks again for your support this week and we look forward to speaking to you at our consultation meetings next week.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Edwards and Mrs Whitewood