Welcome back Reception 2 Families!

It has been great to have the children back this week  I hope that everyone had a good school break.

Well, what a busy week we have had. We have a new topic to explore...

We will find out about Festivals and Celebrations including Diwali, Bonfire Night, Hannukah and of course Christmas! We will also explore some early science and learn about Light & Dark. There are some other important events this half term too, including Anti-Bullying Week, Road Safety Week, Remembrance Day and Pudsey's Children in Need and we will find out about these as a class too. 

On Monday some children shared their personal accounts of what they got up to at Halloween! It sounds like a lot of fun was had!

On the 31st October, the same date as Halloween, another special festival called 'The Day of the Dead' takes place. It is a very special time for Seb and his family, who originate from Mexico. Thank you Seb for telling us all about it!

We had fun learning about the Hindu and Sikh festival Diwali. Kimran in our class also shared information about how important this special event is to her and her family. She told us about the lovely things that she and her family have got up to this week. We each enjoyed making a Diwali greetings card and a Diva lamp, learning new creative skills.  Kimran's Mummy kindly gave the children boxes of posh sweets, which is a custom at Diwali. We lit our lamps, Kimran shared the chocs and we listened to some lovely Diwali celebration music. 

We found out about why we have Bonfire Night and the very naughty Guy Fawkes! We all made a fabulous collage of a bonfire and fireworks. We talked about information posters in literacy and looked at some bonfire night safety posters. We then made our own eye catching and informative bonfire safety posters. In maths we have continued to learn all there is to know about and the relationship between numbers 1 2 3. In phonics we have learnt more GPCs and have now covered the Graphemes (letters) s a t p i n m d g o c k. We are really getting stuck into our reading and writing now and several of the children are now blending phonemes to read. Thank you for all of your support and for practising hard at home. It is really making a difference to your child's reading progress and confidence.

Please see the link below to some guidance videos. One shows the correct annunciation of the phonemes (sounds), it is so important that the children pronounce the sounds correctly so please have a watch/listen. One demonstrates how to share a Floppy's Phonics sound book with your child and the other shows you what you need to do in order to complete the homework practise sheets correctly.

https://www.victoriaparkinfant.org/phonics-and-early-reading/

Our medal winner this week is Elliot! Elliot is a super lister, knows lots of very cool facts and he is working hard to become organised and independent. Well done Elliot!

Next week in maths we are learning about the 2D shapes circle and triangle and about numbers 4 and 5. In phonics we will learn about the phonemes ck and e and our topic work is about Remembrance Day. 

If you haven't already, please email me your Parent's Evening choice 1 and 2 time slots. The deadline is Tuesday, 9th November. After this date a slot will be allocated to you. I will confirm everyone's time slot by email on Wednesday 10th November.

I hope everyone has a fun time for Bonfire Night! Keep safe. Here are a few more piccies of our week!

Mrs Cook x