Hello Reception 2 Families!

I hope everyone is well and happy. I suspect that you are all beginning to get into the festive spirit! I know that we have been in class 

The children have been learning about what Christians believe and why Christmas time is special to them and we have been comparing Christmas time to the other religious festivals and celebrations that we have learnt about. Christmas is a time that many, despite their beliefs, have a nice winter break, some nice food, exchange gifts and enjoy time with family. So all of the children have talked about what they hope Father Christmas will bring them whilst writing letters to the big guy! We have learnt about what Advent is and what it means to Christians. We have our own class choccy advent calendar with a treat for everyone and we have been sharing a daily joke advent calendar too, which we've been having a good belly laugh at! We made Christingles this week too, to mark advent. 

In phonics we continue to explore the Phase 3 phonemes and their Jolly Phonics songs and actions. It is great to see that the children are using their phonic knowledge in their emergent writing and reading and they are hugely empowered at becoming fledgling readers and writers. 

In maths we have been finding out about 3D shapes. We have been learning their names, their properties and have been discovering that 3D shaped objects are everywhere!

Miss Hodgson and I have been really impressed by the children's efforts in handwriting. The children are all securing an efficient grip on a pencil and are thinking about learning to form letters correctly. 

The children are really well established in their lunch time routines. The lovely Mrs Begum awards them a class pebble (most days!) for lovely behaviour. The children are learning to communicate their food choices at the dinner hatch, learning to speak clearly and use their please and thank yous for our super school cooks. They can carry their trays sensibly to the table and eat their dinner up with no fuss! 

It was great to see the children wearing their special clothes on glam up Friday! These lovely little events keep our spirits up! On Tuesday we put our little R2 Christmas tree up! Every child placed a decoration on the tree and it was a lovely team effort! Have you seen our class decoration in the window yet? Have you guessed the first song? Look out for the next picture clue in the window on Monday! 

This coming Thursday we will be participating in the Trafford Musical Extravaganza! I hope that you all followed the link in last week's class page and have been practising the moves for Winter Mambo! This coming Friday is National Christmas Jumper Day. Please don't feel under pressure to go out and buy one, something bright and jolly will be great.  Later this week, as part of our Festivals of Light topic, we will be learning about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. This is a special time for a few of R2 families and they will be sharing some special artefacts and treats with us. We are so lucky to be such a wonderfully diverse class and to find out about one another's special times.  We are going to get busy making Christmas cards and treats for our families this week too and going Christmas crafty crazy!!!!! In maths we are going to take some time to look at forming numbers correctly to help us to be brilliant mathematicians! 

Here are a couple of wee reminders folks and following that please enjoy this weeks photo round up!

• Each week your child has their own reading day and on that day I send home a new reading book. Please try and read with your child as often as possible. 5 minutes each day makes such a difference to their reading progress and more importantly, to their confidence. In that 5 mins please read some of their book with them, practise the Tricky Word set that they are up to and if your child is practising segmenting and blending, carry out the words or activity that I have sent home to hone these skills (frequent practise is key). Some of the children are continuing to learn how to recognise and say the sound (phoneme) for the Phase 2 letters. They are doing the same for the newly taught Phase 3 digraphs (2 letters that make 1 sound), I send the newly taught Phase 3 digraphs each week. Please take time daily to practise them, using the Jolly phonics action. 
• Each week I send home a practise sheet for the letters that we have learnt to write in our handwriting session. Please take some time to practise at home and encourage your child to use these formations when you see them writing. If your child is using capital letters in their name other than the capital letter at the start of their name then please correct them. For example, JOHN is incorrect, John is correct. 
• A class list of first names was sent home on Friday to help with sending Christmas cards. I have a dedicated 'quarantine' basket in class, so if you send your child's class cards by the end of this week I'll place them in there and give them out safely in the last week of term. 
• Please remember to send your child in with a fresh bottle of water each day and remember - no juice or flavoured water!
• We're getting lots of gloves, hats and scarves in school now, please make sure that EVERY item is named please.

Thank you so much everyone! Have a lovely weekend, enjoy the winter sunshine and myself and Miss H will see your lovely faces on Monday! Here are your piccies!

Mrs Cook x