w/c 12.12.22
In Maths we will be completing week 10 of the NCETM's Mastering Number programme. The focus will be on counting, ordinality and cardinality.
This week, the children will continue to engage with activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. Adults will need to continue to name the objects being counted to emphasise the numerosity of the set, e.g. Would you please collect 6 crayons and bring them to me? The children will revisit the concept of 1:1 correspondence by making sure that they match collections of objects to their representations. They will develop their understanding of the concept of cardinality – that the last number in the count tells us ‘how many’ things there are altogether – and begin to apply this concept to count more abstract things, such as claps and jumps.
The children will also begin to explore verbal counting to larger numbers. Counting together to numbers larger than 20 will begin to expose the pattern of number names beyond the tricky ‘teen’ numbers. Singing counting rhymes will give them opportunities to hear, join in with and develop their knowledge of the counting sequence. The children will also have opportunities to begin to link quantities to 5 with their corresponding number and to explore conservation of number by investigating what happens to quantities of objects when they are rearranged.
The children will have previously experienced hearing and joining in with the counting sequence. They will also have experienced helping a puppet/soft toy to count out up to 5 objects, 1:1 from a basket, and will have explored cardinality by focusing on the ‘stopping number’.
As they move through Reception, the children will begin to develop their counting skills by organising and counting larger sets of a wide range of objects. They will become secure enough with their counting skills to be able to count out a smaller set of objects from a larger set, remembering the ‘stopping number’ and knowing that this means they have selected the correct number of objects. They will be able to use counting skills in a range of contexts, including counting things that cannot be seen (for example, the number of times a ball is bounced) and using counting to measure time (for example, to play hide-and-seek).
Moving on, the children will be able to use their counting skills across the curriculum, for example, by counting out objects to help make patterns or counting objects that are used as non-standard measures.
Following recent phonic assessments - to check which sounds your child has remembered and has rapid recall of, whether your child can orally blend or can blend to read words - the children will be working in groups for targeted phonics each day. The children move groups on a regular basis to match their phonic ability. Most of the children will not have any new sounds for a while as they will be learning the sound for any gaps they have and working on oral blending and then blending to read words. Please keep practising the sounds that we have already covered at home and re-watch any of the links that we have sent home. At home you can help by practising using the flashcards, as well as saying the sound for your child to write down. The office will email out links on 'Fred Talk' to support children who are at the orally blending stage.
This week we are having some extra whole class sessions to revise the "special friends" as we call 'digraphs' ( i.e. when 2 letters make 1 new sound together, rather than their individual sounds). We will be re-capping previous work on these sounds:
sh, th, ch, qu, ng, nk, ff, ll, ss,ck and learning about zz.
In P.E. we will continue work on improving our core strength in our 'Big Moves' sessions and doing some yoga in the classroom. The children are having a fantastic time in our elf workshop working on their cutting and sticking skills and in our builders headquarters and are working very hard to improve their fine motor skills using the nuts, bolts and wrenches etc. We are really looking forward to the Panto on Monday! In Art we will be making Christmas cards. Then the children will be voting for and planning new role play areas for after the Christmas holiday.
The EYFS Team