w/c 28.11.22
In Mathematics this week our main focus will be on composition, as we complete work on the NCETM's week 8 of the Mastering Number Programme.
Composition of number is a key area of mathematics, and children need considerable and varied practice over time, based on meaningful experiences, to build their understanding of this concept.
This week, the children will begin to explore composition by focusing on the preliminary skills: the concept of ‘wholes’ and ‘parts’. By investigating their own bodies and familiar toys they will begin to understand that whole things are often made up of smaller parts and that a whole is, therefore, bigger than its parts.
Key language in this area can be tricky; clarity around a ‘whole’ and how it is different from a ‘hole’ needs to be made explicit. You can use gesture to support this. Further confusion can arise from other composition language, e.g. when do we mean ‘a part’ and how is this different from ‘apart’? Use this week’s stem sentences to help consolidate understanding.
Understanding the composition of numbers is more than remembering number facts. As part of their work on subitising, the children have previously begun to spot numbers within numbers, and this skill of de-composing and combining numbers (taking them apart and putting them back together again) will build firm foundations for later calculation strategies. When children can compose and flexibly de-compose numbers mentally, they will become more fluent in their knowledge of number bonds and they can use these to become efficient when calculating in KS1 and KS2.
As the children move through Reception, they will explore the composition of numbers alongside their developing skills of conceptual subitising. Learning that parts can be combined in different ways to make a whole will support the children’s understanding of commutativity (i.e. adding 2 and 1 together gives the same result as adding 1 and 2) and associativity in KS2, where parts are combined to support efficient calculating, such as seeing 7 + 2 + 8 as 7 + 10 rather as than 9 + 8.
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 introduce "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 and nk and learning about ff and ll.
In P.E. we will continue work on improving our core strength in our 'Big Moves' sessions and doing some yoga in the classroom, as our hall time is needed for the Year 2 children to practise for the Nativity. The children are having a fantastic time in our builders headquarters and are working very hard to improve their fine motor skills using the nuts, bolts and wrenches etc. We will be starting work in R.E. on the Nativity Story and are enjoying joining in the KS1 Singing and Mentions Assembly with the Year One and Two children each Thursday.
Please do let us know if any more parents or grandparents would like to come into the classroom to talk to the children about their jobs/ volunteer work etc linked to our People Who Help Us topic.
The EYFS Team