w/c 9.1.23
The children have settled back into our routines really well and are enjoying our Superheroes topic! The children are helping to develop the Superhero HQ and loved dressing up in the costumes costumes and playing with the action figures. They will continue with this work in continuous provision time this week.
We have discussed the new, simplified school rules:-
I can listen.
I can follow instructions.
I can be kind.
We have introduced the new system for recording reward points electronically and the children have been really proud of achieving these new points.
In Literacy this week, we will be putting our phonic skills to good use to sound out and write about our superheroes, using sound mats to help us. Our Literacy work will be based around the story of 'Super Milly' for the next few weeks.The children will continue to work 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 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.
In Maths we will be completing week 12 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 also revisit the concept of cardinality – that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are ALTOGETHER. They will continue to be provided with opportunities to hear, join in with and develop their knowledge of the counting sequence.
A key focus this week will be the stable order principle – rehearsing the order of the first 5 numbers and understanding that the position each number holds in our number sequence does not change. While continuing to work with numbers to 5, the children will develop their understanding of the ordinal aspect by investigating the difference in value of consecutive whole numbers. They will spend time discovering that each number has a value of 1 more than the previous number. Using blocks and squares to order quantities from 1 to 5 will help to embed this key understanding.
Although, linguistically, they bear little relation to our number names in English, the children will hear ordinal numbers (first, second, etc.) alongside these ordering activities and as part of classroom routines. Using representations of quantity alongside these ordinal numbers will help to embed understanding.
The children will have previously experienced hearing and joining in with the counting sequence to numbers larger than 20. This allowed them to begin to understand the pattern of numbers. They will also have explored cardinality by focusing on the ‘stopping number’.
As they move through Reception, the children will begin to develop their counting skills, 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 set of objects from a larger set, remembering the stopping number and knowing that this means they have selected the correct number. 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) or using counting to measure time (for example, when playing hide and seek).
Their growing understanding of ordinality will develop into a generalisation that every whole number is 1 more than the previous number. This will begin to provide depth of understanding about our counting system and will support activities such as positioning numbers on scales and on number lines, as the children move through Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
In P.E. we will continue work on improving our core strength in our 'Big Moves' sessions and doing some gymnastics in the hall.
The EYFS Team