A warm welcome to the second half of the Autumn Term in Catkin Class. We hope you and your families have enjoyed a restful half term break.
Our class topic this half term will be 'Terrific Tales.’ This topic will offer a wealth of opportunities for the children to revisit familiar traditional tales and enjoy some possible new favourites. There will be opportunities to engage in mini topics including Fireworks, Diwali and Christmas. We will also be preparing for Christmas and rehearsing for a Nativity Performance at the end of term – more information to follow soon!
For more information about the learning intentions for this topic and how they link to the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, please take a look at the ‘Terrific Tales Topic Web’ available to download on this webpage.
Phonics Shed
This term we will be continuing with our daily Phonics Shed sessions. So far this term the children have all made great progress learning their first four sets of sounds. They have particularly enjoyed meeting Joe (the puppet) and learning the characters, songs, rhymes and actions for each letter.
We will be focusing this half term on teaching the Chapter 2, Set 5 – 7 sounds. The children will be learning the corresponding graphemes to these sounds and will also learn to recognise and write the corresponding capital letters. The children will also continue to work through the initial set of high frequency words. More information regarding the Phonics Shed scheme is available on the Curriculum tab under Phonics at Slindon.
Home Reading
Your child’s home reading books are linked to the sounds they are working on in their phonics lessons. Home reading is therefore a great opportunity for you to practice these sounds at home with your child. We would recommend that you take time to read with your child daily to support with fluency. Please sign your child’s reading record after each read to indicate that your child has read with you at home.
In school we will aim to read with your child individually at least twice a week. We would therefore ask that your child brings their book bag along with their reading book and reading record to school every day. We will change your child’s book every Tuesday and Friday.
You may notice a red heart sticker on some of the reading books that your child brings home. These have been added to books to indicate to the children that they may not be fully phonetically decodable at the child’s current reading level. Please be assured the children are free to choose one of these texts which we refer to in school as ‘Love for reading books’. If your child brings one of these books home they may just require a little extra support to decode some of the text. These books are ideal for parent / carers to share together to promote a love for reading!
PE Lessons
Our PE lessons will continue to be on a Tuesday afternoon. We would therefore request that your child arrives dressed appropriately for PE every Tuesday. This includes ensuring that long hair is tied back and any earrings are removed or taped over.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to catch me on the playground at the end of the school day.
Forest Fridays
This half term we will be adding ‘Forest Fridays’ to our weekly timetable. We will be spending every Friday morning in the woods adjacent to the school. We will be visiting the forest regardless of the weather, so all children should come to school in trousers (such as joggers) a long sleeve top, a jumper and suitable footwear. We can provide waterproofs and wellies if needed.
We will need a minimum of one parent volunteer each week for the visit to go ahead. If you are available and would like to help, please contact the school office for more information.
With best wishes,
Mrs Emmajane Merrett [Class Teacher]