Reception Weekly Newsletter

Term: Summer 1 Date 20.05.13

This week we will be concluding our topic ‘Story land’. We have been focussing on fantasy stories and stories from different cultures and our final fantasy story will be ‘The Gruffalo’. Your child will be taking part in the following activities within the seven areas of development (activities are subject to change, depending on the children’s interests; however, the skills remain the same):

Personal, Social and Emotional Development.
Discussing rules for our trip to Thorndon Country Park. (Children need to bring their lunch in a labelled carrier bag, wear suitable footwear for hunting through the forest and a rain mack)

Communication and Language
Introduce the story ‘The Gruffalo’. What do you know about the Gruffalo? What do you want to know about the Gruffalo? Create a mind map with the children

Physical
Exploring our outside area and how to use the equipment.

Literacy
The children need to be bringing in their reading books daily. We praise the children who regularly read at home to an adult and have a reward system in place.
Name writing using chalks, pens, paint brushes, foam etc…
We will be continuing our daily Read Write Inc sessions.
In small groups children to write a recipe for the mouse in ‘The Gruffalo’.

Maths
Prepositional language. In their play outside on the large equipment, encourage children to go over the mound, through the tunnel under the tree house, climb beside the slide.
Weighing and measuring out ingredients in ‘The Gruffalo Café’. Can they share out the ingredients fairly?
Assessing children understanding of shape, more than/less than/ and understanding of numbers to 20 and beyond.

Understanding of the World
Discussing environments. What do you think is in a wood, what do we need to be careful of – Linking with our trip to hunt for the Gruffalo at Thorndon Country park on Friday.

Expressive Arts and Design
Enjoying our daily dance warm up to the ‘5 a day’ fitness programme.
Role play – green grocers shop/Max’s bedroom/ The Gruffalo Café outdoors.
Creating a large collage outside.
Making Gruffalo masks using chosen art resources.
Making mud recipes in outside role play ‘Gruffalo's restaurant’
Acting out the story of ‘The Gruffalo’ using props available from enhancement box.

Messages:
Please follow Broadford on facebook (remember to press the ‘like’ button) and twitter. We update the Early Years blog regularly with photos and information.
There will be no show and tell this week.
Please return permission slips and donations for our school trip asap.

Ways to help at home:
Sharing books to encourage story language and imagination.
Playing letters and sounds phase 2 and phase 3 games on the computer.
Encourage your children to use the correct pencil grip using ‘froggy fingers’.

Homework this half term is ‘Story Land’. Children can either produce a poster about their favourite books; this may be a favourite story or an information book. Alternatively, the children could work on producing their own story demonstrating their great writing skills and imagination. Homework will need to be returned by the end of this week.