Dear Parents/ Carers,
This week class R started their week talking about what they had been busy with over the weekend. The children did this in their family groups and are becoming very confident in speaking to other children and the adult in their family. In Maths the children have been learning about shape. The children went on a shape hunt around the outdoor area and found many different shapes including circles, rectangles, triangles, squares and hexagons. They have begun talking about how many corners and sides each shape has. The children have been learning about printing this week and have been printing using a variety of objects including leaves to create their sound tree which is on the wall to help them with their recognition of the different graphemes. We visited the hall this week and the children learnt about what a space is, moved in different ways and then found a space independently. In phonics the children have been playing games to help them hear different instrument sounds and hear and say voice sounds in words. You can help at home by playing games such as I spy and how many words can you think of that start with the sound…? The children have been introduced to the sounds (phonemes) s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d and this week they have their flashcards to use at home in their book bags. Please use them to play games such as the games below.
Pairs
To play, the individual letters are turned face down. The first player to start turns over a card and says the sound. Then they turn over another card and again say the sound. If the sounds are the same they keep the cards and have another go. If the sounds are different the cards are turned face down again and it is another player’s go. The person to get the most pairs wins the game.
Word building
Tell the children a simple regular word, e.g. pat, pig, tip, tap. They have to listen for the sounds, pick up the letters that make the sound and then lay them in the correct order. They can then check the word is correct by blending the words back together and getting back to the original word. They might need help to begin with but they will soon become independent.
Hide and Seek
Hide the flashcards around a room or garden. Tell your child which sound they are looking for. They hunt for that particular sound. Once they found it they start looking for the next one and so on. You can create further challenge by timing them, or have two teams, who can collect the most!
Secret Passwords
Place flashcards on doors in the house, each time you go through the door you have to say the password. Ensure you change the flashcards around occasionally so they have to recognise the letters rather than memorise the password!
You might also like to visit this website for interactive games to play with your child.
http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/
There are many apps that can be downloaded, I recommend such apps as ‘twinkl’.
Have a fantastic weekend,
Miss Zimmerman, Mrs Bowden and Mrs Conway
