Blog 13th September

A huge well done to everyone for making it to the end of our first full week in Reception!
The children are tired but that's because they've put so much energy and effort into being interested and engaged learners.  I know that they'll be back on Monday morning eager for more fun!
 
Reception children began their Read Write Inc journey this week and have learnt the letter sounds 'm' 'a' and 's'.  It would be great if you could reinforce these at home and practise the correct formation. 
 
Year 1 children have gone straight in at the deep end by reading short sentences and hearing and writing the sounds in short words. A great start!
 
In our mathematical work, we've been focusing on careful counting skills.  Some of us discovered that it's often better to move or mark items being counted to prevent confusion and mix-ups.  We've been sorting items into groups by criteria such as colour/shape/size etc. We've then compared group size by identifying the one with most/least items.   Later in the week, we listened to Mrs Grimes telling some number stories and we represented the items in these stories with cubes.  We were then able to count totals and compare groups within the stories. 
 
Our afternoons have had a locomotive theme.  We began by looking at some modern trains - those that run on diesel, by electricity or by using magnetism. After this, we headed back in time to explore steam trains.  We've all worked together to make our very own class steam train which will be on display at the back of the classroom very soon. 
 
We've learnt and sung train songs - have you seen our video on our class webpage?
 
In their free play, the children have enjoyed making their own railways, they've drawn lots of different types of trains, made models and created train tracks.  They've used construction kits and junk materials to create their own play scenes as well as having fun in Plum Cottage and our class garden. 
 
I do hope that the children all have a relaxing and happy weekend and I'll look forward to seeing everyone back in Plum Class on Monday morning.