07.06.24 The Singing Mermaid
07.06.24
This week our ‘Super Six’ story was ‘The Singing Mermaid’ by Julia Donaldson. Tempted by the promise of fame and fortune, the Singing Mermaid joins a circus. The crowds love her, but the poor mermaid is kept in a tank by the wicked circus owner Sam Sly, and she soon longs to return to the freedom of her ocean home . . .
Our ‘Drawing Club’ story was ‘The Night Pirates’ by Peter Harris. One night, young Tom is awoken by noises outside his house. He peeps out of the window and what should he see but PIRATES. And stranger still they’re GIRL PIRATES stealing the front of his house! Tom joins their adventure across the high seas to an island where some rather lazy and silly grown-up pirates are guarding their treasure. Not very successfully! Tom and the girl-pirates make a surprise attack and are soon off on the seas once more with the treasure!
This week our rainbow challenges have been:
Maths – mermaid addition
Fine motor – pirate colour by number
Literacy – write a caption to match the mermaid picture
Funky fingers – make a split pin mermaid
Creative – design a merperson
Phonics – read the caption and match it to the picture
ICT – underwater counting game
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/underwater-counting
In maths this week Reception have continued to key concepts as they begin to prepare to make the transition into Year 1. We have looked at key skills the children need to be secure with to make a strong start to the National Curriulum objectives and we will be covering these areas over the forthcoming weeks. This week we have focused on addition to 20 by filling in the missing numbers. We have focused on writing the 2 digit numbers correctly ensuring the children understand what the different numbers mean; how many 10s and how many more.
Nursery have been consolidating some of their learning from last half term. We have looked at more/fewer, positional language and also sequencing. The children have been eager to explore the different maths resources within the classroom; counters, numicon, and exploring the different weighing scales finding out which items are lighter/heavier.
In Read Write Inc phonics this week Reception continued to work in their new groups which they started before half term. Children in Mrs Whaley and Mrs Parkers group have been reviewing the first set 2 sounds ay ee igh ow oo and Mrs Fisher’s group have been consolidating set 2 sounds before beginning to learn the first Set 3 sounds. Children are expected to know at least 10 diagraphs before the end of Reception so everyone is working where they should be to be on track for making a good level of development in reading. This week we have been reading real and alien words containing these new sounds and also have been using these sounds when writing words in Drawing Club.
Nursery have continued with Read Write Inc this week in preparation for September. As the children have now been exposed to all the Set 1 sounds they will recap these every week moving towards the end of the year. This week they have focused on m a s d t i n p g o and been using these sounds to make up simple CVC words which contain these sounds. The children have also been listening to CVC words being segmented (broken up) and trying to work out what words are being said. This is something which takes lots and lots of practise and is a skill which is crucial to grasp during the early reading and phonics process. This is something we have also been doing around the classroom e.g. can you put this in the
b-i-n. Some of the children are ready to use flashcards to support their reading development and they have been looking at the different sounds in words and saying them aloud before trying to read them with the support of an adult.
On Wednesday we had a very exciting visit from Skateboard Academy UK. We watched a demonstration from Sam and Liam and then had the chance to put on pads and helmets before having a go on our own skateboard to practice a few different skills. We learned to flip the skateboard, jump and go down a ramp. It was a great morning and experience!
Everyone has enjoyed retelling different pirates stories in the pirate ship role play area. The children have worked together to develop their own stories too and have been on some great adventures!
Next week our ‘Super Six’ book is ‘Commotion in the Ocean’ by Giles Andreae and our ‘Drawing Club’ traditional tales is ‘Dick Whittington’.