What a wonderful start to a brand new school year it has been! The children have been so excited to explore their learning environment and have been making new friends in the process. After talking through the class rules together and all agreeing upon them, the children have done a brilliant job at showing us just how fantastic they truly are; not only are they immersing themselves fully into their choosing time, but they also manage to tidy at record speeds, and have fun whilst doing so!
It isn’t only their class teachers that the children have been impressing however, as they have also been getting to know their other teachers too. They enjoyed learning partner work with Zoe in dance, listening and ball skills in PE with Matt, and were buzzing about all things forest with Connor!
Now that the children are beginning to settle into the school routines as Ash and Saplings, we are enjoying a lot of different learning experiences with our class teachers at carpet times. The children have been working on their counting skills, having discovered that Cheeky Monkey needed a bit of help! They have also been creating ‘worry monsters’ just like those in our story ‘Ruby’s Worry’, as they worked together to think of different ways to describe how Ruby was feeling. The children came up with fantastic descriptive vocabulary, such as sad, unhappy and nervous. A huge carpet time favourite has been Tales Toolkit, where the children have been creating their own stories! We’ve had every narrative imaginable, from foxes being saved by flying carrots to, frogs getting booted out of their ponds by selfish penguins! I have a feeling we are going to have fun making up stories together this year!
In forest, the children worked hard to remember the rules of carrying different lengths of sticks around the area, in order to make a nest that was either big or small. For the big nests, many of the children decided that they needed long sticks and branches. For the children to access this safely and manage their own risks, they had to remember these golden rules:
If it’s shorter that my arm, I can carry it on my own!
If it’s longer than my arm, I drag it behind me!
If it’s longer than me, I need a friend to help!
If it’s longer than my teacher, I need two friends to help!
The children did an INCREDIBLE job at remembering and applying these rules, developing independence and confidence as they created their nests and structures.
Phonics has also started for Ash class, whilst Saplings enjoy story and rhyme time with Mrs Lammin and Mrs Davies! Saplings will begin the introduction to a sound of the day from Spring term. Mrs Lawrence could not be more impressed with the children’s concentration in Phonics for their very first week. Ash have focused on s a t and p this week, and they will receive their first reading books from Monday 18th. These will be changed once a week. Don’t forget to pop the 9th October, 9-9.30 in your diaries, if you wish to attend the parent phonics meeting! This is a great opportunity for parents to find out how to support with phonics and reading at home.