What Early Years got up to this week

PRE-RECEPTION

Pre-Reception have continued to learn greetings and numbers in Japanese.  Additionally, we tasted different types of noodles and used chopsticks to pick them up. This is great for practising fine motor skills.  

Maths

In Maths, we have explored the number three. Most children can now subitise and count to three accurately and are beginning to visualise three in different contexts. We have also introduced triangles, and the children have been taught that a triangle has three straight sides and three corners. We made biscuits in triangular shapes and decorated them with groups of 3 toppings. Next week we will learn about the number four and include four-sided shapes. 

Phonics

In Phonics, we taught the children the children to pronounce the ‘g’ phoneme (sound) using the rhyme ‘give me a smile that shows your teeth; press the middle of your tongue to the top and back of your mouth, push your tongue down and forward to make the g sound’. This is a very challenging sound for children to make. 

Looking ahead, next week we will learn to pronounce ‘o’. Also, we will also start to encourage the children to listen carefully to the start of words and see if they can identify the initial sound – even if it is not the focus sound of the week.   

Pre-Reception will be learning about Australia over the next 2 weeks. We will be reading traditional stories and creating artwork.   

RECEPTION

Fortunately, we moved onto warmer climates this week in Reception. The children have been visiting and learning all about Africa.     

Understanding the World    

We have been busy learning lots of facts about the Africa. For instance, we located it on a map and a globe. We explored the different habitats, found in Africa and researched the animals that live there.  

 Literacy 

This week, we immersed ourselves in the book ‘Handa’s Surprise’. We started by exploring where the book was set. Next, we looked at the animals Handa met whilst on her trip to her friend’s village and talked about the fruit grown in Africa and how it is described in the book. As a class we created a story map and used it to take it in turns to re-tell the story. We then wrote sentences about the story in our literacy books.  

 Phonics    

We continued our learning within Phase 3. We introduced the phonemes ‘ur,’ ow,’ ‘oi.’ and ‘ear.’ During class, we practised saying the sounds, blending the sounds together to read words, for example ‘b-oi-l.’ Additionally, we continued to read and write short captions, for example ‘I can hear the owl in the night.’    

This week we introduced the tricky words ‘my,’ ‘by’ and ‘all.’

Find out more about Early Years here.