Finding Our Feet
Our new little people are continuing to settle in well. They are becoming more familiar with the routines of the school day and where things are that they need or want. Furthermore, they are securing new friendships and discovering new interests. We are so proud of them!
This week, we have focused our learning around personal, social and emotional development. On Monday, we read the story ‘The Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister to discuss the importance of sharing. If you are not familiar with the story, it is all about a unique fish with shimmering scales who is asked by other fish to share his scales. At first reluctant, Rainbow Fish eventually relents and finds he enjoys sharing his scales. As we read the story, we talked about how the Rainbow Fish was feeling and what we think he should do. Moreover, we talked about times we have shared with others and how that made us feel. Throughout the week, we reflected upon moments we have shared with our new friends during the school day. We also created our own school of special fish using paints, sequins, and crayons. Next week, we will be learning to appreciate how unique we all are by reading the story ‘Only One You’ by Linda Kranz. This beautifully illustrated book is about a little rockfish called Adri who is ready to explore the big, wide world. Before he goes out into the world, his parents share some of the wisdom they have gained through the years with him. Their words, simple and powerful, are meant to comfort and guide him as he goes about exploring the world. We will be talking about what wisdom they share and what it means and why it is important. We will also be exploring different rocks and sorting them into different categories. Moreover, we will be creating rockfish of our own using a variety of different media. The author, Linda Kranz, hand painted each rockfish that featured in the story. This story links beautifully to our RE learning where will be begin to explore the concept of belonging.
Next week, we will add maths and phonics to our timetables for the first time. In maths, we will be learning to find and match objects which are the same. At home, you could challenge your child to match up pairs of socks and as they do you could ask, can you find one exactly like mine? Can you find one that is different? Why is it not like mine? In phonics, we will be learning to say, read and write the sounds ‘m’, ‘a’, ‘s’ and ‘d’. We are looking forward to explaining how we teach our phonics and how you can support your child at our reading evening on Monday 2nd October.
Thank you for reading,
The Year R Team