Welcome to Year R!

Term 3

Our exciting learning themes this term have been ‘The South and North Pole’, ‘Year R’s Prehistoric Adventure’, ‘Chinese New Year’ and ‘Safe me, Safe Us’.

Some of our highlights include:

• Learning the sound of the remaining digraphs and trigraphs
• Practising our sound talk and blend skills, including longer words than require us to chop them up!
• Learning many tricky words
• Joining in with Shared Storytelling to create our own story map of The Polar Bear, which we also acted out to our class friends
• Reading in groups to practise our prosody and comprehension skills
• Joining in with some Writedance sessions that help us with our Herne Handwriting Patterns
• Have a go at forming many cursive letters
• Continuing to write the letters in our names in a cursive script
• Exploring the bigger numbers within ten, comparing place value and the different ways these numbers can be represented including subitising
• Having a go at number bonds to five
• Combining two groups of objects together to make a total
• Practising our numeral writing skills 0-10
• Looking at the signs of Winter in the world around us
• Creating many themed arts and crafts, using cold colours
• Looking at maps and globes to find out what  the world looks like, identifying water and land as well as locating where we live in comparison to the Arctic, Antarctic and China.
• Finding out about many animals from cold places around the world and some facts about them
• Finding out about Chinese New Year such as where China is, how Chinese New Year is prepared for and what happens. We created a range of arts and crafts, listened to music and even tried some Chinese food! Yum!
• Coming in from playtime to find a dinosaur had been in making a mess and leaving a dinosaur egg in our very own classroom!
• Watching our daily Dino Cam to see which dinosaurs have visited our school when we are at home
• Finding out some facts about dinosaurs and learning the names of some of them
• Developing our ICT skills by learning to change the size and colour on a paint package, and complete an e-story independently
• Knowing that the X at the top corner of a computer activity will close it
• Practising our scissor cutting skills in a range of learning activities
• Learning new Worship songs
• Hearing about stories from the Bible and the lessons they teach us such as ‘Zacchaeus’, ‘Jesus Calms the Storm’ and ‘A Miraculous Catch of Fish’
• Learning how to throw, catch, roll, bounce and move balls as part of our PE hall times. We also had a go at balancing beanbags and tossing them in the air to catch using a tennis racket.
• Develop our understanding of the effect exercise has on our bodies including why we have warm ups and cool downs
• Frequently visiting areas around such as the HIVE and Wildlife Area as part of our Teacher Time
• Demonstrating our COOL Time Character Characteristics in our own play
• Pairing up with our Junior School Buddies for the first time
• Going on a Winter Walk to the local woods, exploring what we can see, hear and smell
• Exploring how to play some instruments and knowing their names-maraca, claves and triangle
• Going onto the big playground as part of our Active Lunchtimes, finding siblings and making new friends
• Finding out how to stay safe in a variety of ways

Term 2

Our exciting learning themes this term have included ‘The Wonderful World of Julia Donaldson’, ‘Let’s celebrate!’, ‘Sparkle and Shine’ and ‘It’s Christmas!’

Some of our highlights are:

• Learning many sounds of graphemes, including digraphs, and learning to sound talk and blend
• Exploring numbers to ten, comparing place value and the skills of more and less
• Practising our numeral writing skills
• Joining in, discussing and exploring repeated patterns in songs, body percussion, stories and dance. We created patterns using colours and sizes to explore patterns that are AB, AABB, AAB and even ABC
• Being part of Maths week with the rest to the school, developing new mathematical skills during our daily snack time challenges
• Looking at the signs of Autumn in the world around us, including going on a walk to Curtis Woods to find Autumn treasures and searching for the Gruffalo
• Exploring autumnal colours and learning how we can mix red and yellow to make the colour orange
• Finding out about some ways other children celebrate different festivals such as Hanukkah and Diwali
• Finding out about Bonfire Night and creating many sparkly arts and crafts
• Learning about Remembrance Day, producing poppy art work and taking part in a special two minute silence
• Developing out ICT skills using a mouse and a computer to click and drag in order to make a picture
• Making a range of sculptures such as Diwali candles and hedgehogs using clay
• Practising our scissor cutting skills some more
• Singing and learning Nursery Rhymes we did not know
• Learning about The Nativity Story from the bible and all the characters from it
• Finding out about what babies need and how they grow. We even brought in baby photos to guess which of our friends they were
• Visiting St Martins at Herne church together for the very first time
• Performing our first Nativity Play to parents in the hall
• Joining in with some Writedance sessions that help us with our Herne Handwriting Patterns
• Exploring more complex handwriting patterns as we prepare to get ready to write
• Having a go at writing the letters in our names in a cursive script
• Exploring our gross motor skills in the hall by moving our bodies and enhancing our balancing skills in many ways using BEAM exercises
• Visiting areas around the school such as the HIVE and Wildlife Area as part of our Teacher time
• Taking part in special Worship and reflective times with the rest of the school
• Finding out about Christingles and making our own
• Using our creative skills to decorate our classroom with Christmas themed arts and crafts
• Having a class elf come to stay and having a visit from Santa himself!
• Writing letters in the form of shared writing that were collected by Elfie the North Pole Postman
• Going to the cinema in Herne Bay with the year group to watch a Christmas film
• Finding out about our COOL Time Characteristic Characters whilst we learn through play and enjoy receiving stickers with them on when we have demonstrated a particular characteristic

Term 1

We are just so proud of all the children in Dormouse, Squirrel and Hedgehog class, who have transitioned into our Herne Infant family really well. We started our first few weeks together by getting to know each child on a 1:1 basis in their new classroom, shortly followed by half day sessions in two small groups. This built up to being all together for mornings. We even tried our school dinners for the first time! Finally, we all came together for whole day sessions, learning many routines and making many friends. We have just completed our first week of full time! How exciting!

Some of the things we have done include:

• Getting to know all of the adults who are here to help us learn and keep us safe in our class and the Year R family
• Having daily circle times, where we got to learn our friend’s names and playing lots of games and singing songs to support speaking and listening, and turn taking
• Identifying the sound of our class instrumental to know when it is time to stop, look, listen and when it is time to line up during outdoor active play times. We also have a tidy up song, which helps us to boogie whilst clearing away all of our things.
• Learning where all our things go and where to put things in our inside and outside environment
• Going for a little tour around our school, seeing siblings, new friends and adults that form part of our wider school family
• Making many arts and crafts to brighten up our rooms that help us with our fine motor skills such as cutting, drawing, painting and printing
• Having class worship, joining in with whole school Worship and year group Worship.  We have been good at finding out what Worship is and the many symbols of God and Jesus
• Joining in with COOL Times (Continuing with Our Own Learning through play), developing and demonstrating many skills whilst we play. We have learnt about some Characteristic of Effective Learning Characters such as Frieda the Feelings Flamingo, Cleo the Chameleon and Toby the Turtle.
• Counting forwards and back whilst singing songs and even lining up
• Understanding the breadth of number knowledge of numbers to four such as subitising, making the number with smaller numbers plus the different ways the number can be represented. We are also having a go at writing the numerals
• Starting phonic sessions to help us learn the sounds of some graphemes of the alphabet
• Reading books in small groups and on a 1:1 basis
• Visiting areas around the school such as the HIVE, library and hall

We would like to thank the parents for all the information you gave us regarding your wonderful children on our parent partnership days, and for their valuable support throughout this transition time. The children have done so well!