Welcome to Acorn Class

PE Days Autumn Term 1: TUESDAYS and THURSDAYS

Forest School Autumn Term 1: The whole class will attend the forest on Friday mornings. Please send your child to school in their forest clothes with their school shoes on. Please send their school uniform and wellies in a bag.

 

At Water Primary School, Acorn Class is home to Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Year 1 children. Your child's Class Teacher is Mrs. Smith and their Teaching Assistant is Mrs. Greenwood.

We hope you have had a lovely October break and are looking forward to the next half term (a very busy term with the excitement of Christmas and the Nativity thrown in!)

Focused Learning

English

In Autumn Term 2, in English, the children are going to complete some exciting learning from another very familiar author, Sue Hendra (the author of Supertato!). The children will make predictions, talk about characters, settings and events and even write a version of their own story in a similar style with some twists of their own. We will also use another of Sue Hendra's book to learn all about forming and writing instructions.

Reception children will continue their mark-making journey. It is such an exciting time, where the children will learn that they can communicate in a new way. They will move from drawing and making marks on the page to writing initial sounds and some may even start writing more of the sounds that they can hear.

The children will continue to focus on their gross and fine motor skills in order to help with their handwriting. Reception children will spend lots of time this term focusing on the skills that they will need to become a successful writer. They will do lots of exercises to help with their shoulder, elbow and wrist movements as well as lots of funky finger work to strengthen those hand muscles. They will move on from 'flipper flapper' movements to dough disco, where they will use all of the hand and finger muscles to manipulate play dough. Year 1 will do daily handwriting practice, focusing on letter families and on how each letter is correctly formed. They will also use their handwriting time to practise tricky spellings. All of the children will also have the opportunity to write in provision (this will look different for each child) - at this time of the year, most year 1 children are now writing captions and short sentences. EYFS children will all be at different stages depending on their experiences at nursery and their personal learning journey. We will support them to share their thoughts in the best way for them.

Year 1 children will continue to develop their sentence writing skills; focusing on using their phonic knowledge and finger spaces between words along with using capital letters and full stops. This half-term we will remind the children about using 'and' to join our sentences and will also learn about the 'ed' ending. For example, push, pushed, ask, asked etc.

Our children will take part in daily phonics lessons; your child will be sent home with a reading book and these will be changed on Tuesdays and Fridays. We always encourage children to read their book at home each night. It is really important that they read the book more than once. For example:

1. Let your children try to read independently.

2. Encourage your children to use their phonics skills to segment and blend words together.

3. Model reading for your child.

4. Ask questions about what has been read e.g. Who is the main character? Can you tell me what happened at the end?

5. Please sign the reading record book, so we know the book has been read.

We will endeavour to read with all the children throughout the week too. There is an exciting incentive on offer where your child will receive a raffle ticket every time they read and at the end of each half term, 2 lucky children will win a token to spend in our book vending machine. The more times you read, the more chances you have of winning! (You;ve got to be in it to win it!)

Maths

In Maths, our reception children will continue their Power maths workbooks. This is a mastery scheme where the children will learn the deeper concepts of number. They will start the term by comparing non-identical groups of objects. They will look at the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. They will exploring finding one more and one less as well as different ways of making 5 (0+5, 1+4, 2+3, 3+2, 4+1, 5+0). They will finish the term by using positional language to describe where object are.

Year 1 children will also continue their Power maths workbook, initially focusing on subtraction within 10, then they will move on to recognising, naming and sorting 2D and 3D shapes. They will move from using resources towards the written method.

You can help your children at home by playing lots of number games, counting and comparing numbers.

Handwriting

We will teach your child handwriting through discrete lessons as well as through their phonics lessons. They will learn a rhyme for each letter which will help them to remember how to form each letter correctly; starting and ending in the correct place.

This term, year 1 children will focus on spellings within their handwriting sessions. They will practise 2 of their new spelling words each day and will re-write any letters that they are finding more tricky. EYFS children will learn their letters in the order of our phonics scheme (satpinmdgockeurhbfl) as well as the important letters in their name.

A poster will be sent home so that you can support them at home.

Phonics

Reception children will continue their Red Rose Letters and Sounds phonics. They have already learnt s a t p i n m d g. They will now learn o c k e u r h b f l. They will continue to focus on hearing the initial sounds as well as orally blending CVC words (hen, pat, hut, not etc). They will be encouraged to find magnetic letters for the intimal sound as well as the three sounds in the word.

Year one children will continue their phase 5 learning, where they will learn new ways of writing the sounds that they already know. For example, wh in wheel, ph in dolphin, ew in grew and few.

Learning through exploring

Not all of our learning in Acorn Class is through adult-led, focused groups. We also give children the opportunity to learn through play in time called continuous provision (independent learning).

Our classroom is set up to enhance children's independent play. This is an important time for our children as it develops so many skills, such as communication, problem-solving and understanding the world. At home, encourage your children to play and to talk to you about what they have done throughout the day.

PE 

This half-term, Acorn Class PE will take place every Tuesday and Thursday. Please ensure that your child wears their full Water Primary PE kit with trainers and navy leggings or joggers so that we have the flexibility to train inside or out, depending on the weather.

Forest School

This half-term, all of the children will attend forest school on Friday mornings. Please send your child to school in their forest school clothes with their school uniform and wellies in a bag. They will either be doing phonics or assembly first so they will need to wear their school shoes for inside school please.

Snack Time

In Acorn, we operate a snack system. If you would like your child to have a snack, please pay for it on Parent Pay at the beginning of the half-term, which will cover your child’s snacks for the full half-term.

Keeping in Touch

Our door is always open and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to speak to us before or after school. We always welcome any news from home so please share any exciting activities which you have done with your children.

Please see our facebook and instagram pages.