This week we have asked the question, ‘how do we celebrate special times?’  We thought all about all the different times and things that we celebrate, such as Christmas, weddings, Easter, birthdays and christenings.  We learned that it is Robbie the Robins’ birthday on Friday and we decided to have a party for him.  We thought of all the different things we do on a birthday, such as give presents, decorate with balloons and banners, sing Happy Birthday and play games.  We wrote a list of all the foods we may eat at a party and the children stuck pictures of various foods in their writing books and wrote the initial sounds.

Everyone made themselves a party hat, ready to wear on Friday.  They also decorated balloons and stuck them around the classroom.  

We also all helped to make a birthday cake for Robbie and us to eat at the party.  We weighed out the ingredients and mixed them together; noticing how the colours and textures changed.  Then spooned it into cupcake cases and baked them.  They smelled delicious!

In Monster Phonics this week we learned the sounds e u r.  The children are practising recognising these sounds along with those we already know.    Please see the video in the Monster Phonics section of our web page to see the actions for these sounds and practise those from the start to r.  Most children are now able to hear the initial sound in a word and many can segment a cvc word into its 3 sounds, eg: ‘m – a – n…..man’.

We explored repeating patterns this week with sounds, such as ‘clap, clap, pat’.  We then made repeating patterns using a variety of natural objects and other small items in the classroom.  The children made some wonderful patterns which will go up around our 100 square as a frame.

We enjoyed our party for Robbie the Robin on Friday, with dancing, games and cake!

Thank you for sharing the children’s reading books with them at home.  They now all have a word book which matches the phonemes they have learned in school to date.  Please read as much as possible (daily would ideal) even though it is repetition, it is so good for their memory of words, blending sound and building up their confidence to read fluently.

Have a lovely weekend!