13.09.24 Rainbow Challenges
13.09.23
This week we introduced our ‘Rainbow Challenges’ around the classroom. These are activities which are planned around the different areas of learning that the children are encouraged to complete independently to reinforce skills they have learnt from previous weeks. The Reception children are expected to complete all the challenges and collect coloured sticks to put in their individual pots. There are always challenges which focus on fine motor skills which the Nursery children are encouraged to have a go at. The children were really excited to get started with their challenges and have completed them with such enthusiasm.
This week our challenges have been:
Maths – match the numbered ladybird to the correct leaf
Fine motor – colour the picture using the coloured pencils
Funky fingers – make a face using the tap tap and shapes
Creative – paint your own rainbow
Phonics – use the playdough to copy the letters from your name card
ICT – use the paint program to draw a face with all its important features
Over the next few weeks we will introduce a literacy challenge which will support the learning the children are doing in their phonics sessions.
The children have started phonics this week in their separate groups. Reception have started the Read Write Inc program and have learnt the first 5 sounds; m a s d t. We have looked at objects which start with these initial sounds, recognised the sounds on the flashcards and have been practising writing each sound using rhymes to help with letter formation. Nursery have worked with Mrs Archer and have started to follow the TWINKL phonics scheme which is based on the letters and sounds program and this week have been recognising different environmental sounds.
The children have been voting for a story to be shared at story time and also have enjoyed listening to some familiar stories. Next week we will start our ‘Super Six’ story focus where the children listen and explore the same text across the week. When discussing the stories we focus on VIPERS questions which follow the same structure;
Vocabulary
Inference
Prediction
Explain
Retrieve
Sequence
Next week our ‘Super Six’ book is ‘Dandylion’ by Lizzie Finlay, an empowering story about friendship, diversity and finding your place. We will chose a different story each week which links to our topic of ‘All About Me’.
We are also going to be starting our Literacy through ‘Drawing Club’. Each week we will chose either a story, traditional tale or animation to focus on. The children will get to know the ‘story’ really well and have the opportunity to write about the character, setting and to also answer ‘adventure’ questions throughout the week. At the beginning of the year the Reception children’s ideas will be scribed for them and once they are ready they will begin to convey their ideas using initial sounds which quickly moves into CVC words as they become more confident in their phonics writing. Nursery will have access to different props from the story to explore and retell the story. Each week we also explore different vocabulary, which can sometimes be unfamiliar words and we talk about the different meanings and where we may be able to use them in our everyday conversation. Last year ‘Drawing Club’ was very popular and the children ended up being very confident in their independent writing so we are really looking forward to seeing it develop this year.
Each week we will also focus on learning a different nursery rhyme. This week our nursery rhyme/familiar song was ‘1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish, crab and eel alive!’. These songs can be found on the BBC website in the BBC radio section using the following link 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I caught a fish alive - BBC Teach.
This week the children have had their first afternoon with Mrs Parker who will be supporting the children’s learning on Thursday afternoon and this week they played games to get to know each other before starting our Music curriculum of CHARANGA next week.
We have all settled in really well and are working well as a class, following the class rules and helping our friends around the classroom.