Welcome to Willow

Miss Glover - Teacher

Hello!

My name is Miss Glover and I am the Willow Class teacher together with teaching assistant Miss Smart and support assistant Miss Hilton we encourage children to learn and develop through play, by exploring being active and creative and above all by having lots of fun!

If you need to contact us please use the email:

willowhomelearning@st-margarets.bury.sch.uk 

Willow Weekly News...
 

Monday 11th October 2021 

Hi All,

We hope you all have had a lovely weekend! 

Our topic this half term is based on the book 'Owl Babies' by Martin Waddell. This week will be learning about the term nocturnal, what it means and different nocturnal animals. 

In phonics we will be learning sounds i, n, m, g. . At the end of the week we will be sending home a work booklet to complete at home. There is no need to return this school but maybe you could post childrens work and progress on Tapestry. 

In maths we will be exploring matching and sorting and continue to look at number.

We ask that children come to school with a water proof coat (what ever the weather) and a bottle of water that they can access throughout the day at their leisure along with their book bag. 

Reading books

This week we will be sending home reading books to all Reception children. The reading books are books without words. We ask that you encourage children to explore the pictures to tell the story in detail. This allows the children to denote from pictures, it expands vocabulary and prepares them for reading books with words. As the children become confident with sounding and blending to read they will be introduced to books with words. This will come as we move through phase 2 phonics.

If possible please read every day for 5/10 mins with your child. Please sign  the reading record when read. If the reading record hasn't been signed then the book will not be changed. 

PE

Reception PE is every Thursday. We ask that children come to school wearing their PE kit and school jumper or cardigan and school shoes. Pumps will be kept in school in PE bags and we will change into them before the PE session. 

Tapestry

Our online learning journey app Tapestry is now live. You should have received an activation email to the email address you provided. If you have any problems please don't hesitate to ask. Thank you to parents who have posted observations of children learning and progress at home. We will share these with the children weekly.

Have a great week!

Miss Glover and EYFS staff 😊

Willow Class/ Reception information:

Reading:

In school we read one on one and change reading books twice a week. Books will only be changed if children have read at home and their reading record has been signed by an adult. 

Please support your child by reading with them daily (10 mins) each day.

Benefits to reading

• Improves Reading Skills - exposure to books improves children's reading skills. Practise makes perfect!
• Boosts vocabulary and literacy skills -Reading increases vocabulary, comprehension and communication skills. In addition sentence structure, grammar, punctuation and expression will improve.
• Improves writing skills - Exposure to new words, grammar and punctuation will improve children’s writing.
• Builds confidence and independence - Reading every day builds independence, leading to greater confidence.
• Develops Imagination - While reading children create new worlds. This develops their creativity and empathy as they immerse themselves in the lives of the characters.
• Reading is fun! - When reading with a child, they can tell if the adult is enjoying themselves. Reinforce the message that reading is an enjoyable alternative to video games and TV by being a good reading role-model.

Key word books: 

Each Friday we will send home 6 high frequency words to practise reading over the week.

High frequency words are mainly words that can not be sounded out and are learnt by sight recognition. At this stage children are not expected to write them just recognise them by sight. They need to be learnt daily. We will assess the children the following Friday. Please make sure key word books are kept in reading wallets at all times so we can access them if needed in school.

Homework:

At the end of each week we will send home a phonics work book containing activities on the 4 sounds that we have learnt over the week. This will allow children to practise and embed learning of phonics from the week. These work books are to be completed at your leisure. They do not need to be returned to school but we do ask that you record work at home and progress on Tapestry as an observation that will be recorded as evidence towards their learning journey profile.  

P.E:

Children do not need to bring PE kits to school. This year all classes will be asked to come to school in PE kits for the day. on the day that their class does PE. When the children are all in and settled we will let you know what day Reception PE is.. 

Tapestry

Tapestry is a secure online Learning Journal to record photos, observations and comments, in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, to build up a record of your child’s experiences during their time in the Foundation Stage. This system allows us to work with parents and carers to share information and record learning and development in and outside of the classroom to  create a 'whole' picture of your child.

We ask that you record and share any development in your child's progress, development and learning which we will celebrate in class with your child. 

If you have any problems with Tapestry please speak to Miss Glover who will be happy to help.