Teacher Contact Information 

Your teachers are: Mrs Horton and Miss Parker

You can email them at:

Mrs Horton (Horse Chestnut)

sophiehorton@stratton.cornwall.sch.uk    

Miss Parker (Sweet Chestnut)

cherylparker@stratton.cornwall.sch.uk

 Weekly Update 14/02/2025 

Wow! What a week! The children were incredible at their swimming lessons this week. They walked safely and sensibly. They had a really good go at getting themselves changed and dressed independently. In the water, the children listened carefully to the instructors and challenged themselves to have a go, showing great resilience. Well done everyone!  

We finished of our dinosaur topic by reading lots of stories and information texts. We also drew different dinosaur footprints on the bottom playground to compare their sizes. We compared brachiosaurus, T-rex and velociraptor footprints. We also drew and compared the length of a T-rex compared to a velociraptor. The brachiosaurus was too big to fit on our playground!  

After half term we will be learning about the story of the Three Little Pigs.  

Phonics:  

After half term, the children will join their new phonics groups. Please try to keep reading with your child over half term.  

Maths:  

This week in maths we have been learning about mass and capacity. We tried to balance scales with Numicon and explored mass with boats – see Tapestry for photos. We then moved on to focus on capacity. We explored the capacity of different sized and shaped containers by seeing how many cubes would fit inside. For your math home learning challenge over half term, explore the capacity of different containers by seeing how many objects would fit inside, for example; dried pasta or lego. Alternatively, you could fill the containers with water and then empty them into a measuring jug to check how much water would fit in each container.  

Have a well-deserved rest and a wonderful half term.  

Mrs Horton and Miss Parker   

Dates for the diary: 

Monday 17th February – Friday 21st February – Half term 

Monday 31st March YR & 6 cake bake (Easter theme) 

7th April - 21st April - Easter holidays 

Tuesday 29th April - YR class assembly 9am 

With your child, please carry out a variety of the following tasks at least 5 times a week.

• Practise recognising letter sounds using flashcards daily – this is essential practise to get your child reading.
• If your child is consistently recognising most of the letter sounds, make simple words out of the flashcards for them to practise reading. For example, sat, tap, dog, bed. Encourage your child to point to each letter as they say the sounds. Once they have said each sound, they need to blend them together to say the whole word. Eg. s – a –t, sat. They may need you to model this initially before they have a try.
• Share your child’s lilac book. This book has no words. Your child needs to look closely at the picture and talk about what they think is happening. This develops their oracy comprehension and inference skills.
• Based on your child’s most recent phonics assessment, the may also bring home a Read, Write, Inc Blending book or a ditty sheet to read at home.

Please keep all of the above in your child’s book bag. They need to bring their book bag to school every day.

Complete this reading record at least 5 times a week so that we know that your child is practising their reading at home.

Please make sure that you date and initial to show that your child has read their lilac book/blending book/flash cards.

We will check the reading logs once a week. Please speak to any member of the Reception staff if you have any questions.

Thank you for your continued support in helping your child learn to read.

The YR Team