Teacher Contact Information 

Your teachers are: Miss Parker, Mrs Reay and Mrs Baker

You can email them at:

Miss Parker (Sweet Chestnut)

cherylparker@stratton.cornwall.sch.uk

Mrs Reay and Mrs Baker (Horse Chestnut)

naomireay@stratton.cornwall.sch.uk    lesleybaker@stratton.cornwall.sch.uk    

Friday 28^th March

This week, as part of our RE, we have been listening to and discussing the meaning of the Easter story. We listened to the story, and talked about why Christian’s celebrate Easter. Lots of the children remembered Jesus from the Christmas story and made excellent links in their learning.

The children have been continuing to check on our caterpillars, observing them daily and commenting on how they have changed. At the beginning of the week, the children noticed that the caterpillars were now very big and fat compared to when we first saw them. Some children also commented that they were all climbing to the top of the pot. Towards the end of the week, we have seen all of the caterpillars climb to the top of the pot and hang themselves in a J shape ready to form their chrysalis.

Swimming:

We have been incredibly impressed by the children this week taking part in school swimming lessons for the first time. They all had lots of fun kicking, splashing and blowing bubbles in the water! The children got to practise swimming with pool noodles and floating boards, experimenting with different ways to move in the water. They even got to play a game that involved picking up sinkers from the bottom of the pool and we were very impressed with how confident all of the children were at going under the water. Each lesson ended with a chance to jump in the pool, which everybody did successfully! A big well done to all of the children and an enormous thank you to the parents who helped with the walk there and back. Please see Tapestry for photos!

Really Wild Animal Visit:

After Easter, we have arranged for the children to have a visit from Really Wild Learning. The children will be able to see and learn about lots of different animals. You will have received an email. We are asking for a payment of £3 which can be paid on the School Gateway App.

Phonics Assessments:

All children in Reception have now been assessed and will be starting new groups after the Easter break. We will let you know the outcomes of your child’s assessment after the holiday.

Thank you so much for all of the support that you are giving your children at home, we can really see the benefit that this is having. Where possible, please encourage your child to continue engaging with reading and practising their sounds at home over the Easter break to support them in their phonics learning when they return to school.

Maths:

This week, we have been learning about more complex repeated patterns. After reminding ourselves of simple repeating patterns that follow and AB rule, we then started to look at patterns that follow ABB or AAB rules (e.g. red, red, green, red, red, green). The children were excellent at spotting the patterns and using their knowledge to identify what would come next in the pattern.

For your home learning challenge, see if you can make a repeating pattern at home. You could use anything that you have available, such as different coloured Lego bricks, different pieces of cutlery, and lots more. For example, you could make a pattern that goes: fork, spoon, spoon, fork, spoon, spoon. Once your child has designed their own pattern, make one for them and see if they can work out what comes next. Don’t forget to share your photos with us on Tapestry!

Outdoor Play and Physical Development:

The children have thoroughly enjoyed this week’s challenge of taking part in an egg and spoon race! Lots of children had a go and we were really impressed with how resilient they were, showing an excellent can-do attitude and continuing to try even when it was tricky.

Thank you so much for your continued support, we are incredibly proud of the children and the progress that they have made. We hope you all have a wonderful Easter break and look forward to seeing you all soon.

Have a fantastic Easter break!

Miss Parker, Mrs Baker and Mrs Reay

Dates for the diary

Monday 15^th April – First day back of the summer term after the Easter break

Thursday 25^th April – Really Wild Learning Visit

Tuesday 30^th April – YR Class Assembly (adults welcome, we will let you know more details soon)

Friday 10^th May – Trip to Bude Library in the afternoon (we will need volunteers to help us walk down and we will be asking parents/carers to collect from the library – more details to follow)

Friday 24^th May – INSET Day

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