Dear Parents and Carers,

This week, Puffins and Penguins have enjoyed the story, ‘The Three Little Pigs’. They have been singing, drawing, building and writing about the story. In the woods this week they were building houses made of sticks and retelling the story. It was also the launch of the new Lego Discovery programme. The children were very excited and cannot wait for their next session.

What are your favourite stories?

This is the key question we will be exploring this half term. We would like the children to confidently talk about which stories are their favourite and why. We will share a few key stories with the children igniting their creativity and love of learning. We will discuss the key characters and events of the stories and learn new vocabulary. Through drama, songs, reading, art and writing we will explore narratives, illustrations and characters. We have started with the Three Little Pigs. The children enjoyed creating a story map and retelling the story with their friends, they all wanted to be the big bad wolf!

In the woods the children used teamwork to build stick houses. They had to share ideas, problem solve and then test if the big bad wolf could blow it down.

To help the children answer the question ‘What are your favourite stories?’ we have set up a book voting station. Each morning the children will add a token to the ten frames (this is to support their counting and subitizing) to vote for which book they would like to hear read at story time that day. They have a choice of two books and the discussions they have had already about the books on offer and the voting process has been rich and fascinating. Yesterday we offered an unknown story versus a popular well-known story. One child’s decision was torn. He said to some friends ‘I have never had that story before, I want to hear a new story’, so he put his token beside that book. However, after a discussion with his friends about the two stories he came to the conclusion it was too much of a risk to vote for the new story and decided he would vote for the popular story as it was one of his favourites, as he loves owls, so he changed his vote – the power of persuasion. These are exactly the discussions we want to have in class and by the end of the term we would like children to be excited about new and popular stories and be able to articulate why they like them. Your challenge this week is to try and read a book with your child that you have never read before.  

World Book Day

World Book Day has supported our learning and has been a great opportunity for the children to enjoy stories being read to them. We have had many rich discussions about which books they love and why. They enjoyed sharing their thoughts with the rest of the class and some of them stood up in assembly and shared them with the whole school.

In the afternoon we enjoyed a cosy story time. They listened to stories whilst enjoying cookies and milk. It is important that children are read stories so they hear new vocabulary that sparks their imagination. Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and developing a love of books and reading inspires children to read for pleasure. We wanted to share some pictures of our wonderful World Book Day.

Lego Discovery Programme

This week was the exciting launch of our new innovative Lego Discovery programme, the children were so excited. Thank you for your support at the meeting yesterday. We hope you feel inspired and confident to try the six bricks activities at home. We wanted to share the many benefits of the Lego Discovery programme with you so you can continue the learning at home. We will keep you updated with our progress through the programme and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask the class teacher.

Messages

If you have not already paid for the trip to Pennywell Farm, the deadline is Friday 13^th March. If you would like your child to have a packed lunch from the kitchen please order it via the office by the same date Friday 13^th March. If you have any queries please ask the class teacher.

Home Learning

• Try some of the six bricks activities. Let us know how you get on.
• Visit the local library to share some stores
• Use your World Book Day token to enjoy a new book
• Look for 3D shapes around the home (cylinder, cube, sphere, cuboid and cone) and talk about the properties (How many faces? Are they curved or flat?)
• Draw a picture of the Three Little Pigs Story and write a sentence.

Dates to remember

Mothering Sunday Assembly – Friday 20^th March 2.40pm in the hall.

Trip to Pennywell Farm – Wednesday 25^th March.

End of Term – Friday 27^th March

From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague and the Foundation Stage Team