The Little Red Hen

At Preston Primary we aim to foster a real love of reading. This week we have been immersing ourselves in the story of ‘The Little Red Hen’. The teachers read the story aloud and the children loved joining in with the actions and the repeated phrases in the story. The children were really engaged and keen to share their ideas. We drew a story map of the main events - this helped us to be able to re-tell the story in our own words. The children have also used the story maps to independently retell the story. They have used their knowledge of the phonic sounds to start writing key words from the story, e.g. hen, cat, red. The ‘Little Red Hen’ inspired the children to write their own recipes and bake their own ‘bread’ during choosing learning time in the mud kitchen and on the playdough table.

We even made our own bread just like The Little Red Hen. However, unlike the lazy dog, sleepy cat, and noisy duck, we helped each other make the bread. We used the vocabulary: dough, knead, stretch, prove, rise, roll, and mix. We learnt that yeast is the special ingredient which helps the bread to rise. The children enjoyed using the timers to measure how long we had to wait for the dough to rise. We especially enjoyed tasting our bread! It was delicious!

Read Write Inc

In Read Write Inc (RWI) this week the children learnt the sounds h, b, l and f. Please practise writing these letters in your RWI handwriting booklet.

In class we have used magnet boards with the letter sounds on to help the children spell words. We have also used our whiteboards and pens to write cvc (consonant-vowel-consonant) words such as sat, mad, pin. The children continually amaze us with their enthusiasm and determination.

If you have any questions about phonics, please do not hesitate to ask. We will continue to share information on your child’s phonic journey.

Maths

In Maths this week, we have been exploring how the numbers 1,2 and 3 are made up, for example, the number 3 can be shown as a 1 and a 1 and another 1, or it can be shown as a 2 and a 1. We have been finding groups of 3 in our school environment, for example, 3 hula hoops, 3 steps.

We also introduced ‘subitising’ to the children. This is when they do not need to count every object, but instead they learn to recognise the pattern and instantly ‘see’ the arrangement. An example of this is when we roll a dice – we do not need to count each dot, but instead we recognise the pattern. When playing dice games at home, point out the pattern of the numbers and then encourage your child to just say the number, rather than counting each individual dot. We have been subitising dots and images for 1,2 and 3.

We have also introduced a ‘five frame’ to the children to help with their understanding of number. Children showed their knowledge by explaining the image, “If we put 3 counters in the five-frame there are 2 spaces.” “I would need 2 more counters to make it up to 5.”

Harvest festival assembly

The children in Penguins and Puffins attended their first whole school assembly on Thursday. We had the pleasure of watching Unit 2 (years 1 & 2) perform their Harvest assembly and singing a song to us. A big ‘thank you’ for your food donations! The food donated will be collected by a local food bank.

Swimming

The children celebrated their last swimming session this week with a fun session. The children’s confidence has developed so much in these few weeks! Well done, everyone!

The pool is now closed for the Winter. Swimming will begin again in the Summer. We will inform you of the start date nearer the time.

Messages

• Please continue to contact the school office by email admin@preston.torbay.sch.uk or phone 01803 607075 with any questions or queries.
• In the event of your child being poorly, please call our absence line is 01803 607589 where you can leave a message.
• There is also lots of useful information, as well as event dates and term dates, on our school website  https://www.preston.torbay.sch.uk/
• Puffins and Penguins class photo is in the Herald Express ‘First Class’ supplement. Your child will be in the photo if they attended school on Monday 4^th October and they had photo consent.

Home learning options

• Enjoy sharing this week’s library book with your grown-up.
• Watch the ‘Maggie Muncher’ blending activity on Seesaw.
• Practise writing the sounds learnt this week in your RWI (Read Write Inc) phonics booklet. Also practice writing all of the letters which we have done so far.
• Enjoy the story ‘The 3 Billy Goats Gruff’ read by Miss Rowe.

Dates to remember

Return to school - Monday 1st November

‘Stickman’ Theatre Trip - Friday 5th November

From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague and the Foundation Stage Team