PLANTS

AND FLOWERS
Dear Reception Parents The 2nd half of term 1 is now in full swing after Parent-Teacher evenings and our mini workshop on Reading & Writing. It is always a busy time in school and we are planning a lot of exciting activities designed to support and develop your childs learning. Our new topic, starting Monday, 28th October, will be Plants and Flowers, another unit taken from the International Primary Curriculum, especially written for children aged 4 and 5 who are attending schools outside their home country. One of the main features of our school is its international dimension. During this unit, we shall be exploring the local flora as well as learning about plants from other countries. Here is a summary of how the activities which we have planned will cover the learning goals. INDEPENDENCE AND INTERDEPENDENCE The children will have the opportunity to play in the class flower shop. They will learn about responsibility when they look after their own seeds and plants. COMMUNICATING It is pleasing to see how many children are greeting their teachers, responding to greetings and making eye contact when they are spoken to. We will be sharing some traditional stories and learning about the practical use of language when we role-play in our class flower shop. We shall use numbers in practical situations when we count and order. EXPLORING A major focus of this theme is learning about the natural environment and learning how to take care of it. This includes recycling items where we can. Outside our class is a recycling bin for cardboard. Do feel free to add to this.

HEALTHY LIVING During the course of this unit of work, the children will be given the opportunity to make choices and develop the skill of concentration. LITERACY In Literacy we continue to introduce initial sounds and practise writing them. We shall be learning h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss, j, v, w, x, y, z, zz and qu. We shall continue to blend sounds to read; and segment them to spell simple cvc words. I hope that you and your child are enjoying the books from the schools graded reading scheme and that you will continue to help them learn their first sight words. MATHEMATICS In Mathematics we will continue to work with numbers within 10, encouraging the children to form their numerals properly, to order and supply missing numbers and to understand the concept of more and less. We will also teach them about ordering by size and some of the language to do with comparative measures. CORE OUTCOMES In addition to the learning goals, the children will continue to develop the characteristics that are helping them become effective communicators, responsible learners, independent and internationally minded individuals. We shall continue to encourage them to realise the importance of the personal goals: Communication, Cooperation, Responsibility, Respect, Adaptability, Morality, Enquiry and Thoughtfulness. Our weekly timetable remains the same with Swimming on Monday, PE on Tuesday (no need for any additional clothing) and Library Education on Friday, We appreciate all the support that we know you give your child at home especially with regards to learning the letters and sounds and reinforcing his/her reading skills. There will be a reading sign up sheet outside the classroom if you have any spare time to assist with helping the children learn to read.

If anyone has any seeds, plants, silk flowers or similar which they would like to donate to our class garden shop, we would be very grateful. Likewise any other support or ideas to enhance our learning would be very welcome. Finally, a reminder that the RM100 class donation should be paid to one of our class mums Melissa, Nida or Rowena. You may also hand it to one of us to pass on. Best wishes Jacqueline and Shirley