Wow, wow, wow! What fabulous storytellers your children are becoming. We are really enjoying our 'Once upon a time' topic, and it is wonderful to see them re-telling stories with great expression in their play. Ask them what story they have enjoyed the most and see if they can re-tell you one. Snow White, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and The Ugly Duckling are the classic fairy tales we have shared. 

‘’Run, run as fast as you can… You can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!’’ Can you guess what our story of the week will be? Of course… It’s The Gingerbread Man!

We will also be rounding off our topic by sharing some mixed up fairy tales and having a go at creating our own! We will be sharing this story and seeing which familiar characters we can spot.

Our phonics for the next few weeks is going to be consolidating all of our RWI set 1 sounds to give the children an extra boost when applying their reading and writing skills.

We will be revisiting these in lots of different ways and focusing on a sound a day to help them stick in our long-term memory. We will be looking at the shapes of the letters and having a go at the formation. Some F2 children will be focusing on the skill of 'Fred in your head' where you don't say the sounds aloud and blend in your head until the word on the page pops out. 

This week our five sounds we will be embedding are:

Can you have a go at forming these letters at home? You could use your speedy sound cards to create and blend some words (sad, mad, sit, mats).

For those at home who are confident with their set 1 sounds... Check out this alphablocks episode where you can blend some longer words. Have a go at our 'I spy and read' sheet for an extra challenge.

This week we will be becoming scientists and learning the words 'absorbent' and 'waterproof' along with 'float' and 'sink'. We will be exploring why the Gingerbread Man didn't want to swim across the river... And experimenting making our own rafts to help him cross our water tray without getting wet! 

You could collect some objects at home (waterproof ones!) and predict whether they will float or sink before testing them out your sink, bath or a big container.  We would love to see your photos of this - send them in on Tapestry, and we will share them in class. Along with any gingerbread man inspired activities you might like to do (see PDF's at the bottom of the page). 

In maths, we are continuing our white rose focus on growing, 6, 7 & 8. We will be digging deeper by combining two groups and finding out how many altogether. Check out this numberblocks episode to look at the part-whole model. We will be using this model in school to help us visualise combining numbers to find the total. 

Have a listen to these jazzy tunes (they are both especially catchy and may just be playing in your head all day 😅)