Cygnus - Reflect and Review

Dear Reception and Nursery families

The children enjoyed thinking about visiting the seaside this week as we learned about train journeys and holiday journeys. 

We read ‘Lucy and Tom at the Seaside by Shirley Hughes for Drawing club. The vocabulary we learned this week was:  picnic, train, busy, tide, moat, chase and interesting.

The Reception children have been practising their doubles this week. We used Hungarian double dice frames to visualise our doubles and the Rekenreks to practise using the ‘five and a bit’ structure of the numbers 6-10. The children’s confidence with seeing and using  the numbers is really improving. 

Nursery have been focused on the concept of counting to 10. We have used the rhyme ‘One, two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive’ to help us with our counting and the children have been fishing for fish and crabs in their water play this week. 

On Wednesday Reception children visited Didcot Railway centre. They managed the walks to and from Oxford station brilliantly. The children had a fantastic time exploring old and new trains. We sat in some Victorian second and third class carriages, got to practice pulling the levers and imagining shovelling the coal on the old steam train engine and they all had a ride on a real steam train. 

Nursery class have their first Cygnus class outdoor learning in forest school. 

Our Helicopter story session this week had some excellent stories from children in the class.  All the children participated in enactment of these stories as a group. It was even more fun than last week. 

On Friday we went on a train ride with the book by June Crebbin and were all sailors who went to sea, sea, sea!

In week 4 we will be talking about journeys around the world. If you and your family have travelled somewhere and can share with the class we’d love a photo and some information for our discussion on 25th June. Please email the Early Years email account or send in information into class. 

Next week at a glance

Next week we will be thinking about journeys in our community.

Dates for your diary: 

Outdoor learning dates this term: 19th June (Father’s day forest school), 26th June, 3rd July (Reception children only). Nursery children will be having outdoor learning on Wednesday afternoons. 

26th June - Rescheduled Zoolab visit to the school.

8th July - Sports day and family picnic. 

10th July - Last day with current teachers.

13th-17th July - Transition week.

17th July - Last day of Term 1pm finish. 

Notices:

Friday 19th June will be a special Father’s day forest school session. All dads are welcome to join us (reception children only). 

Nursery children will be having outdoor learning on Wednesday afternoons.

The Reception children are now all reading books in phonics and will be bringing new books home every week. Please make sure they always have their reading books in their books bags and bring the bags to school every day. The day we change books will change depending on the timetable. 

Children need a pair of indoor shoes/plimsoles to change into to come into the classroom and a spare set of clothes, including pants and socks, for any accidents. These should be brought to school every day please. All nursery children should have wellies for outdoor play. 

Please make sure the children have a waterproof coat every day. We have outdoor play as often as possible and we need to be ready for changes in the weather. 

Please make sure the children have a sunhat/cap at school and their own sunscreen to use at school. 

If your child is going home with someone else, please make sure you email the school office to advise us of the change: office@nhps.org.uk 

Best wishes

The Reception Team