Reception - Woods and Power Maths!

Good evening!

It was so lovely to see those of you who managed to battle the torrential rain to come along to Autumn Fest on Friday - we certainly won't let a little rain spoil our fun!!!!!!!

Thank you to the volunteers who accompanied us on our woods trip - we couldn't have done it without you. The children had a truly amazing time looking for signs of the lost bear (Reception decided it must be a black bear due to the surrounding habitat and it's diet, also the fact that there was no water near by) - they set about building a bear cave, making a campfire, collecting food for a black bear, digging beds for bears and also creating a waterfall to provide drinking water for the bears. One Reception child is also certain they felt honey drip on their head from a tree!!!!!!!! There was also a great deal of climbing, finished by a giant game of hide and seek where the children hunted for a Mrs. Smith bear, a Julia bear and a Helen bear!!!!!!

We are super excited to be able to introduce to you all the Power Maths scheme that is a new whole school approach to maths lessons. We have noticed a huge difference over these first few weeks, particularly with the mathematical language the children are using. This scheme positively encourages children to reason about their maths and to choose how to approach a challenge. They may choose to use concrete materials, abstract materials or to represent their learning in pictures, diagrams or in words/writing as an explanation - the characters in the materials demonstrate how the child could approach the challenge. Reinforcing the language is also hugely important. The work books link directly to the lessons that have been taught throughout the week. Please feel free to work with your child on these so that they can share their learning with you and so that they can further strengthen and deepen their reasoning and understanding outside the classroom. Pages 8-13 need to be covered at home. The learning objective is at the top of each page and each new week refers to the corresponding Early Learning Goal at the bottom of the page. Please use the questions at the bottom of the page. You can use any objects at home to count with, buttons, pasta, stones, counters, beads, lego bricks. Please could you date and annotate how your child approached the learning, any conversations had and or challenges. Your child may draw answers or do them physically, by all means take a photo and stick it in.

This week we are on week 7, page 14 and 15, Change within 5

Please keep the booklet at home and when we have completed the corresponding lessons in class, we will ask for them to be returned.

See you all tomorrow -
Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Cura