Autumn Term 2023

Phase one Phonics

At the start of the autumn term we focused on phase one of our phonics learning.  This provided the children with a range of activities to support their listening and attention skills and introduced them to concepts such as rhyme, alliteration and oral blending and segmenting.  This will help prepare them for the next phase of phonics.  We had so much fun exploring and experimenting with stories, songs, words and sounds! 

In November we also took part in World Nursery Rhyme where we learnt some new and some familiar rhymes together such as 'Jack and Jill,' and 'Wheels on the bus.’ We finished the week with our nursery rhyme quiz!

Mathematical Development

We have been developing the children’s 'subitising' skills this half term. We have used lots of images of natural objects such as conkers, leaves and acorns to do this. We ask the children two key questions "What do you see?" and "How do you see it?" This encourages them to notice and begin to recognise small amounts of objects without needing to count them. This is a very beneficial skill to develop and will feed into all aspects of their mathematical understanding as they move through the school.

Hoot With Me

We all enjoyed a magical visit from Tonya and four of her owls. The children felt owl feathers and listened carefully to the story of 'Owl Babies.' We all learned some new information such as how males and female owls call for each other. The children all had a turn at holding the owls.

Celebrations!

During the second half of the Autumn we had lots to celebrate at school with Fireworks night, Remembrance day, Children in Need and Diwali and Christmas. 
Lots of the children shared their experiences of taking part in these celebrations and gave us time to reflect on our own beliefs  and those of others, comparing what happens and looking at similarities and differences in festivals we celebrate.

Remembrance day 
On Friday 10th November we joined in with the two minute silence in recognition of Remembrance day. The children were absolutely amazing at doing this. After we watched the Cbeebies animation of the Hare on the battle field.  We spoke with the children about what was happening, paying attention to the changes of music and colours in the short film. They shared their feelings and spoke of their observations.  As a school we raised well over £500 for the Royal British Legion charity which is just fantastic!

Children in Need
On Friday 17th November we came to school wearing spotty or bright clothes to join in the the celebrations of BBC Children in Need. We also looked at some of the ways our money will help support children across the country.  We had lots of spotty and bright activities for the children to take part in.  As a school we raised over £100 for the charity.  Great job!

Christmas

The children enjoyed listening to Christmas stories, making crafts to decorate our classroom and Christmas tree and some Christmas baking.

Phase 2 Phonics

We have introduced Phase 2 phonics now. Children are learning the phonemes (sounds letters make) and how to blend (use phonemes to read words) and segment (use phonemes to spell words). They are also learning the first set of tricky words which we can't blend (sound out) to read.

Tales Toolkit

We use Tales Toolkit at Ranelagh. This is a storytelling method, where the children are introduced to symbols that represent the 'character,' 'setting,' 'problem' and 'solution.' We use lots of props to support our oral storytelling and we also use the symbols to discuss stories we've shared together in class. Children have begun to draw pictures to create their own stories and adults scribe their ideas.