Welcome to Pre-School

Welcome to pre – school!

Our first week has been lots of fun and we have enjoyed getting to know our new friends- Kai, Luke and Marcel. This week, Jordi, Luke, Marcel, Kai and Sergi have enjoyed exploring our new corners.

In our topic corner we have been learning about plants and vegetables. We have been focusing on the names of the vegetables  and have created our own flashcards; thinking carefully about the colours of each vegetable. We have worked on our cutting skills; cutting out and sticking different vegetables to create our own meal.

In our mathematics corner the boys have learnt counting songs, such as ‘1,2,3,4,5, once I caught a fish alive’ and ‘5 little ducks’. We have been doing lots of number recognition  activities, such as number matching, number ordering and number formation on the whiteboard.  The boys are getting very good at counting to 10 and recognising the names of each number in English. Jordi and Marcel enjoyed creating a display of numbers from 1-20  and they even started to prepare a ‘counting in tens’ display. We have also been learning the names of simple 2D shapes – square, rectangle, circle and triangle. We identified each shape and practised it’s name. We then created a ‘shape snake’.

In our phonics area Kai, Marcel, Luke and Sergi have been learning the ‘s’ sound. They have created the letter ‘s’ using paint, plasticine, , stamps, stickers and shapes. We also focused on our colours when each creating a different coloured ‘spotty snake’. Jordi has been working on the ‘sh’ sound. He has learnt the two letters which make this sound  and has practised the formation of these letters.   Jordi has been identifying words  which contain the ‘sh’ sound and has been learning how to use ‘sound buttons’  to help him read ‘sh’ words.

In our exploration area the boys have been using our new microscopic magnifying glass to look intricately at different insects, leaves and flowers. It is very interesting to see things up close!

In our role play area we have set up a fruit and vegetable shop. The children have created price tags for the different fruits and vegetables that are on sale  and have used real money to buy the foods they want from the shop.

In our construction area the boys have been imaginatively using the wooden blocks to create buildings and towers.

Judit and Sara have been focusing on the use of capital letters and full stops when writing a fact file of all the information they have learnt about plants and vegetables. They have also begun to create a ‘working word wall’ of all of the words which they have identified as being difficult to spell. They have completed reading comprehension activities linked to our topic; answering questions about the text to improve their comprehension  skill and deepen their subject knowledge of different plants. The texts they have read have provided information about rainforests, weeds, gardens and the world around them.

This week Sara has focused on instructional text  and poems. Judit has been working on  myths and poems. Within the different styles of writing the girls have been very motivated to research the meanings of unknown words and they are now creating their own dictionary of new words.

In maths, the girls matched the numbers to the number words. Sara then worked on the concept of thousands, hundreds, tens and units and is learning to recognise the value of each number within 4 digit numbers. Sara has also been working on the concept of time, using analogue clocks. She has been focusing on showing the time it will be if it is 15 or 30 minutes earlier and later than the given times. Sara has been working really hard to understand the concept of ‘past’ and ‘to’ when reading the time in English.

In maths, Judith has been working on 3 digit addition and subtraction number problems. She has also started taking mental arithmetic practise tests. She is working hard to prepare for her SAT exams. She is now particularly confident to answer number problems related to money.

Both girls enjoyed creating price tags for the role play area. They were both extremely confident  to add coins  and pay for the food, using the correct amount.  When change is needed, the girls were able to say how much they needed refunding and the coins which I needed to give them.

We have had a fun and busy week and we are looking forward to lots more new activities next week.