​This week all iCAN learners engaged in a positive body image awareness week. There were a number of afternoon activities like: I love my body graffiti wall, self appreciation sticks and love stones.

In Early Years  we looked at different body types, skin colour and abilities; we tried to remember that our bodies might look different on the outside but they all look the same on the inside. Each learner made an 'I am special' book and gave themselves a compliment, such as: I love my hair because it's shiny. We also started each day with a positive body affirmation such as: I am special, My body is right for me and I am healthy and strong.

Learning Journey
This week we have been learning about Europe: United Kingdom's animals. We used non-fiction books and video clips to extend our knowledge of animals in Europe such as the hedgehog, badger, puffin and red squirrel. We had fun observing and exploring animals around the world in our Tuff Spot tray, using a magnifying glass and books. In arts and crafts we enjoyed making hedgehog, badger masks, a squirrel collage, and colouring and painting animals from around the world.

Literacy
This week in phonics, we continued recapping Phase 1, Aspects 1-7. We also continued practising body sounds, letters and sounds in groups. We have been working hard on our initial sounds and blending three letter words through various games and activities. We enjoyed mark- making with salt and glitter to practise writing our names.

Maths
In maths we continued to develop our counting skills and number recognition through cooperative learning structure games such as: show down, corners and line up. We are also learning to sequence numbers; we made ladybirds and caterpillars by sequencing numbers.

Literacy
In phonics this week...
Ms. Vijaya's group covered the trigraph sound ure and used it to segment words. They also practised writing sentences using tricky words and stretching these sentences to make them longer. 

Ms. Helen's group  looked at the sounds oa and igh. They recognised these sounds in both reading and writing words. They also covered the tricky words you and they. 

Ms. Niumai's group have been recapping all their tricky words and writing sentences using these words. They have also been blending, segmenting and reading sentences with more confidence. 

Maths
In maths we are continuing  to develop our counting skills and number recognition. We used pegs, objects and pom poms to practise our skills. We have also been learning to recognise 2D shapes  through cooperative structure games.

MATHS
In maths this week we have been trying our best with halving. We have halved: different objects, as well as halving our class. We really enjoyed having Frooby the Dragon's help with halving too.

LITERACY
In phonics - Ms. Vijaya's group have been recapping Phase 2 phonics and have been learning the digraphs ng and ai.
 
Ms. Niumai ’s group are looking at Phase 2 letter sounds, and trying to read Phase 2  captions.
 
Ms. Helen’s group are looking at the trigraphs ear and air.

In literacy have been  busy writing a sorry letter to the Bear and making Wanted posters for Goldilocks. We discussed and drew our exciting holiday news in our writing journal.

Learning Journey
This week we have been learning about Asian and African animals. We used non-fiction books and video clips to extend our knowledge of animals. We had fun observing and exploring animals from the continents of Asia and Africa. We enjoyed making paper plate  jungle animals. 

Literacy
In phonics we continued practising our letters and sounds in groups. We have been working hard on our initial sounds and blending three letter words through various games and activities. We have also been busy practising to write our name on sand, shaving foam and glitter.

In phonics, the younger learners have been recapping Phase 1, aspect 1-3. We focused on learning body sounds.

Maths
This week we continued using our super powers to add and take away; we have been learning these through songs, rhymes and games. We also continued counting and  matching the correct quantity to its number. The learners have had fun using marbles, feathers and teddies to help them with the counting activity.

​Literacy

Ms. Niumai covered the ur ( as in burnt) and the ow ( as in town). They used these sounds to segment words, and then read some real and nonsense words. These learners also used the words up and big to write independent sentences.

Ms. Helen continued to learn the digraph sounds  ee and ch this week.

Ms. Vijaya have also begun learning the digraph sounds sh and th. The learners are now practising to read and match words with these sounds in them.​

INTERNATIONAL DAY
On the 12th April  we celebrated our International Day!  We enjoyed learning all about different traditional  games from around the world.  The learners also had an opportunity to try amazing food in our international food court.

Learning Journey
This week we  had our Entry Point to introduce our new topic for this learning block Animals around the World. We had fun observing and exploring animals from different continents. We had fun decorating an animal from each continent.  We have also been exploring different Tuff Spot trays with animals from around the world. 

Maths
This week we have been using our super powers to add and take away through songs, rhymes and games. The learners have been comparing how much different containers can hold, and using language related to capacity. We have also been using mathematical opposites such as: big or small, tall, short or long, and wide or narrow, through pictures and games on the interactive whiteboard.

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html
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Literacy
This week we have been practising our skills on segmenting and blending three letter words using games on letters and sounds programme. We enjoyed  feeding Metal Mike with picture cards. We were also practising to sound out initial sounds in words playing various games using our sandpit area. 

We continued practising writing our names on sand and glitter. We made marks with wheels on paint and glitter. 

Maths
This week in maths we have been learning to form numbers​ tracing using Montessori material  sand paper numbers. We have also been continuing to  count from 0 to 10 , 11 to 20 and beyond, using counters and cooperative learning structure games. 

We have also been making transport with  some common 2D shapes. We made a train, boat,rocket and a bus. 

To end our dinosaur unit the learners looked at what dinosaurs liked to eat- plants or meat. We looked at different dinosaur teeth and tried to decide if it was a herbivore or a carnivore. Sharp teeth were needed to eat meat but short flat teeth were needed to munch on plants. The learners enjoyed working at, and visiting the dino cafe where they ordered for a herbivore or carnivore dinosaur. What a great unit of learning and we hope your little learner will be able to share all their new dinosaur knowledge with you at home. ​

Literacy
Ms. Niumai's group  have been revising all their high frequency words this week and recapping on the double digraphs 'or' and 'ar'. 

Ms. Helen's and Ms. Vijaya's group  combined this week and recapped all their single letter sounds. After some confusion over v and w they revisited those sounds and segmented some words using either v or w. 

Please note that blue reading bags will stay in school over the holidays. ​

Learning Journey
​​This week we have continued to explore Transport. We have been using our knowledge and skills to learn more about land transport. We looked at non fiction books and video clips on land transport. We had fun making  paper plate cars and trains. We liked making wheel marks with paint using big and small vehicles. 

Learning Journey
​This week we have been learning all about the Velociraptors. We looked at non-fiction books and used the internet to find out lots of information about the Velociraptors. We then used this information to write a fact file on it. We worked cooperatively to make a large volcano using clay and papermachie. The children loved sharing their learning from this learning block and a fantastic way to end our Dinosaur topic, exploding the volcano eruption. For Expressive Art and Design, we stuck coloured templates of the feet and necks to a balloon to create 3D shaped dinosaurs. We have been looking at lots of new vocabulary linked with dinosaurs and paleontologists. We also coloured our paleontologist badges in preparation for our exit point, digging for the T-Rex bones in iCANPLAY, next Monday.

​We have been practising some songs about the Triceratops and Stegosaurus. We worked collectively as a group, incorporating all our Personal Goals when setting up and tidying up our outdoor area. We are also working very hard to be risk takers and remembering to be respectful to each other.

Literacy
Ms. Niumai’s  group  have been revising phase 2 phonics sounds.

Ms. Helen’s group have been recapping all tricky words of phase 2  and  digraph qu/.This group also practising blending with the sounds learned so far.

Ms. Vijaya’s group have been revising all phase three sounds  and digraph ‘oo’ and ‘ igh’.We enjoyed  writing sentences with digraphs learned so far with finger space and full stop.
We enjoyed making oatmeal cookies and discovered many digraphs in the ingredients which we used such as ‘ai ‘in raisins, ‘oa’ in oatmeal, ‘oo’ in cookies, ‘ar’ in sugar and  ‘er’ in butter. Later we enjoyed eating them before our reflection time.
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Maths
This week in maths we continued learning to do doubling of numbers up to 10 and using different small world toys to count. We enjoyed learning the doubling song. It is fun!

It was a wonderful Wednesday afternoon sharing maths skills with all the learners in  primary.  Early years were very excited and did an absolutely great job selling the fruit kebabs, pasta necklaces and bracelets.  The Reception learners loved having a chance to buy products made by other classes in primary!

Our focus was making repeated patterns.

iCANPLAY and Nursery learners had so much fun counting and choosing their own pasta colours to create beautiful necklaces and bracelets by repeating the  patterns.

​Reception learners worked very hard to conduct a survey about people's  favourite fruit kebab choices for the Maths Day sale. Later we plotted our bar graph on the survey and finalised which 4 fruits we need to buy to make the fruit kebab. We also plotted our Kebab in patterns like ABAB, ABCD, ABAB and ABCDE. working together to make our poster for the Math Day. 

Literacy
This week  Nursery learners  continued finding words that rhyme through stories and songs. We used cooperative learning structure games to practise segmenting three letter words and listening to the initial sounds in words.
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iCAN PLAY learners have been practising to discriminate between sounds they hear and identify the animals and imitate the sounds.

Learning Journey
This week we have been learning all about the stegosaurus. We looked at non-fiction books and used the internet to find out lots of information about the stegosaurus. We then used this information to write a fact file. We worked cooperatively to make a large stegosaurus using different textures. We have also been practising some songs about the triceratops and stegosaurus. We worked collectively as a group, incorporating all our personal goals, to set up our Dinosaurs role play area in our classroom. We stuck pasta for bones onto dinosaurs and have been looking at lots of new vocabulary linked with dinosaurs and paleontologists.

Literacy
In phonics - Ms. Niumai’s group have been introducing phase 3 phonics.
 
Ms. Helen’s group are looking at phase 2 new tricky words and continue with phase 3 sounds.
 
Ms. Vijaya’s group are blending phase 3 sentences and continue with diagraphs ‘Sh’ and ‘ai’ words.
 
We have been practising using wow words in sentences for Big Talk. In reading   we made great progress and able to read simple sentences using CVC words with learning facilitators and discussing stories, which are building our comprehension and understanding skills.
 
We have been busy drawing dinosaurs and writing the names of them in our writing journals this week.

Learning Journey

​EXIT POINT 
This week have been a very busy week.  For our Exit point on Houses and Homes we had fun walking to big school from the back gate. On our way to big school we had fun exploring and looking at houses built with bricks and wood and also big buildings, small houses etc…… We discussed which material they have used building their houses. Is it strong?  
We ended our topic, Houses and Homes reflecting on our learning, looking at photos and work we have been doing  throughout the weeks. 

ENTRY POINT
On Wednesday we had our Entry Point introducing our new topic TRANSPORT! We brought in our own bicycles and scooters to share and rode at iCANPLAY. We made a 3D airplane and a bus and had fun taking photos with it.
We used non-fiction books and video clips to find out more information on transport people use around the world. 

Our role play area for this learning block is TRAVEL AGENTS! We will be building it slowly throughout the weeks.  

Literacy
This week for older learners in phonics we have been revising initial sounds of s,a,t,i,p,n and blending and segmenting three letter words. 
Younger learners have been exploring objects and learning the words and identifying the name of the instruments being played.  

We have also been drawing and painting our favourite transport. We focus on the sounds that begings for each transport such as….. b for boat, s for submarine, t for truck etc……… 

Maths
This week in maths we have been learning to count and recognise numbers through various games and activities. We have also been busy sorting different transport into air, water and land. 

Literacy
Learning Facilitators in Reception have noticed a big improvement in all the learners reading and want to take this chance to thank you all for your support at home. It so wonderful to see the learners building in skill and confidence with their reading. 

This week in Group 1 have continued to focus on double letter sounds such as ch, the and ee. 

Group 2 learnt the new sounds j and v this week and displayed their increasing blending and segmenting skills with words such as jam, Jack, van and vet. 

Group 3 have made great improvements in their blending skills and have been building on this in a variety of activities.

Literacy
This week we have been super busy learning to practise writing and reacognising our names. We have also been learning to listen to the first sound in our names through various games and activities. iCANPLAY learners have been making some lovely mark making on sand and flour using their fingers and paint brushes. 
We all had fun exploring musical instruments and performing an action to match a musical instrument.  

 Maths
This week in Maths we have been exploring and learning  2D SHAPES using cooperative learning structures. We played corners and enjoyed making different  shapes in groups using wooden blocks. 

We had fun counting and recogninsing numbers through number rhymes, songs and games.  

Learning Journey

ENTRY POINT
In Learning block 5 we're learning about DINOSAURS! This week we had an exciting Entry Point. On Thursday 7th March Reception visited the Jurassic Kingdom Dinosaur Park. This was a fantastic way to start our new topic and test our knowledge of dinosaur as we encountered gigantic, realistic dinosaur models around the park. Lots of us got a fright when the models began to move and ROAR loudly in our ears. We were lucky enough to take a ride on some dinosaurs and also encounter the   different dinosaurs in various environment areas. We enjoyed assembling the giant dinosaur puzzles in the park in a group working on our personal goals. We had a lot fun, it was a great way to begin our topic; Dinosaur.  Before our trip to Dinosaur Park our learners were very excited as we had a brainstorming session about dinosaur in the beginning of this week and were excited to discuss about paleontologists and what they do. The learners were happily digging for dinosaur bones in the tuff spot. Everyone was very resilient, adaptable and worked cooperatively to find all of the dinosaur bones.