Good Luck to all the EYS learners who are leaving iCAN and moving on with their next adventures! We will miss you!

​Don’t give up and keep going; remember IT’S OKAY TO MAKE MISTAKES! WE ALWAYS LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES!

Learning Journey
​This week we have been revising all the animals that we have been learning throughout the learning block. We explored Tuff spot tray activities such as: Arctic and Antarctic animals in the snow, African animals in the soil, leaves and branches. We also drew our favourite animals from around the world. 

For our Exit Point, we enjoyed playing with small world animal toys. We loved sharing our knowledge and understanding through information books and pictures. We also explored a large world map to find out the continents and which animal lives in which continent.  

Maths
This week in maths we have been revising our counting skills and number recognition. We have also been practising to form recognisable numbers. We enjoyed counting number games using the interactive whiteboard. We had fun revising 2D shapes through playing cooperative structure games such as Showdown and Mix-pair-share.  

​Literacy
This week we have been revising all the Phase One seven aspects. We practised learning environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body percussion, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds and oral blending and segmenting

Learning Journey
This week we have been learning about Australian animals. We used non-fiction books and video clips to extend our knowledge of animals in Australia, such as the kangaroo, koala bear, emu and wombat.  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 koala bear masks and 3D kangaroos with cardboard tubes. We also painted and drew pictures of Australian animals. We extended our knowledge of animals by sorting animals from around the world, on a large world map, using different continents. 

Maths
This week we have been practising our counting skills and adding one digit numbers from 1-5, using number rhymes and songs. 

We have also been looking at shapes in the environment.

Crickweb : Fish Tank

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html

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 practising our rhyming words through various games and on the IWB games. 

CAKE BAKE/Super Smoothie

http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/Phase1Menu.htm

Learning Journey
We are having lots of fun with our Traditional Tales topic and this week we have been learning all about the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We have been very busy re-telling the story and discussing it. We have also been learning how to story sequence in the correct order and have been making Jack and the Beanstalk character masks. We have been designing and making A HUGE GIANT. We also were sorting out different beans according to their sizes on the Tuff Spot.

​Literacy
In phonics - Ms. Niumai’s group have been recapping phase 2 phonics and have been learning letter sounds.
 
Ms. Helen’s group is looking at the ow and ou digraph.
 
Ms. Vijaya’s group are learning /oo/ and /ar/ and the tricky words LOOK and DOWN.

We extended our phonic skills by writing descriptive sentences, and speech bubbles about: Jack, the giant, his mum and the bean seller. 

Maths
In Maths this week, we have been recapping positional language within the story and also time using Bee-bots. We have also been using objects and flashcards to help us learn the positional language as well as using PowerPoint and games.

​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
​

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.
​

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!