Miss R Downs
Class Teacher
What happens in Acorns class?
We are excited to welcome you to Acorns class!
The children in our class have a balanced curriculum which is supported by both Development matters and Birth to 5 documents to help support your childs development and learning. Children have access to both carpet sessions and continuous provision which is tailored to meeting the development of your child in the following areas of learning:
Personal, Social and emotional development
Communication and Language development
Physical development
Literacy Development
Mathematical development
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design
Phonics
Children in Acorns class have a daily phonics carpet session. We teach phase 1 phonics phonics in Autumn and Spring term before moving on to Read Write Inc. Nursery phonics scheme in Summer term.
Phase 1 phonics is the first stage of the phonics teaching programme. At this stage, the focus is primarily on developing speaking and listening skills. Speaking and listening are an important set of literacy skills that will create the foundation to a lot of your children's further learning. Listening requires the fundamental skill of focusing attention on the speaker to be able to hear and understand what the speaker is saying. Speaking skills require students to take turns, speak confidently, stay on topic and speak with clarity.
Phase 1 phonics also lays the foundation for further Phase 2 stages.
Phase 1 phonics skills that are developed at this stage include:
- Environmental sounds
- Instrumental sounds
- Body percussion (e.g. clapping and stamping)
- Rhythm and rhyme
- Alliteration
- Voice sounds
- Oral blending and segmenting (e.g. hearing that d-o-g makes ‘dog'
For more information about the Twinkl level 1 scheme visit: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/teaching-wiki/phase-1-phonics
Mathematics
We also have a daily Mathematics carpet session. We use Numberblocks to help support our children with their maths skills through the NCETM.
Numberblocks is a pre-school BBC television series aimed at introducing children to early number.
Snappy animation and loveable characters combine with engaging storylines to gently introduce concepts of number to support early mathematical understanding.
For episodes:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/numberblocks
For information about the NCETM:
https://www.ncetm.org.uk/classroom-resources/ey-numberblocks-support-materials/
Pathways to write
Pathways to Write is an award-winning programme built around units of work that follow a mastery approach to the teaching of writing. The books at the core of the units have been carefully selected to engage and inspire, and to provide plentiful opportunities for following the interests of pupils.
For more information visit https://www.theliteracycompany.co.uk/pathways-literacy/pathways-to-write/
Our story this half term story is:
Were going on a bear hunt
Acorns Environment
Our classroom layout can change each half term to meet the needs of the children and link with what we are learning about.
This year we have a new play loft which we have turned into a reading area with a quiet space on top for our children to go to when they need some calm time.
The pictures to the right show children accessing provison in a range of different areas including our sand, water and construction area.
Communication and Language
Communication and Language is one of the Prime Areas of Learning in the Early Years Curriculum.
We teach the three aspects of this, Speaking, Understanding and Listening and Attention throughout all of our adult directed and child initiated sessions. Communication and Language skills are important for learning across the whole curriculum so it is vital that we get this right for our children.
If you would like to see the expectations for your child's Communication and Language skills please see the attached "Small Talk" document.
We may talk to you if we believe your child could benefit from some extra support from Warrington's Speech and Language services. Please feel free to ask any member of the Early Years team if you have any questions.