Hazel Class
Welcome to Hazel Class!
Happy New Year and welcome to the Spring term in Hazel class! We are delighted to welcome the children back after the Christmas holidays and are looking forward to an excellent term full of fun and learning. We are really excited about the new Hazel class team for 2024! Throughout January you will see a lot more of Mrs Kinnair, joined by Miss Rivera, following which Mrs Keeble will join the team on January 29th. Our fantastic teaching assistants remain the same with Mrs Abbot, Miss Butler, Mrs O'Connell and Miss Finn supporting the children in their learning.
In Hazel class we follow the Early Excellence model of learning. This means that we have an exciting learning environment that is still growing and developing and that meets the needs of all children through a mixture of continuous provision and enhanced provision along with more formal, traditional adult-led teaching. We are now continuing to work on our outdoor area to make this as exciting as our indoor areas and look forward to seeing this unfold as the term progresses. This term will also see Mrs Kinnair begin her Forest School training so, as time goes on, the children will have increased opportunities for learning in our outside areas. We can't wait!
A typical day will start with registration then phonics, literacy or maths, assembly and then play time . After play we will have literacy or maths (whichever we didn't have first). We finish at 11.45 to get ready for lunchtime which is at 11.50am. In the afternoons we cover science, P.E. and the foundation subjects. This term Reception children will have phonics consolidation homework sent home every Monday, to be returned the following Monday, and Year 1 children will continue to have spellings sent home each Friday on their learning conversations, to be tested every Friday.
Children will need to wear their PE kits to school on Mondays and Fridays and stay in their kit all day. They do not need plimsoles for indoor PE but they will need trainers (not plimsoles) for all outdoor PE. Yoga happens on a Wednesday afternoon, which they do in their school uniform with bare feet.
Children in Hazel class have constant access to fruit, milk and water and serve themselves their own snacks and drinks when they need them. We do also monitor this and ensure children have had a drink throughout the day, reminding them to drink at regular intervals. We encourage children to bring a water bottle too as when we go out for PE or at lunchtime, on hot days especially, children can have constant access to it.
We look forward to continuing to work with you during this term and encourage you to pop in and see us after school each Friday so that the children can share their learning with you each week.
Mrs Kinnair and Miss Rivera
Autumn Term Overview for Parents
Hazel class Gallery
More information about the Early Years
Below is a link for you to follow. This is a good comprehensive parents guide
about EYFS and what to expect. Its has lots of useful information about how to help your child throughout their early years.
What-to-expect-in-the-EYFS-complete-FINAL-16.09-compressed.pdf (foundationyears.org.uk)
There are 7 areas of learning, the prime areas are called this because they underpin the other 4 areas.
Each area of learning has up to 12 statements for assessment purposes. We assess these as to what we see in school but we value your input from what you see at home .Please share anything with us that you feel we may not have seen in school, particularly 'Physical development' at this time.
All Aboard Phonics
In Hazel class we have adopted a new Phonics scheme called All Aboard Phonics. This is a really exciting time and the resources are funny and engaging. I can't wait to share it all with the children when they start!
Generally children complete phase 2, 3 and 4 during their Reception Year and Phase 5 during the Year 1 year. We understand though that some children will need a little extra support though and others will need a bit more of a push so this 'timetable' isn't set in stone!
Reception children have bought home their phonics homework books now and these have both the pictophones the children learn (pictures that match phonemes) and the rhymes we use to teach letter formation.
They do have an app to download which is free. We will use our online login to set the children phonics work via this app which follows and reinforces what they have been learning in class - phonics works best when it is taught and practised daily. The app means you can access the learning and books anywhere quickly and easily! If you can't download the app for any reason please let me know as soon as possible and I will provide other ways for your child to practise their phonics learning!
To download the app just head to your app store on your phone and type All Aboard phonics - the app you need has this symbol...
High Frequency words in phases
Phase 2 phonic sounds are;
s, a, t, p, i,n,n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u, r, h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss
Phase 3 phonic sounds are;
j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu, ch, sh, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er
Phase 4 is consolidation of the sounds learnt, some new high frequency words and when children learn to blend consonant clusters such as 'cr' in crab or 'lt' in belt.
Phase 5 sounds are alternative sounds for phonemes (sounds) that they have already learnt. These are a-e, o-e, i-e, e-e, u-e, au, aw, ea, ew, ey, ir, oe, ou, oy, ue, wh.
The sounds are taught in this particular order so that your child can quickly blend words from learning just a few sounds. eg when they learn s,a,t,p,i,n, they can sound out simple words like, pin, sat, tip, at, in, nit, tap etc.
We will learn the letter names at the same time, but our focus at the start is the sounds the graphemes (written letters) make.
You will be amazed how quickly they can begin to read simple words.
Reception Phonics
Children in reception will bring home a phonics practise book, this will be worksheets aimed at practising phonemes, graphemes, sentences and reading at home based on what I think the children have found particularly tricky that week!
Year 1 Spellings
Below you will see the Year 1 and 2 spelling list. These are words set by the government via the national curriculum that children are expected to be able to spell independently by the end of Year 2. We will work on some of these via phonics and others as part of our spelling learning. The expectation is that they can spell them all by the end of Year 2 so most children should be able to spell around half by the end of year 1 and make attempts at the others! Any practise you can do of these at home will help your child no end!
Spellings for Year 1
The children in Year 1 will also recieve weekly spellings to practise at home. These will be sent home on a Friday and tested on a Friday. Children will also have opportunities to practise their spellings at school. If your child is finding spellings tricky I may set them different ones to build their confidence up. If you are finding it tricky to practise with your child at home please let me know ASAP!
The link below has some good games on it that are free. Always choose games appropriate to your child's ability, it is best that they practice what they know rather than learning a new skill.
