• Our Learning Journey - Autumn 1 - All about us
• Our Learning Journey - Autumn 2 - Light and Dark
• Our Learning Journey - Spring 1 - Cold Places
• Our Learning Journey - Spring 2 - Journeys
• Our Learning Journey - Summer 1 - Growth

Welcome back Little Diamonds 

and all our families at The Holy Spirit.

Hope your ready for a wonderful Spring 2 Term!

'Together, in the spirit of love and forgiveness, our family learns to grow with hope and joy'

Welcome to Early Years at The Holy Spirit where we believe that all children are unique. We are working hard to ensure that our learning environment is stimulating and inspiring to each individual child. We do this by observing each child’s play, development and learning so that we are able to adapt provision to suit their needs and plan the next steps in their learning journey.

We focus on building positive relationships with every child and their families, as we feel that these positive relationships enable our children to become strong, independent learners by the end of Reception. Our classroom offers many areas for children to develop new skills and for them to be able to build upon existing skills. We encourage independence in each area by providing challenging and exciting opportunities for every child.

We hope you enjoy the Little Diamonds Class Page
If you'd like to see more of our Learning Journey so far
please click on the tab at the top of the page.

Communication:

We are continuing to use www.classdojo.com to keep in contact with parents/carers - to update you on our learning journey and to post important information about whole school or class events/changes. We are also using Dojo as a reward system.

PE:

PE this term is on Wednesday and children are expected to arrive in school in their uniforms and bring their PE kit to school, so they can get changed before the lesson.

The PE kit consists of: a white t-shirt with the school logo, royal blue shorts and black pumps/trainers. We recommend that children keep their kits in school for the duration of the half-term and take them home on the last day. Please make sure that all items of your child's uniform and PE kit are labelled clearly.

Homework:

Children will be given homework on Friday, which is to be returned to school by the following Thursday. Please support your child with it, as it is important for children's learning to be applied and consolidated at home, if they are to reach their full potential.

Reading:

Children are expected to read at home every day/night for at least 10-15 min. Please be patient with your child, as they learn to decode words and read sentences. Offer warm encouragement and model the correct enunciation of sounds, which could be found here: https://youtu.be/UCI2mu7URBc/. Children must keep their books in their book bags at all times. Their reading journals will be checked daily and if they have read the book (please write a comment in their journal), we will change it and reward your child with Dojo points. To help develop children's comprehension skills, please discuss with them the plot, the characters’ actions/feelings, the setting or the information in non-fiction books. Also, use your child's log in details to access our extensive online library on:

Active Learn https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/,

Oxford Reading Buddy http://www.oxfordreadingbuddy.com/ and

Collins Harper e-books https://ops.collinsopenpage.com/

Phonics:

In Little Diamonds we teach Phonics daily through the Little Wandle Scheme. For more information about Little Wandle please click on the link below which will take you to the Little Wandle Parent site.

Little Wandle Parent Information

It is most important that children pronounce the sounds clearly. To help you support your child with this, the following links are to film clips that demonstrate the correct way to say the letter sounds.

The clips are from Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revisited and cover the first sounds taught in Reception. Notice how the children don’t add an ‘uh’ sound at the end, so they say: ‘t’ not ‘tuh’

Reception - Sounds taught in Autumn 1

Reception - Sounds taught in Autumn 2

Reception - Sounds taught in Spring 1

Snack:

In order to provide your child with milk and a choice of healthy snack every morning (toast, cereal, cheese and crackers, bread sticks etc.), we ask for a contribution of £1 per week, or paid in advance at the beginning of every half-term. You can put the money in an envelope with your child’s name on. In the afternoon, children will also receive a free piece of fruit.

Useful Links:

www.mymaths.co.uk - this may be useful if you would like to practice your maths skills at home or could be used to support homework. If there is an area of maths your child struggles with, I am able to set lessons and activities to help you at home. 

https://play.numbots.com - Use your personal log in details for Times Tables Rock Stars to access Number Bots and play a range of fun Maths games.

www.oxfordreadingbuddy.com Use your personal log in details to log into our online books bands. Explore a wide range of books tailored to our reading level and answer questions and quizzes.

www.activelearnprimary.co.uk – Use your personal login to access Reading and Science.

www.bbcbitesize.co.uk – The BBC Bitesize website is a great resource for all areas of the National Curriculum.

How to pronounce new words

Oxford Owl Phonics Made Easy

This article (aimed at parents) explains how children learn to read using phonics and it also contains a useful phonics guide to show you how to make each of the sounds. 

100 Books for EYFS to read before you are 5 years old

Suggested reading list for Year 1

Autumn and Spring Term

Please find the whole year overview below, the topic maps for the Autumn and Spring terms, as well as the books we are exploring.
We would greatly appreciate it if you could support your child in any of these curriculum areas.

Autumn Term Books

Pathways to Write Keys

• Begin to break the flow of speech into words
• Hear and say the initial sound in words
• Link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet
• Write labels and captions
• Write CVC words 

Spring Term Books

Pathways to Write Keys

• Write labels and captions
• Break speech into words
• Hear and say initial sounds in words
• Use some clearly identifiable letters to communicate meaning, representing some
sounds correctly and in sequence
• Attempt to write short sentences in meaningful contexts
• Use phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sound
• Write some irregular common words

The Parish of Maximilian Kolbe - Serving the Catholic Communities of St. Edward and Holy Spirit