This week in Year R

Dear Year R Families,

We have had a fantastic week in Year R, full of sparkle, music, and Nativities!

We are so incredibly proud of all the children for their amazing Nativity performances this week. They truly shone on stage — singing, dancing, and delivering their lines with such confidence and joy. I’m sure you also felt the same immense pride watching them as we did! A huge well done to our little stars — they were simply brilliant.

Despite our star appearances, we have also been busy learning and revising across all areas of the curriculum.

In Phonics, we have been reviewing the tricky digraphs we are beginning to learn (why not ask your child what a digraph is?). The children have been working so hard in their phonics booklets to embed their understanding of all the sounds they know so far, and we are seeing such great progress in their reading and spelling.

In Drawing Club, we read “The Snowflake” by Benji Davies. We talked about how a snowflake is born and what happens to the earth when thick snow falls. The children loved sharing their own experiences — many said they had never seen real snow, as it’s been such a long time since Portsmouth had a snowy winter! We then drew our very own snowflakes, using our fine motor and snipping skills to cut out delicate designs. The children have been so inspired — our classrooms are now beautifully decorated with snowflakes, twinkling lights, and festive sparkle as we prepare for Christmas.

We’ve also been learning about Advent and the countdown to Christmas. Each day, one child in the class receives a special chocolate coin to mark the day — a small but exciting way to build anticipation for the big day ahead!

In Maths, we have been thinking about equal numbers and deepening our understanding of counting and quantity. The children have been exploring the purpose of counting — to find out “how many” — and we’ve been practising this by counting and matching objects in our classrooms. We’ve revisited 1:1 correspondence (making sure each object is counted once), and talked about cardinality — how the last number in a count tells us how many there are altogether.

The children have also started to count larger numbers, even beyond 20, as we sing counting songs and rhymes together. They are beginning to spot patterns in number sequences and link numbers to quantities up to 5. We’ve also been exploring the idea that a quantity stays the same even when objects are rearranged — a big mathematical discovery!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support, encouragement, and for sharing your children’s learning on Tapestry — they love seeing their home moments celebrated at school.

Have a wonderfully restful weekend, and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday for even more festive cheer and Christmas magic!

With love and best wishes,
Mrs Davey and the EYFS Team xx

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