The Sunshine Room
The Sunshine Room offers a space for children to learn in a small group setting. Children come to the Sunshine Room in the mornings to complete both literacy and numeracy. The work is pitched at a level suitable for each child and the pace of learning allows for lots of revision of prior learning along with development of new concepts.
Nurture is at the root of everything we do in the Sunshine Room. The aim is to boost children's self-esteem which, in turn, will help to raise their attainment.
The forecast is always sunny in the Sunshine Room!
Term 1 - 2023/24 Session
Sunshine Room Newsletter
Term 3
Well, what a start it has been to 2024! The weather has not been our friend and with delayed starts, boilers breaking and other things happening we haven’t quite got the start we had hope for. Despite all that it is going to be an exciting term in the Sunshine Room with lots of active learning and fun.
As you are aware I wasn’t operating the Sunshine Room last term but I am so delighted to be back and look forward to spending time with the children. I really missed them all when I wasn’t in school and can’t wait to get back to developing their learning and building on the work we did in Term 1.
Maths
This term our maths focus is going to be on Time. This will follow on from the work on Days of the Week and Month of the Year from Term 1.
We will be looking at both digital and analogue clock, o’clock and half past, timers and lots more. As usual in the Sunshine Room the maths will be active and related to life skills and real-life situations.
As part of our Time topic we will begin to look at simple timetables and how to plan for short bus trips around Peterhead. This will culminate in us planning a bus trip within Peterhead which will be a bit of an adventure and help to contextualise the learning for our children.
Literacy
We will be continuing to build on the work already completed on Read, Write, Inc. The children have made good progress and enjoy the repetitive nature of the learning. Of course, it wouldn’t be the Sunshine Room without a few games and fun activities thrown in.
Read, Write Inc covers spelling, reading and writing so all areas of literacy are covered and linked.
Alongside our usual literacy work we will be learning a short Scottish Poem in honour of our National Bard, Robert Burns. Unfortunately, we have been delayed with this due to the snow so we might not quite be ready for Burn’s Night.
This term I will be uploading information about your young persons learning on Learning Journals. This is a great way to keep in touch with what we are working on and means you can discuss and build on the learning at home if you wish to. If you have any issues logging in please contact me through the office and I will endeavour to help you.
Once the weather allows we will also try to fit in some outdoor learning as I know how much the children (and myself) enjoys getting out and about in our community.
Literacy
This term we will be beginning our Read Write Inc journey. We will be reviewing our sounds daily and reviewing/adding speed sounds. The children will be introduced to Fred the frog who will support both their reading and writing.
We will also be reading high quality texts to develop both vocabulary and understanding of texts.
As the term progresses the children will become more confident with our new programme and will begin to respond to the teacher cues which will be used across the whole school.
Numeracy
The numeracy focus this term will be on days of the week, months of the year and seasons. We had completed some work on this previously but we will be refreshing our knowledge and adding some more facts and information.
Our learners will also be using Sumdog to support their numeracy. This is an online platform which is responsive to the children's learning and offers opportunities for revision and new learning appropriate to the child's needs.
Lobster Fun at Amity
The Sunshine Room were delighted to be invited down to Amity Fish Shop to see their latest catch. We were just in time to see the lobsters getting their tank cleaned ready for them to be reintroduced. The children had lots of questions about the lobsters and even got to touch a few of the bigger ones who weren't quite as keen on the experience as our young people!
It's great to have this link with a business in our community and we look forward to visiting them again in the future.
The Sunshine Room has a new member!
This week the Sunshine Room children were introduced to Fred the Frog who can only talk in sounds. This is to support blending and to develop reading strategies. Fred proved to be a huge hit with everyone and he encouraged the group to try their best. We have been zooming through our review of sounds this week and have had jam-packed literacy sessions.
Autumn Has Arrived in the Sunshine Room!
This week the Sunshine Room have been looking at months of the year and the seasons they are associated with. We have been focusing on Autumn and all the exciting events which take place in September, October and November. Halloween is a firm favourite with everyone closely followed by Bonfire Night. We all agreed there is a change in the weather and we can feel it getting colder. Next time we are out on a walk we will be keeping our eyes open for signs of Autumn in our community.
Some of the children weren't sure about what a conker was or how you play conkers. We watched a short video and agreed it looks good fun.
Please find a link below to the video we watched about Autumn and how it differs from the other seasons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y39W3nDjtdU
iFire Safety Fun
Today we had a visit from the local fire service. Everyone from the Sunshine Room enjoyed finding out about all the different equipment that is kept on the fire engine. The firemen explained all about their job and the different things they use to keep them safe.
Superhero Superstars
This week the Sunshine Room have gone superhero mad! We have been inspired by Supertato, by Sue Hendra, to create our own superhero adventures. Every good superhero needs their own mask and hidden identity. The children then created their own puppets which we will use to tell a superhero story. The final stage will be getting our stories onto paper. Sunshine Room to the rescue!
Library Fun!
On Wednesday 11th October the Sunshine Room were delighted to be invited along to Peterhead Library. The children took part in lots of fun activities like making bookmarks, a scavenger hunt and listened to a story read to them by the librarian. Everyone got a chance to pick their own book to take back to the Sunshine Room.
We will continue with our visits next term and take part in lots more fun activities.
Happy faces on our trip to Symposium. This was a well deserved rest after out bus trip around Peterhead.
Every trip is better with hot chocolate!
We didn't need to look to far for signs of Autumn. There was a definite change in the temperature and lots of leaves had fallen on the path.
We had lunch and a play at Eden Park before heading back to school for the afternoon.
Phonics Fun!
This week the Sunshine Room have been continuing to work on Read Write Inc to support our reading and writing. We have been looking at three and four letter 'alien' words and multi-syllabic words. After all the hardwork everyone likes a game of Blah, Blah, Blah! which is a phonics game that helps us to practise our Fred Talk and blending.
In Central School we use Read Write Inc for our Literacy!
Take a look at some of the parent resources free on the RWI and Oxford Owl websites.
In order to support your child in their learning try to talk to them about what they have been learning in class that day. We do a Literacy based task everyday.
Busy at work!
Titanic Happy Ending!
This week in the Sunshine Room we wrote a collaborative story all about the Titanic. Thankfully this time the story had a happy ending thanks to Super Tato.
The children discussed their ideas for the story and took turns to use their knowledge of RWI strategies to write the story.
One of the childrn then illustrated our story.
Spring is Springing!
When the weather is good the Sunshine Room like to get outside for our brainbreaks. Don't be fooled by the calm sitting as they are usually running around letting off some steam.
Literacy - Term 4
We will be continuing our RWI journey this term. The Sunshine Room have been working really hard and have moved onto the green level. The level of text in the books increases as does the complexity. We will be focusing on answering questions about the text and increasing fluency of reading.
Throughout this term we will be having a focus on handwriting. We will be looking at the correct formation and size of letters alongside writing with fluency and accuracy of spelling.
Each term we focus on talking clearly and listening respectfully to others. In the Sunshine Room we take turns to speak ensuring that everyone gets heard and feels valued.
Numeracy - Term 4
We have lots of maths topics to focus on this term.
Firstly we will be looking at 2-d and 3-d shapes. We will be naming them and looking at their properties.
Next we will be looking at different types of measurements and what we can use to measure.
Finally we will be gathering information and thinking of ways to display this information, such as bar graphs.
All of the maths this term will be very practical and will include lots of hands on activities to keep the interest high.