Autumn 1 2021
Friday 15th October 2021
Another week of fantastic learning!
This week we continued with our Science and looked at our five senses. We did a few tests to see how useful they are. We found that we cannot read when we are blindfolded, so we definitely need our eyes! We talked about how hearing is useful for keeping us safe because if we need to cross a road, then we need to listen to see if any cars are coming. We tried a lemon and a glacier cherry and one was very sour ( the faces pulled were hilarious) and the other was super sweet!
In Music we changed from the glockenspiel to the drums and had a go at drumming different rhythms to the same song, Twinkle Twinkle, it was very noisy but we all had a go. We even had a go at making louder and quieter noises and did this by how hard we hit. Next week we will be using the bells.
In History we learned about our third and final nurse, Edith Cavell. She was like Florence Nightingale in that she ran a school that trained other nurses. We had a go at creating some scenes of some of us being patients and some of us being doctors and nurses. We also referred back to our senses lesson and thought about what Edith would hear, smell and see in the hospitals with the wounded soldiers.
In RE we learned about some of the 99 names of Allah and had a go at saying them - it was tricky. We also looked at Arabic writing and how it is read from right to left and not left to right like English. We then thought about ourselves and what good qualities we have and what 99 names we could have for ourselves.
In Computing we looked at Email and how this is so much quicker than sending a letter. It's also easier because we don't have to know their whole address and just need their Email address. We must never clock on Emails or links without a trusted adult to tell us that it is safe to do so.
In English we have been designing and writing about our new setting for the bear hunt, we had volcano's, beaches, caravans and even a mouth! We acted them out and it was so much fun.
In Maths we have been looking at part/whole models and m
EYFS have been matching the correct number of bears to the cave number and we did very careful counting. We also did some sound sorting - we had pictures and had to say what the starting sound was and sorted it into the correct sound pile.
Please read 5 times a week and year one complete their maths homework.
Any number recognition and letter formation is always a great extra!
Have a super weekend,
Miss G x
Friday 8th October
We have had a superb week this week and have really got stuck into our learning. We have been ordering amounts of objects from greatest to least and from least to greatest and then challenged ourselves to do this with just the numbers too. We then got to have races today as we explored ordinal numbers and got to have rosettes to say what positions we came - it wasn't just any race though, it was a balancing a bean bag on our head and walking race!
In our English lessons we wrote a story about Mr Benn; we got to choose what outfit he would get from the fancy dress shop and then create our very own adventure for him. We had Mr Benn going to Australia to help the koalas and we had him wearing a Flash mask and saving the world from monsters. We also finally got around to writing our instructions for the poor hungry bear who wanted to know how to make his own crumble. We focused really hrd on ensuring we had capital letters and full stops.
In Science we looked at labelling the parts of the body, we started with a fun sing song of 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes'. We then had to put together a cut out of a person and then label her body parts.
In music we explored playing the glockenspiel to the tune of 'Twinkle Twinkle' and had to concentrate on keeping a steady rhythm, we soon got the hang of this and then had a play on the instrument.
In PE we concentrated on flowing between our yoga poses, it took a lot of concentration to balance and hold the poses for periods of time and then flow into the next one smoothly. The focus this week was mainly going into and coming out of 'downward dog' in a smooth and controlled manner.
In RE we talked about Muslims and how their God is Allah. We discussed how no Muslims know what Allah looks like and that he must never ever be drawn. Instead we created a piece of artwork about where we could find him: above the stars.
We continued to talk about keeping ourselves safe online and talked about what personal information was safe to share with strangers and what wasn't and why.. This evoked some very thoughtful discussions.
We really enjoyed our art this week where we created a page each using a printing technique. We used lots of different objects such as Lego bricks, Duplo, carrot sticks, mini peppers and corks etc. It was really interesting to see the wonderful designs.
As always, please read 5 times per week and year one please complete their spelling and Maths homework.
Practice sound recognition for reception if you get the chance and name writing practice is always a winner.
Have a superb weekend.
Miss G x
Friday 1st October
Today was a very exciting day as we got to change our class calendar from September to October and the date went back to the First of the month!
This week has been a little different and year ones have the had pleasure of working in Cremyll and read an exciting story, The Disgusting Sandwich! We then had to choose appropriate adjectives to describe a range of pictures. We then had a look at animals and whether they were herbivores, carnivores or omnivores - this was a little bit tricky!
Year one have also been building their own sentences and checking that there is always a capital letter at the beginning and a full stop at the end. We then had to read it back again to check that it made sense!
Reception children have had some time thinking about who is in their family and what their families do for jobs. We drew pictures of them and some of us even had a go at labelling our pictures with words such as 'mum' and 'dad'.
This week in computing, we thought about how to be SMART online - we must never share personal information with strangers on the internet, just like we wouldn't interact with strangers in the street.
We have created our class rules this week and took lots of photos to demonstrate what they mean - ask your child if they can remember their new class rules. We decided we need rules as they tell us what to do and keep us safe. A book we read to support us with how to be kind to others is 'The Rainbow Fish'.
This week reception children have learnt the sounds: g, c, k, and o. Please encourage them to spot these sounds everywhere and talk about words that contain those sounds, it could even be words that have them in the middle or the end. Try to use all of the sounds that we have been learning to make new words and also start asking your child to say what the word is when you just say the sound. eg, get your c-oa-t and your child has to blend it in their head to make the word coat. It's really fun once you get the hang of it and we love doing it in class Plym.
Please read 5 times a week and record in the reading diary. Year one also need to complete a sheet a week in their mental math's book.
Have a superb weekend, see you on Monday!
Miss G x
Friday 24th September!
We have now looked at two books closely already - The Colour Monster and We're going on a bear hunt. We can now say what lots of different parts of the book are. Ask your child if they can find the title, the back cover, the front cover, the blurb, page numbers and even the spine.
We made a lovely crumble for our bear and then sequenced the photos in the correct order of what He has to do. We looked at the action words (verbs) and next week we will be writing instructions for the bear so that he can make his very own crumble.
Reception children have been learning the start of Phase 2 sounds and can now recognise 's,a,t,p,i,n,m,d' and we have been making three letter words with a vowel in the middle (CVC) and blending them together - we are real readers!
In Maths we have been doing very careful counting and have even begun to compare numbers using the words 'greater than', 'less than' and 'equal to'.
We have enjoyed a range of other subjects this week where we have learnt about Florence Nightingale, how to search for images safely on the internet, similarities and differences between different types of animals and thinking about people who are very special to us and why.
It was lovely to see everyone wearing red today and for such a good cause.
Please remember to complete homework for Thursdays and read five times a week.
See you on Monday,
Miss G x
Friday 17th September
This week we have been practicing our counting forwards and backwards, making sure we are very comfortable with numbers to ten before progressing - the teen numbers can be a little bit tricky to remember! We then had a look at what one more and one less than a number or amount it, we did this with the help of our colourful counting bears.
We have been learning our class text 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' and now have actions for all parts of the story - ask them to show you! The mud is one of our favourites and someone even described it as being 'like slime'. We have been using exciting adjectives to describe some of the settings in the story. We then had a go at writing the shopping list for the bear because he is very sad and wants to make a yummy crumble.
We have been creating our own self portraits on the laptop and learnt that we need to add our name and date to ensure that people know that we own the picture and no-one can steal it! In science we have been looking at different animals= groups and can now think about mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians.
Please continue to read at least 5 times a week and record in reading diaries, it really does make a difference. Also, can year one please complete their spelling and math's homework to be in weekly on a Thursday.
Miss G x
Friday 10th September
What a fantastic start we have had to our new school year! The children have settled in beautifully and are already adjusting to changes in routine. We have had lots of lovely class discussions and circle times and can mostly name all of our new friends. We have spent lots of time learning what the areas of our new classroom are and what we can do in them.
We have been looking at the book 'The Colour Monster' as this is a lovely book to settle in and introduce talking about our feelings and learning some new vocabulary about how to express ourselves. We then coloured our own monster and thought about what we are feeling.
Year one have been doing some superb maths and have been sorting items using different criteria. Some chose to sort by colour, some by shape, size.. there were so many wonderful ideas.
We look forward to having reception in full time next week :)