Autumn 2 2021

Friday 17th December 2021
 
We had a busy week of lots of Christmas decoration making - our class tree looked beautiful! we had repeating patterns on some decorations and we used lots of sticky tape and glue.
 
We used the iPad's t take photos of signs of winter and then we used a collage app to add them all together. We had to find our photos again and then use the 'delete' bin symbol to get rid of the ones that we didn't want to keep. We were only allowed to keep 5 in total, so we also had to do careful counting. 
 
In our singing assembly this week we learnt some traditional Christmas carols like 'we wish you  a merry christmas' and 'away in a manger'. It was lovely to hear the whole school singing together and spreading some christmas cheer. 
 
We were so lucky to have Santa come and visit us in the hall and he gave EVERYONE  present - please read our lovely new books with us.
 
I hope everyone has a truly wonderful christmas and please stay safe, see you in the new year!
 
Miss G x
 
Friday 10th December 2021
 
WOW! What a fantastic performance and the children really used their confidence value standing up on that stage. We are all so proud of everyone and thank you so much for supporting them and coming to watch. We also got to watch the Key Stage Two performance and enjoyed singing along to the songs very much!
 
This week we looked at 3D and 2D shapes further and had to then try and make repeating patterns with them. It was so lovely to see reception children making their own 2D shape patterns in pairs and challenging their friends. Year ones then went onto counting beyond 10-20 and trying to spot the patterns in the numbers -the  reception children always like to challenge themselves and have a go too.
 
We had some laughs when lots of children kept calling a sphere a spear - it's a tricky one to remember!
 
We continued to look at why Christians celebrate Christmas and how they often give each other cards, gifts or prayers to say 'Thank you' for everything that they do for them. With this in mind, we wrote acrostic 'thank you' poems about things that we are grateful for. We had some very lovely and thoughtful poems and I was so proud of the children. Again we worked in mixed age pairs so the older children could support the younger children with their writing.
 
The children have been making lots of lovely decorations for our class tree and I have seen some superb scissor skills - certainly a huge improvement from September! 
 
In PSHE we have been looking at what someone can do if they are being bullied and discussed how it is definitely nothing to be embarrassed about and that it is good to talk to someone about what is happening. We then learned a song called 'the colours of friendship' and we thought about what makes a friend a good friend and we made friendship tokens with ways that we can be a good friend on them. We watched an old video about a toad and a frog being good friends and observed what they did that was kind to each other. We also looked at how being different from someone doesn't been they can't be friends and that we are unique and special and that this should be celebrated. We made tags that say why we are special on one side and on the other side we wrote how we are different from our friends. We have had some very mature discussions this week - I am so proud of them all. 
 
Wild Tribe was a wet and blustery day so it was cut short but we managed to do some felt rock making in the classroom over a big tray - we had to think about our strengths and things that we want to improve and use colours of felt to wrap around a rock with soapy water to represent the things. 
 
Reception children absolutely wowed me further this week when I presented them with some addition number problems and some chose to use their fingers, some chose Numicon and some even chose a number line - they have already achieved so much in just their first term at big school.
 
One more week to go before the Christmas Holidays!
 
Please continue to read. Year one need to do their maths home work and spelling activities please. Have a truly wonderful and restful weekend.
 
Miss G x
 
Ps, everyone looked fab in their Christmas jumpers today! 
 
 
Friday 3rd December 
 
This week we have been very busy rehearsing our school play and we cannot wait to have our parents come and see us - you have probably heard us singing our songs. We have been using our Confidence value and have been getting louder and clearer with our lines. Today the stable animals made their head pieces and had to do some careful cutting and sticking.
 
We had so much fun in Wild Tribe this week and talked about how to build a fire safely and then we had to boil some water to add to our ink that we then used a quill with to write on the flags that we made. We also used a drill, glue gun and some loppers to help us create a wild thing spotter too.
 
In Science we made wonderful comparison posters of Autumn and Winter - we remembered so many interesting facts such as which season has less hours of sunlight. 
 
Year ones have had special challenges this week (assessments) so they have been very busy doing a writing, reading and two maths challenges. We used our Confidence and didn't give up!
 
We have all been looking at 3D shapes and trying to spot them in everyday objects and then sorting them based on a criteria - it could be colour, whether it rolls and even whether it can stack on top of other shapes.
 
We finally finished our 'How to catch a star' book and were so pleased that he finally managed to catch a star and have a new friend. We wrote our own book reviews and most of us chose to give it a five out of five golden stars!
 
This week we also gathered some twigs and made Christmas stars - we are so good at using glue guns now!
 
The Christmas workbook some children have come home with isn't homework so don't worry, they like to take home extra challenges.
 
Please keep reading. Please keep talking about the books and what you think is going to happen next etc..
 
See you next week, 
 
Miss G x
Friday 26th November 2021
 
This week we have been practising our Christmas play songs and we are getting so much better! We are remembering more actions and have pretty much got all of the words now!
 
Reception children have been looking closely at the number 4 and all of the different ways that it can be represented - by the numeral, four circles, a four piece of numicon, four fingers, 2 + 2, 1+3, 4+0 etc.. We also sorted toy animals into sorting circles. Animals that had four legs and animals that didn't have four legs. This brought up interesting conversations about whether a TRex has four legs or two legs and two arms?!
 
We had a great Friday afternoon looking back at our lunch box evaluations from last week and then making improvements to make them even stronger and better.. after making some amendments, we had a 100% success rate! We are all really proud of each other.
 
We finalised our History topic by doing a quiz about the gunpowder plot to see what we could remember and then we had  ago at working together to act out different sections of the plot. We had children hiding behind barrels and even digging tunnels to reach under King James!
 
In Science we found out how animals adjust to winter and we learnt some new words! We learnt that 'migrate' means to leave and go somewhere hotter, birds and whales do this. We learnt that lots of animals 'hibernate' in winter which means they eat a lot of food in Autumn and then sleep throughout the winter. and finally, we learnt the word 'adapt' and some animals do this by growing extra layers of fur to keep them warmer in the winter. We did a nice sorting activity for this but reading some of the longer sentences was a little bit tricky so we used our kindness value and supported each other.
 
In Maths we have been exploring the greater than, less than and equal to symbols and using these to compare addition and subtraction statements.. we have to remember to look closely at the symbols because sometimes its an add and sometimes it's a take away! 
 
Wild Tribe was super fun and we had  ago at listening to what we could hear in nature. We then created our own sound tins where we used natural materials to put inside the tin so they would make a noise when we shake them. We had a lovely red leave to hammer on top of some fabric and it printed on the top! We also had  ago at using a saw to cut lengths of wood that will be combined to make an outdoor xylophone. 
 
We have had lots of talks about what the class rules are and what the rewards and consequences are of not following them. Please remind children to always use their kindness value.
 
As always, please do lots of reading. 5 times a week isn't a maximum requirement, why not read every day!?
 
Spelling and Maths homework is due on Thursday.
19th November 2021
 
This week has been a very busy week! We have been looking at Autumn and Winter a bit more closely and deciding what clothing we would rather wear during each season - we looked at whether a coat was waterproof or if it had fir to help us with our choices.
 
In Wild Tribe we used a sheath knife and a folding saw to cut sticks and whittle, this was so we could make our very own stick monster. We then had to carefully use a glue gun to stick on some funny coloured fluffy hair. Alongside this we used mud and natural resources to paint a messy monster picture.. we used dandelions for yellow and grass to make the paper green. We even used sticks and charcoal to make black teeth on them.
 
In History we looked at Thomas Percy and how he was hiding after Guy Fawkes told the soldiers who had helped him. We decided that most of us would rather go and use our Honesty value and tell the king what we had done. A few of us said they would like to continue with the plot and blow up King James. It was an interesting debate.
 
In PSHE and for Anti-Bullying week we talked about what bullying actually is.. it isn't an isolated incident or someone lashing out when they are upset or angry. It is targeted, on purpose and for a period of time and usually aimed at people/persons who are weaker. We made lovely Anti-Bullying bracelets with the slogan 'Don't be a bully!'.
 
In RE we talked about  Advent; what it means and how people choose to celebrate it. Some people have chocolate calendars, picture book calendars, advent candles and go to church to light them and we even had a go at making Christingles and discussed what all of the  parts meant.
 
In DT we followed our designs to create our lunchboxes and used tape, scissors and glue. We threaded rope, attached materials together and worked in pairs as a team. We begun to start testing and evaluating a few but ran out of time so will continue this on Monday.
 
We have been using part-whole models to help us solve subtraction problems this week and we have now been starting to use the part whole models to look at fact families - we can write so many addition and subtraction statements just from three numbers! 
 
In English we have been looking at what a question is and how it is something that requires an answer.. This requires a question mark and not a full stop. Some of us have found this tricky so we will revisit again soon.
 
We have been practising really hard with our sounds and trying to blend the sounds together to accurately read words and sentences. We have been doing lots of little fun activities where we have to match pegs to pictures or playing games as a group on the interactive whiteboard.
 
Homework is as usual to complete the spelling activities, read at least five times a week and to complete a page of maths.
 
FS don't have homework other than to read. However, due to demand, some maths and writing/reading challenges are in book bags should they wish to continue their learning at home. 
 
Have a superb weekend, 
Miss G x
 
12th November
 
This week we went on a signs of Autumn hunt with clipboards and explored the school grounds. We found mushrooms in the grass (but didn't touch them), different coloured leaves, blackberries and leaves all over the floor everywhere!
 
In Wild Tribe we made wattle and daub structures as houses for small animals. We used clay, water, soil and hay and mashed it all together with our hands - it got very messy! We then used secateurs to cut twigs in half to make horns for our clay wild thing monsters that we then decorated with natural materials.
 
In History we looked at problems that the plotters may have faced during the gunpowder plot - a problem was how to transport the 36 barrels of gunpowder to the cellar beneath where the king will be. There was also a warning letter sent telling them about the plot - was the gunpowder plot successful? Ask us! 
 
In RE we looked at the nativity story and had to sequence the pictures of the events - we had a go at acting some of them out and enjoyed being the wise men travelling on our camels to go and see the baby Jesus!
 
In DT we looked closely at already designed lunchboxes and thought about which parts were good and which parts were not so good. We then put different materials together and had  ago at designing our own that we will then hopefully make next week. We had to think about handles, lids, waterproof and whether our food would get squished!
 
In English we have been using 'and; to add extra information to our sentences and using our checklist to ensure that we are consistently remembering capital letters, finger spaces, full stop sand re-checking our work to make sure that it makes sense. 
 
In Maths we have been continuing to find number bonds for different numbers up to ten and using these to help us find missing parts in part-whole models. 
 
Please complete homework as usual and remember to read 5 times a week.
 
Have a lovely weekend and get a good rest
 
ps, we have started learning our Christmas performance songs and they are already doing ever so well!
 
Miss G x
The first week back - November 5th 2021
 
We have had a super first week back and have been very busy!
 
We had a look at the four seasons in our Science and went on an Autumn hunt - we found trees with leaves falling, beautifully coloured leaves and the weather is beginning to get much colder. We talked about how the clocks changed and how this means it will now get darker earlier as we have less hours of daylight.
 
In Wild Tribe we worked together to build a fire and used it to toast our bread - we had it will dandelion jam which was so sweet, we even had a wasp that hug around wanting some! We then used a drill to make a medallion and drew a picture of what we would look like as a wild thing! 
 
On Wednesday we started our new PE topic, gymnastics. We had a go at balancing on different numbers of body parts, some were very inventive! 
 
In PSHE we talked about things that are the same between us and played a game of switch - we had to switch with other people who had a blue t shirt on for example. or switch places with someone else who had shoe laces. We then got into pairs and found three things that were the same about us.
 
Yesterday marked the start of Diwali so we talked about that and read an interesting story about a boy and his family who prepared for their celebrations. We then went outside to draw rangoli patterns on the playground and they were very colourful and beautiful. 
 
In RE we talked about signs that Christmas is coming.. it might get colder, it might snow, the trees will have less leaves, we might see a robin. We had a look for some signs that it was coming. We then talked about the baby Jesus and how he looked like an ordinary baby but to Christian's he is the incarnation of God and is God on Earth. We talked about how people now prepare for a new baby and what they would need to buy. 
 
In DT we started looking at our problem - the pirate's need to pass their lunch from one boat to another but they need a sturdy lunch box. The basket we tried on the rope just wasn't good enough and if there was a big gust of wind or a big wave, the food will fall out the top and we would end up with soggy sandwiches! 
 
In Maths we have been looking at number bonds for numbers to ten and how we can find them in a systematic way by starting with the whole number add zero and then working our way through them all. Eg, 9+0=9, 8+1=9, 7+2=9 etc etc..
 
In English we have started our new book 'How to catch a star' and have been thinking about activities we would do if we were friends with a star - some said the cinema, swimming pool and a trampoline park!
 
EYFS went outside to make leaf people and had to think about the shapes they would need for the different body parts. We also had a go at making a number line using natural materials, eg, one leaf, two stones, 3 sticks.. all the way up to the number ten!
 
We talked today about firework safety so please keep safe and look after yourselves.. and your animals!
 
Maths sheet a week please, spelling sheet and word search and as always, READ READ READ.
 
See you next week, 
 
Miss G x