Welcome back 2C!
It has been great to get back to school this week – only 12 weeks left of this academic year!
I am very impressed at how well each member of 2C has come back into school. It looks like they brought the sunshine with them too! Let’s hope it stays…
The children settled back into their routines very well and have already produced some fantastic pieces of work! We are all using leading lines in our handwriting now and in maths our number fact knowledge is strong!
Well done to this superstar for winning the handwriting trophy this week!
In Maths this week we have been looking at measurement with a focus on centimetres.
We found out that some children were the same height as the largest recorded watermelon in history, the back wheel of a tractor and a male baboon!
Our Living and Learning focus has been about allergies, signs to look out for and what might causes allergies.
Help at home: by practising handwriting (with a focus on weekly spellings), using leading lines. Please see our handwriting policy for reference.
Welcome back 1,2B
We can’t believe it’s Wednesday already! 1,2B have come back to school eager and ready to learn in Summer term. we have welcomed a new member to our class soo who has settled in quickly. We enjoyed talking about what we had done over the holidays but all agreed we we glad to be back.
I am happy to be back at school!
I ate lots of chocolate eggs at Easter.
I went on holiday with my family but have missed my friends.
Author Event
This afternoon, our school librarians were fortunate enough to attend an author event held at Allerton C of E Primary School. They met author, Dermot O’Leary, who discussed his inspiration and anwered questions.
Easter celebrations
This week, we’ve been learning about how some Christians celebrate Easter. We’ve made Easter cards, painted patterns on eggs, filled eggs in the sensory Easter tray and explored the interest table.
We listen to a story called ” We are going on an Easter Hunt” enjoying re-telling the story as the rabbits passed chicks, lambs and bees on the hunt. We followed some Easter traditions by decorating eggs and rolling them, going on an Easter hunt and tasting Hot Cross Buns. We spotted the important symbol of the cross on the top.
Help at home – Some of our older children are learning to hear the initial sounds in words. What can you find that begins with a ‘l’? You might find a lemon, a lolly or a leaf.
For our younger children in yellow group, this might be a little tricky. You could enjoy singing a rhyme related to Easter such as ‘Chick, chick, chicken‘ or ‘Little Peter Rabbit‘.
We hope that you all have a happy and healthy Easter holiday and enjoy some family time together. We’ll look forward to hearing all about your adventures when we return to Nursery on Tuesday 22 April.
Rabbits don’t lay eggs
We’ve been building up to the Easter half-term break with some egg-streamly egg-citing activities!
Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs
We’ve been reading Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs by Paula Metcalf.
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off auto play – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.
The story begins on a farm, with a rabbit named Rupert. All he wants is to be useful but unfortunately, he struggles to find anything he’s good at. Luckily, he soon finds an unexpected job on the farm!
Our ‘word of the week’ is creation – something that is made or created.
We also spotted some other adventurous words in the story:
Giggled to laugh lightly and repeatedly (a lot) in a silly way.
Glumly to look unhappy and disappointed.
In our writing, we transcribed the sentence Chicks are born on a farm. We also had a go at creating our own sentences, with spring pictures to inspire us!
Understanding the World; Easter
Through our literacy and RE learning, we’ve been discussing how we celebrate Easter and where our traditions come from.
We learnt that Easter is a Christian celebration and listened to the Easter story.
In provision, we’ve been exploring lots of Easter themed activities- we’ve loved going on egg hunts in the garden!
Maths
In Maths, we’ve been identifying the same and different attributes of various objects – e.g. colour, size, shape. We’ve been choosing ways to sort the objects.
We have also re-visited ways to identify ‘odd’ and ‘even’ numbers- we noticed that all of our even numbers are doubles!
In provision, we’ve been exploring doubles by putting the same number of eggs into 2 baskets and finding the total amount, we’ve been making repeating patterns using Easter objects and we’ve been playing a subtising/counting game! What a lot of maths skills!
Farmer Luke
On Thursday, we caught up with Farmer Luke via Zoom.
He started by showing us the tractor he uses to plant seeds and showed the children that these special tractors have tracks, not wheels, to protect the soil.
Luke showed us the different parts of the cultivator that work together to plant the grass seeds.
He asked the children to guess one of the plants- well done to Jenson, who knew it was a blackberry bush! Luke sends blackberries off in June/July to be turned into Ribena- yum!
Luke then answered some of our questions. We learnt lots, such as how long it takes for the grass to grow, where the tractors are kept and which jobs happened on the farm over winter.
We found out that winter is “less busy”. Lots of small jobs happen, such as pruning, farming the chickens, trimming edges and chopping up wood from fallen trees. Luke said “now it’s spring and things are growing, there’s lots more jobs to do!”
Bean Plants
Before we sent our bean plants home this week, we looked closely at the changes and how they had started to grow. If you decide to plant your bean at home, we’d love to see!
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called A Little Seed.
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
We always look at two words in the poem and share the definition. This week, we looked at the following words.
sow – plant (seed) by scattering or putting in soil
shower – a short period (time) of rain
click here to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!
Egg rolling competition!
We finished the week with our egg rolling competition. We saw super- creative decorated eggs- thank you for your amazing efforts. Well done to our winners, whose eggs rolled their way to victory!
Home learning
Can you write a diary about your half term? A sentence a day would be fantastic! Please bring your diary in to share when we return to school.
Writing reminder…
Remember, it is okay for things to be spelt phonetically. It is important your child grows into an independent learner. Encouraging your child to write the words as they sound rather than always spelling correctly is important. It encourages your child to use their own skills – rather than copy from an adult.
It is important you do not let your child simply copy your writing. They need to use their phonics skills to write. Here is an example of a child’s writing in Reception.
Final message and getting ready for year one!
On your return to school on the 22 April, we’ll be entering the final full term of Reception. The first step of the transition towards year one, is getting the children ready to come into school independently.
To support us with this, we are asking that children enter the classroom/cloakroom on their own from 22 April. We know a few children have started to do this already, which is great to see!
We encourage you to wave goodbye at the waving window and our door is always open for you to continue to pop in for a chat, if needed.
Thank you for your support.
We wish you all a lovely half-term break- see you in 2 weeks!
Reminders and Dates
SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1
Living and learning: losing something
This week in our Living and Learning lessons we were talking about feeling sad when we lose something. We talked about objects, animals and people we have lost. The children could talk about feeling sad, heartbroken and devastated. We also talked about feeling disappointed, angry, worried or scared too.
Help at home by talking about emotions and how to recognise them and how any one emotion doesn’t last forever.
Egg-cellent egg rolling Easter fun!
All of the Year 1 and 2 classes went out and enjoyed our egg rolling competition today. We cheered each other on and celebrated the winners together!
We hope you all have a restful Easter break and come back recharged for learning on Tuesday 22 April
Maths – 10 and a bit
In year 1, we have been learning all about ’10 and a bit’ numbers (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19). We have looked at multiple representations of these numbers including Numicon, dominoes, counters, ten frames and place value charts. Seeing and using all these representations helps us to understand and use the numbers successfully.
Help at home by noticing ’10 and a bit’ numbers. For example, is your house number one of these?
Science
We have learned lots about plants and animals this year so far. We grew plants in the light and dark to see what happened (the one in the dark did not grow well). Plants need water AND light to grow strong and healthy.
We also learned about animals and their habitats. Their habitat needs to provide them with food, shelter and water for them to survive.
1,2B celebrated all we learned about plants, animals and habitats by drawing detailed habitats and all the living things that are found there.
Science: We are Biologists!
This week, our lively Year 5/6 classes took part in a fun experiment to learn how exercise affects our heart rate.
We started by measuring our resting heart rates before doing four rounds of exercise, including star jumps, running on the spot, and jumping jacks. After each burst of activity, we checked how our heart rates changed and were amazed to see how much faster our hearts beat as we exercised.
The most exciting part was seeing how quickly our heart rates returned to normal once we stopped moving. It was a fantastic way to explore how our bodies respond to exercise and helped us understand the important role our hearts play in keeping us happy and healthy.
Help at home: Ask your child about how the circulatory system is effected by exercise.