2C Update
Red Nose Day-Thankyou for all of your kind donations. The children have enjoyed wearing red to read in the library.
We have been working on our defense, dodging, kicking and throwing skills through our class game of ‘Mouse Trap.’ All classes in KS1 have been enjoying this PE game!
In Science lessons we are enjoying the discipline of Biology. This week we have been for a Spring walk. We spotted lots of blossom, daffodils and buds on trees. We have been comparing the different seasons. Our Poem of the Week is by William Wordsworth and it expresses the beauty of daffodils.
Help at home: Ask your child to read or recite the poem to you.
Jack and The Beanstalk
It’s been another busy week in reception!
Jack and the Beanstalk
This week, we’ve been reading the traditional story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.
We discussed how this story has been re-told many times and some versions of the story are different. Just by looking at the front covers, we could spot similarities and differences. We’ve been orally rehearsing the story and we’ve begun to use a story map to help us.
This week, our word of the week was gigantic. We discussed other new and interesting vocabulary from our story too: poor, crumbling, clutched, furious.
Writing sentences based on the story:
“Jack is coming up.”
Building a beanstalk and reading the tricky words:
Tricky words can be just that-tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try.
Tricky Word Jigsaw
A game to help the spelling of tricky words
- Write 5 tricky words on paper.
- Chop the words into individual graphemes.
- Ask your child to reconstruct the tricky words, by calling them out one at a time.
It doesn’t need to be as fancy as the picture above, a plain piece of paper and hand-writing the words will work just as well!
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 Spring Wind.
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.
Maths
One of our Rainbow Challenges this week was to create a pattern and represent it in our own way. The children have been very creative in thinking up their own patterns.
Outdoor play
The sun has finally decided to share it’s rays with us. We’ve enjoyed some time outdoors this week looking at and enjoying the Spring weather.
We’ve also been using amazing team work to create and adapt our own obstacle courses. We listened to each other’s ideas and negotiated where we could place the resources within the obstacle course.
Help at home: Look for the signs of Spring when you are out and about. Think of new or interesting words to label and describe your surroundings eg warm, sunny, sun-drenched, breezy, colourful, tulip, daffodil, blooming, sprouting, blossom, floral etc
Dates for your diary:
This coming week we have two learning journey drop ins where you can come and look at your child’s learning journey book. The dates are Tuesday 24th and Thursday 26th.
Red nose day
We’ve had a fantastic day today for Red Nose Day! Thank you to all parents and carers for sending children in with non-uniform and a donation to the Comic Relief charity.
Help at home by discussing what Comic Relief is all about an how the money raised supports those living in poverty.
When is Red Nose Day in 2026 and how did it start? – BBC Bitesize
A lovely Spring week in 1A
We’ve loved the weather this week and looking at the blue sky at playtime.
This week we have been adding and subtracting 2 in our Maths learning. We know if we are adding 2 to a number, we jump forward over the next number (our next door neighbour), to find the answer. If we are subtracting, we do the same but we jump backwards.
In Science we have been learning about the seasons. We know there are 4 seasons and it is currently Spring. The weather is getting warmer, the days are getting longer and we can go outside (sometimes) without a coat.
We are learning about Computing in Topic. We’ve been designing games so far this half term. Today we finally got to use the Beebots. We typed in an algorithm and watched the Beebot go where we wanted it to. If it didn’t we were able to debug the algorithm and fix it.
Thank you for your continued support at home with reading, spelling and number facts.
Living and Learning – health & prevention
In KS1, we are learning about personal hygiene. Last week we discussed the importance of hand washing and using soap. This week we have thought about dental hygiene and the importance of looking after our teeth by brushing them twice a day, avoiding too many sugary foods and making sure we visit the dentist. We learnt that children aged 7-10 are advised to have no more than 24g of sugar per day. We were shocked to discover that a can of fizzy pop contains 35g of sugar!
Help at home by asking your child what they know about how to look after their teeth.
Celebrating your child’s reading: eBooks
We hope that you’re enjoying listening to your child read their eBook at home and that your child is enjoying celebrating their super reading skills!
At school, your child reads a physical book four times a week – with a focus on teaching phonics skills. This is then sent home as an eBook. The purpose of the eBook at home is to celebrate your child’s success (in phonics skills). Your child should be able to read most of this book confidently and really feel like a reader.
We’ve chosen to use eBooks at home for many benefits. Allocating eBooks frees up about two hours of teacher or TA time changing books – now spent teaching reading!
Here’s some information on how to access eBooks but if you’re having any problems please speak to your child’s class teacher.
Happy reading!
Forest School Fun
The Year 5’s have been having a great time at Forest School every Monday and the rain yesterday didn’t even dampen their spirits. The children have had the opportunity to create some bug hotels to encourage insects to the site. Yesterday, they put their culinary skills to the test and made some garlic flatbreads. They cooked these on the fire and they were delicious! The children arrived back at class absolutely covered in mud but they’d had so much fun.
Spring is here.
This week, children enjoyed drawing and painting daffodils to create a Mother’s Day card. Before children drew them, we talked about the shape and colour of the stem and the petals on the flower. They were all really proud of their pictures and couldn’t wait to take them home; we hope you liked them.
We have been completing our Spring checklists too, so far we have spotted daffodils, white blossom on the trees , green leaves, buds and snow drops.
Help at home
What signs of Spring can you spot when you are out and about?
In Maths this week we have been matching numerals to quantity by putting the flowers on the grass. Checking we had the correct amount by counting carefully.
Our beanstalks are growing! The children have been taking very good care of their beans watering them every day. This week we noticed roots and shoots appearing.
Outside we got busy in the Nursery garden too, tidying the planters ready for planting some of our own seeds in the coming weeks. . The children decided that we would like to grow some carrots and peas.
Next week
Nursery rhyme of the week
Sound of the week
Hh for helicopter.
Reminders
Thanks to everyone who has sent in a baby and toddler photograph for our learning next week. If you haven’t had a chance to yet, please see our previous post and e-mail us one if you can.
scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Green group parents and carers don’t forget to book an appointment for your parent teachers consultation (Wednesday 01 April) .You will have received information about this from the school office. On this occasion the meeting is via zoom, next time it will be in person.
The Hundred Decker Rocket
We have been reading the book The Hundred Decker Rocket.
This story is about a girl called Ivy who sets off on a mission to space. On the way, she meets some very messy aliens. When her rocket breaks down, all the aliens help to fix it and make their own deck.
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.
We have designed our own ‘Hundred Decker Rockets’ with a deck each.
“Mine needs a swimming pool so we can all go swimming!”
“I’m going to have unicorns and yummy food!”
PE
We were lucky enough to get outside in the sunshine at the beginning of the week for our PE. We’ve been working on our ball skills with early games of ‘Mouse Trap’
Phonics
We’ve been recapping the digraphs we’ve learnt previously, looking at longer words we may have to chunk such as ‘farm/yard’ or ‘sun/set’. Chunking mean breaking the word into smaller parts (chunks) to help children read it more easily.
Maths
We found lots of different ways to represent number 7 and number 8 this week. We even explored the different parts to 7 and 8.
Help at home
Ask you child to find a way to represent 7 or 8 at home. They might count out 8 Lego pieces.
Computing-Using Bee Bots in 1/2B
1/2 B have been using Bee-Bots. They are small, friendly robots that look like bright yellow bees. They can move forwards, backwards, turn left and turn right when we press the buttons on its back. We use Bee-Bots to learn about coding. Coding means giving the robot clear instructions so it knows where to go.
Our Living and Learning statement this week is: I know the importance of personal hygiene, including handwashing. KS1 have enjoyed seeing the effect that soap has on our fingers when we put our soaped fingers in a dish of water and pepper. It’s a great visual to demonstrate the powerful effect that soap has on germs. This, hopefully, encourages the children to continue their great handwashing habits.
The pepper just runs away from my finger!-Myla
The soap will scare the germs away!-Oscar
Class reward. Each class has a target and when we have met the target, multiple times, we get a class treat! 1/2B have responded positively to their ‘3,2,1, Stop’ instruction. Their chosen class treat was to go to the adventure playground. Well done 1/2B!
