Number 10
This week, we’ve been looking at the number 10 and the children have engaged in many different activities to represent ten. At the start of each lesson, the children enjoy watching the Number Block song for the number of the week.
They’ve all drawn ten in their busy books. We call this mathematical graphics. In the example below the child has drawn ten in lots of different ways.
“Ten crosses, ten circles, ten ladders”.
The children have enjoyed using pictures to tell number stories to ten.
“First there were 4 pigs, then 6 sheep came along, now there are 10 animals all together.”
The children have had a go at telling less than number stories and with support can write the numbers to show the story.
First there were 14 spots on the ten frame, then 4 rolled away, now there are 10 left.
Finally, they have enjoyed counting by 10s. We estimated how many cubes were in a jug and then grouped them by 10s to count the total number.
Challenge – 3 cubes
Can your child tell (verbally or through mathematical graphics) a number story to ten? They can use a picture from a book, create a scene using small world props or from something they can see around them.
Please email us any quotes or mathematical graphics from your child. This will support us in our assessment by providing evidence towards the number strand of the EYFS.
Children count reliably with numbers from one to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number. Using quantities and objects, they add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer. They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.
Monsters in the mud and rainbows
The changeable weather provoked lots of questions this week; children wondered how rainbows were formed and also talked about the different shapes of clouds. We enjoyed listening to songs about rainbows and collecting the colours we needed to create a giant rainbow collage. Children were very excited when they went outside on Tuesday – somebody had visited the playground whilst we’d been hiding from the wind inside! There were lots of suggestions as to who the very large footprints belonged to. Trolls? Monsters? Giants?
Did you see the messy monsters in the mud in our sensory area this week? As well as learning about the letter sound ‘mmm’, children also enjoyed moving the monsters through the gloop and investigating the different properties of the mixture. Sometimes it was solid and felt very hard to touch and sometimes it was runny and slipped through our fingers. The ‘mud’ was actually a mixture of cornflour, water and colouring.
If you want to enjoy some gloopy fun at home, just try mixing some cornflour and water together and watch what happens. We’re sure you’ll enjoy it and it’s an excellent way to develop language and introduce new vocabulary to your child. (There is a recipe you could try on the BBC website if you prefer to have exact quantities. We didn’t try the egg part detailed in this experiment!)
On Friday, some children joined in with some ‘Red Nose Day’ fun. Thank you for your fund raising donations.
Dancing raisins? Yes, it’s our science lesson!
This week, we were learning about scientific processes – particularly predicting. Children were asked if they thought the type of liquid (still or fizzy water) would affect if a raisin floated or sank. Predicting in science is all about a ‘thinking guess’ and using what you know to help you.
I think the bubbles in the fizzy water will make the raisin float.
I think the raisins will sink because they are small.
I think the raisins will turn back into grapes.
The children observed how the raisins sank straight to the bottom in the still water. In the fizzy water, the raisins ‘danced’ up and down and they noticed how the bubbles stuck to the raisins and pushed them up.
Why not have a try at home? Does it work with other objects?
Amazing art
This week children had the opportunity to explore tone. They added white or black to a colour to make it lighter or darker. Don’t forget to come along to our Pop-Up Art Gallery on Tuesday 26 March at 3.30pm to view and ‘purchase’ your child’s art work.
Living and Learning – strong emotions
We have been talking about strong emotions in our Living and Learning sessions. Children need to be able to identify their emotions and understand that some emotions feel very big but that they do pass and change over time.
Help at home by watching this video about a lost alien. Talk about how Beegu might feel and if they have ever felt those same emotions.
One potato, two potato, three potato…
We have planted some potatoes outside our classrooms and will be watching them grow over the next few months!
Living and learning: Pay and receive compliments
Year 5/6M discussed what a compliment is and what it feels like to receive compliments. We wrote compliments to other people in our class and talked about which compliments were unexpected.
We miss you, Daniel!
Living and Learning-Strong Emotions (Positive and Negative)
In KS1, we continually discuss our emotions. It is part of our emotional intelligence to be aware of what we and others are feeling. It is also key that we know strategies for dealing with strong emotions. Mindfulness, breathing, talking and counting are all strategies that we can use to prevent us from negatively reacting to a strong emotion. How do you cope with a strong emotion? Have you discussed this with your child?
An important message that we re-emphasise with the children is that it’s ok to feel the way that you do. You may feel like it for an hour, a day, a week, a month or even a year but feelings do change. You won’t feel the same forever. We know that healthy children are in a better position to learn and being healthy includes our physical, social, emotional and psychological selves. We are in the business of supporting healthy life long learners. How are you feeling today?
World book day
Thank you to those of you who came to the stay and read on Thursday 07 March. The children really enjoyed sharing stories with you. It was also a great opportunity to highlight the importance of your child reading their school reading book as often as possible – daily is recommended in order to support your child’s reading development.
The children also enjoyed sharing the adventurous words they have been exploring at school. Whilst your child reading to you is important, it is also important that you read to your child. This way your child will be able to experience more ‘adventurous’ words that would not be in their own school reading book. We are constantly picking out adventurous words from stories we read at school – this is a great way to develop your child’s vocabulary.
We would also like to say a HUGE well-done to all children in Foundation class for putting on a fantastic assembly. The children were very confident and spoke loudly in such a big assembly hall. We hope you enjoyed the assembly too.
The home-link this week is in your child’s book bag. This week we are asking you to listen to your child re-tell a favourite story. We are often re-telling stories in school using the story actions and sentence starters that we used in our assembly on Friday (First, Then, Suddenly, After that, Luckily, Finally). Please return the home-link this week. Home-links are a great opportunity for us to hear about your child’s learning at school and gain a bigger picture of what your child can do.
