World Book Day
We’re very excited to be celebrating World Book Day next Thursday in school!
If your child would like to, they can come to school dressed as their favourite book character or in something book-related. Please don’t feel any pressure to go out and buy a costume.
Throughout the day, we’ll be taking part in a range of challenges inspired by different books. One of our creative activities will be making a milk bottle Elmer. To help with this activity, we would really appreciate it if you could send your child in with an empty milk bottle (rinsed out, please!).
Love of Reading Stay & Learn
At 2:45pm, you are more than welcome to join us for our Love of Reading Stay & Learn session. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to watch one of our daily Poetry Basket sessions and share and enjoy lots of stories with your child.
We look forward to celebrating our love of books together!
This Green Moon
Today was a very special day for our Reception class as we went on our very first school trip to This Green Moon! As soon as I opened the Reception gate this morning, the children were buzzing with excitement.
When we arrived at Green Moon, we were warmly greeted by the two leaders, Paul and Matt, as well as the Reception class from St James’, one of our other Federation schools. It was lovely to come together and share the experience.
From the moment we stepped onto the coach to the minute we arrived back at school, the children were exceptional – what a credit they were to our school! Their behaviour, listening skills and enthusiasm were wonderful to see.
We thoroughly enjoyed spending the day outdoors, exploring the natural world around us. The children took part in so many exciting activities: making a fire, creating sculptures using potatoes, designing bracelets with pieces of coloured wool we found in the forest, and even working together to create a giant piece of artwork. It was fantastic to see their creativity and curiosity shining through.
What a fantastic day full of learning, laughter and adventure. Well done, Reception – we’re so proud of you all!
Let’s grow
Spring 1: Week 6
This week, we’ve been learning all about Lunar New Year. Our focus story was The Magic Paintbrush by Julia Donaldson. Using our imaginations, we thought about what we would create if we were given our very own magic paintbrush.
On Wednesday, we watched a video about how people prepare for and celebrate Lunar New Year.
Yesterday, we read The Great Race and learned about how the Chinese Zodiac began. We then had a go at putting the animals in the correct order.
Maths
We’ve been exploring pattern. The children have been copying and continuing patterns, as well as creating their own, using patterns like AB, ABB and ABBC with colours, shapes, actions and objects.
We’ve also been spotting errors in patterns and explaining what has gone wrong. This helps children really think about how patterns work, rather than just guessing. A key focus has been talking about the ‘unit of repeat’ – the part of the pattern that keeps repeating (for example, red–blue in an AB pattern).
Help at home: Choose a rule and create a pattern. Take a picture of your pattern and send it to the Reception email address.
Finally, thank you to everyone who attended the parent–teacher meetings this week. It was lovely to talk with you all about your child’s learning and to celebrate their fantastic progress.
As always, I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term break. Feel free to send me an email to let me know what you get up to. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 23 February.
Internet Safety Day
Today we’ve been talking about internet safety and how to make smart choices online. Our friend Smartie the Penguin helped us learn what to do if something unexpected pops up on a screen.
While using his tablet, Smartie saw something that didn’t look right. Instead of clicking it, he remembered TAG — Tell A Grown up. Smartie told a trusted adult straight away.
We learned that if we ever see something that’s not meant for us online, we should TAG (Tell A Grown up). Telling a grown-up helps keep us safe and makes sure we can enjoy using technology the smart way — just like Smartie the Penguin!
Here’s a video with advice on how to support children up to age 5 to stay safe online.
School dinner menu
After February half term, we start our new menu which runs to the end of the year. It can be viewed here. Please review this with your child to help with their selection at the start of the day. We continue to offer meat free Mondays.
The cost of a school meal is:
- children in Reception, Years 1 and 2: this is free because of universal infant free school meals
- children in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6: £3.05 for children in Years 3 to 6
Payment should be paid in advance on the Arbor app. We’re happy to accept payment for the week, month, half term or term. We prefer two weeks’ notice to change lunch arrangements.
All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive free school meals. If your child is in Year 3 to Year 6, and you are on benefits or a low income, your child may be eligible for free school meals.
Some people like to choose a mix of school dinners and packed lunch for their child – that’s absolutely fine, as long as it’s a the same pattern of school dinners and packed lunches every week. Just let office staff know which days you’d like to opt in for a school meal in the week, and which days you’d prefer to provide your child with a packed lunch.
We continue to gather feedback from children on our school meals.
If you have any feedback, please do get in touch.
Poetry Basket: Mr Bluebird
This week’s poem is called Mr Bluebird. Hope you enjoy the performance!
This week, we’ve discussed the word hive.
Spring 1: Week 5
Phonics stay & Learn
Thank you to all the parents and carers who joined our phonics stay and learn on Wednesday. We hope you found it helpful! We’re sure you were impressed by the incredible progress the children have made—they really are phonics superstars! If you were unable to attend, we’ve put a copy of the presentation slides and any resources handed out during the stay & learn.
Please take a moment to complete the feedback form. If you have any questions, feel free to email me or raise them at your parent–teacher meeting next week.
Literacy
This week, we’ve been reading Great Fairies of the World by Stephanie Moss. This rhyming story introduces a range of fairy characters who have jobs that help others, such as an architect fairy, doctor fairy and engineer fairy, to name just a few!
We talked about what real-life heroes do and how they help people. Some of the children said they wanted to be real-life heroes when they’re older. They shared that they would like to be firefighters, doctors, police officers, vets, and lifeguards. The children thoroughly enjoyed learning about all the different jobs and the important roles these heroes play in helping others.
Ali – When I’m older, I would like to be a vet.
Oy – I would like to be a doctor to help people get better.
Fin – I would like to be a vet like my sister.
Imo – I would like to be a lifeguard.
Kai – I would like to be a police officer.
On Wednesday, we decided to create our own fairy wands to help us feel brave, strong, and magical in our classroom. The children enjoyed choosing their materials and decorating their wands.
In provision, we linked our fiction story to non-fiction learning by role-playing real-life heroes. The children took on different roles and explored how people in these jobs help others in the real world. We had lots of poorly patients in our role-play area!
Here’s a snapshot of fantastic learners busy tackling this week’s challenges!
Help at home:
Poetry Basket: A little house
This week’s poem is called A Little House. Hope you enjoy the performance!
We’ve been thinking about and using the words curling and drifting.
Spring 1: Week 4
This week, we’ve been super busy being superheroes.
On Tuesday, the children arrived in the classroom to discover that the Evil Pea had been up to his mischievous tricks. He had trapped the super veggies in a bowl! We used our fantastic detective skills to search the classroom and spot clues he had left behind. We made wanted posters and displayed them around the school to help find him.
On Wednesday, the Evil Pea was up to his mischievous tricks once again! He had taped the super veggies to the window and left us a message saying, “Mwah ha ha! You can’t catch me!”
On Thursday, we couldn’t believe our eyes… the Evil Pea had trapped the super veggies up high in a basket. We really had to use our detective skills to help capture the Evil Pea.
What a busy week we’ve had! They’ve wowed us with their amazing creativity and imaginative play. From finding and writing signs for clues to designing and building traps, we’ve seen some fantastic teamwork.
Maths
In Maths, we continued to develop our understanding of composition. We used the Hungarian number pattern (die pattern) to explore ways of making 5. We sang 5 Little Aliens in a Flying Saucer to help remember the pairs of numbers that make 5.
On Wednesday, we noticed there wasn’t enough space on the die frame for 6 aliens. To extend our learning, we used a double dice frame to explore numbers 6 and 7, understanding them as 5 and a bit.
Help at home: Number bonds to 5 game
- Put 5 small things into a bag.
- Ask your adult to take some things out of the bag.
- Then, you take the rest of the things out of the bag.
- How many things does your adult have? How many do you have?
- How many altogether?
Phonics
This week, we learnt our final phase 3 graphemes (air, er) and tricky words (are, pure, sure)
Next half-term, we’ll revisit all of the phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs. We’ll also be reading words with:
- double letters (h-a-mm-er)
- two or more digraphs (ch-a-tt–er)
- ending in –ing (l-oo-k/i-ng)
- s /z/ in the middle (visit sounds like v-i-z-i-t)
- s /s/ /z/ at the end (c-oo-k-s)
- es at the end (t-or-ch-es)
Reminders
- Phonics Phase 3 Stay & Learn – Wednesday 4th February
9:00–9:20am – Phase 3 phonics presentation
9:25–10:00am – Watch a Phase 3 phonics lesson
Due to limited space, one adult per child may attend. - Parent-teacher meetings – Tuesday 10th & Thursday 12th February
I look forward to chatting to you all about your child’s learning. - School trip – Wednesday 25th February