Week Ending 08/11/24
Date: 3rd Nov 2024 @ 4:14pm
Happy Friday! A warm welcome back to the second half term of te year! This week has been all about people who help us including farmers which has helped us with our poetry unit. We have also shared the Cbeebies video 'Poppies' as an introduction to learning about Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day is an important date in the calendar and we have been learning that we wear poppies to help us to remember the brave soldiers. The parade will start from the square at the top of the high street at 10:30am and Mrs Forrester will be there walking in the parade to represent the school. Please do join if you are able toat 10:15am where the children will be laying D-Day boats at St Helen's.
My Family Coach
We wanted to draw your attention to a parenting website full of information that may be useful for you to use with your child. It includes information on topics such as mental health, screen time, how to calm down and friendships.
Here is the website: https://www.myfamilycoach.com/
Dates for the diary:
- Children in Need- Friday 15th November (Chocolate donation to the PTA Fair. Donate online – Dress down day)
- Christmas Fair– Friday 6th December 4-6pm.
- Nativity Dress rehearsal –Thursday 12th This is our final practice before the children get to show you. We will be performing in front of our buddies and the Done Room pre-school at 2pm. If you are in the village and would like to volunteer to walk us down to the church (or back) we would greatly appreciate it.
- Nativity –Friday 13th December at 2pm at St Helen’s Church. We will also need some parent walkers please!
- Trip to see Santa– Monday 16th December
- Christmas Dinner/Jumper Day– Wednesday 18th December
- School closes 1:30pm finish– Friday 20th December
In Kinetic Letters, we have started to learn the ‘abracadabra family’. (c, a, o, d, q, g, s) which follow the ‘pull around and push along the ground’ action. We always start our letters from one of two places; brave monkey branch (top of the line) or the ‘scared monkey branch’ (middle of the lines). No letter starts from the ground. Please encourage your child to hold their pen/pencil using their ‘three friends hold’ when forming their letters. These are very tricky letters which can be made easier by simply remembering to start with the ‘c’ letter shape. If you can confidently write ‘c’ then you will crack the abracadabra family!
Little Wandle - Phonics
This week we have continued on our Phase 2 journey by learning the sounds SS, LL, FF and J using the new Little Wandle grapheme cards and phrases. Just like last half term the children will be learning four new sounds each week with a half termly assessment at the end. We have also learnt four new tricky words 'PUT', 'PULL', 'FULL' and 'AS'. ‘Tricky words’ are words that cannot easily be decoded (‘sounded out’ and read). These words need to be learnt by heart. As the children begin to read longer sentences these words crop up time and time again so please continue to practise these wherever possible. A good game to play could be 'Splat'. Write the tricky words down separately on four pieces of paper, ask your child to 'splat' the correct word that you say. The more the children can see these words and recall them quickly, the easier they will be to spot in their reading books. Please see the downloadable attachment below to practise the sounds/words we have been learning this week.
In Maths we have learnt all about ‘part/whole’ models for the first time. Please see the video below for some more information about how to help your child with this at home. We have been learning how to split the numbers 1-5 into two parts. Numberblock four can split into two equal parts and make the Terrrible Twos! We used the part whole model to help us show our working and orally practised number sentences. This is really easy to continue at home. For example “I have two sweets and you have two sweets, how many is that altogether? What would the number sentence be? How about if I give you one of my sweets?” If you see your child adding accurately at home then upload your observation to Tapestry. We love showing you what your child can do at school but we also like to see your child using their learning at home. Think about moments that make you say ‘WOW!’
Here is the numberblocks episode we have been watching to consolidate this idea of 'parts' and 'whole': https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08dr1l3/numberblocks-series-1-the-whole-of-me
On Monday, we started our new week of farm poetry. We shared lots of examples and created some rhymes as a group.
On Tuesday, we shared to story of ‘Rosie’s Walk’. The children loved this story and the fox’s journey across the farm. The children came up with lots of rhyming words for the animals from the story.
On Wednesday, we also listened to the poem 'The Farmyard' which is printed in the most beautiful book called 'I Am the Seed That Grew the Tree'. We followed the structure closely to make our very own poem.
On Thursday, the time of year has come again to start rehearsals for our Christmas Nativity. We went into the hall to practice our songs and listen to the different characters we will be playing. Next week we will be assigning parts and will send out lines next Friday to learn at home.
On Friday, we discussed the different people in our local community that help us including, doctors, dentists, vets, soldiers and so many more! We discussed their important roles and how they look after us.
Congratulations to our Star of the Week, Wesley!
Our Mystery Reader was Victor’s Mum! Thank you for coming to share your story with us!
What a busy and fun-filled week. Who's ready for a sleep? I am!
Have a great weekend!
Miss Selwyn
