Weekly Blog 10/01/25
Date: 2nd Jan 2025 @ 4:46pm
Happy New Year! Welcome back to our Dazzling Dormice! We hope you and your loved ones had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you a very prosperous new year. Can you believe we’re in the Spring term? The weather certainly isn’t behaving like it but we’re having lots of fun while watching the snow fall as we play inside this week.
Dates for the diary (Spring Term)
- Wednesday 15th January – Parent Partnership Meeting 2:45pm (school hall). I'll be around until 4pm if you have any questions or just fancy a chat!
- Friday 24thand Saturday 25th January – PTA Beer Festival! Come and join us from 6pm at the Community Centre.
- Tuesday 11th/Wednesday 12th February – Parents Evening (face-to-face in school)
- Thursday 6thMarch – World Book Day
- Monday 31st March - Trip to Crown Bank Quarry Nature Reserve
- Wednesday 2nd April – Dormice class assembly (9am – school hall)
Homework Menu
Please see the attached Homework menu (which is also on the class page of the school website). We are trying to reduce our paper usage but if you would prefer a hard copy then please let me know. These are great ideas to continue learning at home and as prompts for Show and Tell. Have fun!
Parent Partnership Meeting – 2:45pm in the school hall
This is an opportunity to collaborate with the school in supporting your child’s learning journey. At Tarporley CE, we believe that the Early Years is the most important year of all. (Psst...don't tell the others!). From birth to age 5, a child’s brain develops more, and more rapidly, than at any other time in life. Children’s experiences in their first five years have been shown to have a significant impact on their developmental outcomes later on. The first five years lay down the precious foundations of skills, knowledge and confidence that help us navigate future challenges and realise our potential. This meeting will hope to touch on the importance of your child’s first year in school and ways in which you can support their personal and social development as well as their academic success ensuring that they make the best possible start to their lifelong learning.
The session will run from 2:45pm with a Q&A session after should you need to speak to me. If you are attending, please come to the community entrance doors (drop off). Your child will be brought to the hall to join you.
In Kinetic Letters we have been practising for first half of the Slider Family letters (V, W, X). For these letters, we need to avoid starting with ‘down bump’, rather ‘sliding’ making a diagonal line to the ground. The children enjoyed recognising the 'w' is just two 'v' joined together. The 'x' was slightly more challenging it it requires the children to slide from top right to bottom left, pen off, slide down from top left to bottom right. We will soon get the hang of it as the term goes on. Please continue to use the laminate Kinetic Letters whiteboards that we handed out last half term. Keep practising your three friends hold pencil grip at home as this makes all the difference to your child’s writing.
Phonics – Little Wandle
This week we learnt four new sound AI, EE, IGH and OA using the new Little Wandle grapheme cards and phrases. We practised reading these words by decoding and then saying the sounds in our head to read fluently. The children are having lots of opportunity to practise reading fluently in our Reading Practice Sessions. The more the children read, the more fluent they will be!
As always with learning new sounds, you will find a home learning sheet with some activities to consolidate the sounds we have learnt in school this week.
It is VITAL these are returned in good condition and on time to maintain learning for everyone. We have noticed recently that some books are being returned damaged due to water bottle leakage in your child’s book bag. PLEASE ensure that you are using the plastic wallet given out at the start of the year to prevent further damage. We will be issuing fines and sending an email home if we receive any books like these. Thank you for your understanding.
I will continue to use the Reading Records to note your child’s assigned books. However, may need to keep them overnight if I don’t manage to finish them during the school day. It is important that the record is easy for families to complete so please leave a short comment in the record to let us know your child has read the books. We are always interested to hear how they got on especially as they put so much effort into their reading practice sessions in school.
Please can you return these books back by a THURSDAY each week.
In Maths, we have been playing lots of counting games that require us to count both forwards and backwards and saying the number names in order to 10. We played a game by passing an object around a circle, if you said 10 you were out! We also challenged the children to play a similar game but you have a choice of one or two numbers to say at a time. You could extend this game up to 21 and have a choice of one, two or three numbers at a time. The children are always on the look out to try and catch you out and make you say 21! In our starters we’ve been singing lots of number songs such as 5 Little Ducks, 5 Currant Buns and 10 Green Bottles. These are particularly useful for counting backwards!
On Monday, we held our Christmas Show and Tell which was super exciting! The children were very brave and told the class all about their toy and we had the opportunity to play and share our toys with each other! We were so impressed with how grown up they were. Well done Dazzling Dormice!
On Tuesday, we explored a range of vegetables by using our senses to describe each of them. We also learnt about which vegetables grow on top of the ground and those that grow underground. We had great fun using the vegetables for different pieces of artwork this week. You may want to try some printing at home!
On Wednesday, we had a great PE session where we got out the climbing equipment in the hall. The children traversed the different stations by climbing, jumping and balancing on the beams. We already can’t wait until next week to be a little braver!
On Thursday, we had an impromptu first Wake Up Shake Up of 2024 and what a blast we had dancing and moving to our favourite songs. We also used our detective skills to listen to the clues given to work out the different vegetable riddles in preparation for our own riddles.
On Friday, we planted our own cress in egg shells and learnt about the conditions plants need in order to grow. Thank you to everyone who brought in some egg shells. You will be able to see our cress growing in the orangery window next week.
Congratulations to our Star of the Week, Kayden!
Our mystery reader this week was Miss Jones from Year 1/2! Thank you for coming to share a story with us! We still have plenty of dates for the Spring term if you would like to come and read to the children. Even if you have been it before, you are more than welcome to come back! I will bring out my diary on Monday morning at drop off if you have a date in mind!
Dates available for Mystery Reader:
Friday 31st January 3pm
Friday 7th February 3pm
Friday 14th February 3pm
Friday 28th February 3pm
Friday 7th March 3pm
Friday 14th March 3pm
Friday 21st March 3pm
Friday 28th March 3pm
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Selwyn
