Half term is here! Can you believe we have been back to school for almost 8 full weeks? We can't... but we can tell everyone is ready for a nice autumn break! The children have all done well settling into their new routines. These have become well established and the children know the expectations, routines and rules. 

Our learning this week has been focused on bringing our various topics to an end.

In History, the children drew and wrote about their favourite scientist/engineer.
In DT, the children evaluated their moving monster design.
In Science, the children recapped their learning all about light.
in R.E, we took part in our Harvest Festival.
In P.E the children came to the end of learning how to use the space in the playground and evade a member of the opposing team by playing chasing games.

In English we all took part in reading 'Room on the Broom', designing new broomsticks and new animals to ride on it.

In maths we all continued with counting, subitising numbers and using a system to work out number bonds!

Thank you for the kind donations for the Harvest Festival and for the FONTS Christmas Hampers. Also a huge thank you to those of you who managed to pop in and share the children's learning by looking at books but also joining in with Rockstars Day! The children were excellent in the Church on Thursday and I was really impressed with their behaviour. Well done Chestnut Class.
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We will be in touch soon, with next half term's topics/learning as we enter; perhaps one of the busiest and exciting times of the year! The countdown to Christmas and all that comes with it!

Happy Half Term everyone. Rest up, get some autumn sunshine, and enjoy some slower, cosy mornings together!

Hello Chestnut families!
This week has been another busy week of learning in our class.

Phonics/Drawing Club- Our English focus this week has been on our phonic assessments, where we have been checking on the children's progress.  We did have a couple of lessons reading and learning about The Enormous Turnip for both Year1  and Reception and the children loved acting the story out, learning new words and writing about it. We were very impressed with their enthusiasm!

Maths- Reception- the children have been comparing numbers using the words greater and less than. They have been looking at 1 more and 1 less by using puppets to play games! Year 1-The children have begun to explore and understand addition in a more formal way by using the + and = symbols, using part whole models, bar models, addition stories and finally understanding fact families. This week's home learning will be based around this, as well as an activity at our TTRS Rockstars morning where you are invited to attend until 9.30am! When you come along to our open afternoon next Thursday, please take a look in books and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Wider Curriculum
Science- In Science this week we have been investigating shadows and how they form, how and what they change position and shape. The children were introduced to opaque and transparent and what this means! They sorted things into these categories and then identified shadows. We discussed sun dials and how they work and what happens to shadows at different times of the day.
History- In history, the children learnt about Stephen Hawking, his achievements and why he is famous for his work on black holes and the big bang!  We also heard a little bit about another space scientist, Maggie Aderin-Pocock.  We were able to see the diversity of our successful scientists throughout history.
Computing - The children are getting better at using the trackpad on our Chromebooks to draw and this week also practised using the keyboard to write their names on the computer.
DT- In DT this week we finally combined all our previous lessons together by actually making our moving monsters! The children really enjoyed this activity and had a great time practising their skills to create a linkage system that made their toy move! We have some wonderful photos!
RE- This week we read a story about Allah and discussed what type of leader Muslims think he might be. The story involved kindness, thoughtfulness and respect.
PSHE- This week we discussed emotions again and how they make our bodies feel. We then picked scenarios out of a bag and discussed what we might do to help/solve the problem in the scenario. 
PE- This weeks lesson have been been focusing on core skills such as listening, using the space well and moving. The children enjoyed themselves and we had lots of smiles!

EYFS Curriculum
In the lead up to Harvest the children have had lots of activities linked to this theme. They have made mini scarecrows with split pins, created Harvest pictures using shapes, have role played with the farm and we have discussed the importance of Harvest, especially for us as a rural, farming community.  Next week we will have our annual Harvest Festival. 

Good afternoon,
We hope this weekly blog finds everyone well. Here is a round up of our week in Chestnut Class for Reception and Year 1, as usual it has been as busy as ever!

Phonics- In phonics this week Reception have continued learning their new set 1 sounds. This weeks sounds are j, v, y, x, w and z. They have been practising saying and writing them. With the other sounds they know, the children are using magnetic letters to create cvc words and are blending the sounds together to read the word. The children have brought their next sound blending book home to read. Please support them by sharing this every night. This makes such a difference.

For most of the children in Year 1, they have moved onto learning Set 3 sounds. This week our focus has been ea (tea), oi (spoil) and a-e (called a split digraph like in make and name). Next week all children will be assessed on their phonic knowledge which may result in a change in the groupings and teacher taking the group. 

For all new sounds, we will send home practice sheets and videos to watch. Please take the time to read them and have a go together! Small steps lead to big progress. Thank you. 

Literacy Tree/Drawing Club- In Literacy Tree this week, the Year 1 children have focused on inventing their own stories based on Stanley's Stick. Their new story is 'Cassidy's Cup' and they have spent the week, really working hard on their independent writing skills to create a story that makes sense. In Drawing Club the Reception Children have been reading and learning about the Little Red Hen. We have seen tractors, houses and all sorts of new characters. 

Maths Reception- Reception have been focusing on comparison this week. Comparing numbers using the language of more than and fewer than. We have been comparing sets of objects, comparing fingers on hands and worked together to explain what we can see. 
Maths Year 1- Year 1 have started a new unit this week called 'addition and subtraction'. This unit runs for the rest of half term and the following few weeks. We have started by looking at part whole models and basic addition sentences. This weeks homework will be based around this, so please support your child to have a go at home. 

Wider Curriculum

History - October is Black history month where we learn and celebrate about the achievements of people of colour throughout history.  This week we learnt about Mary Seacole, a nurse of mixed race, who funded her own travel to the Crimea during the Crimean war when the English government refused to send her.  She built a 'hotel' for injured soldiers and used the skills taught to her by her Jamaican mother to treat them.  The year one children wrote about the story of Mary Seacole while the reception children used role play to apply bandages and treat each other with our role play toys.

In computing, the year one children are learning to log in to a Chromebook using a username and password finding the letters on the keyboard and how to type a capital letter.  They then practised using the mousepad/trackpad by using an app called Paintz to try and draw on a computer.

DT- this week the children designed the head of their monster for their moving toy. They had to design two heads, label them, draw the moving parts of the mechanism and then they voted on their favourite design before choosing which one to make next week.

PSHE- this week we continued with our focus on emotions. We shared a story about a little boy who breaks something at his Grandparents house. We shared all the emotions we could find in the story, and then we freeze framed how these emotions might look on our faces and our bodies. 

Science- we continue our focus on reflection and wrote a conclusion to our experiment. Due to the time of year and the darker nights we extended this to talk about road safety during dark times, in particular, things we can wear to help us be seen!
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P.E- This week in our sessions with SAINTS we played lots of games to get our hearts pumping! These included different types of chasing games and balancing activities. 


Dates for your diaries:
16th October: Reception parents/carers information evening (RWI/Tapestry/School Readiness)
24th October: Harvest Festival followed by open afternoon to come and share children's work.
25th October: Rockstar day- dress up as a rock star for a day full of maths fun. Parents will be welcome for a fun activity! Time for parents to be confirmed. 
Week beginning Monday 11th November- parent/carer consultations. More information to follow.

We have had another busy week in Chestnut Class.  We are very pleased that the children are feeling settled and safe in their new classroom and are getting used to the routines of our mixed age class.
English
As well as their daily phonics lessons, the children had the following text based lessons this week:
Year one have started planning and writing our own story based on Stanley's Stick this week.  In our lessons, we have been learning about nouns, adjectives and verbs and have been using them in our writing.
Reception children based their drawing club activities on the story of Farmer Duck. This fed into other areas of their learning such as making lego farms, playing with the farm set, making playdough animals with cutters and utensils and floating rubbers ducks down the guttering in the water trays!
Maths
Reception children have been exploring how numbers can be composed of 1s and began investigating the composition of 3 and 4. Composing and de-composing numbers involves children investigating part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2. The children learnt from practical experience that a ‘whole’ is made up of smaller parts and is, therefore, bigger than its parts. 
Year one have come to the end of the unit on place value in which the children have learned to count on from any number, find one more and one less and to compare and order numbers. They also practised using number lines! Big ones in the playground and smaller ones in their books! Next week we will begin our second unit which is all about addition and subtraction. 
Wider Curriculum
We learnt about Mary Anning in history this week.  She was a scientist and palaeontologist who is famous for finding fossils in Lyme Regis where she lived including the first ever ichthyosaur skeleton. But perhaps her most important find, from a scientific point of view, was her discovery of the first plesiosaur. 
In music on Monday we began singing our harvest song The Dingle Dangle Scarecrow and on Tuesday we had our PE session with our Saints coach.  Year one also learnt about the parts of a computer and we are learning how to log in to an account on a Chromebook.
On Wednesday we continued with our D.T. project making a mechanism for our moving monster. All Year 1 children made a linkage system using levers and pivots and had the best time whilst making them. It was quite a fiddly task, but all persevered and really enjoyed the task! Afterwards, we continued our PSHE lessons talking about our emotions and recognising how we might behave when we feel certain emotions such as butterflies in our tummies when we are nervous or laughing when we are happy. 
On Thursday we had an afternoon of golden time and Karen came to say hello! The weather was glorious so we all made the most out of our outside area, playing in the sand, with the water, the dolls house, the farm shop and the construction materials. It was so nice to see them playing so beautifully together!
On Friday we continued with our SAINTs PE session and had a go at our science lesson, learning about reflection. We used a torch to shine onto objects to see which ones 'reflected' the light the best. The objects we used included a mirror, a spoon, a plastic bowl, a dark blanket and a teddy bear. 

Reception- please remember to have a go at the phonics links posted onto dojo today and to have a go at your flashcards and your sound blending books!
Year 1- well done on the fantastic efforts with your spellings and your homework! Remember to keep this up as it really makes a difference. 
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