We have had a very busy final week, with dancing, party planning, a spy hotel, an obstacle course and a talent show to finish off this half term.
We have come to the end of our unit on space and I am incredibly impressed with all their hard work across the different subjects to learn about all things space related. In science this week, we looked at different jobs within space in addition to being an astronaut, including spacesuit designer and space scientist. The children enjoyed getting to draw a picture of the space job they would want and write why they have chosen this job. Reception have been learning a little bit about constellations with Abbie and Rachel, creating some beautiful paintings of the stars. Reception also spend a few short afternoon sessions a week in Acorn class, seeing Karen, Kath and friends and this week had fun at the playdough table and in the mark making area. It is great to see and continue to support the relationships across all of EYFS, the children really enjoy this. Drawing club this week has been Superworm and we have drawn some new evil sidekicks for the Wizard Lizard and helped Superworm with some ideas of how to rescue the insects. Our Toys in Space work in literacy will carry on into Spring 2 where the children have been beginning to plan a fantasy story of their own, thinking about how to connect ideas and using adjective to describe. We also got creative this week, planning a party to cheer up the toys in the story. All of Chestnut class have made huge improvements with their phonics and as a team we are incredibly proud of their progress this half term. Year 1 have been working particularly hard with extra speed sound lessons and their spellings. Please continue to support them with this at home as it is an essential part of their learning. We have had a short unit of addition and subtraction in Maths at the end of this half term and this week we have been looking at subtracting within 20 and finding the difference. We have used lots of manipulatives to support understanding. Reception have also been looking at taking away within 5 as well as greater and less than within 10. The children did an amazing job finishing their Ferris Wheels this week, they built a stand (with a little help from Rachel and I) and went to town on decorating to make them bright and colourful. They have really enjoyed DT this half term and getting to finally put all the pieces together and seeing their deigns fully functioning was a joy to watch. It has been a pleasure teaching this half term, stepping into my new role, finding our feet with all the changes and I am looking forward to next half term. I hope everyone has a lovely half term and break. Miss Warwick and Team This week has been full of Maths, space and practising for the talent show.
Both Reception and Year 1 have worked incredibly hard in Maths thinking about counting on and using part whole models to understand number bonds of 5, 10 and 20. We have also been working on our number formation and using as many different mediums including sand, chalk and our adventure codes in drawing club to practise. In Drawing club this week, we have read The Magic Porridge Pot and created some brilliant new ideas including The Magic Jelly and Broccoli Buckets, The Magic Porridge Water Bottles, The Magic Butter Volcano and many more. We have been to space this week, listening to music and imagining what it would be like to walk on the moon and discover a new planet, the children used their voices to create space sounds as well as learning all about Neil Armstrong in history, discovering why his story was significant and retelling his life. We have started a new book this week in Literacy Tree after being sent a mysterious box filled with ‘Toys from Space’ arrived in Chestnut Class. The children have created lost and found posters, describing the toys inside and made freeze frame images based on parts of the story in role, thinking about how the toys might be feeling when they end up in space. We will begin to develop ideas for our own fantasy story over the next few weeks. A small group of Chestnut class have decided to take part in our talent show next week and have spent the end of the week practising, they will be doing a dance that is well-loved by all of Chestnut Class. Rachel and I enjoyed watching them rehearse Thursday afternoon. We are wishing them luck in their audition and performance. Miss Brooking is with Chestnut on a Friday and this week they will be making and decorating the wheel and pods of their Ferris Wheels. The children have been very excited about this and I cannot wait to see them on Monday, ready to put them together. Have a great weekend. Miss Warwick and the team We have had quite a week this week in Chestnut Class, with Chinese New Year celebrations, extra hand washing and a visit from a small green vegetable villain!
At the start of the week, we celebrated Chinese New Year where the children learnt all about what preparations take place before and the celebrations in the days after the Lunar New Year. Miss Penny led a brilliant assembly telling us all about how the years came to have their animal names. This year being the Year of the Snake. We had an afternoon of making lanterns and had a go at Chinese calligraphy. Year 1 worked incredibly hard at the start of the week finishing their Astro Girl booklets and we are starting our new story of Toys in Space. They also did some fantastic work in Maths across the week looking at greater than, less than and equal to. Within science this week, we have learnt all about the planets and came up with our own way to remember the order. Drawing club has been all things Supertato and everyone has enjoyed creating a new villainous vegetable and ways they can help save Supertato from the Evil Pea! Reception took advantage of the sunny afternoon on Thursday and went onto the playground to draw around their shadows, Miss Warwick and each other. They also all had a go at writing their names next to their shadow drawings. In Maths, reception have looked at odd and evens numbers, counting to 10 and using 3 to make 6 and 9. I hope everyone has a healthy weekend, keep hand washing and enjoy the small amount of winter sunshine. Miss Warwick and the team Chestnut Class have been working really hard this week.
We have been planning and beginning to write our final non fiction text booklets in literacy all about space, we have found out lots of facts about astronauts and animals that have been to space! This week, year 1 have written a plan and considered all the features they need, including writing a glossary and designing a front cover. Reception have been doing drawing club looking at the short animation ‘coin operated’, a story about a boy who wishes he could go to the moon. In Maths, we have come to the end of learning about place value and numbers 1-10, concluding with lots of counting to 20 this week and using a number line and singing 10 green bottles. We will be moving onto addition and subtraction, more or less for both reception and year 1 next week. During History this week, we found out about a very important lady Bessie Coleman, who was the first African American women to fly a plane in the US in the early 1900s. The children delved into learning all about her story, ordering her life events and then retelling her story. Miss Brooking helped the children on Thursday afternoon with their Ferris Wheel designs ready to start building next lesson. Reception have built number rockets this week with Abbie and also really enjoyed role play, taking on the role of ‘teachers’ helping and teaching their friends to count to 10. Have a lovely weekend and stay safe in the storm Miss Warwick This week we have really dived deep into understanding space across lots of topics.
In literacy, we have been continuing Astro Girl and looking at the features of non-fiction texts in preparation for writing our own next week while Reception have been reading and looking at the story ‘How to catch a Star’ in drawing club. During science and history this week, we have been learning all about what it means to be an explorer and in particular an astronaut. The children came up with some fantastic ideas about how brave, fierce and resilient you might have to be to be an explorer. Reception have worked hard this week in Maths, understanding numbers 6,7,8 and Year 1 have continued to build their understanding of place value 10s and 1s with numbers 11 to 19. Reception children created some beautiful planet paintings with Abbie at the start of the week and during PSHE we began our topic of keeping safe and talked about who can help us when we are sad and anxious. We also talked about what we like to do when we are happy. Have a wonderful weekend Miss Warwick Chestnut Class have had a great first week back. We have been adapting to new routines and new staff. The children have worked extremely hard and coped well with the changes.
Abbie and Rachel worked incredibly hard on Monday to get everything ready for our return on Tuesday. Thank you so much! Our topic of Space began this week during snack on Tuesday when a mysterious bag was left in Chestnut classroom, the children discovered it belonged to Astrid who would love to be an astronaut one day and had left all her star gazing things in our classroom. The story Astro Girl and its main character Astrid will be the centre of our Literacy learning over the next few weeks. We have also enjoyed doing Drawing Club this week, reading We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and creating our own stories. In DT, we will be making Ferris Wheels and this week, the children conducted an experiment to predict which materials would make the Ferris wheel spin the best. We then tested and used this to begin designing what our Ferris wheels will look like. In Maths, Reception have been working really hard on their number bonds to 5 and number formation. Abbie was extremely impressed with their number writing this week. Year 1 have been using lots of manipulatives this week to build their knowledge of 10s and 1s within 20. Miss Brooking will be teaching in Chestnut class every Friday, we are very grateful to have her as part of our team. I have had a lovely week, it has been so nice getting to know all the children in Chestnut class again and I am looking forward to our term ahead. Have a great weekend! Miss Warwick, Abbie, Lizzie and Rachel Well what a week after the chaos of the snow and the storm! Nativity rehearsals started this week and the children are very excited. Please support your child to learn their lines and help them to learn their cue (who come before them). Reading parts of the script counts as a different type of reading and can be recorded in reading records too! Remember to discuss with them the difference between a stage direction and a line! Thank you.
Monday-phonics, followed by Drawing Club (Willo the Wisp), followed by maths, followed by Nativity songs and independent learning and French. Marion continued her volunteering and the children had a great time. Remember you can book into her after school club if you wish! Tuesday- phonics, followed by Drawing Club and handwriting, followed by art, followed by PE then our first hall time rehearsal. Wednesday-Florence taught our class today and she continued with phonics and Drawing club, followed by a maths lesson about addition and subtraction followed by Science and the different food groups, followed by Nativity songs. On Thursday it was Mrs Ware teaching. Year one followed up on our phonics this week by reviewing the set 3 sounds 'aw', (yawn) 'are' (share) and 'ur' (turn). We also did some extended writing about the troll in Billy the Kid. Reception wondered what they would invent to get Moog out of the sky! In the afternoon we learnt about how people survive in places that are extremely hot or extremely cold. We also had some time to practise our Nativity - it's looking really promising even for the second run through. Friday was a day of phonics, drawing club, some independent learning and P.E. in the afternoon. We did some more nativity practise and are busy creating lovely decorations to sell at the Christmas Fayre on the 13th. Have a lovely weekend everybody. A busy week as we start looking forward to Christmas...
As we have spent a lot of time on termly assessments, the blog will be a little more brief than normal this week Monday
This week has been another busy week in Chestnut Class. Monday (Armistice Day) Year one began their phonics lesson with their weekly spelling test and then we learnt our new set 3 sound for today which was o-e as in home, note and phone. We then read our new story for the first time 'Red Ken'. Reception children have begun to learn more sounds including those which are 'special friends' (sounds made from 2 letters like 'sh' , 'th' and 'qu'). At 11.00am today, the year one children took part in a minutes silence with the rest of the school and back in class we learnt a bit more about why and how we mark this special day. We had a special visit from The Bookery, the Crediton bookshop, who provided a special book fair for all children across the school each of whom received a free book. In the afternoon, our Geography lesson focussed on the features of hot and cold places and the children tried to identify and sort pictures showing hot and cold places. Marion came back to volunteer with Year 1and teach us some more French. The children really enjoyed this. We were all excited to start learning our songs for the Nativity 'A Bundle of Joy'. Words and music for these are on the link on this page for the children to practise at home. Tuesday Year one's new sound today was i-e as in like, nice and smile. In maths, year one tried to identify eight facts in a fact family - quite a challenge as this includes not only facts like 4+5=9 and 9-5=4 but also 5=9-4 and 9=5+4. Reception are continuing to practise their subitising skills as well as activities focussing on developing the skill of comparing. The children were encouraged to compare the number of objects in 2 sets by matching them 1:1. Seeing that objects in some sets can be matched without any being left over will draw the children’s attention to instances when the quantities of objects are equal. Language is a key focus and we reinforced the language of ‘more than’, ‘fewer than’ and ‘an equal number’ to describe how many objects there are in each set. In our computing lesson in the afternoon, year one used 'Paintzapp' on Chromebooks to have a go at reproducing a Mondrian style painting with great success!! Reception children were also inspired by Mondrian to use rulers to draw squares and lines and paint in primary colours. Wednesday On Wednesday we continued with phonics, learning the sound u-e in huge, brute, cute and applying it. We then continued with our phonics story about Red Ken. After this we took part in maths where we learnt about subtraction by telling a story about how many are left (first there were 10 apples on a tree, 5 fell down in the wind, 5 were left). After lunch we took part in art where we turned our maps from last week into 3D relief maps using different resources such as paper, card, tissue paper, string. After art we carried on with our Christmas singing for our performance, 'A Bundle of Joy. Thursday On Thursday Year 1 reviewed the sounds learnt this week and then spent a lot of time focusing on the story of Red Ken and writing sentences about it. Reception continued learning special friends. In maths Year 1 continued with subtraction, learning how to write subtraction sentences. During the afternoon all the children took part in science and we investigated the effect exercise has on our bodies. We did some physical activities and then sorted activities into ones that raised our hearts rates and ones that didn't. After Science, we carried on with our Christmas singing for our performance. Friday Our day started with phonics where we continued to review the sounds and spent the morning writing about Red Ken. As it was Children in Need, we had some fun Pudsey style activities planned including painting our own Pudseys, and adding spots to his bandana. We learnt about why we raise money for this charity and why it is so important. We learnt about some of the fundraising activities famous people are doing to raise money. Thank you all for your support so far this half term. Miss Ruby and Mrs Ware Welcome back to what is probably the busiest half term of the year. Hope you all managed to have a restful break over half term.
Phonics and English This week we regrouped all our children into their new phonic groups following our assessments at the end of last half term. The children have adapted quickly to these new groups and are all continuing to make progress. As part of their lesson, we are focussing on handwriting and letter formation. We ensure that the children are sitting correctly to write and are using the correct tripod pencil grip. It is important that the children form their letters correctly and don't get into bad habits - we have attached the guidance for letter formation on this page and will also send via Dojo so that you can practice and ensure children apply this to their writing at home. Reception children have had their phonics lessons and also have had drawing club linked to the story A Dark, Dark Tale. The children are becoming very creative with their ideas and very clear with their drawings. Wow! In maths... Reception children have been engaged with activities that underline the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are altogether. They practised their 1:1 correspondence skill, by counting numbers at the same time as moving or tagging objects. A key focus this week is deepening their understanding of 5 as a quantity by linking the number itself to the 5 fingers on one hand. Year one children have been exploring odd and even numbers and recognising that even numbers are made from pairs. We watched a Numberblocks episode which describe them as odd tops and even tops. Year one have also been learning to add more to a number and represent this using a number sentence. They have found 'part's' of a number using part whole models and began to look at subtraction too. Wider Curriculum Year one have begun their first Geography topic which is all about hot and cold places around the world. We started this unit by remembering the continents of the world and then went on to learn about climate zones across the world. the key bit of knowledge in this lesson was that the countries closest to the equator are the hottest and the countries furthest away are the coldest. Both Reception and Year one children learnt a little about Diwali this week which was celebrated last weekend. We learnt that during this celebration Hindus (and people from other religions too) welcome the Goddess, Lakshmi, to their homes by making colourful Rangoli patterns. The children had a go at making Rangoli patterns with various materials including chalk on the playground outside the classroom. We also used various mediums to create firework pictures on Tuesday including paint, chalk, colouring pens and even used technology in our computing lesson to create firework pictures on 'Paintzapp'. In Art the children have begun their new art topic called 'Map it Out'. The first part of this involved the children drawing a map of a memorable journey. We read the book, "Martha Maps it Out" and designed our maps in a similar style. In Science the children also started their new topic, 'Human Lifestyles'. During this lesson we discussed the human skeleton, muscles and important internal body parts. The children then used their learning to cut and stick body parts in the correct places. Both Reception and Year 1 learnt about the story of Guy Fawkes! They learnt about why we remember this event, how we celebrate it and firework safety. We have also begun to think ahead to Christmas and our music has been focused on singing the songs to our Nativity, "A Bundle of Joy"...more details will follow. A busy first week back at school! Enjoy your weekend! |
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