Week ending Friday 15th November 2024

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