Thank you for all your support this term. I can’t believe that we have reached the holidays already. This class are superstars and it has been my privilege to get to know them over the last few weeks. I hope you all have a great holiday week whatever you are doing and I look forward to seeing the children again on the 26th.

Independent learning

The children have been developing a wide range of skills through independent learning opportunities in class. Here is a selection of photographs of what they have been doing.

This week we have introduced the letter sounds e and h as well as the ‘tricky’ words I and the. Tricky words are words which we cannot sound out phonetically so we need to learn them by heart. We would like the children to learn to write these words from memory as well as being able to recognise and read them by sight. We have already started using the word I in our writing .

Our writing/storytelling prompt this week was all about our hair

Numeracy and Maths

This week we have explored our knowledge of 2D shape and 3D objects. We have used the following vocabulary in our discussions –

square, circle, rectangle, triangle, hexagon, pentagon, octagon, cube, cuboid, sphere, cylinder, cone, pyramid, triangular prism, faces, edges, sides, vertices.
Please help to reinforce this learning at home by discussing the properties of shapes and 3d objects you see around you.

Our Core numeracy skills this week were

• counting backwards from 10 (or 20 for some pupils).
• naming the next number in an isolated short backwards number sequence. ie. I say, 10, 9, 8 (they say 7)
• establishing a collection (give me 9 counters/raisins/etc)
• counting a collecting with accurate 1-1 correspondence
• recognising numerals
• sequencing a short selection of numerals ( e.g. 5,6,7,8)
• making instant finger patterns (show me 6 fingers without counting them)
• recognising dice patterns and clapping the amount of dots on the dice

Our challenge numeracy skills were.

• adding two collections with the second one screened ( e.g. here are 8 counters, there are 5 more hiding under this pot, how many altogether?)
• sequencing numerals within the range 0-30
• naming the number after a given number ( 0-30)
• counting backwards from 30, starting and stopping at different points
• investigating which equal groups can be made from a given number ( e.g. can I make 2 equal groups/3 equal groups/4 equal groups/5 equal groups from 12 counters? What about if I have 16 counters, or 18 etc)

Looking ahead to next week.

Holiday week – have a lovely time!

Other areas of the curriculum

• We enjoyed finding out facts about elephants and hedgehogs. Our vocabulary included, nocturnal, hibernation, endangered.
• We followed instructions to help us draw an elephant.
• In music we sang songs and played games designed to develop skills of keeping a steady beat. We also explored using our voices in different ways.
• Miss Croal played her harp for us. It is a small harp, called a clarsach.
• The NHS team came to give us our flu spray.
• In Outdoor and Indoor PE we have been focusing on jumping, landing safely with both feet together and jumping over I am learning how to move my body well, exploring how to manage and control it and finding out how to use and share space (HWB 0-21a)

This week’s homework and other information

• Enjoy the holiday – see you on the 26th.

A reminder to please name all items of clothing and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires a jumper belonging to someone else.