Week Beginning 14.1.19

This week the story of the week is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We are sticking to traditional tales to encourage the children to use the language in these stories and also to get the idea of the structure of traditional tales.

We are also continuing to write sentences both independently and supported. The children will also be writing another dictated sentence. This will all help to develop the children's writing skills including phonics, letter formation, using finger spaces and full stops.

If you need any more info on phonics to support your child at home there are videos by Mr Thorne on you tube covering the sounds we teach in school. Some of the children have started learning diagraphs which is where two letters make one sound e.g. ch, sh and oa. 

He also has a whole website for help and support:

http://www.mrthornenetwork.com/phonics

In Maths we are learning how to add 2 numbers together. We will do this practically with objects and also by putting the biggest number in our head and counting on either using our fingers or a numberline. There are some games on Education city that will support this e.g. Beach holiday. We will also be comparing lengths and heights.

The number of the week is number 12

The recipe for cooking in class this week is Anzac biscuits:

Don't forget the online safety meeting for parents at Garrick Green on Tuesday 15th Januaryat 7pm. 

There are plenty of website links on our website that will give you more infomation about ways to keep safe online. 

http://www.garrickgreen.co.uk/online-safety/

Week Beginning 7.1.19

Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely holiday.

This week we are promoting online safety so the story this week is 'Monkeycow' which is about keeping passwords secret. The children are going to design a poster to remind people to keep safe online and these will be entered into a competition. Throughout the year we also continue this theme in class and through whole school assemblies. Please make sure you can come to one of the online safety sessions we are running for parents - there was a letter last week giving you more details about this.

In maths the number of the week is 11 - we are impressed with how many of the single digit numbers the children have remembered. We are going to be working on knowing one less than any given number. To learn about this we will play a bus game where one person gets off the bus each time and we will also be using cubes to practically find one less and looking at the numberline to create a visual cue for this process.

We will be continuing with our independent writing and also our story scribing as well as a bit of dictation writing where we say a sentence and the children have a go at writing it.

We have split into groups for phonics based on last terms assessments so that the children are getting exactly the sounds they need at a pace that suits them. Please keep practising reading/sound games/blend games as often as you can.

Have a good week!

Week Beginning 3rd and 10th December

Wow - didn't the children do well last week in their nativity performances! They really rose to the challenge of performing to an audience and the audiences seemed to enjoy the show. Thank you to those of you who came to watch - the children are continuing to sing the nativity songs in class which is really lovely!

This week we have been doing lots of Christmas activities - the children had a vote to decide what Christmas things they wanted to make. They have made reindeer shortbread, salt dough decorations, Christmas tree decorations, Santa face paper plates and lots of Christmas painting and colouring. They will be bringing things home over the next few days. They have really enjoyed getting creative for Christmas!

We have been working with each child to assess their maths skills. We have also been revising counting skills and we have introduced adding two groups together.

We have been writing sentences independently and trying to get the children to hear the beginning sound of the words they are writing.

Today we are sending home some work for the holidays - there is a Christmas big talk sheet, also a letter formation practice booklet and of course there is a sound game/blend game or a reading book to work on - if the children could do a little bit every day that would be brilliant. It is really helpful that they continue practising these skills as otherwise it will be really difficult when they come back in January.

Have a good week!

Week beginning 26.11.18

This week it is full on nativity rehearsals ready for the big performances next week. All details about the performances were in the letter you got last week. Please make sure you've ordered your DVDs - we will get those out to you as soon as they're ready but it may not be until the last week.

We are continuing with fine motor activities so that we build our writing muscles up and we are introducing two new tricky words 'go' and 'the'.  We will continue to revise the sounds from phonics and will be assessing the children on these next week.

In maths the number of the week is 8 and we are going to investigate how many different ways we can make 8.

On Friday we are having an early lunch because of our trip - there are no hot dinners. If you haven't ordered a school packed lunch for Friday please don't forget to send a home packed lunch in for your child. We are very excited about out theatre trip and then the Christmas fair straight after school!

Have a good week!

Week Beginning 12.11.18 and 19.11.18

The children had The Nativity Story so that they know the story that they are doing for their show. This has helped with knowing about the characters and the sequence of the story.

The children have been practising hard for their show 'Noisy Nativity' they are doing really well with their lines and acting roles. Thank you for helping at home with learning lines! The children are trying hard to learn the words of the songs and we have another week before the bog shows!

We have finished all the single sounds in phonics so we are now revising the sounds. We introduced the tricky words 'to' and 'I' - these are called tricky words because they cannot be sounded out so the children need to learn to recognise these by sight.

In maths we have been learning about shapes and their properties. They have guessed the shapes in a feely bag, they have made pictures with shapes and looked for shapes in the outdoor environment. We are up to number 7 in the number of the week and the children are doing really well recognising the numbers and they are even writing the numbers too.

We have been continuing with squiggle and dough disco to develop writing skills. The children have been practising their independent writing which we are really impressed with. They all write their own sentence which they make up themselves.

Have a good weekend!

Week beginning 05.11.18

What a brilliant array of firework outfits we had at school yesterday - Well Done! It was a great effort by all! Thank you for supporting us and for bringing in raffle prizes.

This week we have introduced story scribing where we sit with the children 1:1 and they tell us their story. The adult writes the story emphasising all the writing skills. As the children become more familiar with phonics they start taking the pencil from the adult and writing the sounds that they can hear in the words. At the end of the session they get to act their story out with their friends in front of the whole class which they thoroughly enjoy.

This week the story of the week is The 3 Billy Goats Gruff as we are continuing with traditional tales. We hope that the children may begin to use some of the features from these stories in their own stories.

In maths the number of the week is 5.We will be looking at height and comparing the heights of different things by just looking at them and putting them in order by height. We will also be learning how to estimate by looking at a group of objects and making a sensible guess about how many objects there are.

In phonics the sounds this week are u, y, x, e and k and the stories will be in book bags on Friday. If you need clarification about how to say and sounds or how to do any of the actions please don't hesitate to come and see us.

We are introducing woodwork this week so the children learn basic woodwork skills and can make whatever they like using these skills.

Cooking is continuing this week and the children are all able to have a go at making cupcakes.

We hope you all got on ok with the name writing homework last week. This week we will send home a big talk homework with instructions!

Have a good week!

Week Beginning 29.10.18

Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely half term. It was lovely to see lots of smiling children this morning ready to come back to school!

This week the story of the week is 'Cinderella' as we are continuing with traditional tales. The children will act this story out too.

In maths the number of the week is 4. We are concentrating on counting objects in a line accurately by touching or moving each object and saying a number name for each object and also counting out a set amount of objects.

We are starting squiggle this week which helps with gross motor skills and will in turn strengthen muscles to aid writing. We basically make big movements with handkerchiefs and then make smaller movements on paper with crayons using both hands. This week the movement is up and down. This will help with the formation of letters l, t, i, and j.

We are also starting to write independently where the children will have a go at writing in their own little book.

Phonics will be continuing and this week the sounds are h, n, r, m and j. The stories and actions will be in children's bookbags at the end of the week.

Have a good week!