Phase One

Dear Parents/Carers

Before today’s blog, I’d just like to apologise for there being no blog last week. I typed it up last Friday and then forgot to press the publish button, only realising when I came to write this week’s blog.

The children have been excellent this week as we shift our focus to harvest. We spent the week thinking about what we are thankful for and how we can celebrate harvest, ending with an assembly delivered by Mother Helen and Father Alastair about self-control, one of our values for this half term.

For Spelling Shed this week, three of the groups have one extended list each, while one group has two lists. Everyone has been working very hard with their phonics and the children are very prepared for the phonics screening at the end of term. Please continue the children’s phonics at home, and read with them as often as possible to support this learning.

This week in maths we started to look at addition and subtraction, focusing on fact families and creating related links between ones and tens. The children found it difficult initially, but it started to click when using additional practical resources. In English we have had a grammar week, looking at adjectives, verbs, nouns and adverbs. In Art and R.E. we have been thinking about our Harvest Festival next week. We have created orange hearts for our rainbow harvest and had a lesson in the garden thinking about what we are grateful for in our lives. All of the children chose sentimental things, such as their families, school, friends and specific memories, rather than material things, which was nice to hear. The children also created their Christmas Card designs which you will be able to buy at some point.

Next week, we will be continuing to look at addition and subtraction, with the aim to strength our number bonds to 100. In English, we will be starting a new genre of writing, informative reports, in which the children will be researching and writing an information page on the Isle of Wight. In Science we will be concluding our materials topic, thinking about what we have learnt this half term, and we are finishing the week (weather-permitting) with our Harvest Festival.

Thank you for all the books bags that have come in for the past two weeks. If you do have any further questions about the children’s reading please send an email to the school office or leave a note in your child’s bookbag.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mr Stocking and Mrs Killy

Dear Parents/Carers

The children have continued their hard work this week and have started to really settle in to their new role as the oldest children in Key Stage 1, being excellent role models for all the younger children in our bubble.

For Spelling Shed this week there are lists of spellings for each group. The children will practise their phonics at school each day, and the spelling shed supports this learning at home. Maths shed can be used by the children to revise what we have looked at in maths this week through their lesson quiz function.

This week we have been learning to count in 2s and 5s in maths, both in ascending and descending order. In English the children have become journalists and have learnt about and written newspaper articles based on the Lonely Beast. We will publish their newspapers on Monday, adding pictures and captions to their writing. If you would like to watch the Lonely beast story, it can be listened to here – youtube.com/watch?v=mRzkcuNhiBk

In Science, we learnt about materials can be changed through bending, twisting, squashing and breaking, as well as what would happen to different materials if they were left in water, or heated up. In topic we began to research the Isle of Wight for our Wish you were here topic. The children learnt that rare animals, such as the red squirrel live on the island, as well as various other facts. In R.E. we continued to look at the Jewish celebration of Rosh Hashanah, creating cards and trying some apples with honey –  a common dish in a Rosh Hashanah feast. Most of the children thought it was very yummy! In Art, the children created collages, making globes using card, paper and tissue paper.

Next week, we will be learning how to count in 10s and 3s in maths, writing riddles in English, investigating which materials are waterproof in science, learning about objects that are important to Jewish people in R.E., and labelling human and physical features of the Isle of Wight in Topic.

Have a lovely weekend, thank you for your continued support. Please can the children’s book bags be back on Wednesday.

Mr Stocking and Mrs Killy

Dear Parents/Carers

We have had another excellent week in which the children have worked very hard; they’ve definitely earned a restful weekend!

This week I have set Spellings on Spelling Shed. The spellings each child has been set is based on our phonic assessments we have been doing over the past few weeks. This is very important in preparation for the phonics screening test at the end of half term. This will be mainly used as revision, however one group has started on the Year 2 spelling lists and we will have a small quiz to test the children next Friday. The aim is to move all of the children up to the Year 2 spelling list over time.

With the phonic assessments now complete, the children will be taking home learning to read books and reading for pleasure books from Thursday 24th September. After this week, the children will bring back their book bags on Wednesday and they will be sent home again on Thursday. The reading for pleasure book can be read to the children, and they will have some choice over what they take home. The learning to read books will be set based on the sound each child is looking at that week.

This week we have become beasts and written a diary entry about the Lonely Beast’s adventure. The children wrote in first person and in the past tense and tried to use exciting vocabulary. In maths we have been learning about comparing numbers and objects and we have been revisiting some of our learning from the end of Year 1.

In topic, the children learnt about the countries and capital cities of the UK. In R.E. we began our topic on Judaism by learning about the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, which is happening over this weekend. In science, the children continue to learn about materials and we explored the suitability of certain materials. In P.E. we completed obstacle courses that practised skills linking to our athletics topic. In Art, the children have painted their own versions of the Lonely Beast, which I will post pictures of to the blog when they have dried next week.

Next week we will be starting to look at Newspapers in English, counting in 2s, 5s, 10s and 3 in maths, creating Rosh Hashanah cards and learning about different foods eaten during the Jewish New Year in R.E., and we will be starting to research facts about the Isle of Wight in Topic.

Have a lovely weekend, thank you for all of your support in the first few weeks of this new school year.

Mr Stocking and Mrs Killy