It has been lovely welcoming the children back in to school this week. We have started the new year with our new History topic of Explorers and Adventurers; it has been very exciting to hear where the children would explore if they could go anywhere! 
The children have also started in their new phonics groups - they have been brilliant at showing their new group leaders how wonderful they are at remembering their sounds and applying them to word reading.
In Maths, we have started our place value with revision about the number 10. We used resources in our classrooms to make the number 10 in as many different ways as we could - there were some very creative ideas! Here are the photos:

Hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you on Monday for our first full week back!

Merry Christmas Everyone! 
It has been a wonderfully festive week filled with lots of Christmas treats. We had our Nativity show on Wednesday which the children were really proud to share with you. We were so proud of them for creating such a spectacular show, considering it was written and acted out with very little adult support it was quite a feat. 
We have also been making Christmas wreaths using greenery from the local area, have made chocolate reindeer cakes, Christmas cards, and even had a Christmas movie and popcorn session. Our week was finished off with a lovely service in the church. 
​

When we come back to school in the New Year, we will be learning about the following:
​Maths - Place Value as well as Addition and Subtraction but we are doing it within 20 this term.
English - RWI Phonics 
Science - Seasons and Weather 
History - Explorers and Adventurers 
Art - Exploring Colour
RE - Who is Jewish and how do they live?
Computing - Rocket to the Moon
PSHE - Keeping Myself Safe
Everything allowing, we will still be continuing our regular singing sessions with Anna.
PE - we will be continuing to have Saints teach PE on a Monday and then follow REAL PE for our lessons on Wednesdays.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Although the coming of Christmas is very exciting, it also makes it an incredibly busy time of the year. We have spent a lot of this week practising for the Nativity and are really looking forward to sharing the dress rehearsal with the children in school on Tuesday and performing to family and friends on Wednesday. 
In amongst the nativity practices, we have been enjoying lots of learning, most excitingly woodland school this morning. Thank you so much for sending the children in with such warm clothes, with the temperatures we are experiencing, hats, scarfs, gloves and thick coats are very much appreciated. We ensure that the children have plenty of time ahead of going out to play so that they can layer up. It was noted today that we were one of the most prepared groups for woodland school so thank you for that! 
The children had a wonderful time with Kael and enjoyed making beautiful pieces of artwork with the nature they could find around them. There are photos below, please do show these to your children and they can tell you about what they have produced!

Hope you have a lovely weekend, enjoy the Christmas Fayre if you are coming and keep warm!

We have had a lovely but busy week in Beech class. We have been working hard on our subtracting skills in Maths, we have been counting out objects, then take some away and counting how many we have left. 
We also had a wonderful time with Kael in woodland school, there weren't many photos as we had such a lovely time. He showed us how to start a fire, we also saw a fur of a fox and made maps of the forest school using sticks, stones, leaves and other natural resources we could find. 
Here are some photos:

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. 

Firstly, thank you so much for such a warm welcome back from everyone. I really did miss you all! 
Due to me only being in a little bit this week, I don't have a huge amount to write about sorry. 
The children did have a fabulous experience today with the Theatre Alibi company visiting and sharing their performance of 'The Parcel'. It was a fantastically engaging show and the children loved it. Lots of squeals of delight and enamoured faces during the performance, we weren't allowed to take photos during but here is a photo from after when the children were allowed to go up and explore the set. The story inspired us to write our own postcards imagining we were on holiday in Chagford or other places around the world, these will be displayed in the classroom.
A huge thank you to the PTFA for allowing us this opportunity, what a treat for the children.  

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

We have been focusing on our co-operation skills this week and have been completing learning in pairs and small groups. The children have done really well working together as a team. We even used our skills of co-operation with the Year 2s when they came to do some learning in our class. Here are some photos:

 After half term, we will be learning the following:
- In Maths, we are moving on addition and subtraction. 
- Science we will be developing our learning about materials from this term and will be moving on to 'Building Things', testing the properties of different materials and deciding which materials would be best for each job e.g. a bridge or umbrella. 
- In Geography, we will be learning about hot and cold places. 
- Art and DT alternate so for the next half term we will be doing DT and designing and creating windmills.
​- RE will be 'What do Christians believe God is like?' and retelling the Christmas story
- PE will continue to be Saints on a Monday and indoor PE on a Wednesday 
- Computing will focus on Algorithms unplugged  
- PSHE will be 'Valuing Differences'

Hope you all have an amazing half term!

It has been an ever-changing week this week, we have had lots of children who have come down with the dreaded autumn bugs, coughs and colds, but we are all on the mend now! 
The children have been enjoying their phonics learning in their phonics groups and their reading is ever improving. We have been continuing to enjoy our class read 'Leaf' and have created our own portraits of 'Leaf' using the Autumn leaves from the playground. We are proudly displaying these on our window so all the families dropping off and picking up can see our artwork. Here is a photo in case you can't get to school:

Next week, is our Harvest festival where we will be going up to the church to celebrate, it would be lovely to see you there. 
Have a lovely weekend!

It has been a busy first full week of Year 1 for the children full of lots of lovely learning and a visit from Sarah McIntyre. 
​
On Monday, we had our first Saints PE session, the children did very well listening to coach and practising their balancing of balls, quoits and beanbags on different parts of their bodies!

Just a quick reminder that your child needs a PE kit in school, we have PE lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays. 

At the beginning of the week, we read Grumpycorn, Dinosaur Police and Dinosaur Firefighters in preparation for Sarah's visit. We were practising making predictions about what might happen next in the story. During Sarah's visit, she read Dinosaur Firefighters to us and we learnt how to draw Dipsy from the book. We also created our own job for Trevor the dinosaur, we decided he should be an Astronaut. Here are some of our drawings: 
Photos taken by Sarah herself and shared on her twitter as she was so impressed with the children's art!​

In Science, we have been discussing what a material is and the grouping objects by what they are made from, here are some photos of our learning:

In English, we have been reading Ruby's Worry. At the beginning of the story, Ruby says what she is good at. This week we have been reflecting on our own strengths and writing sentences using our phonics to describe what we are good at and like doing. 
In Maths, we have been practising our counting to 10 and matching numbers to groups of items. We have also started to recognise numbers when they are written in words using our phonics knowledge and initial sounds to help us. 

Things you could do at home this week to help us with our learning:
- Science: Find different objects around the house and talk about what they are made from e.g. plastic, metal, glass, wood etc. 
- Maths: Counting groups of objects; can you label how many toy animals you have or how many pieces of carrot do you have on your plate at dinner time? Encourage the children to write the number first and they try writing the number in words if they want a challenge. 
- Phonics: Can you spot the 'ay' sound in your books or writing on packets of food or on posters you pass in the street? (ay as in play, may, clay, day, tray, stay etc.)

The children have made an excellent start to Year 1 and have settled in well to the new room and routines. We spent a lot of time this week getting to know each other and exploring the resources in the classroom. 

We have read 'Perfectly Norman' about a boy who has wings but keeps them hidden, when he does share them he feels much happier. We have been thinking about what our special characteristics are and how to share them with others. The children decorated their own unique feathers and we plan to put these together to create a set of Beech Class wings. 

In music, we have been practising our listening skills and keeping a beat with percussion instruments which has been fun! 

We are looking forward to next week when we are aiming to get some of our new practices up and running such as reading records and reading books to take home. There will be more information about this in the welcome meeting. 

Here are some photos of your children enjoying their new environment:

​Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 

Best wishes, 
Miss Coleman