Dear Friends and Families

Year 1 have returned after their half term break in high spirits and it's lovely to see them back ready to learn! There's always excitement to begin new topics and we hope you enjoy hearing about the children's learning over the coming weeks. A taste of some of our new topics includes... in Geography, we will be looking at 'Where I live' and in Science, 'Building Things' whilst in Computing, we will be using a range of tools for digital painting to create our own digital pictures, while gaining inspiration from different artists’ work including Henri Matisse and Piet Mondrian. The colourful paintings in the photo below have been designed by Year 1 and inspired by Autumn colours in the style of Orla Kiely prints. 
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We are all looking forward to this half term with Beech Class leading up to the big event!

Best wishes
Miss Lloyd

It’s been another wonderful week of learning in Beech Class!

In Maths, the children have been very busy comparing groups by matching, as well as exploring ‘fewer, more, the same’, and 'greater than, less than and equal to', in both pictorial and concrete contexts, and by using number lines and part whole models. In Phonics, everyone is enjoying the challenge of Set 3 Sounds and the new concept of 'special friends' who are so chatty, they have to be split apart! In English, the class have been intrigued by the adventures of a miscreant London bus in our Literacy Tree focus, 'Naughty Bus' by Jan and Jerry Oke. In Science, we've been finding materials that are transparent, translucent and opaque and in History, thinking about the differences in holidays by the seaside today compared with in the past. In Art, we've looked at the artist Bridget Riley and her wonderful use of the optical illusion. Beech Class have created their own Bridget Riley inspired miniatures. 
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Thank you for all your continued support with home learning especially by regularly reading with your child and by watching the virtual classroom videos. I know that many children are enjoying the Maths website, Numbots, which is really supporting their mathematical fluency, many thanks.

Miss Lloyd
 

​A warm welcome back to all the children and families after the summer break! Beech class are settling well into their new learning environment in Year 1 and have impressed us with how they are stepping up to the new daily routines. In Phonics we have been reviewing the Set 2 Sounds and, with much anticipation, we will begin the Set 3 Sounds next week! The children have enjoyed exploring the text 'Here We Are' by Oliver Jeffers and have considered carefully how we can look after ourselves and our world. In Maths, lots of counting, sorting and grouping has occupied everyone as well as looking at the concepts of greater than, less than and equal to. Our Woodland School sessions so far, have been blessed with beautiful weather and last week, the children enjoyed making creepy crawlies out of sticks and the like!
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Miss Lloyd

Hello, friends and families,

Can you believe it? Our year in Beech Class has come to an end! It is incredible to think of the many things that the children have learnt from developing phonic skills to enable super, independent reading, counting to 100 in different patterns, learning to add and subtract, always being curious, creative learners discovering our place in the world through Science, Geography, History and RE to name but a few. Above all, the children have worked as a team, cherishing each other's unique qualities and remembering our school values of Community, Challenge and Care. Beech Class have shared, taken turns, and helped each other every step of the way. We learned about kindness, respect, and how to solve problems together. We celebrated each other’s birthdays and special moments, making our classroom feel like a big, happy family and indeed, our wonderful day trip by train to Exmouth Beach felt like a big family day out! We were blessed with beautiful weather and a wonderful cohort of Mums and Grandad to help on our trip, thank you to you all. It was a very special day and a fitting way to celebrate the end of our academic year together.

I am so proud of everyone in Beech Class: thank you for your creativity, hard work and effort throughout this year. I wish you a wonderfully happy Summer holiday.
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Miss Lloyd

​Beech Class have had a terrific start to their final half term in Year 1. As well as the excitement of beginning new topics such as Oceans and Seas in Geography, and Living Things in Science, the highlight has undoubtedly been our trip to Stone Lane Gardens! In this beautiful and magical setting, Beech Class discovered more about trees and plants with the wonderful assistance of staff from the gardens and our amazing parent helpers. We could not have asked for better weather nor a more perfect setting. The children were full of curiosity and excitement embracing all the activities including leaf detection, a sensory scavenger hunt and drawing the sculptures that are currently in the gardens as part of a summer exhibition. A huge thank you to everyone who made this day so special for us including Miss Hazeldine who now works at Stone Lane Gardens!

Well done to all of the children in Beech Class for this Summer 1 term of fabulous learning, friendships and achievements.
Wishing you all a very happy half term.

​Miss Lloyd

​Beech Class have been working hard all week and showing all the wonderful learning behaviours that inspire each other in class. This week, Captain Cooperation has abounded with the result that the class have accumulated 25 nuggets and a class treat on Friday! The children chose to bring their favourite teddy into school with a little teddy bear's biscuit picnic in the afternoon. 
 

Beech class have enjoyed a busy end to the Spring Term with an action packed final week. When we reflect back on this academic year, the sponsored whole school walk/run to Meldon Hill, will certainly feature as an incredible highlight. It was amazing to see the grit and determination from every single child to complete as many laps of the cricket pitch as possible within the allotted time. A big thank you to Mel Holyoak, all our parent helpers and to all the children and their sponsors in coming together to raise money for the playground development appeal. In the quieter moments in our final few days of term, the children enjoyed finishing off their DT project, making felt hand puppets. They all showed such resilience in tackling the sewing element coping well with the inevitable challenges of tangled embroidery threads and the like. From all the Year 1 staff, we wish you a very happy Easter and look forward to seeing you next term.
 

This week, Beech Class have been looking at the beautiful story of Dadaji's Paintbrush by Rashmi Sirdeshpande. Set in a tiny village in India, the story tells of a boy who lives with his grandfather filling the house with paintings and inviting the village children to join in. They didn't have much but they had each other and a loving bond that would always keep them together. Inspired by the watercolour paintings in the book, the class have been learning how to use different watercolour techniques to great effect. In Maths, we have been looking at measurement and mass. The children have been busy experimenting with different units of measurement for example, hand spans, multilink cubes and centimetres and also with mass, weighing, comparing and balancing different objects using balance scales that belonged to my Grandmother and are quite possibly 100 years old!

Another busy week in Beech class enjoying friendships and learning together. The highlight has unquestionably been World Book Day where we had a splendid array of costumes -  various Harry Potter characters, The Hungry Caterpillar, The Runaway Pea, Jesse the Cowgirl, two Darth Vaders and more!
Have a wonderful weekend!