Dear families,
It's been a wonderful week in Yew Class and I have found it so much fun being back from maternity leave and cracking on with plenty of fun teaching and learning activities! The children have impressed me with their energy for their previous work that we have been continuing, and also their enthusiasm for new things we've started this week. Each day we've started with handwriting and spellings, and it's been great to see some beautiful handwriting emerge in their work books across different subjects. I may sent the odd spelling or two home before Christmas, but will always let you know if this is the case. We've also had great fun playing Jacques à dit (Simon Says in French), practising our gymnastics routines in P.E and making moving monster toys in D.T by linking up cardboard pivots. I have also been very impressed by how quickly the children picked up a number of Christmas Carols, sung without the words and using Makaton (a version of sign language) at the same time. I don't think I could have done that at that age. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our Nativity, which will be in the school hall on Wednesday 14th December. Take care everyone and enjoy your weekends, Mrs Robertson It's been a lovely week in Yew Class and the children have been busy, busy!
In Maths, we are focusing on addition and subtraction. It's great to see how the children can use concrete materials as well as pictorial, to deepen their understanding of number and as an aid to reasoning and problem solving. The class have enjoyed lots of stories this week and a favourite was The Sea Monster by Chris Wormell which has given inspiration for our Moving Monster topic in DT. The week has finished in fine style with Theatre Alibi's wonderfully hilarious show which was enjoyed by everyone. Have a great weekend. Another full week for Yew Class and lots of lovely learning has taken place. The children are very excited about their Space topic and are devouring lots of new information on the planets. Highlights from this week include sharing the story 'The Queen's Hat' by Steve Antony with the thrill of finding the hidden butler in the illustrations and drawing a corgi with a bespoke costume! On Friday, Remembrance Day, the solemn two minutes silence in the playground was an especially beautiful and memorable time of reflection for everyone.
The class had a very happy time building waterproof shelters during their outdoor learning session. Have a lovely weekend everyone! It was great to see the children happily settle back into class after the half term break. It is always exciting to share news and adventures however, our focus was on sharing one thing that we learnt over half term and there was an array of superb learning. This week has seen the big roll-out of our new topics for this half term namely, in Science - Space, RE - 'Why does Christmas matter to Christians?', DT - Making a Monster, PSHE - Valuing Difference, ICT - Programming: Algorithms and Debugging and in Geography - Countries in the UK. In English, we continue with the Read, Write Inc programme and Guided Reading and in Maths, we are focussing on Number: Addition and Subtraction. If you have any questions or queries, please do catch me at the end of the school day.
Yew Class are as ever, full of enthusiasm and I am really looking forward to being a small part in their learning journeys this month! The final week of this half term has raced by! One of the many highlights was the trip to St Michael's Church for the Harvest celebration service where the children sang heartily and Sam's rendition of the poem Pencil and Paint was beautiful and very touching. I would like to thank Yew Class for all their hard work this half term and also for the fun and friendship that they have shown to each other. I wish you all a happy and restful half term break. Pencil and Paint
Winter has a pencil For pictures clear and neat, She traces the black tree-tops Upon a snowy sheet. But autumn has a palette And a painting-brush instead, And daubs the leaves for pleasure With yellow, brown, and red. Eleanor Farjeon Yew Class have made a cracking start to the academic year proving themselves to be curious, creative and collaborative learners. Above all, they are kind and caring towards each other and it is a pleasure to share in their learning journey.
So far this term, the RWI programme has got off to a great start and the class have also shared some wonderfully language rich stories together in Guided Reading. In Maths, the focus has been on Place Value with addition and subtraction following in the coming weeks. The children have enjoyed their Science topic on Light particularly the hands-on element with torches, mirrors and black boxes! The history topic on Famous Scientists and Engineers has really captured the imagination: their expert knowledge of Mary Anning and George Stephenson for example is terrific! In Art, Yew Class have been inspired by the Natural Sculptures of Andy Goldsworthy and in the lovely Autumn weather, have created their own nature collages utilising the beautiful natural resources that are found in the school grounds. The children have been exploring feelings and friendship in PSHE and in RE, Islam: their insightful and pertinent reflections never cease to amaze. In PE, Yew Class have enthusiastically taken part in Athletics, Fencing and Tag Rugby whilst also focusing on balance and agility during Wednesday indoor PE sessions. Computing is a popular time in the week and this term the children are perfecting the art of logging in and out and developing mouse control. The class are certainly blessed with strong and tuneful singing voices, and these are put to great effect during Music and French lessons and indeed, in Assembly. Thank you for all your support at home with your child's learning, listening to them read and sharing in books and book talk together - these conversations can be priceless and will make many happy memories for the future! Year 1 and 2 had a wonderful week. On Wednesday, we were treated to a visit from OCRA who very kindly ran a multi-sports afternoon. The children practised their sprinting, hurdling, throwing and other athletic skills. They were also able to attend a fencing lesson with a full kit of mask, tabard and their own foil! It was great fun and as teachers, we were really impressed with how sensible the children were despite the excitement of 'sword-fighting' (their words not ours). Well done everyone for being Risk-taking Robins and trying a new activity and for being Persevering Petes when it became challenging, and yet you still carried on! With play rehearsals out of the way, we have not been slacking in the least! There is work to be done and Yew Class have been busy, busy, busy!
In Science we have looked at what happens when we mix various substances: strawberries and milk, Weetabix and milk and so on. The children conducted a fair test to find out which mixture makes the best bubbles. Was it shampoo and water, shower gel and water or washing up liquid and water? We have a class of champion mixers who can make observations and talk about them. On Wednesday, we joined forces with Beech Class for a day of team building and co-operation skills. This included parachute games, followed by everyone painting at the same time! This necessitated moving furniture around, rolling up the huge mat and distributing ‘messy’ resources. I was amazed at how efficiently the Y1s and Y2s organised themselves to get the job done. The reward was 45 minutes of bliss, painting and chatting with friends. I feel the children were in a better place and more relaxed afterwards. Towards the end of the week, Yew children created some lovely poems: Kennings with Miss Barton and Limericks with me. Please see examples of both below. Have a lovely weekend everyone. Audra Fitzgerald What a week it has been. I am so proud of the children and how they have conducted themselves. Mr Finch commended on Yew Class’ mature attitude in Wednesday's assembly and we were first to leave to get ready for home time.
The week got off to a roaring start on Tuesday, with our puppet making workshop. Non other than Todd, who has worked in Hollywood making puppets for hugely successful films, led the session. The children made bespoke puppets which will feature in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Looking forward to this term’s curriculum, here is a flavour of what we will be covering: Maths: Telling the time and measuring mass, capaity and temperature English: Read, Write Inc and Language and Literacy – we're looking at Fairy Tales currently Science: Mixing and Making, focusing on liquids and solids and changing states Geography: The Seven Continents – identifying features of different continents RE: What does it mean to be Jewish? PE: Outdoor games with ‘Saints’ and ‘Real PE’ scheme Music: ‘Voices’ initiative continued Computing: Issues around internet safety PSHE: Continuing our whole school ‘Scarf’ scheme I will provide more information about our art curriculum next week. In the meantime, enjoy this week’s photos. |
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