Thank you to all those parents who are reading the Rhino Reader text with their child. We read it more than once to develop a deeper understanding, so remember to ask some questions about the text afterwards e.g about the characters or events in the story.  Story focus : Owl Babies by Martin Waddell Phonics focus : some of us have been reading words with new sounds and digraphs and some of us have been working on our segmenting (spelling). Maths focus: ordering numbers; 1 more than and not 1 more than; know the difference between day and night.   Our Maths curriculum is all about lots of repetition and small steps, which leads to children becoming more fluent in their skills. There is lots of research about this approach and is similar to the current thinking about rereading reading books to get that deeper understanding and confidence.  Science focus : identify machines and their purpose. PSHCE focus : know what is safe to put on my body.  History focus : find ...

 The focus of our Gold Star Assemblies is now on being resilient.

 Thank you so much for all your lovely cards and gifts. It is very kind and generous of you! We hope you have a lovely Christmas.  Be present with each other; play games; watch films; go for walks and enjoy spending time together!

In RJ, we made some fantastic pictures with loose parts. We really had to concentrate!

We had a great morning  performing the Nativity and then a surprise Christmas party! We played Musical Statues, Musical Bumps, Musical Stars, Christmas Corners and Father Christmas Sleigh rides on the trolleys. RJ also played a version of Pass the Parcel. 

We had a fantastic time visiting Santa and Granny Christmas! Thanks to the PTFA for organising a lovely experience. 

 For being responsible.

 Yesterday, we all attended our annual Christmas Carol Service. We were entertained by a variety of musicians, a poem from our poet laureate and a talk led by Reverend Tasha. Our Year 6's read from The Bible and had written their own prayers to read. This was topped off by some festive carols. Thank you to both Father Simon and Reverend Tasha for hosting us! A special thank you to our photographer!

What a busy week! We have had Nativity rehearsals, a Church visit and Christmas Dinner!  Story Focus : The Birth of Jesus Phonics focus: lots of recapping of reading Level 2 sounds and some of us have been reading and spelling with new sounds.  We continue to have daily handwriting practise and lots of us are writing words and captions.  Maths focus: equal means the same ; representations of 5; recognising that when sets if objects are rearranged the amount stays the same. PSHCE/RE focus: showing kindness towards each other. Art focus: cutting, sticking and printing Christmas cards.   PE focus:  following instructions to play games.  We enjoyed using the trolleys/scooter boards to move around on. These are great for developing core strength, balance and coordination.  COOL Time  (Choosing Our Own Learning): this is where we play and interact with each other, taking turns and forming relationships. We are choosing the resources we need and adults ...

It's finally December! At school, we have a class Advent calendar full of jokes and songs.  Story Focus : My Hair by Hannah Lee.  Phonics focus: lots of reading and spelling. Remember that digraphs ck, ll, ff, ss usually come at the end of words (never at the beginning!).  We are impressed with how the writing skills are coming along, with lots of us getting the hang of 'holding a sentence/phrase' and writing it down. We need lots of handwriting practise, as this reduces the cognitive load: we have to think about so many things when we write! Maths focus : shapes and positional language. We went on shape hunts and pressed shapes into dough. We played a positional language game, describing where a person/George was. We weren't allowed to point or say "there". We came up with on, in, under, next to, in between, behind, in front of,  PSHCE focus:  recognising similarities and differences amongst homes. RJ liked looking at each other's homes on the google map!...