Book focus : Mad About Dinosaurs by Giles Andrae. We have been learning and performing some poems from this book.  Maths focus : revisiting the principles of counting; ordering numbers (noticing the staircase pattern); using the stem sentences 1 more than ___ is ___ and 1 less than ___ is _____; begin to see numbers over 5 as being made from 5 and a bit. Science focus : investigating fossils.  PE focus : we used the trolleys to play a treasure game; they are great for our core muscles, strength and coordination. PSCHE focus : internet safety. We read a story about a girl who saw something on her Ipad which made her feel scared and frightened. We discussed that if you see something that makes you feel funny in your tummy then you should tell a grown up about it so that they can help you keep safe. We asked the children about what they liked to do on their IPad. Lots of them talked about watching You Tube and playing games. However, some of the children were talking ...

 For being resilient.

 Come along at 3pm to see us recite some poems from Mad About Dinosaurs by Giles Andreae. 

 For being resilient.

 Book focus : Mad About Dinosaurs by Giles Andrae Maths focus : comparison (more than, fewer than, equal and not equal). Science focus : dinosaurs (know that dinosaurs lived a long time ago)- we shared our knowledge about dinosaurs and found out some new information. We have been clapping the very long names of the dinosaurs to help us with the pronunciations!  History focus : we learned about a famous person from the past: Mary Anning! She was a fossil hunter and found fossils on the beach, including some Ichthyosauri.  PE focus : throwing and aiming (we used an underarm throw to aim different treasure into treasure boxes). PSCHE focus : listen to my feelings (safe and unsafe scenarios). We have daily  Phonics, handwriting, reading  and  writing  sessions. 

  Story focus : Handa's Hen by Eileen Browne Maths focus : composition of 4,5,6,7 and taller/shorter. Science focus : we went on a birdwatching walk to see which birds we could spot in our local area. We also made some cheerio bird feeders to hang out next week.  PE focus : throwing and aiming (we used an underarm throw to aim treasure into treasure boxes) PSCHE focus : keeping safe indoors and outdoors (we were safety detectives and spotted things we had to be careful with e.g kettles, broken glass, plug sockets). We have daily Phonics, handwriting, reading and writing  sessions.  We are noticing that children are confident in their decoding skills, but are struggling to talk about the Rhino Reader texts, so please remember to talk about the story as you share the text together.

 For being resilient.

 Story Focus : Superworm by Julia Donaldson Phonics Focus : we are learning new sounds and digraphs and have been reading and writing words. Maths Focus : composition of 5.  We used blocks and our fingers (how many up, how many down) to explore the composition.  We also looked a length. Science Focus : we are going to go birdwatching next week as part of the Big Birdwatch, so we discussed what a bird is and described their features. We looked at books and clips to discuss what they do. PSHCE Focus : things that are safe to put on our body (medicines). PE focus : moving in different ways and giving ideas to change rules in a game.  Look at our writing! We write every day: we have a handwriting session where we practise the day's sound and then most of us are writing a caption or sentence. We say a caption or sentence lots of times, counting the words, then help the adults to write it by sounding out words with our robot arms or copying tricky words. Then they cover it...

 For being resilient.

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.