Story focus : Owl Babies by Martin Waddell Literacy focus : we have daily Phonics and handwriting sessions.  We have individual reading sessions, practising our blue Phonics book or reading books. Some of us have started writing captions, 'holding' the phrase and then writing it with fnger spaces - quite tricky! Please see previous post about writing.  Maths focus:  ordinality. We have been noticing a 'staircase pattern' when the Numberblocks are in order and spotting when one of them is hiding. We are learning to use the stem sentence '1 more than ____ is ___'.  PE Focus:  gymnastics skills (balancing, climbing and jumping safely) using apparatus.  Science focus : seasons. We remembered the changes that happened in Autumn and went ouside to look for the changes that are happening now it is Winter.  PSED focus : Zones of Regulation. We recapped naming emotions.  We always enjoy COOL Time (Choosing Our Own Learning) and we practise lots of s...

The adults are very impressed with how our writing skills are developing!  We always have paper and pencils available for free drawing and writing (we are sure you see lots and lots of pictures in your child's bookbag!) but we have upped our adult-led writing so that children are taking part in: - daily handwriting sessions - daily spelling sessions in Phonics  - guided writing sessions where we write words or captions. These are dictated, using only GPCs that they know. This is to develop confidence and sentence structure - they have to 'hold' the phrase which is much harder than it sounds! Those of us who have got a good pencil grip and the beginnings of letter formation are spelling and writing with a pencil. Some of us are using the moveable alphabet whilst these skills develop. Children love paper and pencils - if you haven't already, get some pads of paper and pencils! handwriting practise a caption spelling using the moveable alphabet captions writing /th/ words ...

  Story focus : Super Duper You! by Sophie Henn Literacy focus : we have daily Phonics and handwriting sessions.  We have individual reading sessions, practising our blue Phonics book or reading books. Some of us have started writing captions, 'holding' the phrase and then writing it with fnger spaces - quite tricky! Maths focus:  subitising. We have been visualising dot patterns and recreating them, using a stem sentence to descirbe what we can see e.g 'I can see 2 and the top and 3 at the bottom' and " I can see 4 at the side and 1 at the top at the other side". We have also started looking at track games and how to move along the track. PE Focus:  gymnastics skills (balancing and climbing) using apparatus.  We always enjoy COOL Time (Choosing Our Own Learning) and we practise lots of skills during this time. RW were very keen to show off their building skills!

  We are working on holding a pencil like in a dynamic tripod grip (as illustrated above). Some of are working towards this grip and some of us are confident with it. When drawing and writing at home, encourage your child to use 3 fingers (not 4!) and make sure the pencil is pushed back and resting. Their hand also needs to be on the table and not floating in the air! The children are obsessed with paper at school so if you haven't already, get your child come pads of paper and let them doodle, create and gain confidence in understanding what pencils are for.   We are working hard during daily handwriting sessions - it is tricky but we are persevering with our letter formation! 

This week, we have been getting back into the routine of school. We have been pleased to see our friends, chatting and playing together, and have been playing application games in Maths to get our mathematical thinking going. The staff have been reading us lots of different stories and we have been learning new sounds in Phonics. We have started whole class handwriting sessions and some of us are now doing some writing sessions, learning to hold a phrase and then write it.  Next week you will be emailed information about our learning for the term ahead.  Our normal blog will start again next week. 

Thank you so much for the cards, delicious treats, lovely gifts and beautful flowers - we love them all!  It is very kind of you to treat us to such lovely things.  We hope you have a good break over Christmas - enjoy family time together and take time to rest and recuperate after a (very!) long first term. See you in 2026!

 In RJ, we have been playing a maths game called Dotty Four. This helps us to practise the parts that make 4 (2 and 2, 3 and 1). You take it in turns to roll a 1,2,3 dice and draw that many dots in a square in the grid. The aim of the game is to get 4 dots.  So if you roll a 3, you draw 3 dots. Then the other team has a go. If they roll a 1, they could draw it in the same box to get 4. If they get a 2 or 3, they would have to draw the dots in another box. Miss Johnston got lots of 4s yesterday, but today RJ got the hang of it! __ is a part and ___is a part, the whole is 4. If you want to play it aty home, here a link to show you how to play Dotty Six (very similar!).  https://nrich.maths.org/problems/dotty-six?tab=overview

 We had a surprise Christmas party, playing Musical Bumps, Musical Stars, Move and Freeze, Corners and The Floor is Lava!