Another great week of learning!
This week in Nursery, we have been continuing to learn about Autumn. Our artist in focus for this term is Andy Goldsworthy and the children have created some transient ‘land art’ based upon his ideas. After collecting lots of leaves, the children worked together to sort them into different sizes, shapes and colours to create wonderful works of art. We have also looked at the habitats of hedgehogs and tried to create a place for ‘Ned’, our class (cuddly toy) hedgehog, to live. The children have also been ‘fishing’ for conkers and leaves, planting bulbs, learning to handle clay and looking at the textures of natural objects like bark. For the past couple of weeks, we have been sorting groups of objects by colour, size or type and we have learned to use ‘fewer than’ and ‘more than’ when comparing groups of different amounts.
Dates for your diary:
- 19.11.21 – ‘Dress up as a character from a nursery rhyme’
- 24.11.21 – Nursery Class Parents’ Evening (details to follow)
Remembrance Day
This week across the school, the children have been learning about the meaning of Remembrance Day. From reading activities to art, we have covered an array of learning. The Year 6s have been collecting for the poppy appeal daily and the donations have been very generous. On Thursday 11th we had a minute’s silence in the playground in remembrance and the children were all really respectful.
Remembrance, Chilli Challenges and more
This week, the Chilli Challenges have been a big hit! Many children had a go at some of the challenges and many completed all of the challenges – a big well done to those children!
Here are some of the Chilli Challenges in action:
Using our cutting skills to make a paper plate Poppy.
Making the correct amount of playdough poppies. We enjoyed subitising and talking about how we arranged the poppies onto the playdough mats.
“Two poppies here and one over here… three poppies altogether”
“Four poppies and one more equals five poppies.”
“A group of two and another group of two… four poppies.”
“One and another one makes two.”
Using cubes and rulers to measure our feet. They particularly enjoyed comparing the size of each other’s feet.
Using a drawing app on the iPad to draw pictures of the poppies growing in Flanders Fields.
Phonics
We’re almost at the end of phase 2. Next week, the children will be taught the final 3 phonemes: l, ll, and ss. This week, we’ve noticed lots of children using their phonics skills when doing independent learning activities.
Using our segmenting skills when writing a sentence about Remembrance Day.
Using our blending skills to read captions.
Reading cvc words on a word hunt.
PE
On Wednesday, Mrs Palmer taught four animal gymnastic positions: cat, seal, frog, and butterfly. To end the lesson, the children moved across the mats like animals. Mrs Palmer told me about how fabulous they were at stretching their arms and pointing their toes.
Notices
- Please return your child’s yellow sound book on Monday 22 November so we can stick in the phase 3 sounds.
- It’s Anti-Bullying week next week. To kick off the week, we are taking part in Odd Socks Day. Children can come to school on Monday wearing odd socks!
- It’s also Nursery Rhyme week. All week we’ll be learning about different nursery rhymes. To finish the week, we ask children to come to school dressed as their favorite nursery rhyme character. (This is also a non-uniform day for Children in Need – they’ve clashed!)
- Please make sure your child’s Christmas production clothes are in a named carrier bag.
Home-Link Challenge
Finally…
Thank you to all the parents that came to the Reception drop-in session. It was lovely to see lots of proud children sharing their amazing learning with you.
Observational Drawing and Colour Wheels
As part of our Art topic, the children have been participating in some observational drawing techniques.
Topic learning – art
We are studying and comparing the artists Paul Klee and Leonardo da Vinci in our art lessons. We have sorted their pictures and learned about primary and secondary colours. We will be creating our own prints in the coming weeks.
Adjective Day!
The children have had a fantastic day dressed as adjectives. We have had children dressed up as sleepy, lethargic, sporty, spotty, pretty, beautiful, exhausted, spooky, scary and many more! We used the adjectives in our writing. The year 2’s were challenged to use two adjectives separated with a comma. They used their own adjective and a friends adjective to make a sentence.
“The spotty, sleepy girl was not very well.”
“I can see a spotty, blue jumper.”
“The magical, colourful unicorn was jumping in the sky.”
We also sung the following adjective song to help us remember what an adjective is.
Adjectives can tell you more
About a noun and that’s for sure
Ad-jec-tives
Well done, Year 1 and 2. What a fantastic adjective day!
This week’s bible story
How much can we remember?
Let’s start by asking ourselves some questions about today.
– What did you do as soon as you got out of bed?
– What did you eat for breakfast?
– How did you feel when you got to school this morning?
Next, let’s think about last weekend.
– What did you do on Saturday afternoon?
– What did you eat on Sunday?
How about last week?
Have you noticed how it becomes more difficult to remember events the further back in time they are?
These events may have happened quite a long time ago, but they are remembered because they were fun. Happy times tend to stay in our memories for a long time.
Sad times can stay in our memories for a long time, too.
Click the link to read all about Remembrance day and why we remember.
Reflection:
Have a look at the pictures of the poppy. Think about why wearing a poppy is important to people. Wearing a red poppy means, ‘We are remembering together.’
Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you for the many happy memories that we have.
We are sorry that some people have sad memories at this time of year
As they remember those who have died for our country.
May we wear our red poppies with love and compassion,
And may we remember and be thankful.
Amen.
Welcome back!
This week, we have been very busy looking a little more closely at Autumn. One of our focus books for the past week has been ‘Leaf Man’ by Lois Ehlert and this has been the inspiration for lots of learning in our classroom. On Tuesday, we took a trip around the school field to collect lots of leaves which the children sorted and then made into leaf crowns. We have also used conkers to create wonderful mark-making and some of the children have made their own ‘leaf people’. We have also been reading ‘It was a Cold, Dark Night’ by Tim Hopgood and this has given us the opportunity to talk about nocturnal creatures and their homes. Next week, we will be looking at the work of environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy and the children will be creating their own collaborative autumnal pieces of art.
Have a safe Bonfire Night, a lovely weekend and we’ll see everyone next week.
08 November 2021 – Adjective Day
We are learning more about the functions of words. Hopefully, your child has been talking about nouns already! On Monday 8th November, we are going to have an ‘Adjective Day’. The children will be asked to come in to school dressed as an adjective. The adjective can be as simple or as adventurous as you like. Please ensure that your child is aware of the word meaning and feels confident in sharing this with the class. There are lots of ideas if you search ‘adjective dress up day’ on the internet.
Please do not go to the expensive of buying anything new and have fun creating your adjective outfit! Their outfit needs to be suitable for school, safe and warm enough for them to wear all day.
Celebrations
This week, the children have been learning about celebrations: Diwali and Bonfire Night. Here are some snapshots of what activities we did to support our learning…
We used chalk to create fireworks.
We designed and made rockets.
We decided to change the writing area into a fire station. The children enjoyed role-playing fire officers. They pretended to answer 999 calls and made a note of any emergencies on incident forms. Each time we looked up there were fire officers putting out fires in different areas of the classroom. I think we must have had about 10 fires a day in our classroom!
We made Diva Lamps at the playdough table.
We made Rangoli patterns on pegboards.
In PE, we continued the theme and moved around the hall like fireworks.
Maths
Number 4 is our new focus number. After watching the Numberblock Four video, we noticed that the number 4 is a square number. We talked about the different shapes the Numberblock made and had a go at making our own shapes using the cubes. We made different arrangements using conkers and talked about our arrangements, for example,
“I’ve made a triangle with one conker in the middle.”
“One, one, one, one. One in each corner.”
“I’ve got one conker at the bottom and three at the top.”
“I’ve made a square like Numberblock 4.”
We’ve decided to change the Reception timetable for maths. Instead of trying to squeeze maths in every afternoon, we are doing two maths focus days at the end of the week and three shorter maths inputs at the beginning of the week. By doing longer sessions at the end of the week, we can spend more time deepening the children’s understanding. They will now learn a new focus number every two weeks.
Phonics
We jumped straight back into our phase 2 phonics sessions. The children learnt three more phonemes (e, u, r) They also learnt two more tricky words (no, go) These words can’t be blended.
Please keep using your sound book to practise recognising the phonemes and your word passport for blending words.
Pen disco!
On Thursday, we started pen disco. They enjoyed making large and small marks when dancing with their pens to the music. This activity supports fine motor skills and helps to improve pencil control.
News!
I finally got married in the October half-term!
My new teacher name is Mrs Wood.
The children have been a lot better than me at remembering my new name.
Reminders
- Don’t forget to come along to the Reception drop-in session on Thursday 11 November.
- Please make sure your child’s reading book is in their book bag every day.
- The winter weather is creeping in! Please make sure your child comes to school in a suitable winter coat.
- Don’t forget to join the Maths Zoom session on Tuesday 09 November at 6 pm.
Home-Link Challenge
