Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
We’ve had a busy week in Year 2. We’ve enjoyed making our calendars, Christmas hats and table runners for our Christmas dinner on Friday.
We enjoyed a visit from Santa, our Christmas party and playing some Christmas games.
We’d like to say huge thank you for all of your support this term. The children are working so hard both in school and at home.
We hope you all have an amazing Christmas break and enjoy lots of family time together. Thank you to everyone for our lovely Christmas things.
Mrs Palmer, Mr Nash, Mrs Bye and Mrs Walton.
Merry Christmas
Year One would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. We recorded our singing and really hope you like it!
We are so proud of each and every child for the efforts they have put in to our nativity – Wriggly Nativity. It was a huge success!
Well done to all!
In the new year, Mrs Bye will be joining our team. She is currently doing her teacher training and is really looking forward to working in Year 1. Mrs Bye will be teaching some of the lessons on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. I (Mrs Freeman) will be in class supporting Mrs Bye.
It has been a super term and all of us have been amazed with how well the children settled into their new year group. There has been some fantastic learning, great progress and a little bit of fun along the way.
Thank you for our Christmas gifts.
Merry Christmas form the Year 1 staff team.
Living and Learning: To recognise different feelings in myself and others.
Recently, our Living and Learning sessions have focused on mental health and emotional wellbeing. The children have been recognising and naming some feelings that they might experience and the impact these can have on their body and mind.
Mental Wellbeing
The class have discussed that there is a normal range of emotions (e.g. happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, nervousness) and that all humans experience emotions in relation to different experiences and situations.
The benefits of physical exercise and time outdoors can impact positively on our mental wellbeing and happiness.
I love to get some fresh air.
Riding my bike is my favourite thing to do.
Sometimes big feelings can be defined as intense feelings which can often appear suddenly and in response to a situation. The children discussed whether these feelings are good/healthy or not so good. and they could talk about feelings that can intensify (get stronger).
Big feelings, like anger, make me feel cross for a long time!
Help at home
Getting young children to talk about their feelings can be difficult at times. Please reassure your child that they can share their feelings with a trusted adult or they can use the Living and Learning box in our classroom.
Share this story with your child.
It is a reassuring picture book encouraging children to open up about their fears and anxieties to help manage their feelings.
The perfect book to soothe worries during stressful times.
PE – using apparatus
This week, the children had so much fun using the large apparatus in PE. It was great to see all of the skills learnt in recent gymnastics sessions put into action. The children showcased their balancing, agility and coordination expertise.
The children modelled improved coordination and spatial awareness. It was great to see some of the pupils overcome fears when having time to explore apparatus and navigate across, on, over or under different equipment.
English: Reading and Writing
In English, we have been enjoying reading the book Not Now Bernard by David McKee (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip). From this, we have been looking at different pictures of monsters and thinking of nouns and adjectives to describe them.
We then designed our own monsters, thinking carefully about their key features. Look at some of our wonderful writing below:
Help at home:
Use the pictures and word mats below to think of some sentences to describe the monsters. Write some sentences about the monsters. Bring them into school to share with us.
Topic: Art
We have started the practical sessions in our Art learning. We created our own print block, taking inspiration from artwork by Paul Klee. He used lots of shape, lines and bright colours.
We then used our print block to roll on some paint and make our own printing. Have a look at some of our amazing prints below.
Help at home: Use the vocabulary to describe Paul Klee ‘Senecio’.
Owl Babies
This week our focus book has been Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.
We wrote messages from the baby owls in the Message Centre and made cosy houses for the owl babies in the Waste Innovation area. We rehearsed some phrases from the story and added actions to help us to remember them.
Our word of the week was: Swoop, the children have really enjoyed using this word during the week in their learning.
” mummy owl just swoops back home to the babies owls!”
“When you swoop you move down quickly!”
Help at Home: Tell your grown up at home about an animal that swoops.
Phonics
This week we have recapped all the Phase 2 phonemes. We also practiced reading words with ‘s’ at the end.
We’ve learnt all of the Phase 2 tricky words. Tricky words are tricky because we can’t sound them out- we just have to know them by sight.
Help at home: Practice reading the tricky words on the ‘Learn at Home’ sheets sent home each week.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite the poem each day. By saying the poem out load we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line.
this week our poem was Wise Old Owl
A wise old owl sat in an oak,
The more he heard, the less he spoke.
The less he spoke, the more he heard.
Why aren’t we all like that wise old bird?
Next week our focus book is The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allen Ahlberg and we will be learning about what happens to our post. To enhance your child’s learning experience, we will be writing and posting a postcard home. If you would like your child’s postcard to be posted through Royal Mail please provide a stamp in a named envelop by Thursday 14 December,
Reminders!
Please can all Nativity Costumes to be sent in by Tuesday 12 December, please let us know if you’re having problems as we have some spare items in school.
Reception will be making Christingles this week, please can we ask for a donation of one orange for each child. We are not joining school in church but we will have our own little class worship in school.
Don’t forget to attend a learning journey drop in. We look forward to sharing your child’s books.
Times- 8.45am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm (Tuesday and Thursday)
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman
Bandi Chhor Divas
This week, we have been learning about the story of Guru Hangobind Sahid Ji and how, in 1619, he saved 52 Sikhs from prison. We understand why Sikhs celebrate this event, known as Bandi Chhor Divas and how it links to Diwali. We have also compared this religious celebration with other events, such as Hanukkah and Christmas and how this celebration relate to us.
Help at home – ask your child about the story of Guru Hangobind. Can they remember how he helped free 52 innocent prisoners? Can they retell the Jewish story of Hanukkah and say how it links to the Sikh event Bandi Chhor Divas?
Listen to some reading with prosody.
Today, the children rehearsed the weekly poem. Here are a few examples of the children reading with prosody. (expression)
A HUGE well done to all of the children!
Spring Attendance Competition
St James’ CE Primary is a happy and healthy place to be – and maybe even a lucky one, too!
Look out for our attendance competition next half term. All pupils with attendance of 96% or higher will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Love to Shop vouchers!
So… for the full Spring 1 half-term, Monday 08 January to Friday 09 February (five weeks), if your child reaches a good level of attendance – that’s 96% – their name will be entered into a prize draw. We’ll select one lucky winner on the last day of the half-term (Friday 09 February).
Remember, arriving late for school counts as an unauthorised absence. This affects a child’s overall attendance figure, and that might mean they lose out.
So far this term, 40 pupils have 100% attendance and 80 pupils have over 96% attendance – well done to the children and their families!