Week 5 – Owl Babies
We have seen lots of signs of Winter this week in Reception. We were very excited to find ice in our outdoor area and wondered how it got there.
Our focus story this week has been Owl Babies. We have sequenced the story remembering the repeated phrases. We have enjoyed learning more about nocturnal animals and when and where we might see them. We used different drawing pencils to draw them and even used our phonics to try writing their names.
A big thank you to everyone for working hard at home with phonics. The children are working so hard with their segmenting and blending skills. I am sure you will agree we are all fantastic readers! We have been using these skills outside with our phonics balls. Can you read the word and then send it down the tunnel?
We love outdoor learning in Reception. We enjoy exploring all the different activities and creating our own challenges. In our outside construction we decided to create a roller coaster for the cars! We had to think about how the cars would travel through the tubes.
We are very excited to show everyone our Nativity play next week. Thank you to everyone who has brought in costumes and helped us to learn songs and lines. It is going to be amazing!
Christmas events
It’s a busy time of year with so many things happening. Here is a reminder of the Christmas events taking place over the next two weeks:
Wednesday 7th December, 2pm: Christingle Service at St James’ Church
Thursday 8th December, 2.15pm: Early Years and KS1 Christmas play
Friday 9th December, 9.30am: Early Years and KS1 Christmas play
Tuesday 13th December: Christmas dinner
Wednesday 14th December: Early Years and KS1 parties (non-uniform)
Thursday 15th December: Ks2 parties (non-uniform)
During our productions, we will be raising money for our new school charity voted for by the Junior Leadership Team. This year we will be supporting Cancer Research UK.
Author: Bethan Woollvin
Yesterday, in KS1, we were lucky enough to have a special meeting with popular author, Bethan Woollvin! Not only does she write stories for children, she illustrates them, too. She delivered a virtual workshop all about her book ‘Little Red’. Ask your child what happens in the story! We read the book together and were shown how to draw our own Little Red character. We had a fantastic morning and many of us feel inspired to become authors and illustrators.
Digital Artists
Today, the children used photos they had taken previously to create some digital art. Using an app on the iPads, the class enhanced their photos. Some chose to add very vivid colours while others opted for black and white.
What’s that sound? Does sound get louder or quieter the further away it is?
Year 3 investigated sound this week to see whether they could hear the same sound equally well the further away they moved from its source.
Mrs Neal blew her whistle and we moved further away from her down the path!
Sir Christopher Wren
Year 3 and 4 have been learning about Architects in their Topic lessons. This week Year 4 looked at Christopher Wren’s designs for St Paul’s Cathedral. They looked closely at 3 designs and decided which one was used for the final building.
They designed their own Cathedral and then constructed it using Lego or cardboard boxes. I hope you will agree they are really fantastic!
Zoom with the author and illustrator, Bethan Woolvin
This morning, we had a zoom with an author and illustrator Bethan Woolvin. Over the past few weeks, we have been enjoying lots of her stories. She read her story Little Red to us. After, she showed us her studio and shared lots of her artwork. We had the chance to become illustrators too. Bethan showed us how to draw Little Red from her book. Have a look at our amazing artowork below.
Living and Learning: Mental Health
We’ve started a three week block of Living and Learning lessons around mental health this week. Being able to identify and talk about our feelings and emotions is an important part of mental health. In our Living and Learning lesson today, we shared our feelings and emotions and discussed how these can change. The children considered different things we can do if we’re feeling angry, sad, worried, anxious.
When I feel angry I ….
listen to music
read a book
listen to the sound of birds
take time out
lie down
do some breathing techniques
do some mindfulness
The following emotions, stress and anxiety, came up a lot in our class discussion so we thought of strategies to help to ease these.
Reduce Stress and Anxiety
Using a fidget toys cannot prevent or eliminate these issues, but they can help to calm our strong emotions. We have a selection of these in our room so we each took turns in touching them and describing how fidget toys may help to ease some of our emotions.
Finally, the children created some helping heroes. These advertised some self help techniques for others.
Maths: area
In maths, we’ve been learning about area – the space inside a 2D shape. We’ve used a range of skills when learning about area: estimating, comparing, counting and reading.
Help at home: Why not check out this video to support your child’s maths learning at home!
Week 4 – How to catch a star
In our maths sessions this week we have been investigating the number 5. We have been using part whole models to explore different parts that come together to make a whole. We enjoyed creating 5 in different ways with linking cubes.
Following on from our learning around the Houses of Parliament we looked at some pieces of artwork by Monet. Monet created images of the Houses of Parliament at different points during the day. We really liked how all the colours blended together. We decided to use oil pastels to create our own pieces of inspired artwork.
Thank you to everyone who has brought their outfits in for the FS/KS1 Nativity. Please can all outfits be in school by Monday 28 November.
Mrs Payne