Mrs. Edwards Teacher
Mrs. Hill Teaching Assistant
Mrs. Jackson Teaching Assistant
Mrs. Gardner 1-1 Teaching Assistant
Mrs. Hoque 1-1 Teaching Assistant
Mrs. Bourne 1-1 Teaching Assistant
What have we been learning?
Phonics
This term the children have taken their first steps on the journey of learning how to read. We have learnt to recognise all of phase 2 and some of phase 3 graphemes and their corresponding sounds. We are learning how to segment and blend, which is to decode and read words and have learnt that some words do not segment and blend and therefore have to be learnt and remembered by sight. Lastly, we were very excited to receive our Big Cat reading books and have been busy practising reading these as well as practising our phase 2 & some of phase 3 graphemes and ‘tricky words’ at home.
Maths
We have been very busy learning about numbers to 5. We have been learning how to count objects carefully, as we recognise the order and quantity of 5. The children have enjoyed looking at the patterns within 5 and learnt how to subitise numbers within 5. Lastly, we have explored 2D shapes and 3D shapes and how our environment is made from them.
Topic – Autumn and Christmas
This term the children enjoyed exploring and observing the effects of Autumn on our school environment.
It all started with a discussion of how Autumn effects our local environment. The children enjoyed telling me all of their knowledge of how leaves change colour and fall off the trees, how the weather changes and what happens to animals and plants. We decided to use a checklist and see if we could observe any of the changes within our school grounds. The children loved exploring our grounds and finding out where the trails led. We observed the leaves changing colour and some leaves falling off the trees and saw fungi and squirrels in the trees. The children wanted to use some of the leaves to make some pictures, so I read them the story of The Leaf Man, written by Lois Ehlert. They were so excited and some went off to design their creations by drawing them. We loved going out into our grounds to collect leaves and were very lucky to do so on a very windy day and enjoyed watching the leaves blowing in the wind! Mrs Jackson was very kind and collected some conkers and pine cones from her local area to supplement our collection. The children enjoyed designing their creations by placing them on card until they were happy with them and then used PVA glue to stick them onto the card.
Lastly, the children drew observational drawings of one of our trees in late autumn, so that some of the leaves had already begun to fall off. They worked very hard at drawing what they saw and how the tree began as a trunk and ended as branches from thick to thin. We then looked at how to make autumn colours. They tried to make predictions of which colours they would need to mix to make green, orange and brown and were fascinated when watching the colours turn.
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Christmas – The Nativity Story and decoration day.The children enjoyed learning about The Nativity Story through our Godly play in candlelight and dressing up in our role play area. We enjoyed watching the puppets tell the story of Jesus’s birth and asked some very interesting questions and used this knowledge to sequence and label the story pictures. Some of us began to write our first sentences too! We were very excited when we received a letter from the Three Kings to tell us that they were lost! The children decided to make maps to send to them and were very interested to learn about what Bethlehem looked like in Jesus’s day and how their houses were the same, but also different as they didn’t have the same roof as ours. We looked at the surrounding areas and what a desert is and also how the trees are different too.
We were very lucky to take part in a nativity play with year 1 and 2 and although we couldn’t perform it in front of our parents, Miss Harris came to our rescue and filmed it and uploaded it for us to watch. We worked very hard to learn two songs: No Room and Away in a Manger and enjoyed performing them very much.
The children enjoyed the school’s Decoration Day and although our grandparents were not able to come, we still enjoyed the day making decorations for our classroom. They worked very hard and showed their skills of cutting and sticking!
In October, we were very lucky to meet Faye Akpalu, an author who wrote YaaYaa’s Hair Wash. She read the story to us and told us all about being an author. The children were mesmerised and asked very interesting questions. They were also able to purchase a copy of her book too!
In October, we were very lucky to enjoy an archery session with our PE Governor, Mr Dockeril. The children listened really well and enjoyed pulling the bows and aiming the arrows at the targets.
In November, we enjoyed a visit from our local police. They brought with them their car and showed us all of the objects that help them in their day to day work. We enjoyed looking their shields, first aid kits and crow bars and listened very carefully to what a Police Officer does and how they protect us.