Just a little reminder that it is PE tomorrow. (Friday) Children should attend school in their PE kits and earrings must be removed as per school policy.
Author: Miss Jones
Beech Class Weekly Newsletter
This week we read the book ‘One Snowy Night’ by Nick Butterworth. The children had great fun making predictions earlier in the week about what might be coming up through the floorboards into Percy’s hut. I must admit, we were relieved to find it was just a mole rather than some of their larger (and scarier!) predictions! They also made a super job of writing labels and captions for Percy the Park Keeper.
In phonics this week we learned the sounds ‘oo’ (zoom to the moon), ‘oo’ (hook a book), ‘ar’ (March in the dark) and ‘or’ (born with a horn) and the tricky words was, you and they.
In maths we have been learning about one more and one less as well as developing our subitising skills. We have been practising recognising the smaller numbers within a number to work out how many are there altogether. E.g. I can see 3 and 1 so it must be 4. I can see 3 and 2. It’s 5.
During our topic sessions we have been looking at maps, including aerial maps and used Google earth to find school and share our journeys to school. Some children then drew maps of their journey to school, thinking about the significant features they pass on the way. The children have also enjoyed exploring ice and frozen characters, working out the best way to release them.
Next week I will be holding a phonics session for parents on Thursday morning at 9am, to share how the children learn to read with the Little Wandle Phonics Scheme and answer any questions you may have about supporting your child with reading at home. It would be great to see you there.
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Jones & Mrs Kenny
Beech Class Weekly Newsletter 12.1.24
Our first full week has flown by, reading the story “Kipper’s Snowy Day” by Mick Inkpen and drawing and writing about our favourite part.
In phonics we have learnt four new sounds ‘ai’ like rain, ‘ee’ like ‘sheep’, ‘igh’ like light and ‘oa’ like goat. The children have been working on their blending skills by sounding out each word before blending to read it then reading the word again to build up their fluency.
In Maths we have learned about zero and have been learning to represent numbers to 5 in lots of different ways as well as recalling the different ways to partition each one.
As part of our learning about What is Cold we have been talking about the seasons and how the weather and environment change during winter. We have talked about our own feelings about and experiences of snow and enjoyed exploring the ‘snow’ in class, making prints like Kipper from the story with the people and animals.
We have also been talking about where we live and looked at maps of the UK and the world, identifying the coldest parts of the planet and learning about some of the creatures who live there.
Just a little reminder that PE is on MONDAY and FRIDAY until February half term so children should come to school wearing suitable kit please. Please also remember they should have their book bags and reading records in school every day. If they are missing anything please let us know and we can arrange to replace them. It is so important that children are practicing their reading skills daily so they can become confident, fluent readers.
Have a lovely weekend,
See you Monday.
Miss Jones & Mrs Kenny
Beech Class Weekly Newsletter 5.1.24
Well Happy New Year and welcome back! It’s only been a couple of days but the children are starting to settle back into routine and have adapted easily to the changes in staffing. I have enjoyed spending the last two days getting to know them and look forward to getting to know them better and learn a more about them as term progresses.
In Phonics we have been recapping all the Phase 2 sounds and tricky words and will start Phase 3 next week. We will be learning four new sounds each week and also some new tricky words. It is important the children keep reviewing sounds and tricky words that they already know so they become confident and fluent readers so please look out for resources that will be sent home in the next couple of weeks to support with this. They have all completed drawings and independent writing about their Christmas holidays today, trying hard to use their phonic knowledge and form their letters correctly. They have also quickly learnt two poems from The Poetry Basket – Chop! Chop! and Popcorn! I was very impressed with how quickly they were able to recite them as a class and we will continue to learn to recite more poems from the Poetry Basket over the year.
In Maths we have been recapping what we learnt last term about all the numbers to 5 and how they are made up of other numbers, using the Numberblocks episode ‘Whole of Me’ to help us remember how to partition through song. We will begin our next unit learning about 6,7, and 8 on Monday.
From Monday we are having an extra PE session just for this term with the coach so PE will be on Mondays and Fridays up until February half term.
If you have any queries about your child’s learning, please feel free to drop me an email on beech@crowmoorschool.co.uk
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Jones, Mrs Kenny & Mrs Evason
Letter to Beech Class parents
Please see attached letter sent home at end of term.
Change of Teacher – Beech Class
Letter to Elm Class parents
Please see attached letter sent home at end of term regarding staff changes in January.
Elm Class Newsletter
With Christmas rapidly approaching this week seems to have flown past! However we have still managed to be very busy in the classroom, working on our reading, writing and maths and completing our D&T and History units around all the exciting Christmas events in the second half of the week. The children have really enjoyed learning about The Great Fire of London this half term and can talk about what they have learned so well – please make sure you ask them as they love to tell people all the things they have learned!
I am sure you will agree the children were all fantastic at the church and sang beautifully. I was so proud of them as I am sure you were too and Christmas dinner went down a treat yesterday lunchtime. Today was the most exciting one by far though with a secret fly past from Santa in a helicopter and a special visit from his after assembly.
Next week, although short will be very busy! Monday is Mathletics certificate day, so if they are close to earning one, make sure they go on over the weekend as I will get them They will have PE on Tuesday as normal and we break up for Christmas on Wednesday 20th December.
Have a lovely weekend.
Elm Class Newsletter
The children have worked incredibly hard this week completing end of term assessments. It has been a new experience for them and I’m very proud of how they all handled them.
We have talked a lot about making sure they take their time to read questions properly and that they look carefully at signs in maths questions to ensure they are using the correct operation. We will continue to practice these skills next term.
We have almost completed the Pied Piper of Hamelin book – we will read the final pages in English next week – and they independently wrote some super letters back to the Piper from the Mayor.
They have almost completed their History unit on The Great Fire of London and this week we were learning about the rebuild of the capital city by Christopher Wren. They pretended to be residents, thinking what questions they would ask King Charles II, and then drew some designs for rebuilding London talking about what they would change and why.
in D&T we’ve spent some time exploring how to make supports and use different joining techniques. They then created their designs with a partner ready for building next week. If you do have any cardboard boxes we would really appreciate it if you could please send them in to school at the beginning of the week. Thank you!
I hope you all had a great time at the Christmas Fayre. It was lovely to see so many of you there.
This week there are some exciting things going on – the church service at the Baptist Church on Wednesday 13th and Christmas dinner and jumper day on Thursday 14th. From Thursday children can wear something ‘Christmassy’ until the end of term (Wednesday 20th).
We will still have PE on Tuesday and Thursday as normal – apologies for the confusion with my typo last week!
I hope you all have a lovely weekend Please remember to read read read!! ☺️
Miss Jones
Elm weekly news 1.12.23
I can barely believe it’s the beginning of December! Where has the time gone?!
The children have continued to enjoy reading The Pied Piper and we have reached the point where he has led them over the bridge and out of Hamelin so there have been lots of discussions about where they might go and what might happen to them. They have also written some great letters to the Mayor on behalf of the Piper, complaining about not being paid for getting rid of the rats. Due to the heating issues today they have not yet had opportunity to respond as the Mayor but I’m sure they’ll make a great job of that task too.
In Maths we have completed our shape unit. Next week we will complete assessments and revisit some areas of addition and subtraction, such as adding and subtracting crossing a ten, to help consolidate that knowledge.
In Art they have been exploring watercolours, recreating lovely landscape pictures from The Pied Piper book and in science they have been investigating how to save water and reduce waste.
PE will be on Tuesday and Thursday as normal this next week and don’t forget it’s the Christmas Fayre on Friday. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Jones & Mrs Evason
Elm Class Weekly News 24.11.23
Another week has flown by I can barely believe it’s almost the end of November!
In English we are continuing to read The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Michael Morpurgo and the children are becoming really engrossed in the story. We’ve written character and setting descriptions so far and this week enjoyed lots of role play and hot seating to prepare for writing our newspaper report. We have been focusing on using conjunctions – because, but, if and when – and making sure we are using the correct tense when writing.
Last week in Maths we started our unit on Shape, focusing mainly on refreshing their knowledge of 2D shape names and properties, learning to talk about the number of sides and vertices different shapes have. This week we have moved on to 3D shapes, learning to name and describe them by talking about their faces, edges and vertices.
In computing the children are learning about digital photography and how they can use framing, positioning and lighting to ensure they take good photos as well as learning about the right to privacy and asking for permission when taking a photo of a person.
They are enjoying learning about The Great Fire of London in History, finding out about the events of the fire but also what it was like to live in 1666. They have been quite surprised by some of the jobs that existed then and how they are different today. In geography We’ve spent some time exploring atlases and Google earth to help us compare London to Shrewsbury and have been exploring building structures in D&T.
Please note, next week only PE will be on WEDNESDAY (29th) and Thursday (30th), instead of Tuesday and Thursday. Please ensure children are in their PE kits on those days. If you have any queries, please email me on the class email elm@crowmoorschool.co.uk
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Jones & Mrs Evason