We have had a super week this week, reading the story ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’ where Oliver who only eats chips goes to stay with his Grandad and is challenged to find the potatoes in his vegetable garden. The deal was if does not find them, he has to eat whatever he has found. The children really enjoyed exploring the vegetables (and tasting some beetroot!), role playing the story in the small world area and creating healthy food plates in the creative area.They also drew and wrote about their favourite character as well as imagining a strange vegetable that Oliver might find in the garden and what might happen if he ate it! I loved the idea of the sparkly strawberries that made him invisible and the tiny orange that made him shrink! 🙂

In Maths we have been measuring and comparing length and height, using the words short, shorter, shortest and long, longer, longest to describe length and short shorter shortest and tall taller tallest to compare heights. They had great fun measuring lots of things in the classroom and in our outdoor area – including eachother!

It’s great to hear so many children keen to have a turn in the lucky dip box for reading at home 5 times a week. This runs Monday to Monday and each read must be recorded in their reading record. If they read one or the Collins EBooks, please remember to record that too. Our Little Wandle group read sessions are recorded as Group Read as the children read in a small group with me. When reading with your child, please encourage them to re-read a sentence after decoding (sounding out) so they begin to recognise more words and build their fluency.

Next week we will be completing our learning about Easter and why it is special to Christians. Lots of the children have made Easter Gardens following our discussions around this and will bring these home next week. They are also hoping to complete their carriers to keep an egg safe so we would really appreciate it if you have any general recycling resources they could use – small cardboard boxes and tubes – that you please send these in. Thank you.

On the final day of term (Friday 22nd) we will be having a special dress up day (just for our class) as we did not get to see much of each other on World Book Day due to all the exciting events going on in school that day. I have said to the children that I would love to see them as their favourite characters again and they can bring the book they are from so we can share them (and maybe have a little Easter Egg Hunt in the afternoon!) There will be no PE that day.

Please remember if you have any non-urgent queries, please send me an email on beech@crowmoorschool.co.uk

Hoping you all have a lovely weekend.

Miss Jones & Mrs Kenny

Another busy week in Beech Class, this week focused around a lovely book called the Polar Bear and The Snow Cloud by Jane Cabera. The children really enjoyed listening to the story and talking about the different animals the snow cloud made for the little bear. They have independently drawn and labelled animals on snow clouds as well as writing about their favourite polar animal in our focus sessions.

In Phonics they have learnt the last two phase 3 sounds ‘air’ (chair in the air) and ‘er’ (bigger digger) and have been starting to look at longer words with double letters such as ribbon, kitten, carrot, bigger, letter etc. They also learned the tricky words are, sure and pure. Next week they will continue to work on reading longer words and complete the Spring 1 assessments so we know what areas we need to recap and review as we continue after half term. It is really important the children read as much as possible – just a few minutes a day can make all the difference and the more they practice the more confident and fluent they will become!

If you missed the phonics session last week there is information here on the Beech Class Information Page if you scroll right to the bottom of the page. On Monday you should also have received some resources and your letter for accessing the Collins Ebooks that are available for the children to access from home. If you have any queries about this please send me an email on the class email beech@crowmoorschool.co.uk

In Maths this week we have been learning about odds and evens, finding and making doubles and combining two groups. There has been lots of dice and domino play to support them with doubles and combining two groups. Over the week they have become much more confident to recognise the total by identifying the smaller numbers within them e.g. is double 3 so it’s 6 or it’s 4 and 2 – that’s 6 too! See if they can still remember their doubles, odds and evens with you over the weekend too. 🙂

They have also been very busy at the creative table making some super polar bears, snow clouds and snowy owls. Using the white playdough we made, they’ve created their own snow creatures and with the paints have explored adding white to blue and blue to white to create different shades of blue. They then used their new colours to create ‘cold’ and snowy pictures similar to those in the book.

Next week is the last week of this half term already with Parent’s evening on Monday and Tuesday after school. This is a great opportunity to come and chat about your child’s progress this term. I am looking forward to seeing you all there. If you need a reminder of your time slot please let me know.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Jones and Mrs Kenny

This week our book of the week was Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers, where a penguin turns up on a little boy’s doorstep and he helps him find his way home. The children have had lots of fun finding out about penguins from the books we have borrowed from the library and making them with the black and white playdoh we made.
In English they have been writing lists of things they might pack in their suitcases to take to the South Pole and designing, labelling and writing about their own special boats they’d use to get there.

In phonics the children have leaned the sounds ‘ur’ (curl the fur), ‘ow’ (wow owl), ‘oi’ (boing boing) and ‘ear’ (come near to hear). They also learned the tricky words my, by and all. Next week they will learn the last two sounds in Phase 3 and then will spend the rest of their time consolidating these so they can recognise them in words and blend to read them fluently. Thank you to those who came along to the phonics session on Thursday morning to learn more about phonics and reading in reception and how you can support your child at home. I’m glad you found it useful. For those of you unable to make it I will be adding the PowerPoint with the information and links to useful resources to the Beech Class information page.

On Monday I will be sending letters home about the Ebooks that the children have available to access along with some other information given out during the session. If you have any queries or need any support with this please drop me an email to the class email address beech@crowmoorschool.co.uk

Maths this week has been all about 6,7 and 8. Finding numerals and different representations – how we show it on our fingers, or a ten frame, or with cubes or on a domino etc. We’ve also looked at one more and less than each number and started to look at the smaller numbers within each one e.g. to show 8 we can show 5 fingers on one hand and 3 on the other, or 4 and 4 etc. Some children used cubes and were able to recognise that there were groups of two in numbers 6 and 8 and they really enjoyed sorting the dominos to show which ones added up to 6,7 or 8.

Have a lovely weekend. Don’t forget to read, read, read over the weekend – and don’t forget to write in their yellow reading record each time they read, so they can see if they can get in the lucky dip box! (They must have 5 recorded reads in their books by next Friday to be able to do this!)

See you Monday.

Miss Jones and Mrs Kenny.

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