Just a reminder that we are having our dress up day tomorrow (Friday 22nd March) where children in Beech Class are invited to come dressed as their favourite book character and bring a copy of their favourite book to share. Weather permitting we may also be going on a little Easter Egg hunt so please ensure children have suitable outdoor footwear! There will be no PE tomorrow.
Beech Class Bulletin
Beech Class Weekly Newsletter 15.03.24
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
Beech Class Newsletter 1.03.24
The end of another week already and what a lovely Spring day it turned out to be!
This week our book was Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen. The children have been drawing and writing about the main character Jasper and had some fantastic ideas about what they thought might be at the top of the beanstalk he grew. Fairies, unicorns, friends, castles and princesses to name a few but my favourite was the cotton candy van that gave away free cotton candy! Yum!
They have also really enjoyed exploring different types of seeds and planting their own sunflowers. We have also sown some cress to see how much quicker it grows than our other seeds.
In Maths we have been learning more about 10 and have been working on finding and recalling bonds to 10. Today some of the children were even exploring 3 or 4 parts – so 2 and 3 and 5 or 2 and 3 and 3 and 2!
In Phonics we are continuing to consolidate our knowledge of the Phase 3 sounds and tricky words and have been looking at longer words with double letters e.g. butter, bigger, dinner, shimmer and they even read the word fan-tas-tic brilliantly! Well done to those who managed to read their reading books five times this week and earn a dip in the lucky dip box. We are aiming for fluency so each book must be read at least three times before it is changed. If you are logging on to the Collins Ebooks that are available to them, please just record this in their reading record too! Thank you.
Just a reminder that PE is on FRIDAY only until Easter. Children should be in their PE kits on this day. Trainers should only be worn on PE days.
Next week we will be learning about animal lifecycles and will be reading the book The Ugly Duckling. We have already had some discussions about what sorts of creatures hatch from eggs and which animals give birth to their young, but will be looking more into different lifecycles next week.
It is of course World Book Day on Thursday, so we look forward to seeing who the children decide to come to school as and hearing all about their favourite book characters. There will be a little surprise in store for the children and I am sure it will be a wonderful day.
Hopefully this afternoon’s sunshine will stay a while! Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Jones & Mrs Kenny
Beech Class Newsletter 23.02.24
We’ve had a great first week of Spring 2. To start our topic of Growth for this half term, in English we have read the story ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson. The children really enjoyed joining in with the repeated parts and thought it was funny the butterfly kept getting it wrong! We have been learning some wonderful new words – sorrowful, frustrated, bewlidered, persevere and triumph – see if they can remember them and what they mean. They have drawn and written about their favourite character from the story and also enjoyed imagining what might come out of an egg that butterfly finds in the forest! Some interesting and brilliant ideas!
They have also been creating some lovely artwork of the animals, which will be going up on our display in the corridor. We will share a picture for you to see when it is complete.
We have also talked about other things that grow, that we will learn about this term, emphasising that only living things (plants, animals and humans) grow and this week focused on animals and their babies, talking about which ones hatch from eggs and which give birth. We have also started a little project to design and build a carrier to keep an egg safe. If you have any small cardboard, plastic or other boxes or containers you were going to recycle, we would be really grateful if you could donate them to us for them to use. Thank you.
In Maths we have learned about 9 and 10. They have been exploring and finding the numerals or numbers of objects, representing the numbers themselves in different ways and comparing them to the other numbers they know. Next week we will look at one more and less, doubles and number bonds to 10.
In Phonics we are continuing to practice the sounds we learned last half term, revisiting them daily and working on our blending and fluency. It is really important the children sound out the words e.g. “c-oa-t” then blend to read “coat” whilst they are still developing their blending skills. If they are finding this tricky, you can model for them but it is important they still say the sounds before the word so they learn to do it more confidently themselves rather than just learning the words by sight.
Just in case you’ve not seen it I posted a memo on Tapestry recently asking if you would be willing to share a family photo to put up in our new home corner after the big half term move round. We just thought it would be lovely for the children to have a picture of their family up on the wall to share and talk about. If you would like to do this please email beech@crowmoorschool.co.uk, add it as an observation on Tapestry or pop a copy in their bag and we will copy it and return it to you.
Have a lovely weekend – hopefully it will be a little drier!
Miss Jones & Mrs Kenny
Beech Class Weekly Newsletter 9.2.24
This week our book of the week was Poles Apart by Jeanne Lewis. The children have enjoyed following Mr White the polar bear and the penguin’s trip round the world to get back to the South Pole, making models with the construction kits of some of the landmarks they passed, and using found resources to make boats to travel across the sea. They have also written shopping lists and created their own picnics for Mr White.
In maths they have learnt about mass using balancing scales and explored the capacity of a range of containers, comparing them and putting them in order to show greatest to least capacity.
In phonics this week the children have been working on reading and writing longer words such as lemon, market, farmyard, rooftop, bedroom using the ‘chunking’ method and reviewing all the tricky words we’ve learned so far. We have also been completing some phonics assessments so we know which sounds and tricky words we need to keep practising after half term.
We had a lovely chat about why we were all dressed in our own clothes today and talked about what mental health was and why it was important. The children shared their favourite things to do and thought about what was special to them. We had a real range of answers from things to places and people. E.g. “my X-box”, “my toys”, “my house”, “the beach”, “watching the rain”, “looking for rainbows”, “hugging my mum on the playground after school” and “just my family”
It was their last Monday PE session with the coach this week. After half term PE will be on Fridays only.
Have a lovely half term break and don’t forget to read, read, read!
See you Monday 19th February.
Miss Jones & Mrs Kenny
Beech Class Weekly Newsletter 02.02.24
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
Beech Weekly Newsletter 26.1.24
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.
PE
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.
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