A big warm welcome back to you all after what was hopefully a lovely Christmas period for everybody.
The children have come back bright as buttons this week and have effortlessly slipped back into normal routine together for the new term. Apparently there wasn’t any coal or horse manure in their Xmas stockings this year which in my opinion just emphasises what well behaved and studious the children they were last year!
In our English lessons we have moved onto different story books in RWI. Some children have moved onto different stages regarding their story banding. They have been teaching each other very well in partnerships emphasising the right way to say their speed sounds and story words. They have also recalled their essential red story words on sight which has really impressed us. The fluency of their reading is improving and lolly pop sticks have been used very professionally for the direction of what is being read by our ‘budding’ teachers of the future. The children have had very fruitful discussions about what they are focussing on. They have related what they have read to their own experiences, some of which have tickled us, especially anecdotes about bus trips. In addition to RWI we have started our whole class novel study work with our new story book Beegu. The children have listened to the first section of it and have answered simple comprehension questions with their talk buddies. They have acted parts of it out using freeze framing and have made insightful predictions as to what may happen next in the story.
In maths, the children have been chanting and singing counting forwards and backwards in two’s and 10’s. They have consolidated work on place value both comparing amounts, two numbers, ordering up to three groups/numbers whilst using the language smallest to greatest.
In science the children have the new topic of Animals including Humans where we firstly investigated and asked questions of how we have changed since we were babies. We got out of our time machines and looked at photos of teachers as babies and discussed what things looked the same and what had changed. We then did some investigation work involving our bodies, locating the different parts and features, using their scientific names and then learnt what our main senses are and what part of the body drives them.
In RE the children have been talking about how Christians might look after God’s Earth. They devised and described their favourite thing they have seen in their world and made a set of rules which might be followed by others to preserve the Earths’ creation.
All of the children have had a very successful spelling test today. Well done to all, very proud of you! The new list is in their books for next week. Congratulations to Thea who got the classes 1st Star of the week trophy award for persevering with her English work and aiming to improve her sentence word building skills in writing. I wonder who will be going home with the trophy next week?
The children now have a PE session of a Monday and Friday afternoon. Please could you ensure that your child has a kit which includes outdoor trainers in school on those days.
Please come in to see me as usual for a chat if you need to discuss anything to do with your child.
Have a lovely weekend together.

Mr Mavin