Spring 2 2023

Friday 31st March 2023
 
We made it to the end of the Spring term! The children have had the best day today, showing everyone their Easter bonnets and performing to the parents. We even managed to cram in a little Math's lesson where we looked at 3D shapes and found them around the classroom. We found dice as cubes, bottles and pen tins as cylinders, marbles for spheres and a wooden box as a cuboid. 
 
The children in one group for phonics have looked at ear, air and ure this week. They have found these particularly tricky and we will therefore revisit them when we return to school. The other group have enjoyed playing lots of consolidation games where they focused on reading real and alien words. 
 
We have enjoyed exploring number bonds to ten this week and have used a variety of resources to support us with this. The children really enjoyed having a Numicon piece and having to find their number bond partner. 
 
We finished off our RE unit of 'Why do Christians put a cross in an Easter garden?' and we created our own Easter gardens in pairs. The children were able to explain how the plant pot was used to represent the tomb that Jesus' body was placed inside and the cross is a way for Christians to remember how someone so special died and how it is a reminder that we should be kind and forgive others. 
 
In PE we consolidated all of our ball skills and had a game of hand tennis using our brand new basketballs - they were extra bouncy so we had to be lighter on our toes!
 
Please have a wonderful two week break and stay safe!
 
Miss G x
Friday 24th March 2023

One phonics group have reviewed: air, ure and er with tricky word was

The other phonics group has reviewed ar, or, ur, ow, oi with tricky word they.

This week the children reviewed list writing and linked it back to previous learning of writing shopping lists. But this time we had to write a list for one of the Three Little Pigs who had been kicked out of their house by the mummy pig. We had things like lunch, swimming costume, jumper, socks and all sorts of wonderful suggestions. The children later in the week, got into groups and went on the stage in the playground to perform the story to their peers. They used their confidence value and really showed they understood the sequencing of the story.

In Maths the children have been looking at numbers 9 and ten a little deeper and we then went on to create our own counting book which we laminated and bound so everyone can look at and enjoy it. It showed all the ways we can represent numbers 0-10. The children loved having large bottles of green water and singing the Ten Green Bottles song where they got to come and kick a bottle over and work out what one less was. The children also created towers of numbers 1-10 and put them side by side to notice that the one more makes them look like stairs.

In PSHE we had a very serious talk about ‘Stranger Danger’. We approached this topic by reading the book ‘Not Everyone is Nice’ which illustrated it in a very child friendly way. The children all shared what they should do and showed a real understanding of how to keep themselves safe.

In PE the children have refined their ball bouncing skills and can now walk and pat a ball. We also had a go at passing a ball to a partner and next week we will revisit this before trying our game of hand tennis – the children are trying so hard and the progress is phenomenal. The level of control they can now show over a basketball is great.

The children have worked with Mrs Gibson to follow a recipe and make salt dough hot cross buns ready for our performance to you next Friday. The children have also created crowns/bonnets for all of the staff in school to wear on Friday.

In their own choosing time, children have been creating books about the Easter story, lollipop stick crosses to represent the Christian cross. We have had necklaces and loads of other wonderful creations. The children have also been exploring watercolours and were a little cross that they aren’t as vibrant as the other paints that we usually have on offer.

We introduced some 3D shapes today ready for our learning next week and we looked at a sphere, cylinder, cuboid, cube, cone and a square based pyramid. The children enjoyed stacking them and seeing which ones could roll.

Keep reading and name writing!

Miss G x

Friday 17th March 2023

One phonics group have reviewed: ur, ow, oi and ear with tricky word all.

The other phonics group has reviewed igh, oa, oo as in boot and oo as in book with tricky word she.

This week we have been learning about time and we took the toaster to the classroom to time how many minutes it takes to cook a hot cross bun.. three minutes made them black and burnt so we found the optimum to be one whole minute. We then spread the butter on by ourselves and gobbled them all up!

We then went on to look at the numbers 9 and 10 and then completed some activity stations where we had to thread 9 or 10 beads on to a pipe cleaner, build a tower with 9 or 10 cubes, show 9 and 10 on a ten frame with bears and also show the amounts on a bead string. It took lots of careful counting.

This week we started our new story of The Three Little Pigs and we had to decide what was the beginning, middle and end and sequence some photos from the story. We then all wrote captions for these pictures. We used tricky words: he, they, the and all. We also used bricks to build houses for the little pigs – they were so imaginative!

In RE we have been looking at symbols of Easter. We made lots of links between our previous learning. We looked at a cross, palm leaves, simnel cake, a special candle, Easter eggs and the empty tomb. The children really enjoy learning about all of this – ask them to tell you all about it!

In PE we have been refining our ball skills and how to drop and catch a ball and then using our hands to bounce the ball using a patting/pushing movement. Next we will be passing a ball to a friend to build up to our game of hand tennis with a basketball!

PSHE saw Miss G pretend to eat some really dirty food – YUKK! Thankfully the children stopped her and said she shouldn’t eat it because it’s covered in germs. This led us into a brilliant discussion about why we should wash our hands before eating and after using the toilet.

The children have made a very special card for Sunday… shhh!

I can’t believe how fast this year is going. The children are progressing amazingly, and I look forward to seeing you all at Parent’s Evening and sharing your child’s lovely work with you.

Keep reading and name writing!

Miss G x

Friday 10th March 2023

This week we have been doing lots of learning..

In Phonics one group have been looking at tricky word ‘you’ and the other have been looking at ‘me’and ‘we’.

We have looked at sounds: igh, ow, or, ar in one group and  Sh, ch, ee, ng. We are nearly finished with our phase 3 review.

In PSHE we talked about the importance of sleep. Children should have 10-12 hours sleep a day. We talked about what we do to get ready for bed and had lots of lovely contributions. Some of us like to have a bath, a glass of milk, pyjamas, stories.. We had a listen to some lullabies.

In PE we continued our target practice using an underarm throw. We tried this with different sized balls and bean bags. We had to look at our target and transfer our weight onto our other foot.. the accuracy was astounding!

In RE we have thought about Palm Sunday and how Jesus rode through Jerusalem on a donkey whilst people waved palm leaves at him. We listened to the Bible story and then we created our own palm leaves and acted out the story.

In Maths we have been having lots of fun with measurement. We have been ordering teddy towers from tallest to shortest and then shortest to tallest. We had car races and used our footsteps as a way to measure how far they had travelled and then compared which number was greatest. We then thought about the days of the week and what happened yesterday, later today and tomorrow and then sequenced the days of the week.

In English we worked very hard to write a letter from the Little Red Hen. Some of us realised we needed a question mark at the end of the question we wrote. The children are becoming so great at realising when they need finger spaces and full stops. I am so, so proud of them!

The children have been choosing to do measuring and writing in their own choosing time and all of their learning really is coming together. They are applying their sounds, actively getting sound mats and word mats to support them and they are becoming independent learners.

 

Please keep reading!

 

Have a wonderful weekend.

 

Miss G x

Friday 3rd March 2023

Another busy week for us all in class Plym! We have been in our two phonics groups with one group learning: ng, ai, ee and igh and tricky word are.

The other group: y, z,zz,qu, ch and tricky word he.

This week we have been rounding off part whole models with finding ways to make 6,7 and 5 using dots and careful counting. We then went on to measuring and using cubes to help us, we found that  a pencil was 8 cubes long and a bookbag was 14 cubes long! We then drew around our feet, cut it out and searched around the classroom for things that were taller and shorter than our footprints.

In English we have been writing a speech bubble for a character we created. We stayed in line with the Little Red Hen story and our character said ‘Not I.’ Lots of us found a capital letter on a word mat and found tricky word ‘I’. Some of us even challenged ourselves further to write ‘I am too busy.’.

In PSHE we have been thinking about healthy eating – we sorted some food into healthy and unhealthy piles – we had lots of great discussions because some things we thought weren’t bad for us if we only have small amounts and on special occasions.

In PE we have been thinking about how to pass a ball/object to a target. We had to have a gate of cones and think about how to pass it to our partner. Some of us chose to roll, throw and bounce. We are getting very accurate.

In RE we learnt about what the Easter story is and discussed lots of things such as how Jesus came back to life, where he went, who moved the rock.. we had lots of very thoughtful ideas.

We are looking at traditional tales at the moment, so this afternoon we started to introduce the finger puppets and the children have begun to create some lovely little stories. The children have also been mask making this week where they used string, scissors, hole punchers and crayons.

 

Remember to read please.

 

Have a great weekend,

Miss G x

Friday 24th February 2023

 

Welcome back! The children have returned with a new sense of responsibility. The children have remembered their morning routines and we are now managing to get lessons completed faster and that means we get to have EXTRA choosing time. 

 

We now split for phonics and children have been doing different things in their group. One group looked at j,v,w,x and the tricky word be.

 

The other group have looked qu, ch, sh and th with tricky word he.

 

In PSHE we have started to think about how we can keep our bodies healthy. The children suggested eating fruit and veg, drinking water and someone said exercise. We had exercise cards and had to act them out whilst our friends guessed, it was so much fun and we laughed a lot.

 

In PE we had to try and move objects around our bodies. We had basket balls, bean bags and ribbons. The general consensus was the ball was the hardest because we couldn’t hold it in one hand.

 

In RE we looked at some photos associated with Easter and thought about what we already know about  Easter and why we think we celebrate it. We had a very interesting discussion with lots of lovely points made.

 

In Maths we have started to think about combining two groups and how __ add ___ equals something when we count them altogether. We have used dominoes to help us to create some addition problems with lots of careful counting and recording.

 

In English we looked at our new book, Little Red Hen and wrote some lovely sentences about what we could see.

 

As it was pancake day we enjoyed the story Mister Wolf’s Pancakes and had the flour, salt, saucepans and water outside to try and make our own pancake mix – sorry for the mess!

 

Please keep up with the reading, the children really are beginning to fly.

 

Have a superb weekend,

 

Miss G x