Spring 2 2022

Homework support: We do not expect children to complete their homework fully independently. There will be times where they will need parental support as some mathematical concepts may not have been taught yet for example, and these will develop throughout the school year. If there is a section where you have had to support, can you please indicate this on their work. If you think something is too tricky and you feel you have had to give a higher level of support, please do not hesitate to come and speak to the class teacher, if you feel this is necessary.
Friday 8th April 2022
 
We made it to the end of the Spring term!
 
This week we have been finishing off lots of our topics. In Computing we completed the text for our special family member portraits on paint and used the A symbol to add text about who they are and why they are special.
 
In Geography we did some field work and observed different areas of the school and talked about what we could see, hear, smell and touch in those areas. We looked at the field, the playground, the classroom and the school hall. We then explored maps, looked at maps of the local area and looked a little more closely at map symbols and discussed what they mean. We looked at parking signs, a school sign, camping, hospital and lots of others. We also had a little talk about our route to school. Some of us had to go up the big hill out of Millbrook! For our final session we created our own map symbol. We had a symbol for a vets, a park, a beach and a few others. 
 
In Music we explored tambourines and maracas and playing them in a steady rhythm to a variety of different tempos. For our final session we got to choose between the drum, the maracas and the tambourines - as you can imagine the drum was the most popular!
 
This week we also had our annual counter and Easter egg hunt as well as our Easter bonnet parade where you all came to see us sing our lovely song that we practiced very hard on. 
 
Please have a superb break and I look forward to welcoming you back for the summer term.
 
Miss G x
1st April 2022
 
How is it April already?!
 
This week year one have had assessment week and have had to do some very special challenges - reading. math's and writing. We have used our confidence value and tried our very best and I couldn't be more proud of them.
 
In PE we did our first complete circuit of activities and recorded our scores, we were so chuffed when we had beaten the scores from our 1st and second practice runs. We are excited to try and beat them again next week! In our other PE lesson we had a mini football match and had to apply all of our skills, Mrs Miller was blown away by how much we have improved!
 
In Science we had to test the effects of exercise on our bodies and predict before testing whether they made our heart rate rise or just stay the same. We had to do each activity for 30 seconds. 
 
In RE we re-capped the Easter story and sequenced images from the story. We then talked about whether parts of the story were 'happy' or 'sad' and then created a poster. We had some very interesting questions raised such as 'Why is it called Good Friday' if bad things happened in it?'. Research told us it was because it led to something good - the resurrection of Jesus before he then wet to heaven.
 
EYFS have thought about what we use electricity for and created posters if ways to help us save electricity - I am sure that is music to your ears with the recent price increases! Ha!
 
They have also looked at the numbers 9 and ten, what they look like as words, with different objects and sorted different pictures to say whether they showed the number 9 or ten.
 
In our outside area we have enjoyed the sunny weather and our bikes and have gotten really good at taking it in turns to use them. We also had flowers frozen into ice blocks and we used water colours to make them look beautiful. In another tray we had red sand, water and lots of flowers and used the pots and pans to create some amazing potions. One of us created a potion that made us super speedy - it really did work!
 
Please read daily as always and year ones to complete their spelling and math's homework.
 
See you next week for our final week of the Spring term!
 
Miss  G x
Friday 25th March 2022
 
This week was a little higgledy-piggledy as we had lots of children and staff off not feeling very well. We wish them a speedy recovery and hope you're all fit and well to join us again next week :(. 
 
We had our balance bikes out and had a go at riding them around on the playground. We also worked together to use to brushes and soapy water to clean off the cobwebs from all of our bikes so that we can use them now it's warmer weather, in our outside area. We have been really grown up using the sand timers to ensure no-one spends too long on them and that everyone gets a turn.
 
in PSHE we learnt about road safety and why it is so important to know how to cross the road safely - especially with the big road that we have outside of school. We made our own 'Stop' signs to pretend that we were a lollipop person. We learnt about Zebra crossings and how even though cars should stop, we should still wait just to make sure!
 
In PE we practiced the final three activities of our circuit activities, ready for the complete circuit next week. We had to use our balancing skills to accurately throw bean bags into hoops and to hold a ball and pass it around our body as many times as we could in thirty seconds - it was tricky!
 
In PE with Ben, we worked on our dribbling and shooting skills - we now have so much more control over the ball!
 
in DT, we created a design sheet for when we make our own moving picture next week, we had to decide which parts would move and what materials we will need. We are basing it on the traditional tale of - The Three Billy Goats Gruff' - it was fantastic to see children acting this out on the climbing frame and pretending that it was the bridge!
 
In Geography we went on Google Maps to find our school and some local landmarks that we discussed, We used the street view to walk down the roads and everyone loved finding their own houses, friend's houses and even their granny's houses!
 
In RE we looked further at the Easter Story and discussed some key parts. We then looked at some Easter symbols and how people celebrate. We ate hot cross buns and discussed how the cross on the front represents Jesus on the cross on Good Friday. We also painted egg shells and talked about how the hollow egg represents the empty tomb when Jesus wasn't there on Easter Sunday.
 
We made Mother's day cards so I hope you all enjoy them. Some of us chose to make them for our Granny's :).
 
We have been measuring using non standard units of measure. We measured things using cubes and hands. We then compared which were taller and shorter and even ordered three things from tallest to shortest.
 
We have also been looking at whether sentences were statements, exclamatory sentences of whether they were questions and deciding what needed to go on the end. It was tricky at first but we soon got the hang of it and even challenged ourselves to write a few of our own!
 
Have a beautiful weekend and remember to wear sun cream if it gets too hot!
 
Read 5 times at least please and year 1 need to complete a page from their mental math's book and also a spelling sheet.
 
Miss G x
18th March 2022
 
We have had a super exciting week! We have had the sea monkeys hatch and have begun to notice them swimming around. Our big, pink and spotty egg has hatched and it turned out to be a unicorn egg!?
 
In PSHE we talked about the problems with having too much medicine, poor Six Dinner Sid the cat would have been very poorly if the vet hadn't noticed. 
 
In DT we had a go at making another moving picture but this time used the lever mechanism to make Jack climb the beanstalk. We had to use split pins as a pivot.
 
In Science we talked more about the human life cycle and what we can do at different stages. For example, a toddler couldn't have a job or buy a house. A child couldn't vote in an election. But a baby could drink milk and cry.
 
In Geography we looked at compass directions and sang a funny song. We also looked at aerial photographs and went outside to gather materials and make our own aerial image of our classroom using grass, flowers and sticks. 
 
In Music we explored playing a drum which is an untuned instrument and played different rhythms. 
 
Year 1 went to Cremyll and talked about the Easter story and what Christians think heaven might be like. We imagined our own heaven and thought it would be full of chocolate, fudge and rollercoasters. 
 
We have been writing letters to Alan the Alligator this week, begging him to come back and we have created WANTED posters. We will finish them next week and hope that he is found!
 
Please keep practicing counting in 2's and 5's as learning the pattern makes counting in them so much easier.
 
Please read, we will be assessing in phonics again next week and so far I am so proud of how well everyone is doing. 
 
Have a super weekend and remember, sun cream if it is super sunny!
 
Miss G x
Friday 11th March 2022
 
What a week!
 
We have looked at household cleaning products and things that are safe and unsafe for children. Things like bleach and tablets should be stored away from children and if they are stored lower, in a locked cupboard. The children were very knowledgeable on this which is great! We also discussed how some medicines are very colourful tablets and that these are NOT sweets.
 
In PE we had a go at another section of what will make up our final circuit. We had to do a hop, skip, hop and skip within a 30 second time frame and see if we could beat our score on the second attempt.
 
In DT we made moving pictures using a sliding mechanism, we did this alongside the story of The Gingerbread Man - the children's cutting skills have really come on and they had great fun doing this activity.
 
In Science we looked at life cycles of humans, ducks, sheep and frogs. We found it very interesting seeing the different stages of life and remembered ourselves when we were at Pre-School when we were toddlers.
 
In Computing we used the paint app again but this time has to create a picture of a car using the different sized brushes available. All children were able to change their brushes and remembered how to change colours from last week too.
 
We started our new Geography topic and looked on Google maps at our local area. We found the school, the tractor park and Millbrook lake - the children loved seeing familiar places on the big screen.
 
In Music we started using our listening skills to listen to percussion instruments being played and guessing what they were. We also watched some live music being performed to see what they sounded like being professionally played.
 
EYFS have been adding up both sides of dominoes to find a total amount. They have also been writing about what they think is in the pink, spotty egg that appeared on our class desk - next week we will find out what is in it! We also added some water purifier to a tank and then added a sachet of sea monkey eggs - we can't wait to observe what happens next!
 
We have written non-chronological reports about Alligators after researching lots of facts about them.
 
We have been ordering numbers to 50 and also counting in 2's.
 
Remember to read, read and read. 
 
Can year one please complete their math's homework as well as one of the spelling sheets.
 
Have a superb weekend, 
 
Miss G x
 
Friday 4th March 2022
 
Welcome back!
 
We have been very busy this week!
We have found out about pancake day and even decorated some pancakes in some really funny ways - we had bacon smiles and egg eyes as well as some strawberry ears! We also found out about why we celebrate World Book Day and we loved seeing everyone in their amazing costumes - thank you for taking part and making the day very enjoyable. The book swop was a huge success and we had lots of smiling children, excited to go home and read their new books.
 
We started our new book for English but before we could read the book, we had picture clues that we needed to describe using exciting adjectives before predicting what we thought the animal could be. We predicted it could be: a dragon, a snake or a crocodile. It turned out to be an alligator! We have been joining two sentences together using the conjunction 'and' and next week we will begin our non-chronological reports.
 
In Math's we have been using the tens and ones resources to build the numbers up to 50. We have been counting in tens and have been practicing how after a ten, if there are then ones, we don't say 50, 60 etc but 50, 51, 52.. 
 
In computing, we used the paint app to have ago at creating a picture of the alligator from our story. It's tricky using the shapes and having to click the button and move the mouse at the same time. Even reception children had a go at creating some pictures on the laptops. 
 
We have been talking about how to keep ourselves healthy and talked about how we must make sure that we exercise; children need an hour of physical activity a day. We also discussed how children should be getting 12 hours of sleep a night and how it is better to drink water instead of fizzy drinks. We got given a toothbrush to take home and a little tube of toothpaste. We pretended to brush our teeth for a full two minutes - it's actually a really long time! 
 
We started our circuit training PE unit and really enjoyed working with our partners to count how many shuttle runs they managed to do and then helping each other to record it on our score sheets. We are really looking forwards to working together to count how many mat leaps we can do next week. We learnt a new skill of pivoting on our foot to help us turn and run back even faster. We tried this challenge twice and most of us improved on the second attempt.
 
I am so, so proud of how well the reception children are doing in their phonics lessons. We are remembering lots of the phase 2 and 3 sounds and are able to read so many 'tricky words'. 
 
Please read at least 5 times a week and I have given year 1 some different homework this half term to mix it up a little bit. These spelling mats allow them to apply their skills and show you just how super they are! 
 
Have a wonderful weekend - I plan to rest lots and get rid of this rotten cold!
 
Miss G x