Hello! Welcome back to another fun filled school year! We hope that you've  enjoyed the summer holidays, it's been lovely to see our children return to school with such happy faces! They have settled in so well, adjusting to new routines, getting to grips with a new classroom and making new friends. We could not be prouder of our new little wise owls!

A few points to note this half term....

• PE will be every Tuesday. Please no earrings.
• All items of clothing and belongings must have names on so we can help locate them if they are lost.
• Reading books must be in school every day. We encourage children to read at least three times a week at home. They will be awarded extra credits if there are three adult signatures in their diary each week.
• Reading books are linked to their Read Write Ink group in school.
• The children will be set some homework tasks each week which will support the children's learning in school. We will update you on this each week once it starts.
• Please could all children bring a water bottle to school each day.
• Check the class page each week, this can be saved as a shortcut on phones and tablets for easy access. Children really do enjoy talking about the pictures and videos we upload each week.
• If you require any additional support with anything we do in class please do come and see us.

Week 6

This week the children enjoyed a very interesting lesson all about the Tudor doctors. They learnt what life was like back when Henry VIII was King and how they would have been looked after if they were ill. Some of the remedies included making potions with herbs and flowers, burning candles, bleeding the patients, eating spiders, rubbing half a mouse on their feet and even chopping off their infected body parts! Its safe to say the children are glad they don't have a Tudor doctor looking after them when they are ill!

They loved learning about Henry's wives! We learnt a song to remember what happened to each one! They then put the wives on a timeline to see which one was first, second, third etc.

Week 5

This week in History the children have been detectives, analysing portraits of Henry VIII. They looked for clues to see how the king wanted to be shown to the world and the messages he wanted to give from his portrait. They could see that the king wanted to be shown as rich, powerful and strong.

This week in ICT the children have started to master logging in to Purple Mash with improved independence.  Well done to the children who perfected this during their homework task last week. This week we were able to access our own accounts on the website and navigate around the tools section. We explored different paint settings to create an autumn picture and learnt how to save our work in our work folder online.

In Power Maths this week Year 2 children have been looking at counting in 2s, 5s and 10s to solve problems and find missing numbers in sequences. They have found problem solving a little tricky to master this week using these skills. Why not practise your numbers at home, or chant them forwards and backwards on the way to school. This will really help.

Year 1 children have been looking at ordinal numbers and identifying them in a range of contexts. They have also been looking at counting numbers on a number lines in steps of 1, looking for missing numbers and thinking about what is one more and one less.

When the children came for visits in July we enjoyed the story Dot by Peter Reynolds. We learnt the Dot song too by Emily Arrow which has become a firm favourite in class all term. This week the children enjoyed singing this song to our two new starters and enjoyed showing them the actions. The link is below if you would like to sing at home.

Week 4

This week children have been comparing numbers using the greater than and less than symbols. They have been been explaining their answers using tens and ones and the vocabulary more and less. We have learnt lots of songs this week to help us with this maths skill and this one is our favourite. Can you sing along at home?

In ICT lessons we have been learning how to log on to Purple Mash independently. We have been learning about passwords and why they are important. The children know they need to keep passwords safe to protect their work and online space.

This week we have been thinking of ways to calm down, relax and improve attention. We had a short mindfulness session where we concentrated on colouring in some art work whilst listening to sounds of the ocean. Colouring allows us to disconnect from other thoughts and concentrate on the moment. When you begin colouring, your brain knows that it must stay within the lines of the drawing and not go beyond them. Mindful colouring can help deepen focus and improve attention. The children all felt very calm after their session and finished with some mindfulness breathing exercises.

Week 3

In our Art lesson this week, we learnt that a sketch book is used to develop ideas and try things out.  We were trying out ideas for how to change and decorate circles. 

In our RE lesson this week we learnt how the Psalms tell us about God's love and care. We thought about the things that we are thankful for and created our own Psalms or prayers, thanking God for caring for us. We then shared our Psalms and prayers during our collective worship time.

Week 2

This week in PE in the children have been learning how to travel at different speeds using their 'gears' to travel fast and slow. They have also been learning how to travel backwards safely using 'reverse'.

In RHE we started our Ten Ten module Created and Loved by God. The children thought about God and his kingdom and what these might look like. They shared their ideas with the class. They listened to a story from the Gospel and reflected on this. They then joined in with a beautiful song called 'God made me'.

Week 1

The children thoroughly enjoyed their first day of school as we turned the class into an imaginary pirate ship just like Jakes's class in the story 'Jake's First Day'. Just like Jake we were all feeling a little worried and nervous about all the new things to come but after our fun filled pirate adventure, working together as a team to navigate a treasure map around our new classroom, count treasure,  learning how to keep our class shipshape as well as enjoying enjoying some sea shanty songs and dances over the deep blue sea, it wasn't long before our pirates were saying 'Oooh arrgghh' , 'Yo ho ho' and 'Ahoy me hearties' to each other and all their worries had disappeared into the quicksand! 

Mr Johnson introduced our new topic 'fundamentals' to the children in PE. The children will spend the half term learning a range of multi-skills. They worked together as a team, developing movement skills and following instructions to complete mini challenges. Well done to our first two PE superstars who were awarded star of the day Graci and Harvey!

In Maths we learnt how to use a 100 square to support our learning. We played games such as race to 100 and snakes and ladders to practise moving forwards and backwards through the numbers. This was a great opportunity to see which children need more number practise. The children created their own 100 squares showing me which numbers they could write correctly. We still need a little more practise with numbers 5,6,7,9 making sure they are formed the correct way around. The children used their 100 squares to add two small numbers together.