Red Class News
19.04.24
Hello Red Class Families,
The children have made a great start to the term and have been finding out lots about Africa and our focus country of Ghana. We’ve been working hard on doubles and halves, singing ‘Chip the Chopper’ every day. Use one hand as the log and one hand...
22.03.24
Hello Red Class Families,
This week was all about Easter. We shared the Easter story and discovered why this is such a special festival for Christians. We made Easter gardens and Easter cards too.
It was time for fire-lighting and toasting at Forest School. There were lots of happy faces and the...
01.03.24
Hello Red Class Families,
Fingers crossed the Red Class bug is setting sail out of the classroom! I know lots of parents have suffered too. For those still at home poorly, we wish you lots of love and a speedy recovery.
In Circle Time (Personal, Social, Health, Economic Education), we looked at...
23.02.24
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, we set sail into our new topic, ‘Pirates’. The children have been busy making pirate ships in Play and Explore and creating pirate ship pictures for our display. Using a fictional character, Anne, we started to learn about the life of a pirate. By the...
02.02.24
Hello Red Class Families
Today, we waved goodbye to Mrs Birley. She was last seen heading to her car with a basket of Red Class treats including a Redmond Bear all of her own! We also visited St Catherine’s Church with Mrs Birley. Rev. Sheri gave us a guided tour and...
26.01.24
Hello Red Class Families,
Today, Red Class turned into a cinema. We settled back to watch 'The Wind Blew' with our Nursery friends and a pot of popcorn. Next week, our topic changes to ‘What’s Special?’ We will focus on special places and take a little trip to St Catherine’s Church...
19.01.24
Hello Red Class Families,
In PE, we used different body parts to travel around the hall. There were lots of interesting ideas! Next week, we move on to rolls! In Phonics, we focused on ‘oo’ (moon), ‘oo’ (book), ‘ar’ (car) and ‘or’ (born)....
22.12.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Our last day was full of fun and laughter with party games, party food and our celebration assembly. In fact, it’s been a week of Christmas activities with our Christmas Show and a delicious Christmas dinner (thank you Mrs Barker and Mrs Miles).
Towards the end of term,...
22.12.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Our last day was full of fun and laughter with party games, party food and our celebration assembly. In fact, it’s been a week of Christmas activities with our Christmas Show and a delicious Christmas dinner (thank you Mrs Barker and Mrs Miles).
Towards the end of term,...
22.12.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Our last day was full of fun and laughter with party games, party food and our celebration assembly. In fact, it’s been a week of Christmas activities with our Christmas Show and a delicious Christmas dinner (thank you Mrs Barker and Mrs Miles).
Towards the end of term,...
01.12.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Thank you for supporting our Big Blackwell Book Festival. We should be entered into the Guinness World Records for most people in a classroom 😊. The children were really excited to see you today and to dress up too! They looked fantastic in their costumes.
We started with...
24.11.23
Hello Red Class Families,
We were scientists in Red Class as we investigated animals from around the world. We named, described and sorted animals and played a guessing game to identify animals from their silhouette. The ‘Odd One Out’ tested the children’s ability to reason as they explained which animal didn’t...
24.11.23
Hello Red Class Families,
We were scientists in Red Class as we investigated animals from around the world. We named, described and sorted animals and played a guessing game to identify animals from their silhouette. The ‘Odd One Out’ tested the children’s ability to reason as they explained which animal didn’t...
18.11.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Another busy week in Red Class. From exploring hot and cold countries in Geography, dancing like fireworks in PE and learning about road safety. We focused on ‘j’, ‘v’, ‘w’ and ‘y’ in Phonics and tried hard to read...
10.11.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Welcome back to the Friday Fanfare and our new topic, ‘Best Books’. This week, we shared our new class story, ‘The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon’. The book is based on the nursery rhyme, ‘Hey, Diddle, Diddle’. With this in mind, we spent some time...
20.10.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Thank you for attending parent consultations. It was lovely to celebrate the children’s progress. If we met via Zoom, you should find a mental maths progression sheet in your child’s book bag and their personalised target sheet. This is a long half term and the children have...
20.10.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Thank you for attending parent consultations. It was lovely to celebrate the children’s progress. If we met via Zoom, you should find a mental maths progression sheet in your child’s book bag and their personalised target sheet. This is a long half term and the children have...
13.10.23
Hello Red Class Families,
In preparation for the Scarecrow Trail, we’ve been busy making a scarecrow. We shared ‘The Scarecrow’s Wedding’ and then set to work making Betty O’Barley. Thank you, Mrs Allen, for helping us to make our scarecrow. The Nursery children have made Harry O’Hay. Look out for the...
07.10.23
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, we started our new topic, ‘Planet Earth’. To introduce the topic, we used dilemma-based learning where the children share ideas and opinions, listen to the ideas of others, make decisions, ask questions and problem solve. As I am the school’s chief chicken checker, our dilemma...
29.09.23
Hello Red Class Families,
This week we made our ‘mini me’ puppets. The children painted and decorated their cups and used a sliding mechanism to make a moving head. Our puppets will be displayed in the classroom for open evening (04.10.23). You will also see our ‘All About Me’ display featuring...
21.07.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Although we have two more school days to go, we have reached the final fanfare! The children who walked down the path with their ‘All About Me’ boxes are now ready to fly into Year 1. I’ve worked with Mrs James for many years and I know...
30.06.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Kenilworth Castle
We started the week with our trip to Kenilworth Castle. We toured Leicester’s Gatehouse and spotted key features, for example, Robert Dudley’s initials carved into the fireplace. We also climbed steps that were over 900 years old. After lunch in...
23.06.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Mark Riley
At the beginning of the week, Red Class worked with Mark Riley to create a piece of artwork for the back playground. We looked at work by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian artist. He liked to surprise people by adding faces...
19.05.23
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, we’ve been learning about Alice Rahon. Alice was an artist and a poet. As well as looking at her paintings and talking about some of her work, we’ve developed our own painting skills. We’ve painted thick and thin lines, mixed primary colours and used different...
28.04.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Firstly, well done for all your wonderful homework. Every child received a sticker for their hard work. We also awarded our first homework certificates. Just a reminder, in preparation for Green Class, children are encouraged to complete a piece of homework each week to support their learning...
21.04.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Welcome to the summer term in Red Class. The children coped well with some changes this week including afternoon clubs, Forest School with older children and a shorter home time routine. I’ve visited the children, each day, in their afternoon clubs and they look happy and settled....
Easter Fanfare
Hello Red Class Families,
It’s been a busy term, finding out about transport from the past, entering a writing competition, raising money for local food banks, becoming wake and shake champions and, of course, Singing on the Steps. We’ve also braved every type of weather in our outdoor play and...
24.03.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Thank you for joining me for parent consultations this week. It was great to share the children’s progress and next steps. Following parent consultations, we celebrated some show and tell items linked to the children’s targets. Well done, Team Red! On Tuesday afternoon, I will call the...
17.03.23
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, in Phonics, we read words with two or more digraphs. Every day, we read a sentence to apply our learning. Before reading, we look for digraphs and trigraphs within words, spot tricky words and find any words we’ve previously seen in the warm up. We...
10.03.23
Hello Red Class Families,
If we managed to return every glove, hat, sock and snow boot to the right children then I will be very happy and surprised! Mrs Spurgeon’s organisation skills were certainly put to the test at 1.40pm and she did a marvellous job. If you’re missing any items,...
Hello Red Class Families,
We managed to make it through the week despite many bugs trying to stop us! We even managed a fantastic performance in the Wake and Shake competition leading to a Red Class victory! We are the La Bamba Champions and the Wake and Shake Cup stands proudly...
10.02.23
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, we used ‘chunking’ to read longer words. When reading ‘laptop’, we chunked the word into smaller parts e.g. lap and top and used our sound talk and blending skills, before putting the word back together. Try chunking...
03.02.23
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, we looked at double letters in Phonics and read words such as ‘letter’, ‘carrot’ and ‘rabbit’. The children are starting to understand that, in these examples, two letters make one sound. We also introduced the sound and catchphrase for...
27.01.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Thank you for joining us for afternoon tea. The children were really excited to see their special guests in school. From designing and making sandwiches to creating items for the tables, the children gained so much from this topic. We’re still collecting donations, please see Mrs Garner...
20.01.23
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, the children designed their finger sandwiches. First, we looked at the journey of bread from the wheat in the fields all the way through to the rolls in the bakery. We then looked at different parts of a sandwich by taking them apart and eating...
13.01.23
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, the children discovered vowel digraphs ‘ai’ (rain), ‘ee’ (sheep), ‘oa’ (coat) and the trigraph ‘igh’ (light). We used catchphrases to remember them.
ai – tail in the rain
ee – sheep in a jeep
oa – soap that goat
igh –...
06.01.23
Hello Red Class Families,
Happy New Year and welcome back to the Friday Fanfare! This week, we jumped straight into our new topic, ‘Building a Business’. Through Dilemma-Based Learning, the children listened to a story about a family of mice with leftover party food. They considered different points of view including...
16.12.22
Hello Red Class Families,
Our last day was full of fun and laughter with a pantomime, party games and celebration assembly. In fact, it’s been a week of Christmas activities with our Christmas Show and a delicious Christmas dinner (thank you Mrs Barker and Mrs Miles). We’ve listened to carols every...
09.12.22
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, we started our ‘Christmas’ topic. We looked at paintings, listened to stories, watched film clips and used role play props to understand the meaning of Christmas for Christians and even filmed our own version of ‘The Nativity’.
Another highlight of the week was our first school...
02.12.22
Hello Red Class Families,
Today marked the end of our ‘Traditional Tales’ topic. Earlier in the week, the Nursery children visited Red Class to listen to our retell of ‘The Gingerbread Man’. We showed the Nursery children our story actions so they could copy too. We performed a Gingerbread Man song...
25.11.22
Hello Red Class Families,
Forest School was all about trust today. The children worked in pairs. One child closed their eyes and the other was the guide. We talked about the importance of talking to our friend to reassure them, holding hands and using walking feet to stay safe. Later on,...
18.11.22
Hello Red Class Families,
Thank you for donating to Children in Need. In assembly, we listened to the Children in Need choirs from around the UK and, at the start of the day, we watched a CBeebies story about Pudsey Bear to explain why we were raising money and wearing colourful...
11.11.22
Hello Red Class Families,
To find out about Remembrance Day, we watched a short film and created prints of poppies in Art. Mrs Moss also spoke to the children and we all fell silent to remember.
We enjoyed a lovely morning at Forest School. We used our senses to ‘meet’ a new...
04.11.22
Hello Red Class Families,
It’s been a busy week in Red Class as we started our ‘Traditional Tales’ topic. Throughout the week, we shared different versions of ‘The Gingerbread Man’, identified the main characters and story events and talked about the meaning of new words e.g. ‘chase’, ‘brave’ and ‘greedy’. On...
21.10.22
Hello Red Class Families,
Congratulations for completing your first half term in Reception. I’m incredibly proud of the children’s achievements. From learning classroom routines to developing their early reading and maths skills and making new friends.
On Tuesday, we participated in our first wake and shake competition. Although Blue Class were the...
14.10.22
Hello Red Class Families,
Thank you for attending parent consultations. It was lovely to talk about the children’s progress and to share their learning journey with you. After half term, you will receive a report detailing some of the points discussed including targets. If we met via Zoom, you should find...
07.10.22
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, we started our new topic, ‘Seasons’. On Monday, we joined our Green Class friends and walked through the village to spot seasonal changes. We collected natural objects for our nature table in the classroom. In Science, we discovered that scientists use their senses to find...
30.09.22
Hello Red Class Families,
Today, we visited Forest School. Luckily, it was during the morning before the wind and rain! We spent time learning Forest School rules and playing games to remember them. The children enjoyed hide and seek (1,2,3 Where are you?) to learn about the forest boundary. At the...
23.09.22
Hello Red Class Families,
Welcome to the first Friday Fanfare! Well done to all the children for completing their first full week as a class. We’ve enjoyed a lot of new experiences from buying tuck to afternoon clubs and group reading. Next week, we start Forest School too!
In Phonics, we discovered...
24.09.21
Hello Red Class Families,
What a busy week! Well done to all the children for completing their first full week as a class. We’ve enjoyed a lot of new experiences from buying tuck, visiting the hall for PE and going on an adventure to Forest School. Talking of tuck, the children...
21.07.21
Hello Red Class Families,
Welcome to the final fanfare. In your book bags you will find a little summer holiday learning pack with ideas to help you to get ready...
09.07.21
Hello Red Class Families,
Last week, I mentioned the Worcestershire Summer School Games. Schools from across the county took part in Paralympic themed events and this week we received the...
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, the children received some exciting post from African Promise. They were awarded a certificate for their hard work raising money for the charity and a card to explain how their donation would help. Well done Team Red. It was lovely to...
26.06.21
Hello Red Class,
It was a busy and creative week with the opening of our school art gallery. We used our collage skills to create a space themed picture inspired by ‘Whatever Next!’ Although, we covered the same basic skills of cutting, sticking and overlapping, each piece of artwork looked unique...
18.06.21
Hello Red Class,
Thank you for a lovely week where we continued our exciting topic, ‘Fantasy Worlds’. We performed events from ‘Whatever Next!’ deciding what Baby Bear and Mr and Mrs Bear would say during the story. This encouraged imagination, developed our confidence to speak in front...
Hello Red Class Families,
What a lovely week starting our new topic, ‘Fantasy Worlds’. The children enjoyed listening to our story, ‘Whatever Next!’ Over the next two weeks, we will work hard to role play, retell and write our own versions of the story about a little...
21.05.21
Hello Red Class,
Today was the last day of our ‘Africa’ topic. The children worked hard to find out about the beautiful continent of Africa and particularly the country of Kenya. At the heart of our learning was the decision to raise money for African Promise. Your donations will help to...
14.05.21
This morning, Red Class posed for their Reception Class photograph. Looking across the rows of little ones, I couldn’t help but feel like a proud mother hen looking over her chicks. The children have come a long way since September, including through a nationwide lockdown. Now, fingers crossed we were...
Hello Red Class,
Another busy week in Red Class filled with wonderful writing. Our class easel was covered with super sentences. The children tried hard to use their robot arms to sound out words and write them independently. To use robot arms at home, just say the word you want to...
30.04.21
Hello Red Class Families,
This week, Red Class walked for an hour around Blackwell village. This is the same amount of time it takes Okeyo to walk to school. Although we didn’t spot any elephants, we did spot Elephant Alley and St Catherine’s Church and...
23.04.21
Hello Red Class,
Well done for making a great start to the new term. This week, we met Okeyo who lives in Kenya. We will spend the next four weeks finding out about Okeyo and his life in Kenya.
We used Google Earth to find the continent of Africa before looking for...
26.03.21
Hello Red Class,
Today was the last day of our ‘Native Americans’ topic. We celebrated with an online Zoom showcase of dance, singing and storytelling. We recorded our rain dance for all our friends to see. Next week, we start our final topic of the spring term, ‘Easter’. We’re looking forward...
19.03.21
I’m really proud of you, Red Class. I know many of you were under the weather this week. However, you still tried hard to listen and learn. Dr Webb suggests lots of rest, play and cuddles over the weekend.
We revisited ‘oo’ (moon), ‘oo’ (l
13.03.21
Hello Red Class,
Put your finger on your nose if you feel tired. I’m touching my nose too. Well done for completing your first week back at school.
Play and Explore was a hive of activity and talk for the first few days. It was obvious you’d missed each other. We added...
18.12.20
Dear Red Class Families,
Can you believe the children have finished their first term at school? We’ve achieved so much already. From learning letter sounds, to playing with numbers, writing letters...
12.12.20
Hello Red Class Families,
We enjoyed a busy week piecing together a masterpiece! If you like masks slipping down faces, slightly squeaky singing from the teacher and a lot of sweet faces, then you’re in for a treat! In fact, at one point, I was told my voice was ‘a little...
4.12.20
Hello Red Class Families,
It was a wet Forest School session but we made the most of it with lots of games and activities. We started the session with a co-operation game, called ‘sticky elbows’, where the children moved around the site with their partner...
27.11.20
Hello Red Class Families,
Thank you for attending our teaching and learning workshop. It was lovely to ‘see’ you all and to explain how we support reading, writing and number work at school. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email the office and I’ll call you as...
20.11.20
Hello Red Class Families,
‘Change the rules’ was a great success. From a couple of wiggling superheroes in our Zoom dance assembly to extra play time, painted nails, funny socks, tasty snacks and everything in between. I did a double take in snack time when I spotted Batman eating a doughnut....
13.11.20
Hello Red Class Families,
Thank you for raising money for Children in Need. We talked about Pudsey and why we were raising money and joined Joe Wicks for a quick exercise routine! The children looked great in their colourful clothes. Thank you, Red Class!
At Forest School, we played ‘Beat the Teacher.’...
6.11.20
Hello Red Class Families,
I would like to welcome Miss Barber to the Red Class team. Miss Barber is a student teacher training through our teaching school. She joined the children for their first week at school and she can’t believe how much they’ve changed over the last half term.
It’s been...
23.10.20
Hello Red Class,
Well done for completing your first half term in Reception. We’ve achieved many things together. It feels like two minutes ago you were walking along the snake for your first day at school. Now, you’re reading words, counting objects, making friends and learning new skills every day.
This week,...
16.10.20
Hello Red Class Families,
Each week, we focus on a particular foundation subject and this week it was Geography (known as ‘Understanding the World’ in Early Years). We focused on Forest School as a special place and used photographs to name key features. We used our knowledge to make a Forest...
9.10.20
Hello Red Class Families,
Now we’re super speedy in the mornings (this changes a few hours later), we’re completing name writing activities as part of the morning routine. We teach the children to use cursive letters starting from the line and focus on the letters in their name. We also encourage...
9.10.20
Hello Red Class Families,
Now we’re super speedy in the mornings (this changes a few hours later), we’re completing name writing activities as part of the morning routine. We teach the children to use cursive letters starting from the line and focus on the letters in their name. We also encourage...
2.10.20
Hello Red Class,
We were determined to visit Forest School despite the rain. I needed windscreen wipers for my glasses at one point. Our Nursery friends joined our adventure too and you looked after each other beautifully. We played ‘123 where are you?’ to learn Forest School rules and you had...
Hello Red Class,
Well, we’ve seen every type of weather in the outdoor area this week. A little bit of sunshine mixed with lots of wind and rain. It must be autumn! Thank you for keeping spare socks in your book bag to keep you warm and dry after soggy play...
Hello Red Class,
Well done children (and parents) for completing your first full-time week at school. From drawing different types of line and using a range of mark makers in Art to learning our whole school wake and shake (5, 6,7,8 by Steps), it’s been a very busy week.
It was lovely...
Hello Red Class,
One more sleep and it's your first day at big school! We're looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. If your surname begins with A-M, we'll see you in the morning at 8.45am. If your...
Hello Red Class,
Whether at home or at school, you've all been in my thoughts this week. On Monday, I will start your home learning where you can use your home learning packs. Although, it doesn't look like you need me with all the wonderful crocodiles and unicorns I've seen! What...
Hello Red Class,
Well done for completing the first 4 letters in your handwriting books. You will find g, q, s and e in your books this week. The letters have been selected to help you to practise a certain action e.g. round and back. I can see a big difference in your writing in class....
Hello Red Class,
This week, we discovered a time capsule in our classroom. After some investigation work, we realised that a little girl had left it in the classroom. Inside we found pictures, books and artwork to help us to find out about the Ancient Greeks. Mrs Moss also gave us...
Hello Red Class,
This week, we explored ‘Special Places’. We sketched some special buildings from around the world and shared and performed a poem about a special place, ‘At the Seaside,’ by Robert Louis Stevenson. You can find the poem here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43193/at-the-sea-side
Mrs Reid shared her experience of a...
Hello Red Class,
Today a little girl said to me, "Mrs Webb, I think this has been my favourite day at school" and I think it's been one of my favourite days too! Singing our ‘Skye Boat’ song in assembly, listening to the fantastic ceilidh band and parading our teddies in...
Hello Red Class,
From making maps to telling the time, we’ve had a very busy week. We discovered the sound and action for ur (fur), er (her), oi (coin) and ow (cow). We enjoyed using the clocks to read and find times to the nearest hour and we had a lot...
Dear Red Class,
We’re feeling a little tired this week. Well, I certainly am! It must have been the fitness circuit at the start of the week when Eden Francis visited. Eden is a shot put and discus thrower who represents Great Britain. It was really interesting to listen to Eden...
Hello Red Class,
Thank you for a lovely first week back at school. You all looked refreshed and ready to start learning again and you certainly enjoyed your Christmas holiday. This week, we started our new topic, "Off to Scotland." We explored some of the adventures of a little girl called...
Dear Families,
We have some exciting news for Mrs Cain! Forest School will now take place on Mondays during club time. The older children already visit Forest School with Mrs Cain and we feel our little ones are ready to do this too. The children should wear jogging bottoms and trainers...
Dear Red Class,
Well done for completing your first term at school! Over the last few weeks, you’ve worked very hard to rehearse and perform 4 plays, including DVD filming and a dress rehearsal. I’m a very proud teacher because I know so many of you were poorly and tired and...