11th February 2022

Happy Friday!

Another week has flown by and we are almost halfway through the year.  Our Winter topic has continued in the cabin with our Write “Penguin” Dance.  Enjoy at home - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf0uKmKwnKs .  Outside in Forest School, Mrs Allen has been sharing with you the Winter story, The Storm Whale.  You have enjoyed making your own cardboard snowflakes on the balcony, weaving with wool and creating snowflakes with paper and pipe cleaners.  Can you hear the same sounds in both of these words?  I have never known a group of children who love (and can hear) alliteration as much as you.  Our Phonics topic has really excited you all as we began to share our sound boxes and sang about the two dicky birds (with the same sound) who are sitting on a wall.  Can you think of someone who could sit with you on a wall?  In Music we have been pitch matching using our chime bars to the notes C,D,E,F,G.  This has tied in beautifully to our Maths work on the number 5 as we have been stopping at five and counting backwards.  You enjoyed drawing around your own five on your hand and printing five in water around Forest School.  Now we have talked about the numbers to five, we stop for a little while and begin to have fun with them – splitting them, doubling them, finding one more/less than them.  Our dough disco has been chosen by Carly; Grease Lightnin’ from the film Greece.  You enjoyed listening to Gracie Mander playing it on the piano for you via video link today.  We have been talking about Danny and his friends in the film and how they wanted a fast motor car.  Grease Lightnin’ became our car in the SALT Listening game as we had to drive around the cabin and be ready to stop when we saw the STOP sign or the music stopped.  It was challenging with so many children, in order to keep in the game, you had to NOT bump a friend!  During our C&L session after lunch we have continued with our Winter story, One Snowy Night and have been adding to our word wall as Zia gave us the word “reflection”.  We talked about this word - what it means and where we would find it?  I did feel old when we used blank CD’s to see our reflection with only five of you knowing what one was.  The CD player is coming out next week!  In the afternoons, Mrs Allen has been adapting the usual playground games with a Winter theme – Musical Frozen Statues and Frozen Stuck in a Mud.  Brrrrrrr.

A message for parents – it was so lovely to see you on Wednesday afternoon/evening and we were so happy to have you in the cabin to see the children’s learning environment.  For any parents who came with questions/queries who we didn’t get to speak to, please do come and ask.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

Mrs Mander, Mrs Allen, Mrs Franklin, Miss Turner (am), Mrs Hampton (pm) X