Fanfare 12.12.20
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 dominant’ by the filmmaker. Mariah Carey move over. Mrs Webb is the Queen of Christmas.
In PE, we explored the meaning of ‘travel’, ‘follow’ and ‘amazed’ from our topic vocabulary map. We followed a star around the playground and travelled in different ways. Finally, we danced with a partner to create a short phrase. We considered how to look amazed through our facial expressions and movements.
In Phonics, we discovered the sound, action and song for ‘j’, ‘v’, ‘w’ and ‘x’. You should find matching letter cards in your little blue book. Please draw or cut and stick a picture for each letter sound. We also tried hard to discriminate ‘b’ and ‘d’. We used photo cards of mouth shapes and a picture of a ‘bed’ to match the correct sound to the corresponding letter shape.
Hopefully, in your bookbags, you should find a Christmas card made by your little one, a calendar, Christmas cards from friends, a name card to support name identification and writing and a b/d photo card to support recognition at home. In fact, the latter could be used as a bookmark. We received quite a few packs of cards on Friday, so we’ll send them out next week.
In Maths, we compared and measured length and height. The children compared items in the classroom using appropriate vocabulary e.g. ‘short’, ‘long’, ‘longer’ and ‘longest’ for length. Later in the week, the children used cubes and wax crayons to measure the length of items. Can you find and use measuring equipment at home? You could compare the length of your family’s shoes or the height of your favourite teddies.
In RE lessons (Religious Education), we discussed Christian beliefs and practices around the festival of Christmas. We talked about how the children celebrate Christmas and how our experiences are similar and different. We introduced the children to the Jewish festival of Hannukah which is also celebrated at this time. Throughout the year, and throughout their time at Blackwell, the children will learn about different religions, reflect on their own thoughts and feelings and learn to appreciate and respect the ideas and beliefs of people in their community and around the world.
As part of our Christmas play, we’ve been singing ‘Follow the Star’ and on 21st December, Jupiter and Saturn will align to form a very bright ‘Christmas star’. The best time to see it should be an hour after sunset. Thank you, Mrs Flynn, for letting us know.
We believe some Red Class elves have been working very hard recently. Yesterday, we received some beautiful gifts and they’re currently under my tree ready for the big day. On behalf of myself and the team, we would like to say a big ‘thank you’. We know life, in the middle of COVID-19, is very tricky and we appreciate all the support you’ve shown our little Red Class team.
Enjoy a lovely weekend and we’ll see you on Monday for the last week of term and Christmas Story Night (5.30pm-7pm).
Best wishes,
Mrs Webb, Mrs Hampton, Miss Barber, Mrs Dyson and Mrs Flynn xxx