Headteacher: Anna Moss

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 bear who travels to space in his cardboard box rocket.

As part of the story is set in space, we’ve started to find out about space too. For example, developing collage skills (cutting, sticking and arranging materials) to create planets for our new display. Listening to a piece of music about Mercury by Gustav Holst. Using handwriting patterns to draw our very own planets. Considering interesting questions about space in Philosophy for Children.

Is it ever right to travel into space? Is it ever right to visit the moon?

In Phonics, we continued to focus on words with adjacent consonants, such as ‘land’ and ‘lamp’. Although phonics is our prime approach to reading, to improve fluency we encourage the children to say words straight away if they know them, particularly words they see frequently e.g. ‘and’. Spotting keywords in the text, before reading, will also support confidence and fluency.

Counting in 5s was the focus in Maths.The children were great at chanting in 5s with their friends and used their new learning to count large sets of objects in an efficient way and to solve problems. We practised doubles, halves and number bonds throughout the week. Today, we played a number bond tennis game. The children ‘blew my socks off’ with their recall. We used a song about Farmer Pete and his 10 sheep and the visual of pink and white sheep on the board really helped. Try recalling number bonds at home and, if it’s tricky, draw 2 rows of 5 sheep and colour a sheep each time to see the pattern e.g. (0 and 10, 1 and 9, 2 and 8 etc.)

Our focus letters in handwriting were ‘b’, ‘h’ and ‘k’. You can find these letters in your handwriting book. As well as a guide to writing the letter, I always include a link to a You Tube video too. We’re still presenting certificates to two children, each week, for their handwriting homework. If you haven’t had one yet, keep going, as I can see you’re trying really hard and it will be your turn soon.

We’re making something very special at Forest School. Let’s just say there might be a treat to buy at the Summer Fair. Each year, we hold a Christmas and Summer Fair to help raise money for the school. Due to Covid-19, the fair might look different this year, but we will still work together to create some fantastic stalls. Mrs Flynn helped the children to think about the texture of leaves today and she modelled leaf rubbing as an activity for the children to choose at Forest School. If you visit a woodland this weekend, you might like to try some leaf or bark rubbings and see what you can find.

Finally, the children have started to use the new shop on the front playground to buy their snack. Don’t worry if your child forgets to buy a snack. We will always remind them. If your child would like to buy a snack at school, just send 30p in a purse or wallet.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx