Headteacher: Anna Moss

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 as a special place for Christians.  

We introduced the following tricky words in Phonics: my, by, all. Below, you will find our digraphs and trigraph from the week and their catchphrases.

ur – Curl the fur.

ow– Wow owl!

oi- Boing! Boing!

ear – Get near to hear.

Handwriting lessons focused on ‘g’, ‘q’, ‘s’ and ‘e’ using the cursive script. We will continue with ‘f’ on Monday as it follows the same pattern as ‘e’.

In Maths, we used the Part-Whole Model for addition using concrete apparatus. The children identified the parts e.g. 3 and 2 before combining them to find the whole. In Mental Maths, we continued to count in 1s and 2s and we used the 100-square to play ‘Guess my Number’. To play this game at home, click the following link for an interactive 100-square: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares Choose a number and then invite your child to ask questions e.g. Is it more than 10? Is it less than 20? Does it have 4 ones? Is it in the 2s? Keep splatting the incorrect squares until you’re left with the answer. This game supports mathematical vocabulary and recall of facts.

PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) focused on ‘sad’ and how this emotion can look and feel. We used a painting of a sad clown to think about why he might be sad and then role-played ways to make him feel happier. We talked about how we have the power to help other people to feel happy by using kind words and actions.

Rolling was the name of the game in PE. Again, some very interesting work! We explored tuck and pencil rolls and recapped our travelling movements. Next week, we’re using the benches!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

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). We used catchphrases to remember them.

oo – Zoom to the moon.

oo – Hook a book.

ar – March in the dark.

or – Born with a horn.

We also introduced three tricky words: was, you, they.

Handwriting lessons focused on ‘c’, ‘o’, ‘a’ and ‘d’ using the cursive script. Today, we created a flag using these letters as decoration and I was really pleased with the children’s effort and progress. In Maths, we continued our work on teen numbers and then moved on to counting in 2s. We used concrete apparatus, pictures and a song to help.

In Art lessons, we explored textiles. The children persevered to cut, stick and arrange different textiles in their art sketchbooks before learning how to dip dye a cotton square using food colouring. We’ll be using our skills, next week, to make props for our blockbuster film, ‘The Wind Blew’.

It was time for the children’s hearing tests, this week. Results can be accessed through the School Screener Parent Portal. When the children change learning partners and their carpet spaces, I will take this information into account.

New eBooks have been added. We swapped books for all children with books in their bags. If you’re missing a reading book, please return the previous books on Monday.

Wishing everyone a happy weekend,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

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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, especially near Christmas, the children become incredibly tired and give their every effort at school. Their emotional ‘cup’ runs empty and their behaviour is simply saying, “I’m tired and ready for a break”. Congratulations, Red Class, for achieving so much during such a long term. 

In January, we will begin a new topic, ‘Blackwell Film Festival’ and we’ll continue our writing adventures as we learn to form letters using the cursive script. If you want to make a start during the holidays, Mrs Moss has made a number of videos on our You Tube channel showing letter formation. We always start with the curly caterpillar letters: c, o, a, d, g, q. Writing your name with cursive letters would be useful holiday homework too. Remember your tripod grip. If you’d like some holiday Maths homework, then please count forward and back to 5, then 10 and 20. Try 1 more and 1 less tennis to 10 using your hand to hit the ‘ball’ and work on your positional language. Perhaps, choose one decoration on your Christmas tree as a starting point and then find another above, below, between, to the left, to the right, in front or behind.

The children worked hard on their Christmas cards and calendars. We used our collage skills of cutting, sticking and overlapping. Every year, you can look back at their 2024 calendar and see how much they’ve changed from their Reception Christmas Show!

Finally, a big ‘THANK YOU’ for all your support and encouragement this term. Your kind cards, gifts and messages mean a lot to the team and we feel really lucky to be part of one big Blackwell family. Your child’s first term at ‘big’ school is complete and look at all we’ve achieved together. Children who are reading words and sentences, making new friends, singing in front of an audience and attending a theatre trip! By the way, the children were fantastic during our Dear Santa trip!

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas with fun, laughter and plenty of rest. Here’s to a wonderful 2024!

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class XXX

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, especially near Christmas, the children become incredibly tired and give their every effort at school. Their emotional ‘cup’ runs empty and their behaviour is simply saying, “I’m tired and ready for a break”. Congratulations, Red Class, for achieving so much during such a long term. 

In January, we will begin a new topic, ‘Blackwell Film Festival’ and we’ll continue our writing adventures as we learn to form letters using the cursive script. If you want to make a start during the holidays, Mrs Moss has made a number of videos on our You Tube channel showing letter formation. We always start with the curly caterpillar letters: c, o, a, d, g, q. Writing your name with cursive letters would be useful holiday homework too. Remember your tripod grip. If you’d like some holiday Maths homework, then please count forward and back to 5, then 10 and 20. Try 1 more and 1 less tennis to 10 using your hand to hit the ‘ball’ and work on your positional language. Perhaps, choose one decoration on your Christmas tree as a starting point and then find another above, below, between, to the left, to the right, in front or behind.

The children worked hard on their Christmas cards and calendars. We used our collage skills of cutting, sticking and overlapping. Every year, you can look back at their 2024 calendar and see how much they’ve changed from their Reception Christmas Show!

Finally, a big ‘THANK YOU’ for all your support and encouragement this term. Your kind cards, gifts and messages mean a lot to the team and we feel really lucky to be part of one big Blackwell family. Your child’s first term at ‘big’ school is complete and look at all we’ve achieved together. Children who are reading words and sentences, making new friends, singing in front of an audience and attending a theatre trip! By the way, the children were fantastic during our Dear Santa trip!

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas with fun, laughter and plenty of rest. Here’s to a wonderful 2024!

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class XXX

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, especially near Christmas, the children become incredibly tired and give their every effort at school. Their emotional ‘cup’ runs empty and their behaviour is simply saying, “I’m tired and ready for a break”. Congratulations, Red Class, for achieving so much during such a long term. 

In January, we will begin a new topic, ‘Blackwell Film Festival’ and we’ll continue our writing adventures as we learn to form letters using the cursive script. If you want to make a start during the holidays, Mrs Moss has made a number of videos on our You Tube channel showing letter formation. We always start with the curly caterpillar letters: c, o, a, d, g, q. Writing your name with cursive letters would be useful holiday homework too. Remember your tripod grip. If you’d like some holiday Maths homework, then please count forward and back to 5, then 10 and 20. Try 1 more and 1 less tennis to 10 using your hand to hit the ‘ball’ and work on your positional language. Perhaps, choose one decoration on your Christmas tree as a starting point and then find another above, below, between, to the left, to the right, in front or behind.

The children worked hard on their Christmas cards and calendars. We used our collage skills of cutting, sticking and overlapping. Every year, you can look back at their 2024 calendar and see how much they’ve changed from their Reception Christmas Show!

Finally, a big ‘THANK YOU’ for all your support and encouragement this term. Your kind cards, gifts and messages mean a lot to the team and we feel really lucky to be part of one big Blackwell family. Your child’s first term at ‘big’ school is complete and look at all we’ve achieved together. Children who are reading words and sentences, making new friends, singing in front of an audience and attending a theatre trip! By the way, the children were fantastic during our Dear Santa trip!

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas with fun, laughter and plenty of rest. Here’s to a wonderful 2024!

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class XXX

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 a ‘Book Swap’ where the children selected a book and then moved to different classrooms and read with different teachers. Later on, we linked our dough dance to ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ before making goodie bags for the festival. We hope you enjoyed sharing the children’s books and watching the retell of the class story, ‘The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon’. We’ve taken lots of photographs of the day for the children’s learning journeys.

Next week, we move on to Christmas as we start to learn about the festival and we prepare for ‘The Nativity’. Leggings and tights have already started to appear in book bags, thank you.

Many thanks for a lovely day, Mrs Webb x

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 fit the group. The children started to talk about nocturnal animals and those that hibernated. We’ll continue our investigation next week.

In Phonics, we introduced ‘z’ including words using the digraph ‘zz’ e.g. buzz. We also focused on ‘qu’ and ‘ch’. Every lesson, we blend phonemes to make words and read a sentence as a whole class. We also spell a word using our magnetic letters. We’ve introduced new tricky words: go, no, to, into. Our tricky words need the most support as we need to learn them by sight. Putting these words in places where your child will frequently see them (bathroom door, fridge, bedroom) will help your child to remember them. Also playing games such as matching pairs or odd one out (show 3 cards with 2 the same and 1 different) will help.

Early next week, I will send home your child’s part for our Christmas play and any costume items that might be needed. In the past, parents have bought multipacks of tights and shared them out or just shared what they have at home. If there are any problems sourcing items for the costume, please just let me know. This year, Red Class will be leading ‘The Nativity’.

It’s our ‘Big Blackwell Book Festival’ next Friday at 2pm. Further information can be found on ParentApp. We look forward to sharing a good book or two with you. 

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class

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 fit the group. The children started to talk about nocturnal animals and those that hibernated. We’ll continue our investigation next week.

In Phonics, we introduced ‘z’ including words using the digraph ‘zz’ e.g. buzz. We also focused on ‘qu’ and ‘ch’. Every lesson, we blend phonemes to make words and read a sentence as a whole class. We also spell a word using our magnetic letters. We’ve introduced new tricky words: go, no, to, into. Our tricky words need the most support as we need to learn them by sight. Putting these words in places where your child will frequently see them (bathroom door, fridge, bedroom) will help your child to remember them. Also playing games such as matching pairs or odd one out (show 3 cards with 2 the same and 1 different) will help.

Early next week, I will send home your child’s part for our Christmas play and any costume items that might be needed. In the past, parents have bought multipacks of tights and shared them out or just shared what they have at home. If there are any problems sourcing items for the costume, please just let me know. This year, Red Class will be leading ‘The Nativity’.

It’s our ‘Big Blackwell Book Festival’ next Friday at 2pm. Further information can be found on ParentApp. We look forward to sharing a good book or two with you. 

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class

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 ‘and’, ‘has’, ‘her’ automatically. In Maths, we used the power of 5 to make numbers to 10. For example, we made 6 by finding 5 red beads on the Fabacus (our fab abacus) and adding 1, rather than counting 6 individual beads.  

Thank you for sending in special books from home. We’ve created a display to share the children’s recommendations. Each day, we shared a new story and spent time talking about our favourite books in a small group. If we haven’t shared your child’s book yet, please leave it in their book bag.

This week, the children met mysterious little creatures called pebblings at Forest School. Red Class decided to make homes for their new friends and soon nests and dens were scattered across the forest. Who will they meet next week? Thank you, Mrs Hipkiss, for helping our little ones to flourish in the forest.

Finally, we’ve started our slipper routine! At Blackwell, all the children wear slippers to feel comfortable and relaxed. By wearing slippers, we can also keep the indoor classroom clean and tidy. Well, when we don’t lose our slippers! 😊

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class