Headteacher: Anna Moss

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

Red Class news

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 role playing the rhyme and finding out why the dish ran away with the spoon.

We’ve also been talking about our Big Blackwell Book Festival. The children have decided that they would like to dress as their favourite book character during the event and they would like to invite their families into school to share their ‘Best Book’ (learning journey) and their favourite story. Talking of favourite stories, we would like the children to bring in one book from home on Monday, 13^th November. We’re planning to make a Best Books display using the children’s favourite stories, poems and non-fiction books from home.

In Phonics, we concentrated on ‘ll’, ‘ss’, ‘ff’ and ‘j’. We call two letters making one sound a digraph. Try spotting digraphs in your reading books e.g. hill, puff, miss. Every day we read a challenge phrase. First, we sound talk and blend the words and then we read the words automatically. Try to do this in your reading at home to help with your pace and fluency.

In Maths, we used a range of equipment to make numbers to 10. We also played the arrangement game. We call a style e.g. dice style and the children arrange their counters as quickly as possible to match the style. Playing games like this will help the children to quickly recognise numbers and develop number sense. We count every day too, counting on and back from different starting numbers.

Every Friday, we attend a celebration assembly where two children from each class receive a gold award certificate. During the week, we look for skills needed to be a good learner: resilience, problem solving, co-operation, communication and independence. Congratulations to our gold award winners so far. Who will it be next week?

In Geography (Understanding of the World), we met Blackwell Bear who will be exploring the world with Red Class. Blackwell Bear showed us the world map and we found our country and our continent. Blackwell Bear asked where the children wanted to visit and then we used Google Earth to fly around the world to France, Portugal, Cyprus, USA and Australia.

To find out about Remembrance Day, we watched a short film and we all fell silent to remember. We looked at poppies and thought about why we wear them at this time of year.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend with plenty of play, rest and time to remember.

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class

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 worked incredibly hard. Not long to go now before we can all enjoy a good rest.

This week, in Phonics, we revisited all phonemes/graphemes and practised our three tricky words: the, is, I. We used magnetic letters to spell CVC words (sit, sat, pat). During Write Dance lessons, we used circles and lazy eights to create a picture of an owl.

In Maths lessons, we explored length. At home, see if you can find two different socks and compare them. Is one sock shorter, longer or the same length as the other sock? Find 3 different types of pasta. Which piece is the longest piece?

In PE, we developed spatial awareness by practising movement skills within our ‘gateway’ (the space between 2 cones) and rolling a ball through the gateway to a partner.

As well as playing games to stay safe in the Forest, the children discovered different parts of a tree by collecting and sorting leaves, seeds and sticks.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend. If you’re visiting the scarecrow trail, remember to look out for Betty and Harry.

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

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 worked incredibly hard. Not long to go now before we can all enjoy a good rest.

This week, in Phonics, we revisited all phonemes/graphemes and practised our three tricky words: the, is, I. We used magnetic letters to spell CVC words (sit, sat, pat). During Write Dance lessons, we used circles and lazy eights to create a picture of an owl.

In Maths lessons, we explored length. At home, see if you can find two different socks and compare them. Is one sock shorter, longer or the same length as the other sock? Find 3 different types of pasta. Which piece is the longest piece?

In PE, we developed spatial awareness by practising movement skills within our ‘gateway’ (the space between 2 cones) and rolling a ball through the gateway to a partner.

As well as playing games to stay safe in the Forest, the children discovered different parts of a tree by collecting and sorting leaves, seeds and sticks.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend. If you’re visiting the scarecrow trail, remember to look out for Betty and Harry.

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

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 scarecrows as part of the Blackwell Scarecrow Trail, Saturday, 21^st October.

In Phonics, we introduced ‘h’, ‘b’, ‘f’ and ‘l’ and the keyword ‘the’. Remember to open your mouth a little, put your teeth on your bottom lip and push the air out to make ‘f’. When saying ‘l’, pop your tongue to the top of your mouth behind your teeth and press saying ‘l’. Try to find objects beginning with ‘h’, ‘b’, ‘f’ and ‘l’. Practise oral blending by listening to letter sounds e.g. l-e-g or h-i-p and touch the correct body part. I’ve added new eBooks to your accounts.

In Maths, we explored 2D shapes (rectangle, square, circle and triangle). We created 2D shapes using elastic bands on pegboards and cotton buds. We counted sides and corners and identified shapes in different positions and sizes. See if you can find some 2D shapes at home. Can you find and count the sides of the shapes?

In Write Dance, we created circles and eights with our hands, arms and feet. We then traced circles and lazy eights (eights on their side) in shaving foam and on chalk boards. You can find a link to support learning at home here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFEZzcJRtVQ

In Geography, we looked at a familiar place (Forest School) and talked about the main features. We named, described and sorted places by looking carefully at photographs and we made a 3D map of Rosie’s farm to link to our class story.

Parent evening slips were added to the reading folders today. Hopefully, I’ve managed to give everyone their requested time slot. If you requested a Zoom meeting, I will send the link via Parent App closer to the time. If you need to change your day or time, please just call the office.

Finally, thank you for your chicken feed donations! Greta, Ellie and Rosa have been feasting on tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli and pears this week. They will definitely be ready for winter.

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

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 focused on the BFS chickens.

We watched a short video clip to learn some interesting facts about chickens. We discovered that chickens need to eat more in the winter, but we didn’t have enough money to buy extra pellets and corn. The children offered their pocket money to help! We then explored how we could help the planet by encouraging less waste. The children wanted to ask Mrs Barker, our school cook, if we could use any leftover food from her kitchen and we plan to visit Mrs Barker next week to ask. They also wanted to use the leftover fruit from each class fruit basket. We wondered whether our Red Class families might send in tomatoes, lettuce, pears and other delicious chicken treats. Our learning helped the children to think about how we can reduce our food waste and help others at the same time.

The theme of chickens continued as we received a parcel from Mrs Moss. It was a special book for our topic, ‘Rosie’s Walk’. We shared the book, created actions for key events and talked about vocabulary in the story. Later in the week, we created a story map to sequence key events and some of the children made their own maps in play and explore time.

In Science, we discovered that scientists use their senses to find out about the world. With this in mind, we explored the outdoor area and collected bark, soil, seeds and leaves to make a smell pot. We moved on to talking about trees and how some trees lose their leaves in the autumn. Next week, we will continue to explore other signs of autumn.

In Phonics, we concentrated on ‘ck’, ‘e’, ‘u’ and ‘r’. Our tricky words were ‘is’ and ‘I’. On Friday, we changed the home readers and group reading books. As an alternative, we can also offer eBooks so that parents have a choice of how they would like to read at home. Details about usernames and passwords for the eBooks will be sent home next week.

In Maths we started our work on subtraction and focused on finding 1 less. We used songs, stories and role play to help with this concept. We used people from school as the context for our stories. For example, Mrs Moss selling cakes at Tea and Toast and Mrs Wilson losing one leaf at a time in the wind!

In PE, we created shapes including tucked and stretched shapes and then found different ways to balance on bean bags. The children were very good at the traffic light ‘stop and go’ game during the warm-up. We also managed a full change! The biggest challenge, for most children, was taking off their blue polo shirt. Any extra help at home would be appreciated.

In PSHE, we talked about people who help us and how they are kind. We talked about the meaning of ‘kindness’ and how a simple smile is a little act of kindness. We talked about kind hands, words and eyes and why it is important to be kind.

Thank you for your parent evening slips. I will send home appointment days/times shortly. Look out for an appointment card in your child’s book bag.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class x