Headteacher: Anna Moss

Red Class homework

Easter Fanfare

Hello Red Class Families,

It’s been a busy term, finding out about transport from the past, entering a writing competition, raising money for local food banks, becoming wake and shake champions and, of course, Singing on the Steps. We’ve also braved every type of weather in our outdoor play and learning from snow to sunshine! Well done, Red Class.

During the holidays, please revisit your eBook collection, focusing on fluency and expression. Please also focus on your individual reading targets issued at parent consultations. Games such as matching pairs, bingo and snap will help you to remember individual letters, digraphs and words. Please look for any reading books at home as we’re missing a few from our sets.

If you would like to spend some time practising your Maths facts, then click here for some mental maths games: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/3-5-years/counting

Alternatively, write 0-10 on post-it notes and try ordering them. Turn over a couple of cards and see if you can work out the missing numbers using your 1 more and 1 less skills. If you’re secure with number order to 10, then work up to 20. Again, find 1 more and 1 less to 20 with the cards and then mentally.

Try to write over the holidays. You might write Easter cards or an Easter shopping list. Use the handwriting pack, sent home earlier in the year, to recap how to form each letter correctly and check your work with the cursive letter mat, sent home last week. If your cursive letter formation is developing well and you’re remembering your lead in and lead out, then begin to reduce the size of your letters.

When we return, after the holidays, the children will start their new afternoon clubs! Red Class will learn alongside older children, visiting new classrooms and meeting new grown-ups. Mrs Edney, Mrs Thomas and Mrs Birley have worked hard to prepare the children for this change. The children will now attend Forest School on different days, depending on their group. They can still wear joggers and trainers on their Forest School Day. Groups can be found on Parent App.

Finally, our next topic will see the children turning into ‘Globe Trotters’. We’ve enjoyed finding out about Redmond’s travels, so now it’s our turn to make a virtual visit! We’ll also be celebrating the King’s Coronation.

Wishing all our families a peaceful Easter full of sunshine, laughter and plenty of chocolate!

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class

24.03.23

Hello Red Class Families,

Thank you for joining me for parent consultations this week. It was great to share the children’s progress and next steps. Following parent consultations, we celebrated some show and tell items linked to the children’s targets. Well done, Team Red! On Tuesday afternoon, I will call the last few families to share your child’s progress and targets.

This week, we started our new topic, ‘Easter’. We shared the Easter story and discovered how people celebrate Easter from egg rolling competitions to writing Easter cards. We’ve been working hard on our Easter songs ready for ‘Singing on the Steps’.

In Phonics, we read compound words (popcorn, farmyard) and words ending in -ing (waiting, singing). Every week, we’re seeing good progress in the children’s confidence and ability to form cursive letters. We revisited ‘r’, ‘n’ and ‘m’ in handwriting lessons. I’ll send home a copy of our cursive letter mat to support cursive writing at home.

In Maths, we used the part-whole model for subtraction. We practised our halves every day too. If you say ‘Chip the Chopper’ to your child, hopefully, they should be able to show you their chopping action for halving and they might be able to sing the song too!

Mrs Hampton helped the children to navigate their eBooks in our Computing lesson. New eBooks have been added to the children’s accounts. Please revisit eBooks from previous weeks to develop fluency and expression. If you’re playing games to practise digraphs, trigraphs or tricky words, this will count as a tick on your reading sheet. New reading sheets, to record reading at home, were sent home on Monday. Just a reminder to some of the Giraffes to bring their library books in on Fridays so we can change them.

Finally, a big thank you to Mrs Allen who helped us with our campfire today. The children toasted marshmallows and it was Mrs Lewis’s job to check when they were ready to eat. Mrs Lewis has all the best jobs! Next week, will be our final Forest School session as a class. After the Easter holidays, the children will visit Forest School during club time. When afternoon clubs have been finalised, we will let you know your child’s Forest School day.

We look forward to seeing you next week for Singing on the Steps (28.3.23 at 8.45am).

Best wishes for a lovely weekend,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class

17.03.23

Hello Red Class Families,

This week, in Phonics, we read words with two or more digraphs. Every day, we read a sentence to apply our learning. Before reading, we look for digraphs and trigraphs within words, spot tricky words and find any words we’ve previously seen in the warm up. We then practise reading the sentence several times. Here are two examples:

The sheep march up the hill and into the sunset.

The queen has seven sheep and a shark.

In Literacy lessons, we thought about good word choices such as ‘shiny’ and ‘magical’ to describe the lamp from Aladdin. Later in the week, we read phrases using good word choices and then wrote phrases together. Although, we’re moving into our Easter topic, next week, we will spend the first part of the week writing phrases to match our transport yoga poses. Our writing will then be entered into the Blackwell Writing Competition.

During Forest School, the children discovered how to prepare for a 5 minute campfire. We talked about the sticks we would need to collect and how to arrange them. We also talked about what to do after a fire to look after the forest and to keep everyone safe. Next week, weather depending, we’re hoping to enjoy a real campfire at Forest School.

You might start to hear songs about chickens and seeds at home! We’ve started to learn our Easter songs and, although we want to keep a few surprises, we thought you might like to practise one of the songs at home. You never know if there might be some audience participation during ‘Singing on the Steps’. Please click the link to find one of our songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEey4LZLeGw

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at good relationships in PSHE. Today, we talked about what to do if we have a problem. As a class, we planned some strategies to help, for example, using some ‘thinking’ or ‘quiet’ time to calm down, talking through our problem and trying to find a solution. After the lesson, one little boy said, “Mrs Webb, we (pointing to his friend) have a good relationship because we’re sharing.” Other children offered examples of how they’d fallen out with their friend or sibling but they’d found ways to solve their problems, such as taking turns to play different games.

Finally, thank you for helping to raise money for Comic Relief. The children looked fantastic in their class colour!

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class

10.03.23

Hello Red Class Families,

If we managed to return every glove, hat, sock and snow boot to the right children then I will be very happy and surprised! Mrs Spurgeon’s organisation skills were certainly put to the test at 1.40pm and she did a marvellous job. If you’re missing any items, just email the office. The children enjoyed their time in the snow.

We tackled ‘z’ in our handwriting lessons and spent the rest of the week working on curly caterpillar letters. We created some transport-themed pictures using these letters. Every week, we practise forming numerals too. This week, the children focused on 3, 6 and 8. Remember to start each numeral from the top.

x and z- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St5RHwFCkWM

In Phonics, we read words containing ‘er’ and ‘air’ and words with double letters e.g. ‘rubbish’, ‘muffin’ and ‘chatter’. Every lesson, the children write 3 keywords including a tricky word e.g. no, go, of. I can see progress in the children’s confidence and ability to write these words using cursive letters. Well done, Red Class.

In Maths, we used ordinal numbers to order people and objects. Try using ordinal numbers at home. Who is first to eat their dinner? Stand your teddies in a line and find the third teddy from the front of the line. We’ve also started to count in 5s. The children might like to sing this song at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ4jV14Oz5I

New eBooks have been added to reading accounts tonight. Sometimes, we share the same book over two weeks if we feel the children would benefit from extra sessions to improve their fluency and comprehension.

The children also enjoyed their first outdoor PE lesson, this week. We looked at good running technique and practised our skills in relay races. Next week, we’ll be practising our jumping skills with Mrs Thomas.

Finally, parent consultation times were sent out today. Please contact the school office if you need to change your day or time. During this meeting, you’ll be able to see your child’s learning journey and workbook.

Best wishes for the weekend whether it’s full of snow or sunshine,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class

Click here.

Hello Red Class Families,

We managed to make it through the week despite many bugs trying to stop us! We even managed a fantastic performance in the Wake and Shake competition leading to a Red Class victory! We are the La Bamba Champions and the Wake and Shake Cup stands proudly in our classroom. Other highlights from this term included our afternoon tea for two, visiting St Catherine’s Church and starting to put pencil to paper for writing.

The children are ready for a week of play and rest after a very busy seven weeks at school. In that time, we have covered all the graphemes from the Reception Year. So, for the rest of the year, we will revisit all digraphs and trigraphs and apply them to longer words. Following our half-termly phonics assessment, we’ll also target tricky digraphs and trigraphs and send home reading books to support personal targets.

In handwriting lessons, we covered ‘m’, ‘p’, ‘j’ and ‘s’. When we return to school, we will learn how to form our final set of letters (v, w, x and z) and revisit all our letter families. If the children can practise their handwriting during the holidays, particularly the first set of curly caterpillar letters (c, o, a, d, g, q), this will make a big difference to their progress in school.

r, n and m: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ApSBO_prI

p, j and s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ad5hDpIkmM

This week, we’ve been watching film clips of the children playing in the environment to talk about learning behaviours such as cooperation, communication and resilience. These skills are particularly tricky in the last few weeks of term, when the children are very tired, so it was good to spot kind hands and voices and to celebrate learning behaviours.

When we return to school, we’ll be travelling back in time to find out about ‘Transport’ and taking a magic carpet ride to meet Aladdin. As part of our play, we’ll be making large role play vehicles on the balcony. Please save any large cardboard boxes at home.

Whether you’re at home or away this half term, enjoy the break. Well done, Team Red.

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

P.S. The children had their hearing tests this week and their results can be accessed through the Parent Portal.

10.02.23

Hello Red Class Families,

This week, we used ‘chunking’ to read longer words. When reading ‘laptop’, we chunked the word into smaller parts e.g. lap and top and used our sound talk and blending skills, before putting the word back together. Try chunking at home using the following words: sunset, farmyard and bedroom. Remember to look for digraphs too. This week, we recapped previously taught tricky words: pure, sure, are, into, of, he, she, me, be and we.

Handwriting lessons focused on two different letter families. First ‘e’ and ‘f’ and then ‘r’ and ‘n’. We also include ‘m’ in the latter family. We will cover this letter next week.

e and f: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxKjG9VGUlw

r, n and m: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ApSBO_prI

In Art lessons, we’ve been tearing, cutting, arranging and sticking as part of our collage work. The children have been developing their scissor grip and action and learning how to tear strips and shapes. This linked to our Maths lessons where we’ve been exploring 2D and 3D shapes. Next week, we will use our collage skills to create artwork for the office area.

Our Visit to St Catherine’s Church

Today, we visited St Catherine’s Church where we met Rev. Sheri Gidney. We looked at some of the features of the church including the font and the altar. We also shared stories from the Bible and talked about prayer. Thank you to Rev. Sheri, Marie, Jenny and Dave for helping us with our learning.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class 

03.02.23

Hello Red Class Families,

This week, we looked at double letters in Phonics and read words such as ‘letter’, ‘carrot’ and ‘rabbit’. The children are starting to understand that, in these examples, two letters make one sound. We also introduced the sound and catchphrase for ‘air’ and ‘er’ and added ‘pure’, ‘sure’ and ‘are’ to our tricky word list.

air – chair in the air

er – a bigger digger

Handwriting lessons focused on ‘b’, ‘h’ and ‘k’ using the cursive script. Mrs Moss will take you through the letter formation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMEIvn3B1nk In Literacy lessons, we looked at different types of writing linked to ‘Our World – Religion’ topic. We explored lists, captions and labels and every day we showcased children’s writing from home or Play and Explore. It’s great to see the children using their segmenting (sound talk) skills to spell words. In Reception, we want the children to listen carefully to each sound in the word and make the best choice from what they know e.g. spelling ‘baby’ as ‘babee’. At this stage, we’re building their confidence to ‘have a go’ at writing. However, it’s never too early to start talking about spelling, for example, explaining that the last letter in baby is ‘y’ as this makes the ‘ee’ sound too.

In Maths, we made towers of cubes and compared them to find the difference. Many children often see the total at first and find it tricky to find the difference. By the end of the week, we could see a real improvement. I’ve heard lots of confident counting in 2s to 10 in Mental Maths too.

During RE (Religious Education) lessons, we used photographs and video clips to explore special places, including a church as a special place for Christians. We looked at items and pieces of furniture from a church. This linked nicely to William’s ‘Show and Tell’ about his children’s Bible where we shared a story about Noah’s Ark (which made our Noah smile). During our RE lessons, the children have been really good at making links to some of their experiences such as playing in the grounds of St Catherine’s Church and attending weddings and Christenings. Next Friday, we’ll visit St Catherine’s Church. Although, we’re not visiting Forest School, we’ll keep to the same Friday routine of joggers and trainers as routine makes me happy. 

New eBooks are available now. Your eBook counts as a tick on your reading list and it will give you an accurate picture of how your child is progressing with their reading.

Just a reminder about avoiding snacks with nuts and encouraging healthy snack choices. I am inspired to do better for my own children when I see some of your delicious, homemade snacks coming into school! Please also add just one small keyring to your book bag as some animal groups are struggling to fit their bags into the crates.

Finally, wishing all our little ones with coughs and colds a restful weekend.

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

27.01.23

Hello Red Class Families,

Thank you for joining us for afternoon tea. The children were really excited to see their special guests in school. From designing and making sandwiches to creating items for the tables, the children gained so much from this topic. We’re still collecting donations, please see Mrs Garner in the office.

Although it’s been a busy week, we’ve continued to learn new digraphs and the trigraph ‘ear’ and we introduced the following tricky words: my, by, all. New eBooks are available. Sometimes, the children will share the same book over two weeks to develop fluency and comprehension skills.

ur – curl the fur

ow– wow owl

oi- boing boing

ear – get near to hear

Handwriting lessons focused on ‘i’, ‘l’, ‘t’, ‘u’ and ‘y’ using the cursive script. Use the following link to support handwriting at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewnFykLMnDM Please see the handwriting pack for letter formation phrases.

We’ve started to count in 2s to 10 in Maths. We’re in the very early stages of developing our understanding and we started our journey by thinking about ‘pairs’. Try looking for pairs at home (socks would be great) and count in 2s to 10 with an adult. We’ve also been busy making number bonds to 5 using Numicon and then using the ‘power of 5’ to add single digit numbers in our egg boxes. We will continue to work hard on this concept as it will help to strengthen mental maths skills as the children move through school.

Next week, we will change learning partners and start our new topic, ‘Our World – Religion’, which will include a trip to St Catherine’s Church. Although our focus for this topic is Christianity, as the children move through school, they will learn about different religions. We will also celebrate the children’s experiences. If your child would like to talk about a special religious temple or event, such as a wedding, please send a photograph to office@blackwell.worcs.sch.uk.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx