This week is National Book Week with a non-fiction focus. We, as you already know, have been learning lots about different animals and animal groups. This week we are recording some of the facts that we have learned in our own non-fiction books. The children are working really hard on using capital letters, full stops, exclamation marks and conjunctions. We are going to display our books in local vetinary surgery waiting rooms so that visitors can learn more about different animals.

In maths we have been grouping animals and starting to count in 2s, 5s and 10s. We played SPLAT the multiples and did very well. You can find this game at home just google splat number square!

Hard to believe that we are half way through the half term, let’s hope this weather improves soon!

Mrs. Luter

Well done Turtles! What an amazing assembly! There were all sorts of different animals – reptiles, mammals, birds, fish and amphibians. But unfortunately the animals were not very kind to each other! Luckily Barry the Fish with Fingers showed the animals that our differences are a good thing. Well done again Turtles!

Other news!

Mrs. Allen’s class have been working really hard on measuring this week and will continue their learning next week. They have been learning about St. Peter and how he spread the good news about Jesus’s resurrection. We have also heard all about how Jesus called Himself the ‘Good Shepherd’ and how we can become good shepherds for our friends and families.

Have a lovely extended weekend!

Mrs. Luter

We have been so lucky this week to meet different animals to start our new learning context – ‘Amazing Animals’.

We have been learning about the differences between the five animal groups – mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish. I wonder if your child can tell you which group the animals that visited belong to? We met Mrs. Allen’s tortoise, Mrs. Luter’s daughter’s hamster, the chickens that we hatched in reception who are now living at Mrs. Luter’s house, some tadpoles and Mrs. D’s lizards.

Pets

Well we can hardly believe that this term has come to an end!

We have learned so much about homes and toys through our learning contexts. We have developed our number skills and are becoming more confident applying maths in a variety of situations. We have been counting in multiples and adding 10 more and finding ten less. Keep practising!! We are so happy with the children’s commitment to their phonics learning and we are seeing some amazing progress. Keep reading over the holidays it makes a big difference to your children’s ability to retain their phonics learning.

In writing we have written instructions to include persuassive hooks and top tips – all to persuade the Pigs to build better homes. We loved our trip to the Weald and Downland and enjoyed finding out about homes in the past and how they were built. We then had a visit from two astronauts who are taking a one way ticket to Mars. We found out what their homes were going to be like!

Well that’s just a snapshot but we look forward to giving you weekly updates about our learning next term! Our topic is Amazing Animals and we are already getting excited thinking about all the exciting opportunities for learning. If any of you know someone who works with animals we would love to set up some visits. Please let us know.

All that is left to say is thank you for all your support and please have a happy, safe and holy Easter.

Mrs. Luter

Hello,

Thank you to all of you who were able to come to the session this morning. We hope that it helped you to understand how phonics is taught and that it gave you some ideas for home learning. The children are working exceptionally hard and making good progress.

For those of you who were unable to attend we will send home the leaflet that was handed out today. It will explain all about phonics teaching in school.

There will be some changes to Bug Club over the next few days so please bare with us if there are any problems.

We have been working really hard on becoming curious learners and thinking about all the ways we can show this learning behaviour. Such as asking questions and trying things in new or different ways. We are hoping that all the children will be earning their bronze award for our 5Cs soon. 

Not long to go now until our Easter holiday. It will certainly be a hard earned break!

Best wishes,

Mrs. Luter

Every Wednesday we visit the school library where Mrs.D reads a story to us.

Today we also got to make an important vote.

We voted on our favourite picture book for the Hampshire Picture Book Awards 2015.

We each had our own voting form so we felt very grown up!

We worked so hard this morning writing a recount of our trip to the museum yesterday that we had a visit from the chicks that we hatched in Starfish class.

We had a fabulous day today at the Open Air Museum.

We have learned so much about homes in the past and were rather surprised by some discoveries. No electricity, no toilets and no windows! The Tudors must have been very chilly!

Children be sure to share your learning with your families. Can anyone remember that saying …’night, night, don’t let the…..’ Where does it come from and what does it mean?

Why did the Tudors keep herbs in their beds?

Who stayed at school until they were 13?

How were the houses built?

How were they similar to our homes today?

How were they different?

Which animal helped to make clay bricks for the homes?

What did the Tudors drink?

What else did you learn?

And now Mrs. Allen’s assembly to look forward to!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Luter and Mrs. Allen

Today we had a visit from Hampshire Fire Rescue Service. They have taught us lots about how to keep ourselves and our homes safe and the children have a job that they  need to do tonight!