What are we doing this week?

Autumn Term 2 2024

W/C 2nd December 2024

This week we are looking at Owl Babies as part of our topic on Night and Day.

We have been looking at Autumn Celebrations.

These have included Halloween, Bonfire Night, Remembrance and Diwali.

In our Drawing Club time we have looked at stories like Christopher Pumpkin, Rama and Sita and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

In our Maths focus, we have been reinforcing number skills and learning not just to count but to understand about the representation of numbers 1 - 4 and beyond. We have also been busy identifying what a repeated pattern looks like and thinking about shape recognition.

We look forward to collecting ideas to help inspire us with the help of the author B. Ware during the special author day for our school and class.

Forest School is continuing each Friday afternoon and P.E. will continue each Tuesday. We've been learning how to create simple dance sequences linked to Bonfire and Firework patterns and shapes as well as Diwali dances.

The balance bike day was a great experience to learn and practise simple balance and co-ordination skills with the help of the Bikeability instructors.

Class 1 have also been busy practising for the Nativity with Class 2 as we learn about The Christmas Story. 

Reading books will continue to be changed on Tuesdays and we will send home a choosing book and phonics book.

The red sound book will also come home daily to currently reinforce the 'special friends' (diagraphs) from our Phonics learning.

Reminders of forthcoming events

Friday 29th November 5.00-7.00pm PTFA Christmas Fayre in the school hall. All welcome!

Monday 2nd December - Road Safety Talk and class workshop

Friday 6th December 1.30pm-Dress rehearsal for the Nativity. Grandparents and parents with pre-school children are welcome at attend. Countryside Nursery are also invited. No tickets are needed for this showing.

Monday 9th December 1.30pm Nativity - Parents with younger children and adult welcome. Tewkesbury Fields Care Home residents are also invited. (Tickets required)

Tuesday 10th December 6.00pm -Parents and adults only. (Tickets required)

Tuesday 17th December 9am Carol service in Eldersfield church for the whole school.

Please transport your child/arrange transportation to and from the church. Parents and grandparents are welcome to join us back at school for tea, coffee and mince pies. Thank you for your support.

Tuesday 17th December - Christmas Lunch

Wednesday 18th December -The Elves and the Shoemaker at The Everyman theatre in Cheltenham.

Friday 20th December - Autumn term finishes for the Christmas holidays (at the usual time)

Week 6 13-17th October

Our role-play journeys by train have brought us to the seaside! We will be sharing books with a sea setting and use these to inspire our own illustration.

 Our key text for this week is 'The Sea Monster' to inspire creativity and develop vocabulary. We will use the story to inspire our 'Drawing Club' work and also introduce the 'Tales Toolkit' to the children, which is a play-based approach to creating and writing stories.

Science with Mrs George continues as the children learn about their 5 senses-this week it is taste.

In Maths we will begin to learn all about repeating patterns.

Our Read/Write Inc sessions continue to teach new sounds and to use 'Fred talk' to blend words orally and using magnetic letters, and write words using 'Fred Fingers'

We will assess the children before half term to see if they can read all the sounds we have covered so far speedily, and if they can blend these to read words.

Week 5 7th-11th October 

Drawing Club this week will be inspired by an animation, 'The Wackey Races', developing our learning about vehicles and travelling. The children will be challenged to construct vehicles, and to go on a role play journey with new friends.

We will look at how the sea is represented in art, explore mixing shades of blue and green, and ways of making wave patterns.

In Read Write Inc sessions we will continue to learn to blend the sounds we know to read words, and some children are ready to write words as well.

In science, learning about our 5 senses continues. 

Week 4 30th September-4th October

'We are off on a journey out of the town, what shall we see, what shall we see?'

This is from our key text, The Train Ride, by June Crebbin, which will be the stimulus for our new set of Rainbow Challenges, Home & Away-Journey to the Seaside. (see below)

After our trip on Tuesday, we will small world resources to sequence the story and make maps of the story.

In Maths, we are exploring different criteria for sorting objects.

Week 3 23rd-27th September

We have introduced our 'Rainbow Challenges' to the class,(see below) and they will work towards collecting their coloured lolly sticks to create a rainbow and reach their 'Proud Cloud'. Our first 'Purple' challenge is for them to remember the morning routine with very little prompting from us; let's see how independent they can be!

Thank you for coming to the meeting about reading-see document below. Remember, in Class 1 we give out books every Tuesday, to be kept all week and returned with the completed reading record every Monday. Did you know that the more nursery rhymes that a child knows ay 5 years old, the more confident they are learning to read-see video below for singing at home together!

Our key Text this week is Not Now, Bernard by David Mackee.

We have made a start with our 'Letters and Sounds' and the children are doing so well in class and at home too, as seen in their red home learning book-thank you for your support! Helpful videos will be added to See-Saw.

If you would like to support them at home with their Maths, follow the link below to the White Rose Home Learning resources. We are starting the unit of work titled 'Just Like Me'-Week 1 which is all about matching and sorting.

Autumn Term 1 Week 2 

The children were fantastic in their induction week, getting to know us, each other and the school routines and expectations. We hope they enjoyed their first week and are not too tired!

Our Focus texts last week were 'The Colour Monster' and 'The Colour Monster goes to school'. These books help us to understand our feelings, including the mixed up feelings we have about staring school. We have thought about feeling happy, sad, calm, angry and frightened, and how these feelings are represented by the colours yellow, blue, green, red and black. We will be extending the children's vocabulary by thinking of other words for these emotions, such as cheerful, miserable, relaxed, furious and worried. These words will be revisited through the year as we share stories and empathise with others.

We also shared the story of 'Mr Big' a jazz pianist gorilla who had no friends; he was so big that he frightened everyone away, and inside he felt very small. He was very lonely until he bought a piano and his music drifted out of his window around the town. He received an invitation from other musicians to play in a band in the jazz club, and then he wasn't alone or lonely anymore! We will be encouraging the children to play together, to be friendly, to include everyone. We will pair them up with a new friend to be 'Learning Partners'.

We have been using the social phrases of greetings and partings; saying 'Hello', Good Morning, and 'Goodbye', as well as remembering good manners by saying 'Please' and Thank you'.

This week we carry on focusing on Nursery Rhymes and our key text is 'Little Lumpty'.

This week we begin our teaching of 'Letters and Sounds' using the Read/Write Inc approach. You are all invited to learn more about this at our reading meeting on Tuesday 17th at 5.30pm.

In Maths we are singing number rhymes to help with finger counting. Number of the week is Number 1 (see Number-block video below) and shape of the week is the circle.

In science this week, we will introduce our five senses and talk about how they help us to learn. In art, we are looking at our physical features and making a self portrait painting. In PHSE we will learn the word unique and talk about individual talents and interests.

Induction Week Monday 9th-Friday 13th September 2024

On Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday your child will be attending school for a 2 hour 15 minute induction session in a small group, either in the morning or the afternoon. They will learn about the entering school routine; what they will be expected to do independently every morning. Please help your child by talking through this routine at home, using the slides below.

During the induction sessions, the children will have the opportunity to explore and play in the different areas of the classroom, indoors and outdoors; to select and use resources and to return them to the right place when they have finished with them, or at tidy up time.

They will begin to get to know each other and the layout of the room, including the toilet. Please help your child to be independent with toileting and hand washing. However, there will be explicit teaching of good hygiene procedures in school. Please help your child by watching the NHS handwashing video below.

We will observe and chat with the children to get to know them better. We will share stories, songs and rhymes and games that help us to get to know each other too. Please share lots of nursery rhymes together at home; see video below.

We will meet together as a whole class on Thursday, and the children will need their PE kits.

On the afternoon of Friday 15th, we will have our introduction to Forest School session, and the children will need their Forest School bag- a big supermarket shopper is the best! Please see the information presentation about Forest School, which lists the items needed.