Heron
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Term 2 Term 2 Week 5 27th November – 1st December 2023 This week is assessment week where we will be checking what the children have learned so far. We will be continuing to learn about Kenya whilst focusing on the text ‘Lila and the Secret of Rain’, The children will end the week by making an information poster on Kenya. We are developing our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week, they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. In Maths the Year 1’s will continuing to compare quantities and measures and will be working specifically on counting reliably and effectively. Reception will continue to work on numbers 4 and 5, finding all the different combinations that make up these numbers. The following game would be good for both Reception and Year 1 to play. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/early-years/lets-compare Reading Cafe will be on Monday this week and we look forward to welcoming you into the class to share some books . Looking forward to the week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
Term 2 Week 4 20th – 24th November 2023 Welcome to a new week of learning. In English, we will be starting a new text. “Lila and the Secret of Rain” by David Conway and Jude Daly. The book is about a girl who lives in a Kenyan village where they desperately need rain because there is a drought. Sh gets advie from her grandmother to find a solution. This will be linked with our Geography and science where we are learning about weather, a map of the World and continents – Africa in particular.
In Maths this week, Year 1 we will be exploring measuring where we will be exploring quantities and measures, and comparing length and height and breadth and different sizes of containers. Reception will be looking in depth at the numbers 4 and 5 , finding the different combinations that make up the numbers and well as how we form the numerals correctly. We are developing our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week, they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. Our weekly reading café will be on Friday afternoon this week We look forward to welcoming you into the classroom. Looking forward to the week ahead Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 2 Week 3 13th – 17th November 2023 We have a very busy week ahead. On Monday 13th it is Odd Sock Day – children are asked to wear odd socks to show that it’s okay to be different and to stand up against bullying and discrimination. On Friday 17th the children are asked to wear something spotty with their school uniform in support of Children in Need, A £1.00 donation is asked for and will be split between Children in Need and The Foodbank On Wednesday, Heron class will have a morning of active learning through play, when Little City UK will be visiting our school. They will set up a mini city in the school hall and the children will be invited to try their hand at different occupations by working in a vets, doctors, surgery, garage, shop, post office etc. We can’t wait to see what they will discover.
Also in connection with our learning enquiry, “What is around me?”, in English this week, we will be looking at the book, “The Queen’s Hat” by Steve Anthony. It is in the same series as the book they read last week, which focussed on the Queens tour of the UK. This week the book focusses on a day when the Queen loses her hat and the reader follows her hat around some famous London landmarks. This will support us in learning about our capital city. By the end of the week the Year1’s will write their own stories about London. The Reception children will sequence the events in the story correctly and will attempt to label the pictures using their knowledge of phonics. In Maths, the Year 1’s will be exploring geometry and shape. The Reception children will also be exploring 2D and 3D shapes such as circles, rectangles, triangles and cuboids using informal and mathematical language. There will be lots of practical learning explorations, such as printing with 3 D shapes to see if the children can recognise the 2D shapes on the faces. Reading Cafe will be on Thursday afternoon this week. We look forward to welcoming you into the classroom. Looking forward to the week ahead Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 2 Week 2 6th – 10th November 2023 We are looking forward to seeing many of you on Tuesday at 4.00 for a RWI, reading information meeting so you will be more prepared to support your child. If you are unable to attend but would like more information on reading, please contact me and I would be happy to help. In English this week, we will be looking at the book, “The Queen’s Handbag” by Steve Anthony. This will support us in learning about and locating on a map, the different countries of the UK – England, Sotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. By the end of the week the children will write a recount of the story using their own words. The Reception children will sequence the events in the story correctly and will attempt to label the pictures using their knowledge of phonics. In Maths, the Year 1’s will be looking at partitioning 2 digit numbers into tens and ones. They will also be looking at addition with these digit numbers. The Reception children will be continuing to look at adding 2 digits together to make numbers below 5. They will also be learning to explain 1 more and 1 less. We will be observing a 2 minute silence on Friday at 11.00, along with some visitors from our local British Legion. Children who attend any uniformed organization, such as Brownies, Cubs, Scouts or Beavers may wear their uniforms on Friday. Reading Cafe will be on Wednesday this week. We look forward to welcoming you into the classroom. Looking forward to the week ahead Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 2 30th October – 3rd November 2023 Week 1 Welcome back to Term 2! We hope you had a fun and restful break. We will be continuing with our learning Enquiry, What’s Around me ? Here is the skills and knowledge planner for Term 2 where you an see what the children in Heron class will be learning this term as well as all the English texts we will be learning about. Term 2 Half-term skills and knowledge planning overview PPSA Our text this week will be Seasons by Hannah Pang which is a lovely non- fiction book all about seasons around the world. Our focus will be on reading and writing poetry all about the seasons.
In Maths the Reception children will be learning about the composition of numbers 1-3 . The Year 1 children will be learning about estimating and finding lengths. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week, they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. We are developing our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week, they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. Reading Cafe will be on Tuesday this week. We look forward to seeing many of you then. We are looking forward to the coming week. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
9th – 12th October 2023 Week 6 Well done to everyone for a fabulous first half term. Remember it’s only a 4 day week before the 2 week Autumn break. We are looking forward to meeting many of you at our learning review meetings on Tuesday and Thursday this week. This is an opportunity for you to find out how your child has settled into their new year group and to find out from them what they have been learning, so please bring your child with you. This week we will be assessing our children in phonics to find out the progress made and if there are any gaps in their phonics knowledge that need to be addressed. The children will then be re grouped according to their needs, ready for next term. In English the children will be reviewing their knowledge of the alphabet and will be learning letter names. The Year1 children will be distinguishing between lowercase and uppercase letters and will be making their own alphabet book of jobs so they have Aa for artist , Bb for builder etc. The Reception children will be matching the sounds they have earned in phonics with the letter names and will be learning a variety of alphabet songs. We will be holding a RWI meeting for the parents of Reception children and anyone from Year 1 who would like a refresher on our reading phonics programme at the beginning of November. The date will be confirmed later in the week. In Maths, the Year 1 children will be continuing to learn about place value and specifically counting on from any given number between 1 and 100. The Reception children will be continuing with their work on pattern, making and explaining repeated patterns they have made and can see in our environment. We are looking forward to the week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
2nd October – 6th September 2023 Week 5 ‘Window’ by Jeannie Baker is the book we will be focussing on this coming week.
We will be looking at views from our windows, considering how the views can change over the years, Thank you to all the families who have already sent in photos of the views from their windows. The children love sharing pictures from home with us, The Year 1’s will be learning to write some descriptions using nouns and adjectives whilst the Reception children will be learning to label pictures using their phonics to help them to spell. In Maths the Reception children will be learning about patterns and how to continue them. They will be making their own repeating patterns by printing, using natural objects, coloured counters etc. The Year 1’s will be counting to 100 in different ways, in 1’s, 2’s, 10’s etc. The following website has a range of games that will help your chid to practice their counting skills. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=counting%20in%2010s We are developing our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week, they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. We are looking forward to the week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
25th – 29th September 2023 Week 4 This week, as part of our learning Enquiry “What’s Around Me ?” we will be starting a new book, “What the Ladybird Heard” by Julia Donaldson.
We will be looking at making and following maps as well as learning about farm animals and the noises that they make. The children will make their own picture books based on the book but they will make some changes to the original story. The Year 1’s will be using their phonics to help them to write some text, We can’t wait to see your books. In Maths the Reception children will be learning about measuring and patterns and will be doing a lot of explorations into comparing size. The following game will help your child to practice the vocabulary we are using in school to compare size. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/early-years/lets-compare The Year 1’s will be counting to 100 in different ways. There will be a large focus on counting in 10’s but from different stating points, so it could be 30, 40, 50 etc or 22, 32, 42, 52 etc The following website has a range of games that will help your chid to practice their counting skills. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=counting%20in%2010s We are developing our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. We are looking forward to the week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
18th – 22nd September 2023 Week 3 Thank you for all your support last week! The children seem to have settled into their new routines amazingly well. In English we are continuing to read the story Beegu, about an alien who has a spaceship crash and has to explore the planet Earth on her own. This links directly with our Learning Enquiry, What’s Around Us? where we will be exploring the immediate surroundings of our school. The Year 1’s will write their own Beegu story where they will have the opportunity to make some changes to the story such as introducing a different character or setting. The Reception children will be making their own picture books. In Maths this week the Reception children will be learning to s In Maths this week the Reception children will be learning to sort and compare a variety of objects such as pencils and bowls, as well as 2D and 3D shapes, according to colour and size etc. The game below will give your child a chance to practice their colour sorting skills. https://pbskids.org/sid/games/sorting-box The Year1’s will be continuing to work on place value, counting in 10’s and 1’s and making groups of 10 to make their counting more efficient. The 2 interactive games below will help your child to practice their counting and number recognition skills, https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/helicopter-rescue We are developing our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. We are looking forward to the week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
11th – 15th September 2023 Week 2 What a busy 3 days we have just had! Thank you everyone for ensuring the children all had the correct PE kit and uniform. The children settled in so well. We are so proud of them. Please see below a letter outlining some information about our Year 1 and EYFS curriculum. 2023 Term 1 curriculum letter Please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas WELCOME TO THE START OF TERM 1!
6th – 8th September 2023 Week 1 Welcome to the start of a brand new academic year! We are so excited to welcome our new learners as well as our old ones into Heron Class . During the first week, the children will be engaging in various activities to help us get to know each other better and settle into the new school routine. We continue to have a strong focus on supporting and promoting the children’s wellbeing, with the help of our PSHE mascot, ‘Jigsaw Jack’. Our learning enquiry this term will be “What’s Around Me ?” We will be focussing on where we live and the surrounding area. We will look at where Pawlett is on a map of the UK and where it is in relation to the rest of the World. We will also explore the difference between villages, cities and towns. As well as a geography focus, in science we will be looking at the UK weather and the differences between the four seasons. Below is a link to our knowledge organiser that shows what we will be covering, Please share this with your child throughout the term to find out what they already know, are learning and have learned What’s around me_ Knowledge Organiser Keep an eye on here for updates as well as all of our social media sites. Looking forward to a really successful year of learning with you, Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
Term 6 Week 7 – 17th – 21st July Thank you to all the parents who came to our end of term work showcase. It was lovely to see so many of you there. This coming week, the whole school will be engaged in an enrichment week whereby the children will be offered a range of activities that are additional to our normal curriculum. This will include a Samba drumming workshop, a drama workshop and lots of space related activities where the Heron class children will get a taste of what it might be like to be an astronaut going off into Outer Space. Their interest in space was ignited after our recent visit from the Space Dome, and our core text, Astro Girl, so we decided that more enquiry into Space would be well received. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. The Year 1 children have been practicing how to log into Spelling Shed in school . Please keep on practicing over the Summer break. In Maths we will be doing some space related Maths activities that will incorporate a range of Mathematical skills that the children have learned over the year, such as addition, subtraction, grouping, sorting and shape recognition. We are excited for the week ahead. Have a lovely weekend, Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 6 Week 6 – 10th – 14th July
As our school year comes to a close we will be completing our learning enquiry on What makes me Healthy? Over the course of the term te children have been engaged in making a range of books and posters to show what they have learned. We would love to share these with you and would like to invite you into Heron class from 2.45 on Friday 14th July so we can explain what we have been learning about. We cant wait to see many of you there. In English this week, we will be looking at a new text, ‘Astro Girl’ by Ken Wilson-Max. The book focuses on a little girl who dreams that one day she will be an astronaut just like her mum. We will be discussing the importance of having high aspirations, and in particular our hopes and dreams for next year. The children will be re-visiting what a good sentence is, and in Year 1 we will be ensuring that everyone has remembered to use capital letters and full stops as well as the conjunction and. We have worked really hard on our writing this year so I am excited to see what aspirations the children have. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. The Year 1 children have been practicing how to log into Spelling Shed in school . They know where to find their usernames and passwords so they can practice their spelling t home. Please ask if you have any questions regarding Spelling Shed. In Maths we will be looking at the duration of time, distinguishing between seconds, minutes and hours. The children will be engaged in lots of practical experiences to see how long each activity takes. The Year 1 children will also re-visit reading o’clock and half past on an analogue clock. Both the Reception and Year 1 children will also be revisiting 3D shapes to expand on the work we previously did on naming and describing their properties. Our reading café is on Monday at 3pm this week, we look forward to seeing lots of you then! Have a lovely weekend, Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 6 Week 5 – 3rd – 7th July In English we will be continuing to read Ready Steady Mo! We will be looking at rhyming words and the different features of poems. By the end of the week the children will all write their own exercise poems. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. The Year 1 children have been practicing how to log into Spelling Shed in school . They know where to find their usernames and passwords so they can practice their spelling t home. Please ask if you have any questions regarding Spelling Shed. In Maths the Year 1 children will be looking at the questions that they found tricky during their assessments this week. There will be further work on place value and filling in the missing blanks in addition and subtraction equations i.e. 14 – 2 = 16 – Ο or Ο = 9+8. We will also be doing some more explorations with money , working out which coins we need to use to but specific items. The following game would be really useful to play with your child. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money Our reading café is on Friday at 3pm this week, we look forward to seeing lots of you then! Have a lovely weekend, Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 6 Week 4 – 26th June – 30th June What an exciting week we have just had! Full of learning experiences for the children! They loved having the opportunity to travel into space with the visit from the Explorers Space Dome as well a visit from our Community Police Officer, Coral.
It is assessment week, so our focus will be on looking back at what we have covered this term, checking what the children have retained and highlighting the areas that need some extra reinforcing. We will then try to ensure that these gaps are filled over the last few weeks of term. For the next 2 weeks in English, the children will be looking at the text ‘Ready Steady Mo!’ about Sir Mo Farah. They will be finding out about sports personalities who have to be fit and healthy to enable them to be successful in their careers. We will be learning about verbs and thinking about words we use for exercise such as ‘hop’, ‘jump’, ‘run’ etc. We will be finding out about rhyming words such as ‘hop’, ‘run’, ‘jump’ etc. and will be using them in lists and sentences. Next week we will be writing our own poems, related to sports and keeping fit and healthy. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. The Year 1 children have been practicing how to log into Spelling Shed in school . They know where to find their usernames and passwords so they can practice their spelling t home. Please ask if you have any questions regarding Spelling Shed. In Maths the Reception children will be revisiting continuing, copying and creating patterns. The following game would be really useful to play with your child. https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/Resource/LandingPage?objectId=7a342439-3181-415c-acf1-9873bef4e207 The Year 1 children will be learning about Money – recognising coins and notes. The following game would be really useful to play with your child. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money Our reading café is on Thursday at 3pm this week, we look forward to seeing lots of you then! Have a lovely weekend, Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 6 Week 3 – 19th June – 23rd June This week as part our Learning Enquiry, What Could Make Me Healthy? we are looking at police officers as real life superheroes. The children will be researching the work of police officers and as part of their research we will be having a visit on Wednesday afternoon from our local PCSO along with her police car. I am looking forward to hearing the children’s questions! At the end of the week the children will produce posters to show what they have learned about police officers. On Tuesday, an Explorer’s Dome is coming to visit us at PPSA. Heron class will be immersed into a Space experience. I know the children will be engrossed in the experience and we cant wait to share what we find out with you. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. The Year 1 children have been practicing how to log into Spelling Shed in school . They know where to find their usernames and passwords so they can practice their spelling t home. Please ask if you have any questions regarding Spelling Shed. In Maths the Year 1 children will be revisiting the beginnings of multiplication, making arrays and sharing amounts of objects into equal groups. They will be building on work they have done previously so that they will in time be able to have immediate recall of facts such as two 7’s are 14. The following game will be a really good way of practicing the skills learned during Maths this week. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/mental-maths-train The Reception children will be focusing on sharing equally and comparing quantities- greater than, less than and the same as. The following game will be a really good way of practicing the skills learned during Maths this week. https://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/busyday/dogs/ We are looking forward to a fun week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 6 Week 2 12th June – 16th June Thank you all in supporting us to have a great first week back after the half term break. The children all seemed refreshed and ready to become fully immersed in a new term of learning. In our Learning Enquiry,, ‘ What Could Make Me Healthy?’ we will be exploring the mini enquiry question, ‘who helps us? (past and present). In English we will be looking at books on real life superheroes such as nurses, doctors, firefighters etc. After doing lots of research we will end the week by making posters to inform people of the great jobs that firefighters do. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. The Year 1 children have been practicing how to log into Spelling Shed in school . They know where to find their usernames and passwords so they can practice their spelling t home. Please ask if you have any questions regarding Spelling Shed. In Maths, the Year 1 children will be working on immediate recall of Number bonds to 10. We aim to make this skill as automatic as possible to help them when they are adding much larger numbers. The following game is a fun way to practice the skills the children will be learning. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button The Reception children will be working on the automatic recall of number bonds to 5 and related subtraction facts. We will also be continuing to work on numeral formation. The following game will help the children to practice the skills they have learned in school. Start with numbers to 10 then try numbers to 15 if they seem confident. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/addition/robot-addition Reading cafe is in the afternoons this term and we invite you into the classroom on Wednesday at 3.00 this week, to share a book with your child. We are looking forward to a fun week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 6 Week 1 5th June – 9th June Welcome to the last term of this school year! The time seems to have flown by! We are continuing with our learning enquiry, ‘What could make me healthy?’ and we will be focusing on our mini enquiry question, ‘What does a pet need?’ We will be making comparisons between the needs of pets and the needs of humans. We will start the week by reading one of my favourite stories, ‘Six Dinner Sid’ and this will hopefully motivate the children to talk about the needs of a pet. We will then research what pets need and will end the week by making our own information books. We will be using our knowledge of phonics to spell words and will be trying to use as many adjectives as we can to make our writing more interesting. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. In Maths the Year 1’s will be working on immediate recall of Number bonds to 10. We aim to make this skill as automatic as possible to help them when they are adding much larger numbers. The following game is a fun way to practice the skills the children will be learning. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button The Reception children will be working on the automatic recall of number bonds to 5 and related subtraction facts. We will also be continuing to work on numeral formation. The following game will help the children to practice the skills they have learned in school. Start with numbers to 10 then try numbers to 15 if they seem confident. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/addition/robot-addition We are looking forward to a fun week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
Term 5 Week 6 22nd May – 26th May We can’t believe we only have 1 more week before the end of term 5 . We are very excited that Sports Day will finally be taking place on Friday 26th May in the afternoon after having been postponed a few weeks ago, due to bad weather. We look forward to welcoming families, ready to start our races at 1.30. Please see the flyer below. The details remain the same except for the date.
In English we will be retrieving what we have learned so far about what could keep us healthy by making a leaflet to share with others in the school. We will also be reading the book Superworm and will be writing a re-tell of the story.
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. In Maths the Year 1’s will continue to explore fractions, focussing on halves and quarters. There will be plenty of practical work where the children will be finding halves and quarters of groups of objects as well as dividing shapes into halves and quarters. If you follow the link to the following page and click on the Halves game your child will be able to practice the work they will be covering on fractions. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button The Reception children will be working o their skills of addition, combining 2 numbers to find a total. We will also be continuing to work on numeral formation. The following game will help them to practice the skills they have learned in school. Start with numbers to 10 then try numbers to 15 if they seem confident. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/addition/robot-addition We are looking forward to a fun week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 5 Week 5 15th May – 19th May
Continuing with our Learning Enquiry, “What Could Make Me Healthy?” this week Heron class will be starting a new non-fiction text, Keeping Safe. We will be learning about safety inside the home and outside the home. The children will be using the text to acquire information to make their own lists, posters and diagrams . They will use their knowledge of phonics and grammar to write sentences. In Maths the Year 1’s will be exploring fractions, starting with halves and quarters. There will be plenty of practical work to help them develop their skills. If you follow the link to the following page and click on the Halves game your child will be able to practice the work they will be covering on fractions. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button The Reception children will be counting to 20 and beyond and looking at the patterns they can see in different sequences of numbers. We will also be continuing to work on numeral formation. Here is a really useful interactive number square that the children love to use. You can ask them questions such as find me 1 more that 16 etc. The Reception children can work with numbers 1-20 and the Year 1’s with numbers to 120. Your child can show you what to do. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. Reading Café is in the mornings this term, and we look forward to welcoming you into the class on Friday from 8.30am – to share a book with your child. We are looking forward to a fun week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 5 Week 4 9th May – 12th May The disappointment at having our Coronation sports day cancelled last week, soon disappeared when Heron Class were fully engaged in an afternoon of Coronation experiences. This culminated in a class party, complete with crown, treasure box, flag and belt making as well as dancing, singing coronation songs, fact learning and of course, delicious party food! Sports Day will now take place on the afternoon of Friday 26th May. We are continuing with our Learning Enquiry, ‘What Could Make Me Healthy?’ and much of our work will centre on our mini enquiry question “What do I need to be healthy?” We will be looking particularly at healthy foods and the importance of good medical care. In English this week we are continuing to focus on the book Supertato by Sue Hendra. The children will be writing and illustrating a retell of the story. The Year 1’s will be looking at the structure of stories, ensuring that they have a clear, beginning , middle and end.
In Maths the Year 1’s will be exploring division, sharing objects into groups. There will be plenty of practical work to help them explore this. The Reception children will be counting to 20 and beyond and looking at the patterns they can see in different sequences of numbers. We will also be continuing to work on numeral formation. Here is a really useful interactive number square that the children love to use. You can ask them questions such as find me 1 more that 16 etc. The Reception children can work with numbers 1-20 and the Year 1’s with numbers to 120. Your child can show you what to do. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares This is also a useful interactive game to help the children with counting and number name recognition. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/teddy-numbers We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. Reading Café is in the mornings this term, and we look forward to welcoming you into the class on Thursday from 8.30am to share a book with your child. Thankyou for your ongoing support. Please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions. Enjoy the long weekend! Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 5 Week 3 2nd May – 5th May We are excited about our Coronation Sports Day this coming Friday (5th May). We have been busy practising a royal themed obstacle race as well as a Marching Guards race in PE. We hope as many of you as possible can come to join in the fun and cheer on your child. See the information below for more on the afternoon!
We are continuing with our Learning Enquiry, ‘What Could Make Me Healthy?’ We were finding out about healthy foods last week, so In English this week we will be focusing on a new book ‘Supertato’ by Sue Hendra. The children will be learning about the characters and setting in the story as well as learning the plot so they will be able to write a re-tell of it the following week. In maths, this week Year 1 will be continuing to learn about the beginnings of multiplication. We will be doing lots of practical work, sharing and sorting objects into equal groups, writing repeated addition sentences as well as learning about arrays. The following games are fun ways of reinforcing the skills we will be learning. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares The Reception children will be continuing to develop their understanding of number through sharing sets of objects into equal groups. They will also be developing their numeral formation skills by writing numbers with chalk, pens and pencils. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about reading. Reading Café is in the mornings this term, and we look forward to welcoming you into the class on Wednesday from 8.45 am – 9.00 am to share a book with your child. We are looking forward to a fun week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
Term 5 Week 2 24th April – 28th April What a busy week we had last week! We will be continuing with our new Learning Enquiry, “What Could Make Me Healthy? “ In English we will be looking at a non- fiction text called “Exercise and Play”, where we will be exploring themes such as healthy eating, exercise, mental wellbeing and keeping warm. The children will research these different areas and will then design and make a leaflet to answer the questions ‘what does being healthy mean? and ‘What do I need to do to be healthy?’ The Year 1 children will be revisiting what adjectives and nouns are and hopefully they will use this in their writing. The Reception children will be using their phonics skills to write labels and simple sentences. In Maths the Year 1’s will be continuing to learn about the beginnings of multiplication and division and will be counting in groups of 10’s, 5’s and 2’s. We will be doing lots of practical work, counting on bead strings and sharing and sorting objects into equal groups. The Reception children will be counting and grouping objects into sets of 2’s and 3’s and will be working out problems such as – You have 4 teddies. How many teddies will there be if 1 more teddy comes to the picnic? Here is a really useful interactive number square that the children love to use. You can ask them questions such as find me 1 more that 16 etc. The Reception children can work with numbers 1-20 and the Year 1’s with numbers to 120. Your child can show you what to do. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. Reading Café is in the mornings this term, and we look forward to welcoming you into the class on Tuesday from 8.45 am – 9.00 am to share a book with your child. Thankyou for your ongoing support. Please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
Term 5 Week 1 17th April – 21st April Welcome to Term 5! We hope you have had a fabulous break and are fully refreshed and ready for a new term of learning Our new Learning Enquiry is “What Could Make Me Healthy? “ We will be starting our learning journey with the mini enquiry question, What does healthy mean? We will be reading a range of non fiction texts on how to keep healthy and will be starting the week learning how to wash our hands correctly. There will be lots of sequencing of pictures and instruction writing. . I have attached our knowledge and skills organisers to give you an idea of what we will be learning and some of the vocabulary we will be covering. Term 5 skills and knowledge plan What could make me healthy_ (2) Knowledge organiser healthy (1). In maths, this week Year 1 will be starting to learn about the beginnings of multiplication and will be counting in groups such as 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. We will be doing lots of practical work, sharing and sorting objects into groups as well as displaying them in arrays. This game is a fun way of reinforcing the skills we will be learning. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button The Reception children will be finding patterns in numbers, learning about odd and even numbers as well doubling, sharing and grouping numbers. Looking forward to a fun week ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 4 Week 6 27th March – 31st March This term has flown by! We can’t believe that we are just about to embark on our final week before the start of our Easter break. As our learning enquiry, “What Grows Near Me?” draws to a close we will visit a local farm, Maundrills, in West Huntspill on Wednesday to get a first hand experience of what crops, plants, hedges and trees are grown on a local farm and what animals live there as well. We have lots of questions still to ask so we can’t wait to have an opportunity to ask them to the farmers! We will also be planting our beans into pots as they are already becoming too big for the ziplock bags they are in. We have been watching their roots grow and their shoots and leaves expanding. Some of them are very tall already. In English we will be continuing to focus on the story of The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. We will be learning to use adjectives to make our writing more exciting. In Maths the Year 1 children will be consolidating everything they have learned on measurement as well as revisiting place value and numbers to 50, checking that they know which number comes before a given number and which number comes after. The Reception children will be continuing to develop their understanding of numbers to 10. They will also be practising how to form the numerals correctly. For so extra Maths practice, please look at the following website for some great games. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/caterpillar-ordering We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Have a fabulous week Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
Term 4 Week 5 20th March – 24th March Welcome to a new fun packed week where we will be continuing our learning enquiry into What grows near me? We will be focussing on the beautiful story, ‘The Tiny Seed’ by Eric Carle which follows the life cycle of a plant through the seasons. The children will be working on their sequencing skills as well as writing descriptive sentences. There will be plenty of seed growing as well as making some delicious fruit smoothies.
In Maths, the Year 1 children will be exploring mass and volume with plenty of opportunities for practical weighing explorations. The Reception children will be exploring the passing of time and will be engaged in activities involving the of sequencing of days and daily events. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Reading Café is in the afternoons this term. and we look forward to welcoming you into the class on Friday at 3pm to share a book with your child. Have a great week Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Thursday 16th March We hope you had a good day yesterday – can’t wait to see what you have found out about Comic Relief tomorrow. Today, could you take a look at a recent Newsround episode. It is Neurodiversity Week this week and the second item on the programme is all about neurodiversity. After watching this, could you have a go at designing a sensory wall or area. What would it look like, feel like, sound like, even smell like? You can bring your designs in next week for us to take a look at. Looking forward to it! You can also always practice your spellings on SpellingShed, your multiplications tables on TTRockstars, and snuggle up and read or write your own story – or both – your choice! Thank you for your support today.
Wednesday 15th March Today’s learning looks a little different. Some activities for today are listed below. Details for tomorrow’s learning will be posted up here later – so check back later on! It is ‘Red Nose Day’ on Friday this week -so can you find out as much as you can about the charity Comic Relief; the event – when it started, who started it, examples of what it supports – anything you can about it. You can decide how you want to demonstrate your learning – it could be written, drawn, painted, presented…we don’t mind, but we would love hear/see what out found out on Friday in school so bring whatever it is you are produced with you on Red Nose Day itself! Here is a link to the official website: https://www.comicrelief.com/ You can also always practice your spellings on SpellingShed, your multiplications tables on TTRockstars, and snuggle up and read or write your own story – or both – your choice! Thank you for your support today. Term 4 Week 4 13th March – 17th March Welcome to a new week of learning. This week we will be focusing on the book Kate and the Beanstalk which is a slight twist on last weeks classic tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. We will be looking at how we can innovate stories by changing one element such as character or setting. The week will end with the children writing their own version of the traditional fairytale. We are really looking forward to seeing how creative the children are becoming.
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. In Maths the children will be practicing and developing their measuring skills, comparing heights and lengths of a range of objects. In Reception they will be developing their measurement vocabulary using words such as longer, bigger and shorter etc., whilst using non standard units of measurement, such as hands and cubes, whilst Year 1 will be consolidating their understanding of standard units of measurement by using centimetres and metres. Reading Café is in the afternoons this term. and we look forward to welcoming you into the class on Thursday 16th March at 3pm to share a book with your child. Have a great week Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 4 Week 3 6th March – 10th March
World Book Week was a great success last week and we had plenty of opportunities to share our love of books. This week in English we will be focusing on the traditional tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. There will be lots of bean related activities throughout the week and the children will retell the story in their own words. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. When their reading diary has been signed more than 3 times in a week,they will be celebrated as a Heron Class Star Reader. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. In Maths the Year 1 children will be working with numbers to 50 whilst Reception will focus on numbers to 10.. The Year 1 children have been working on number families and the following game will really help them to recall the facts with speed. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/number-facts/number-fact-families The following game is a great one for the Reception children to play. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/teddy-numbers Reading Café is in the afternoons this term. and we look forward to welcoming you into the class on Wednesday 8th March at 3pm to share a book with your child. Have a great week Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 4 Week 2 27th February – 3rd March We have had a fabulous start to Term 4 and we are looking forward to a fun packed week ahead. After the success of Oliver’s Vegetables last week, where we made vegetable soup, we will be reading another book by Vivian French called Oliver’s Fruit Salad which will involve making our own tasty fruit salads. The focus will be on poetry and by the end of the week the children will have written at least 2 fruit poems each!
In reading, we will be finishing The Hodgeheg by Dick King Smith as we will be reading the final chapter of this highly enjoyable book. We are really looking forward to finding out what happens. In maths, Reception will continue to work on 2D and 3D shapes. The children will be encouraged to spot 2D and 3D shapes around the classroom and outside area. See the link below to a great online shape game. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/early-years/shape-monsters Year 1 are continuing to work on subtraction and related facts. The children have really enjoyed playing the Helicopter Rescue game where they have been using their knowledge of less than to help them to work out the answers. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/helicopter-rescue We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Reading Café is in the afternoons this term. and we look forward to welcoming you into the class on Tuesday 28th February at 3pm to share a book with your child.
And finally……………………. . We are looking forward to World Book Day on Thursday 2nd March! I know lots of you have already planned outfits with your children. We are dressing as words this year which will produce some fabulous outfits! We can’t wait to see you all on Thursday. Here are some ideas in case you are still thinking about it.
Have a lovely weekend, Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 4 Week 1 20th February – 24th February Welcome to Term 4! We will be continuing to explore our learning theme, “What grows near me?” Please see the skills and knowledge planner below, for the term ahead. What grows near me_ Term 4 Half-term skills and knowledge planning overview In whole class reading, the children will continue to read The Hodgeheg by Dick King -Smith, a story they have been thoroughly enjoying. The text we will be looking at in depth during English lessons is Oliver’s Vegetables by Vivian French
We are looking forward to a really exciting term ahead. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
Term 3 Week 6 6th February – 10th February We can’t believe it is already the last week of term. This week in English we will be finishing our work on The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and will be focussing on researching the lifecycle of a butterfly which will result in the children writing an information booklet. In science we are learning about the parts of a plant . In Maths all the children will be working on doubles . The Reception children will focus on numbers to 10 and the Year 1’s will be working with a larger range of numbers. The Year 1’s will also be drawing on their knowledge of number bonds to help them to subtract. We look forward to seeing parents at our learning Review Meetings on Tuesday 7th and Thursday 9th . If you haven’t signed up yet please see Mrs Clements in the school office. Reading café is on Friday this week. I look forward to seeing lots of you in class at 8.30-8.50 am. Term 3 Week 5 30th January – 3rd February
The text we are focusing on this week is “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. The children are very familiar with this text after our visit to Weston Playhouse in December to see an adaptation of this book. We will be writing diary entries which will involve sequencing the days of the week as well as the different food that the caterpillar ate.
Reading café is on Thursday this week. We look forward to seeing lots of you in class from 8.30m. In Maths the year 1’s will be using their knowledge of number bonds to 10 to help them to work out addition sums using numbers above 20. The Reception children will be beginning to learn number bonds to 10. To end the week, we have the NSPCC NUMBER DAY on Friday 3rd February! Look out for messages about the day from our school office or on Wedoc!
We hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you next week. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 3 Week 4 23rd January – 27th January
Continuing with our Learning Enquiry, What grows near me? we will be studying the the text, Yucky Worms by Vivian French. We will be looking specifically at why worms are important for our gardens. The children will be answering and asking lots of questions as part of their research. We are hoping to make a wormery as part of our outdoor learning this week. In Maths the Year 1’s will be adding by counting on as well as using their knowledge of number bonds to help them to add 2 numbers together. The Reception children will be working on combining 2 groups together which will involve a lot of practical explorations, inside and outside. If you want to help your children with their maths skills, they really enjoyed playing this interactive caterpillar game which helps them to think about the order of numbers. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/caterpillar-ordering Tuesday is International Day of Education where we will be looking at how important it is to have equality of education all over the World and we will try to understand this by looking at the country of Lesotho and discovering that the children there often have to study without access to any technology . So we will have a day of no technology where we will have a school day with no computers, i-pads, photocopiers etc and then we will discuss the different experiences of education that some children have. Don’t forget the weekly reading café which is on Wednesday (25th) morning this week!
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you next week. Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas Term 3 Week 3 16th January – 20th January We will be continuing to investigate ” What grows near me?” through the planting of seeds and observational walks around our school grounds. If you are able to upload a photo or bring a photo or drawing of plants from your garden or a garden area near to your house for Monday, we would be extremely grateful. In English we will be increasing our knowledge of bugs through reading the book The Big Book of Bugs which the children have loved looking at this week. They will make their own non fiction posters to record their learning which we are really looking forward to seeing.
In maths the Year 1’s will be discovering how to use number lines and will be ordering numbers as well as finding out which numbers are missing using their knowledge of numbers to 20. The Reception children will be exploring comparing capacity and mass through lots of weighing and container filling experiences. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you next week. 9th – 13th January 2022
We are looking forward to another busy week ahead. The children were excited to find out that our new learning Enquiry is “What Grows near me?” They have already started to look at this question by exploring our outdoor area with clipboards and drawing the things that they can see growing. This week we will look at bugs that live outside and we will be finding out which plants they need in order to exist. In English the children will be looking at a new non- fiction text – The Big Book of Bugs by Yuval Zommer which is a beautifully simple but informative book that will teach the children lots of facts about bugs. The y will be reading chunks of the text for understanding then writing lists and captions in answer to questions to show their understanding of the text. In maths the Reception children will be working with numbers to 5, writing, comparing and subitising to develop a really secure understanding of what number 5 is. The Year 1’s will be developing their place value skills through working with the numbers 17, 18 and 19. They will be demonstrating and explaining how many tens and ones in a number and will be finding as many ways as possible to represent these numbers using a range of mathematical resources such as Numicon tiles. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Term 3 week 1 3rd – 6th January 2022 Dear Families, Welcome back! Happy New Year! We hope that you had a lovely Christmas break. Thank you so much from all the staff for the lovely cards and gifts. We are all ready for an exciting term ahead! This term our new learning enquiry is ‘What grows near me?’ In English we will be doing recounts of our holiday as well as making some New years Resolutions. In Maths The Year 1 children will be working with numbers to 20, whilst Reception will be focusing on 0 – 5. there will be a particular focus on numbers as words. Please find attached the overview for the term which explains in more detail what we will be focusing on. There is also a knowledge organiser to help the children learn key information about this term’s learning enquiry. knowledge organiser What grows near me What grows near me_ Term 3 Half-term skills and knowledge planning overview Reception The children have been learning their sounds really well with the Read Write Inc. Phonics scheme that we use. The groupings have changed slightly for Reception phonics and some children have now moved into ‘Red group’, which means that they will start to bring home a ‘red’ storybook to read to you at home. They will read their book at least three times in school before they bring it home so that they are really confident to read the book to you. They will also bring home a ‘red bookbag’ book to accompany their red reading book. They will not have read this one in school. All children will continue to bring home a class library book to share with you. For those children who are not quite ready for a phonics reading book, we will continue to practise recognising their set 1 sounds, play lots of blending games using ‘Fred talk’ and practise spelling words using magnetic boards. When they are ready, we will start them on reading ‘ditty’ sheets and they will bring these home to share with you. Below are some ideas about how you can support your child with Phonics at home. In the Autumn Term, I ran a Phonics meeting for parents. I would be more than happy to run this session again for anyone who is interested. Please let me know if you would like me to run another session or to give you some 1-1 advice or support specific to your child.
What can you do to help your child with Phonics?
Year 1 We will be introducing a new spelling programme throughout the school called ‘Spelling Shed’. The children will focus on learning a new spelling rule each week and will practise their spellings through a variety of different games and activities. We are really excited to start this with the children and I am sure they will love learning their spellings in this way. This will start in the second week of term.
Outdoor Learning We will continue to do lots of outdoor learning and it is helpful if the children have waterproof clothing and wellies that they can change into. Most of these are still in school but if your child did take them home, please could you send these back into school, making sure they still fit your child and are named. The children absolutely love learning outdoors and we are looking at ways to refresh our outdoor learning area further. Below are some ideas of things that would be helpful . Can you help us? We need: old kitchen pots and pans, kitchen utensils, sweet jars/bowls, baking trays/cake trays, grill shelves.
Many thanks, Ruth Baltzer and Michelle Thomas
12th -16th December Term 2 week 7
Well this term seems to have flown by already! Heron class have worked incredibly hard and they should extremely proud of their fantastic achievements throughout the term. Last weeks Nativity was great proof of this as they worked brilliantly as a team to sing and act their hearts out. Well done everyone! This week in English we will be reading the book Dear Santa by Rod Campbell, a lovely pop up book full of Christmas cheer. The children will learn how to make their own Christmas lift the flap books and will continue to work on forming good sentences with capital letters and full stops, exclamation marks or question marks. In Maths we will all be looking ay 3 D shapes, familiarising ourselves with the names and properties of the shapes. The children will have plenty of opportunity to build models out of real life 3D objects, such as boxes and toilet rolls to help them to discover which shapes are best for stacking, rolling etc. Our school post box will be in the foyer from Monday so please post any Christmas cards that you want to send to your friends is school in there. We have one more reading cafe for the term on Monday 12th december at 3pm. We look forward to seeing lots of you there. Don’t forget that Wednesday is Christmas jumper day and we will be having our special Christmas lunch at Pawlett Pavilion. We look forward to the exciting week ahead! Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
5th-9th December Term 2 week 6
We are very excited about our Christmas nativity play, The Sleepy Shepherd which we will be performing for parents on Wednesday 7th December in the afternoon at 1.45pm and on Thursday 8th December at 6pm. Get your tickets from Ms. Clements in the office if you haven’t already! PLEASE can you ensure that your child has brought their clothes to school in a labelled bag by Monday 5th December, if you are having any problems sourcing something suitable, do let us know and we will be able to work out an alternative! This is what we need you to provide for your children: narrators-black or dark coloured top and bottoms shepherds-black or dark coloured top and bottoms sheep- black or white tops and bottoms angels-white top and bottoms or white/cream dresses kings-dark or black top and bottoms stars-white or light coloured tops and bottoms Mary- white or cream top and bottoms Joseph-dark top and bottoms Reading Café Reading cafe will take place on Friday 9th December at 3pm and we look forward to welcoming you into the class to share a story or 2 with your child.
Whilst we have all the excitement of the performances this week, we will also be completing lots of valuable learning as well. In English, the children will be focusing on sentence formation and the use of full stops and capital letters. We will be using our Nativity text, The Sleepy Shepherd to help us to retell the story using simple but correct sentences and then enhance them further by adding adjectives. In maths, we will be continuing to work on addition and subtraction and fact families. Looking forward to seeing you all next week at one of our performances! Mrs Baltzer and Mars Thomas 28th November – 2nd December 2022 Term 2 Week 5 Last week we had a super visit to the theatre to watch The Very Hungry Caterpillar show, Next week, we will be rehearsing for our performance of The Sleepy Shepherd! You should have received a message about the costumes we need your child to have ready for the performances in week 6. Here is an additional costume list in case you need to check: narrators-black or dark coloured top and bottoms shepherds-black or dark coloured top and bottoms sheep- black or white tops and bottoms angels-white top and bottoms or white/cream tabards/ dresses kings-dark or black top and bottoms stars-white or grey tops and bottoms
Please could you send your child’s costume into school in a named bag by Monday 5th December. Thank you so much for your support. Please ask if you have any questions. As well as play practice, Heron class will be continuing their learning on the book A-Z of animals by Tom Jackson where they will be writing fact files. They will also be completing end of term assessments in English and Maths. In DT, we will be adding the detail to our puppets. The puppets are looking amazing and we are excited to see the finished products. In Science we will be continuing to explore the question “what can an animal do that I can’t do?” Reading cafe will take place on Thursday afternoon so we look forward to welcoming you into the class at 3.00 to share a story or 2 with your child. Have a wonderful week. 21st – 25th November 2022 Term 2 Week 4
What an exciting week ahead we have! We are off to Weston playhouse on Tuesday afternoon to watch The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show. We know the children will be ambassadors for our school so please make sure they wear school uniform as normal . They will definitely need a coat with them. We will be having an early lunch before we board the coach, ready for the 1.30 performance. Please note that the children will not be returning to school until 3.40pm. In English this week we will be focusing on the book The A-Z of Animals by Tom Jackson. We will be looking at the letters of the alphabet and matching capital letters with lower case letters. We will then be making our own animal alphabets.
In Maths The Reception children will be continuing to work on different ways of making up the numbers 1-5 by arranging amounts of objects in different ways. i.e. 1+3 =4 and 2+2=4 etc The Year 1 children will be working on fact families and will be trying a variety of methods to help them to understand that 3+4 =7 and 7-3=4 etc. We will be doing a lot of work on part, part whole models. Hopefully by the end of the week your child will be able to explain these to you. Last week we did some work on using number lines to subtract and the children enjoyed doing this interactive game that you could also try at home. https://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math/subtraction/fruit-splat-numberlines/ Reading cafe will take place on Wednesday afternoon so we look forward to welcoming you into the class at 3.00 to share a story or 2 with your child. We are looking forward to the exciting week ahead! 14th – 18th November 2022 Term 2 Week 3
In English we will be reading a new book, Rumble in the Jungle and the children will continue to learn about rhyming words and poetry. They will try their hand at writing their own rhyming sentences and poems as well as doing some work on verbs, In Maths this week we the Reception children will be focusing on shape and learning to name 2D shapes as well as recognising that a shape can have other shapes within it, just as numbers can. They will also be finding out about the number 4 and exploring 4 sided shapes such as squares and rectangles. The Year 1 children will be looking at subtraction and will be focusing on subtraction story problems. They will have the opportunity to make up their own subtraction stories which they will share with their peers. There are lots of exciting things to look forward to this week. On Monday it is Odd sock day which marks the start of anti- bullying week so please encourage your child to wear odd socks to school. I have included a link to the website below for more information about what the focus for the week is this year.
https://anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/anti-bullying-week/anti-bullying-week-2022-reach-out Reading cafe will take place on Tuesday afternoon so we look forward to welcoming you into the class at 3.00 to share a story or 2 with your child. We also have Children In Need on Friday 18th November and the children are invited to wear something spotty to school. It could be a spotty top or trousers (or skirt) or socks which they can wear with the rest of their uniform If they don’t have anything spotty, please don’t worry, as they can just wear their uniform. It is also Road Safety week so we will be taking plenty of opportunities to talk to the children about this as well as practice walking across zebra crossings and learning about how to stay safe when close to roads. 7th – 11th November 2022 Term 2 Week 2
Thank you to the parents who joined us for our RWI reading presentation on Tuesday and to those who were unable to attend but requested handouts. Please see me if you would like some early reading information. In English this week we will be focusing on the book Oi FROG ! which is a book full of humour and lovely illustrations that is jam packed full of rhyming words. The children will create their own rhyming sentences and rhymes. In Maths the Year 1 children will be continuing to consolidate their addition and subtraction skills so that they have a quick recall of subtraction facts to 10. The Reception children will be working on counting objects and sequences of actions as well as practicing their subitising skills (the ability to instantaneously recognise the number of objects in a small group without the need to count them). As Friday is Armistice day we will be thinking about the significance of poppies and we will be making our own poppies to create our Heron class wreath. The whole school will be coming together on Friday 11th November to share a service of Remembrance. Reading cafe will take place on Monday afternoon so we look forward to welcoming you into the class at 3.00 to share a story or 2 with your child. 31st October – 4th November 2022 Term 2 Week 1 Welcome back to the second half of the Autumn term. Please see below for our half termly skills and knowledge plan What am I Autumn 2 Half-term skills and knowledge planning overview Heron This week Heron class will continue to become experts on the human body. There will be plenty of scientific experiments to help them to explore the senses and the purposes of different body parts. In English they will be using a selection of non- fiction texts and simple websites to research the senses and body before compiling their own fact files. In Maths the Year 1’s will be looking at addition and specifically number bonds to 10 to ensure they have a really quick recall of number family facts so they can quickly say ” I know that 3+7 =10 because 7+3 = 10 etc.” Playing the game below will help to reinforce this learning. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button The Reception children will be learning about repeating patterns and there will be plenty of practical opportunities to practice these skills. We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come to our presentation on RWI on Wednesday if you want to learn more about how your child is learning to read, as advertised below.
RWI Information presentation – Wednesday 2nd November at 3.30 Dear Parents We are holding a parents information presentation on our phonics and reading programme, RWI on Wednesday 2nd November. Essentially it is aimed at the parents of Reception children who are new to the scheme but parents of Year1 children are also more than welcome as we will go over expectations for the whole of the programme. We will start at 3.30 in the Heron classroom. If you are unable to attend but would have liked to have been there, please let me know and I can pass the handouts to you and answer any questions that you may have. RWI really relies on the support of parents so it would be great if you were able to attend. Many thanks
10th – 13th October 2022 Week 6 I can’t believe its the last week of term already. Remember its a 4 day week so no school on Friday. Tuesday and Thursday are our learning review meetings. If you haven’t signed up for a time slot please find the sign up sheet in Reception. It was lovely to see so many of you at reading cafe last week. This week it will be on Monday from 8.30. Please join us to share a book with your child. This week in our Learning Inquiry, we are continuing to ask the question, ‘What am I?’ To support us with this in English we will be looking at some non-fiction books about the human body. The children will make their own lift the flap body book and will label parts of the body as well as the skeleton. In Maths, the Year 1’s will be continuing to look at place value and we will be focusing on numbers to 30. We will also practice counting backwards from 30 as well as looking at the greater than and less than symbols. The Reception children will be focussing on counting, recognising, writing and matching numbers to 5. If you want to help your children with Maths at home, they really loved playing this game last week when they were learning about 1 more and 1 less https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/beeMoreOrLess/ We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this. There will be a parent information evening in November to give more information and guidance on RWI on how to support your child with reading. 3rd – 7th October 2022 Week 5
The new term really is running away with us! This week reading cafe will be on Thursday at 8.45. Please drop into the classroom to share a book with your child. They really do love it when a member of their family is there. This week in our Learning Inquiry, we are continuing to ask the question, ‘What am I?’ To support us with this in English we will be reading the book “Incredible You” and we will be exploring the idea that we are all different and unique but incredible in our own ways. The children will make their own zig zag books to show how incredible they are now and what possibilities the future may hold for them. We will continue to work on the importance of remembering to use full stops, capital letters and spaces between words in Year 1. In Maths, the Year 1’s will be looking at place value and we will be focussing on numbers to 20 to really ensure that they have a good grasp of the order and value of numbers. We want them to be really secure in the knowledge that the 2 in 20 stands for 2 tens and the zero stands for 0 ones. We will also be working on writing and recognising the number names i.e. one, two etc. The Reception children will be focussing on counting, recognising, writing and matching numbers to 5. If you want to help your children with Maths at home please have a look at this website for some fun games for your child to play. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this. 26th – 30th September 2022 Week 4
Our reading cafe this week will also take place on Wednesday at 8.45. We look forward to welcoming you into the class to share a book with your child. In English we are continuing to explore the book Ruby’s Worry and the children will be engaged in lots of drama activities where they explore emotions. The Year 1’s will end the week by writing their own stories. We will continue to focus on using full stops, exclamation marks and question marks to end a sentence. In Maths we will continue to learn about Measuring this week. The Reception children will be engaged in lots of practical experiences, comparing the sizes of objects and using the language of measurement. Our Year 1 crew will be learning about formal measurement and will use tape measures and rulers to measure objects using centimetres and millimetres. If you want to help your children with Maths at home please have a look at this website for some fun games for your child to play. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this. 20th – 23rd September 2022 Week 3 Welcome to a slightly shorter week. Our reading cafe this week will also take place on Tuesday at 8.45. We look forward to welcoming you into the class to share a book with your child. Below is a curriculum letter that explains in more detail our Year 1 and Reception curriculums for the coming term. Please contact myself or Mrs Thomas if you have further questions. In Maths this week the Year 1 and Reception children will be learning about measuring. length and height and will be developing their use of mathematical vocabulary buy using words like shorter and taller. The Year 1’s will be comparing and ordering objects and people according to height. In English we will be focussing on a new text , Ruby’s Worry by Tom Percival. The children will be exploring emotions and will be thinking of times in their lives when they have experienced different emotions. We will also look at remembering to use capital letters when writing names and remembering capital letters at the beginning of a sentence.
12th – 16th September 2022 Week 2
This week our reading cafe will be open from 8.45 until 9.00 on Friday morning. Please join us to share a book with your child. We had a fabulous first week despite the weather not being so kind to us! Please can you ensure that your child has a pair of wellington boots that can be kept at school. In English we are finishing our focus on “The Colour Monster” by Anna Lienas and will be thinking about emotions and feelings. The Year 1 children will be writing thought and speech bubbles for characters. In Maths, Year 1 will focus on place value by increasing their understanding of 1 less and 1 more with numbers to 20, The Reception children will be focussing on matching colours, shapes, numbers and amounts. If you want to help your children with Maths at home please have a look at this website for some fun games for your child to engage in. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children in Year 1 read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. The Reception children are currently taking home a sharing book for you to read with them. They will start their RWI journey this week and we will be sending some small sound books home on Friday. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this. We are looking forward to a fun week ahead. Thank you for your continued support.
WELCOME TO THE START OF TERM 1!
5th – 9th September 2022 Week 1 Welcome to the start of a brand new academic year! We are so excited to welcome our new learners as well as our old ones into Heron Class . Our learning enquiry this term will be “What Am I ?” We will be focussing on ourselves and our families and the things that are important to us as well as what makes us special and unique. During the first week, the children will be engaging in various activities to help us get to know each other better and settle into the school routine. We continue to have a strong focus on supporting and promoting the children’s wellbeing, with the help of our PSHE mascot, ‘Jigsaw Jack’. There is a science focus where we will look at parts of the body and how our bodies work and enable us to do amazing things. We will compare this to animals which I know the children will really enjoy. Below is a link to our knowledge organiser that shows what we will be covering, Please share this with your child throughout the term to find out what they already know, are learning and have learned. Keep an eye on here for updates as well as all of our social media sites. Looking forward to a really successful year of learning with you, Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas |
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They will be writing and following instructions in the form of a recipe to make vegetable soup. In maths, Year 1s will be subtracting ones using number bonds whilst the Reception children will be s
the NCPCC
Term 6
18 – 20 th July 2022 Week 7
It’s the last 3 days of term and time has flown by! We have had a fantastic year and you should all be incredibly proud of your amazing children.
To round off the school year we are having 3 enrichment days where the children will be off timetable. They will still come to school in their uniforms. We will be engaging in a range of activities where we will be looking at the question “why do we need to look after our planet?” There will be lots of practical outdoor activities but we will make sure that the children are kept safe from the sun during this hot weather. There may be a few surprises for the children as well.
We will also be doing some cooking and art activities to round off our learning on stories and castles! I think we are going to have lots of fun for the last 3 days of term!
11.07.2022 Week 6
What an exciting week ahead we have. We will be having our reading cafe on Monday morning from 8.30. You are all very welcome to join your child to a share a book with them.
Then on Tuesday we will be going on a whole school trip to Carrymore Environmental Trust where Heron class will be following an outdoor programme titled, Wild Days Out, where the children will take part in minibeast hunts, sensory walks, shelter building, crafts e.t.c Please read any texts and emails from the school to get any updated information regarding the trip.
On Wednesday afternoon it is our school transition afternoon where the Year1 children will have the opportunity to go into Kestrel class to spend some time in their new class practising being with the children who will be in Year 3 with them when they are in Year 2. The new Reception children will be joining the current Reception children for a Teddy Bears picnic. We are really looking forward to meeting them all.
When we are in the class this week we will be continuing to learn about castles and we will write our own castle stories. We will also be doing a little work to check that we know which capital letter matches with which lower case letter.
In maths we are continuing with time , looking at duration of time such as seconds, minutes and hours before moving onto 2D and 3D shape.
If you want to help your children with Maths at home please have a look at this website for some fun games for your child to play.
Shape games
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/shape-position-and-movement
General games
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
04.07.2022 Week 5
We enjoyed meeting up with our new Reception intake on Wednesday of this week. Despite the bad weather we managed to have a lovely time getting to know everyone. We can’t wait to see them again this coming Wednesday.
In English we will be continuing to learn about castles using the non- fiction Usborne book, “See inside Castles”.The children seem really interested in learning about the features, purposes and history of castles so we are really excited to see the fact files and non-fiction pamphlets on castles that they will be producing.
in Maths the children will be continuing to work on time, focussing on sequencing days of the week and months and reading clock faces,
In the coming week we will be having our reading cafe on Friday morning from 8.30. You are all very welcome to join your child to a share a book with them.
27.06.2022 Week 4
What a great day we all had in Heron class on our school trip last Tuesday! It was so exciting to go on a bus and to be Deputy Librarians at Burnham library. The children were immersed in a variety of different library experiences, including following a treasure hunt trail to find pictures of well known book characters hidden around the library. They also checked out books and Dvd ‘s as part of an introduction to the library borrowing system as well as being invited to colour in characters that were then brought to life through an i pad app. Our fabulous library morning finished with a story telling session from the children’s librarian who read one of her favourite books, Penelope Snoop – Ace Detective. What a wonderful way to instill a real love of books into the children.
In the coming week we will be having our reading cafe on Thursday morning from 8.30. You are all very welcome to join your child to a share a book with them.
In English we will be looking at the book The Castle the King Built by Rebecca Colby, which is a lovely National Trust book that teaches the children all about castles and the lives of people who lived in them and built them.
In Maths, the Year 1 and Reception children will be focussing on time. The Reception children will start with sorting pictures of activities that we do in the morning and then things we do at night, before looking at ordering activities that we do during the day. Year 1 will also look at sequences of time before starting to tell the time using o’clock, half past and then moving on to quarter to and quarter past if they are ready. They will have lots of practice with clocks with moveable hands.
If you want to help your child with Maths at home, please have a look at this game to help your child with their money skills. They have all really enjoyed playing this.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money
20.06.2022 Week 3
We are delighted to say that the Heron class library trip that was postponed last week will take place on Tuesday 21st June. We will now be going to Burnham library where the staff will be focusing on story telling as well as showing the children all the things that are on offer in a library.
In English this week we will be looking at the book Zog by Julia Donaldson and we will be doing lots of work on rhyming words and poetry. Thank you so much for all your help with the weekend homework last week. The children have really enjoyed sharing the favourite books of their family members with us. In fact we are still working our way through them.
This week our reading cafe will take place on Wednesday morning from 8.30. We look forward to welcoming you into our classroom.
In Maths, both the Year 1 and Reception children will be learning about money. They will be identifying and sorting coins in Reception whilst the Year 1 children will also be introduced to notes. There will be a large focus on the value of a coin so the children really understand that 5p is made up of 5 1’s or 2 2’s and and 1 1. We will have a role play shop for the children so there will be plenty of opportunity for the children to practice their addition and subtraction skills, by adding the cost of 2 items together as well as giving change.
If you want to help your children with Maths at home please have a look at this website for some fun games for your child to engage in.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
Friday is our class photograph day.
13.06.2022 Week 2
Welcome to a new week. This week our Reading cafe will take place on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately our trip to Bridgwater library which should have taken place on Tuesday, has been postponed due to unexpected illness of staff at the library. We are however working very hard with Somerset library service to ensure that the visit to a library in Somerset goes ahead before the end of term. Please reassure your child that they will be going on a trip.
Your child will have brought home a questionnaire to enable them to interview a family member or friend about their favourite book as part of our learning theme. ‘What is your favourite story?’ We would be really grateful if you could return the sheet after the weekend. Thanks so much.
Friday homework – favourite story
In Maths, the Year 1 children will continue to be learn about place value to 100 so that they have a really good grasp on the value of each digit in a number like 48. The Reception children will be focusing on addition and subtraction with numbers to 20.
If you want to help your children with Maths at home please have a look at this website for some fun games for your child to play.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
06.06.2022 Week 1
Welcome to Term 6! We are really looking forward to the term ahead. We will be continuing with ou learning theme- What’s Your Favourite Story? so this week in English we will be looking in depth at what constitutes a good book. We will be looking at humour, illustrations, characters, word choice, rhyming words etc. The children will be encouraged to explain what their favourite story is and why. They may also be asking you as part of some weekend homework next weekend, about your favourite story and why you like it so much. This will aid us with our research into what makes a great story. We really appreciate your help with this.
In Maths, the Year 1 children will be looking at place value to 100 so that they have a really good grasp on the value of each digit in a number like 48. The Reception children will be focusing on addition and adding more to an existing number. We will be working with numbers to 20.
If you want to help your children with Maths at home please have a look at this website for some fun games for your child to play.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
We will be having a visit from the Somerset Road Safety Team 0n Tuesday to help the children to learn about different ways to keep safe near roads.
23.05.2022 Week 5
Sports Day Update!
Sports Day is on Thursday 26th May at 1.30. Please join us on the field. All children can wear red, white and blue. We look forward to seeing you.
Reading Cafe open on Friday this week from 3.00 PM
Heron Class Trips
Quick reminder to all parents/carers – we need to know booking numbers for our school trips by the end of this week (27th May).
– Bridgwater Library (14th June) and Carymoor, Castle Cary (12th July).
Please let us know ASAP!!
It’s the last week of Term 5 already and we’ve got a week packed full of wonderful learning opportunities. We will be celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee this week so there will be a large focus on this as well as continuing our learning around the Queen and a timeline of her life. On Thursday, weather permitting we will be having a family picnic on the school field to celebrate the Jubilee as well as having our Sports Day which will have a Royal flavour to it. Please join us to discover the Royal races and sports activities the children will be engaged in.
In case of bad weather, the Sports Day and picnic will take place on Friday instead.
The children in Heron class will be focussing on this fabulous book to inspire them to create their own stories, characters and story settings.
lf your child is in Year 1, please continue to work through the phonics practice book we sent home with your child last week to help them to prepare for their phonics screening check in June. If you have any concerns or questions regarding this, please come and talk to me. We are preparing the children so they are fully ready without being anxious and if you feel they are worried please let one of the Heron class teachers know immediately. Thank you so much for your support.
In Maths the Year 1’s will be continuing with their work on fractions and will be looking specifically at sharing shapes and amounts of objects into quarters. The Reception children will also be looking at sharing and grouping into equal groups. We will also be looking at positional language with all the children, looking at words like, in front, behind, on top, forwards, backwards etc.
16.05.2022 Week 4
This week we will be continuing to explore the story of Sleeping Beauty. The children will be looking at the plot and setting in detail and will retell the story in their own words. At the end of the week they will design their own front cover for the book and will publish their own storybooks.
lf your child is in Year 1, please continue to work through the phonics practice book we sent home with your child last week to help them to prepare for their phonics screening check in June. If you have any concerns or questions regarding this, please come and talk to me. We are preparing the children so they are fully ready without being anxious and if you feel they are worried please let one of the Heron class teachers know immediately. Thank you so much for your support.
The Year 1’s will be continuing with their work on multiplication and division and will be looking specifically at sharing into equal groups. The Reception children will also be looking at sharing and grouping and continuing with their work on odd and even numbers.
We will be doing lots of work around the history of the Queen for our learning them and this week we will be looking at the different houses and castles that the Queen lives in around the UK.
Please join us for our Reading Cafe on Thursday afternoon at 3.00.
09.05.2022 Week 3
This week Heron class will be delving into the traditional story of “Sleeping Beauty” looking at different interpretations of the books over the years. We will be looking in depth at good and bad characters and the idea of good triumphing over evil . We will also explore this idea in our PSHE lessons, looking at how important it is to use kind words as well as looking at how we can be good friends to others and be the best versions of ourselves. T he Year 1’s will be looking at speech and will be having a go at writing speech bubbles for characters. The Reception children will be acting out and videoing the story and will be doing a shared write of a play script. There will be plenty of drama and role play opportunities which I am really looking forward to.
In Maths, the Year 1 children will be looking at multiplication and division and there will be plenty of practical work where they will have opportunities to share objects and food such as raisins into equal and unequal groups. The Reception children will also be looking at sharing, but the main focus will be on odd and even numbers.
Year 1 parents will have received a phonics pack this week, with lots of activities and games to share with their child. This will help to reinforce all the work we have been doing in phonics and wil help them to be fully prepared for the statutory phonics screening check in June that is required for all Year 1 children. If you have any concerns or questions regarding this, please come and talk to me. We are preparing the children so they are fully ready without being anxious and if you feel they are worried please let one of the Heron class teachers know immediately. Thank you so much for your support.
Please join us for our Reading Cafe on Wednesday afternoon at 3.00.
03.05.2022 Week 2
It’s a slightly shorter week , but we still have plenty of learning to fit in. We will be continuing with our focus on the story “The Enormous Turnip” and the children will end the week by retelling it in their own words whilst making some changes to the original plot.
In Maths the Year 1 children are working on sorting objects into equal and unequal groups and will be practising repeated addition to help them to have a secure fondation ready for learning the concept of multiplication. For example, 2+2+2+2 =6 is the same as 3 lots of 2 = 6, so 3×2=6. The Reception children are working on numerical patterns and finding doubles.
Please join us for our Reading Cafe on Tuesday afternoon at 3.00.
25.04.2022 Week 1
Welcome to Term 5!
I can’t believe we are just about to start the Summer term. The year has gone so quickly but we still have lots of amazing things to explore and learn.
Our new learning Theme is “What’s your favourite story?” which is an enquiry into what makes a good story and why we prefer some stories over others. Over the course of Terms 5 and 6 we will look at some traditional fairy stories as well as some popular stories by well loved and contemporary authors. We will be starting with a focus on the traditional tale “The Enormous Turnip” where we will be using our dramatic and skills to re tell the story before writing it using our phonics skills to help us to spell. In Year 1 will be focussing on writing detailed sentences using adjectives to make the sentences more interesting. This book is also perfect for helping to teach science with a focus on what conditions are required in order for seeds and root vegetables in particular, to grow. So expect your child to be doing lots of gardening over the next couple of weeks.
In Maths, Year 1 will be looking at the beginnings of multiplication and will be doing lots of explorations into counting and grouping in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. Reception will be investigating doubles and will have lots of opportunities to play games where they are required to double numbers. They will be taught how to identify patterns when doubling numbers and will also learn some doubling facts such as 2+2= 4, 3+3= 6 etc.
If you want to help your children with Maths at home please have a look at this website for some fun games for your child to play.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
Term 4
Week beginning 28.3.22
We look forward to welcoming many of you back this week. We will be focussing on a new book, The Rhyming Rabbit by Julia Donaldson where we will be continuing to explore rhyming words. The children will share write some acrostic poems and they will then try their hand at writing their own. We will also explore writing poems in the shape of the subject they are focussing on. For example, they will lay the lines of their poem out in the shape of a chick.
In Maths we will be exploring Measurement in both Reception and Year 1.
If you want to help your children with Maths at home please have a look at this website for some fun games for your child to play.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
The children love finding numbers on the 100 square so please try the link to the splat square below.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares
We are looking forward to a great week ahead. Please note that our.co.uk/maths-ga reading cafe will be on Wednesday afternoon at 3.00 this week and we look forward to welcoming parents into the classroom to share books with their child at this time.
Home Learning for week beginning 21.3.22
If your child has had a positive Covid test, the important thing is that they get better but if they are feeling ok then here are some suggestions for work they can do. Everything is posted on Tapestry so please look there but if for some reason you can’t access it there are some ideas posted below:
Maths
Top Marks https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting Numberblocks – we are currently on Series 5 but any episode is good. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08d630h/numberblocks-series-1-five?seriesId=m000t16j
Literacy
Numberblocks and Alphablocks https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0014kmw/alphablocks-numberblocks-specials-crossover
RWI
Links to virtual classroom where your child can watch a simple phonics lesson
Reception https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/Gpas0rtC/TcjcoWku https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/sh4j6usX/dmY2R2KO https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/gq5wLwtD/GhbvD9eO https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/BkVJfpKF/gbopo4Rq
Year 1 https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/MeiJxTnq/fKlySErQ https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/wm2RbJnM/fsK4ydZD https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/WbTiMisD/BIgSGh1V https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/IPVZ9do3/sYxMxm0n
Please let me know if you want me to send individual links that fit in exactly with the reading level your child is on.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you require anymore help.
Many thanks
Ruth Baltzer
Week beginning 21.3.22
Welcome to another week of learning in Heron class. We will be continuing to focus on the book Michael Recycle, but after a really successful focus on rhyming words last week, we will be look at planning and making information posters that have a strong message about recycling.
It is assessment week this week so in Year 1 we will be looking back at all the work that we have done on place value and addition and subtraction to check that the children are able to apply all the concepts they have learned. The Reception children will be consolidating the work they have done on addition and subtraction with numbers to 10 as well as practising their number formation using a variety of mediums such as pen, pencil, chalk, paint and shaving foam.
Our reading cafe will take place on Tuesday this week at 3.00 so please come and join us in Heron class to share a book or 2 with your child.
Week beginning 14.3.22
We are looking forward to reading our new book over the next 2 weeks, Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel. This book will support our learning theme, What’s it Made of? as we will investigate which materials can be recycled and which cannot. This will lead onto a focus on the importance of recycling and looking after our environment. The book is written in rhyme so our English focus will be on writing rhyming words and poetry.
In Maths the Year 1 children will be continuing to look at subtraction with double figure numbers. There will be plenty of practical activities to enable them to develop strategies to help them work out the answers, The Reception children will be looking at subtracting numbers within 10 and will start to write subtraction sums.
If you want to help your children with Maths at home please have a look at this website for some fun games for your child to play.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
It is British Science Week and the focus is on growth so we will be planting pumpkin seeds in connection with our text last week, Cinderella and there will be plenty of discussion around what plants need in order to grow effectively. We will explore some of the different roles in everyday life that need scientific skills and we will also explore the question ‘What is Science?
Friday is Comic Relief Day so we are asking that the children wear a red top with their school uniform and they are welcome to wear a red nose if they have one.
Thank you very much for your support with our sports for schools event on Friday. The children were full of energy and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
11.3.22
Don’t forget that tomorrow Pawlett Primary School Academy are taking part in a Sports for Schools fundraising event with GB Athlete Rich Parker. We also request that what the children wear is something that they will be able to move in easily as we are also raising money for Red Cross Ukraine with £1 non-school uniform and a cake sale at the end of the day. Remember to bring some change!
Week beginning 7.3.22
Thank you so much for all your support with World Book Day last week. The character spoons that the children made last week were amazing. We had a great day and the children thoroughly enjoyed all the book activities that we did.
We will be continuing with our work on Cinderella this week and will be following our designs to make carriages for Cinderella in DT, ensuring that we use axles so our wheels actually turn.
In English we will be retelling the story of Cinderella from the viewpoint of an ugly sister.We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
In Maths the Year 1 children will be looking at subtraction with double figure numbers. There will be plenty of practical activities to enable them to develop strategies to help them work out the answers, The Reception children will be looking at the numbers 9 and 10 in depth and will be looking at the different ways to make up these numbers.
If you want to help your children with Maths at home please have a look at this website for some fun games for your child to play.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
The children love finding numbers on the 100 square so please try the link to the splat square below.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares
We are looking forward to a great week ahead.
Welcome to Term 4
Week beginning 28.02.22
Welcome to Term 4. We can’t believe we are already half way through the school year. This term we will be continuing with our Learning Theme, ‘What is it made of?’ For the next 2 weeks we will be looking at the well known story ‘Cinderella’ so that the children become really familiar with the text. They will be encouraged to do lots of writing, exploring invitations and replies to invitations as well as doing a written re-telling of the story.
As part of our science exploration we will be looking at fabrics and finding out about their suitability for different occasions, such as outfits for a ball for Cinderella or a teddy and which fabrics are waterproof for rainy weather. I can’t wait to get exploring!
There are a few important dates for this week. We are very pleased to tell you that Thursday 3rd March is World Book Day and we are very much looking forward to seeing the wooden spoons that the children were given at the end of Term 3, decorated as their favourite book character. We are also re-introducing our Reading Cafés but this time they will be in the afternoons and the first one is aptly going to be on World Book day at 3pm. We look forward to welcoming you then!
Week beginning 14.02.22
This week we will be continuing to focus on the book, “The World Came to My Place Today”. We will be looking at the difference between fiction and non – fiction and we will spend the week researching food, finding out where in the World it is produced and how it is grown/made and transported to where we live. We will finish the week by making some non- fiction leaflets and posters.
In Maths the Year 1’s will be continuing to develop their skills of addition and subtraction to 20 by using a range of resources and techniques to help them. The Reception children will be working on finding different combinations of 6, 7 and 8.
As part of our science learning on materials we will be going on a walk around the village on Monday afternoon to explore all the different materials that houses and buildings are made from.
We are really looking forward to our Learning Review meetings on Tuesday and Thursday. We do hope you have booked a time slot and please remember that your child is welcome to come with you to share their learning.
Week beginning 7.02.22
This week we will be looking at the book “The World came to my place today”. In English the children will focus on writing lists, labels and captions which combines well with our geography work where we will have plenty of practice labelling maps. We will look at different foods and products such as coffee, sugar, rubber and cotton and we will locate the countries where they are produced. The children will be using their phonics to help them to spell words independently.
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
In Maths the Year 1 children will be looking at addition and subtraction to 20, using the concepts they have learned about place value over the last 4 weeks to help to develop their knowledge and understanding of addition and subtraction further.
The Reception children will be continuing to explore numbers 5 – 10 to develop a really clear understanding of how the numbers are made up. They will be starting to write some addition and subtraction sums and will be looking at the meaning of the + – and = symbols.
What a great week we had last week and we had a particularly productive time on Friday when we focussed on Maths to participate in the NSPCC Number day. Here are some photos from the day.
Week beginning 30.01.22
This week we are excited to be starting a new book, “The Great Paper Caper” by Oliver Jeffers in which the reader along with the forest dwellers in the story are set the task of investigating the changes that are happening in the forest when trees mysteriously lose their branches and whole tree trunks start to disappear, then homes are lost. The children will be asking and answering lots of questions as part of their investigation. There will be lots of role play involved a large focus will be on the children’s oracy skills.
We will continue our investigation into materials and will be looking at the properties of certain materials asking questions such as “Is it stretchy?” “Is it soft?” etc.
In Maths the Year 1 children will be looking at counting in 2’s and 5’s to help to develop their understanding of numbers and the beginnings of the concept of multiplication.
The Reception children will be looking at pairs of numbers and will be looking at depth at the number 6, exploring different ways to make up the number.
The week will end with the NSPCC Number Day on Friday where Heron class will have a number party where lots of number games are played and we will also prepare some number inspired snacks for the party. We would appreciate it If your child could wear a top with a number on it – this can be a number badge or it could be drawn on with a fabric pen, a football shirt of any top with a number on.
We are looking forward to a really fun week ahead.
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
If you want to help your child to practice their maths skills further the following website has some great games that are fun and engaging.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/
Welcome to Term 3
We are well into term 3 already. We have had a few technical issues that have prevented me from updating this page but hopefully all is sorted now!
Our learning theme for this term is What is it made of? which is a science based enquiry. The children have already enjoyed exploring different materials such as plastic, wood and metal. They have been sorting materials into groups as well as finding out which objects are made of the different materials.
In connection with the learning theme, our English texts have been “The Three Little Pigs” and “The True Story of The Three Little Pigs” by Jon Scieszka, where the children have had the opportunity to get to know a traditional story really well and see the story from the point of view of the wolf. The children have been engaged writing diaries and newspaper reports as well as doing lots of role play.
In Maths Year 1 have been focussing on place value to 50 whilst Reception have been working on number bonds to 5 and writing addition and subtraction sums with these numbers.
Week beginning 13.12.21
I can’t believe that the Autumn term is coming to a close and this is the last week before the Christmas break. A big thankyou goes out to everyone who has supported us throughout the term. It is greatly appreciated, particularly as there has been so much disruption due to the strange times we are living in.
This week we will consolidate all our learning this term using Christmas as a catalyst for all our learning experiences. We will look at Christmas letter and list writing in English, linking it with traditional tales inspired by the lovely book, The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. There will be lots of Christmas Maths that will focus on addition, subtraction and place value as well as shape.
We look forward to welcoming you into school on Wednesday 15th December for our whole school Carols by Candlelight at 6.00 on the school playground. Reception to Year 3 will be perform in 4 songs from the Nativity play, The Sleepy Shepherd. We do hope you come along to support us.
Please continue to hear your children read over the Christmas holidays.
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas!
Week beginning 6.12.21
This coming week we will be focussing on a new text, Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers which will lead into an exploration into Antarctica. As well as looking at animals such as penguins we will investigate cold weather and will explore one of the children’s questions, “How do we get the weather?” We will start focussing on the festive season with lots of Christmas activities.
Unfortunately our Nativity, The Sleepy Shepherd, will not be performed this week as a stand alone nativity due to concerns about the current rise in Covid cases and the limited space in our hall which would mean we would be crammed into a very small space with limited venolation. However, it would be a shame for all the hard work we have done so far to go to waste so we will continue to practice a selection of songs from The Nativity to perform at the school carol concert on the 25th December. We look forward to seeing you there.
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
If you want to help your child to practice their maths skills further the following website has some great games that are fun and engaging.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
Week beginning 29.11.21
Last weeks exploration into non- fiction texts and geography websites on Kenya, led to a focus on animals as the children showed a fascination for this area. This week we will look a the food, plants, houses and customs in Kenya to help us to extract information from written sources and make fact files in Year 1 and posters in Reception.
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
In Maths, the Year 1 children will be focussing on place value and will be continuing to practice their addition and subtraction skills with numbers to 20. The Reception children will be looking at the concepts of more and less in relation to numbers 1-5. If you want to help your child to practice their maths skills further the following website has some great games that are fun and engaging.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
Week beginning 22.11.21
We have a full week ahead. In English we are continuing to look at the book “Lila and the Secret of Rain“ and we will be learning all about Kenyan animals and habitats, customs, food, and plants to make a non-fiction poster.
In Maths the Year 1 children will be continuing to practice their subtraction skills and will be linking this to number family facts. The Reception children will be looking at counting and matching numbers 1-5 with accuracy and speed.
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
As last week was National Road Safety week, we will be teaching the children about the importance of road safety rules when walking and riding bikes.
We are continuing to rehearse the songs for our Nativity, “The Sleepy Shepherd” and can’t wait for our performance in a couple of weeks time.
Week beginning 15.11.21
We are really looking forward to learning all about the continent of Africa with a focus on Kenya over the next 2 weeks. Our text “Lila and the Secret of Rain” by David Conway is a beautiful book that follows the journey of Lila whose village is affected by a terrible drought. Lila is determined to do something about it so asks her Grandfather to help her discover the secret of rain.
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
In Maths the Reception children will be looking at counting and matching numbers to 10 with a focus on 4 so they have a strong understanding of the fourness of four. The Year 1 children will be continuing with their work on addition and subtraction with numbers to 20.
This week is anti-bullying week and the children are invited to wear odd socks on Monday in support of this. On Friday we will be showing our support for Children in Need by wearing spots.
Looking forward to the week ahead.
Week beginning 8.11.21
This week we are continuing with our Learning Theme, “What’s Around Us?” and we will be looking at London as our capital city. and locating it on a map of the UK. This connects with the text we will be focussing on for English, ‘The Queen’s Hat” where we follow the journey of the queen’s hat as it flies over London landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square.
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
In Maths the Reception children will be looking at comparing, representing and the composition of the numbers 1, 2 and 3 so they have a really firm understanding of these numbers. The Year 1 children will be focussing on addition and subtraction within 10 so they have a really quick recall of number facts.
We are excited to start practicing our nativity, The Sleepy Shepherd which will take place during the week beginning the 6th December. Looking forward to a great week ahead!
Welcome to the start of Term 2!
Week beginning 1.11.21
We hope you had a great half term break and are well rested and ready for the start of Term 2. We will be continuing with our learning theme “What is around us and there will be a focus on UK geography, looking at maps, UK flags and important landmarks, We will be reading the book “The Queen’s Handbag” that follows the journey of a swan who has stolen the Queen’s handbag and flies it over a selection of British landmarks such as Stonehenge.
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to. In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
In Maths the Reception children will be focussing on 1,2,3 and finding a variety of ways to represent these numbers to give really solid understanding of what numbers are. The Year 1 children will be working on systematic number-bonds to enable them to develop a quick recall of number facts.i.e.
1+ 4=5
2+3= 5
3+2= 5
4+1= 5
Week beginning 11th October
I can’t believe that it is already the last week of our first half term ! Time has flown by and the children have settled in so quickly. I definitely think they have deserved their break.
This week we look forward to welcoming you into the classroom for Learning Review Meetings on Tuesday and Thursday. Thank you to everyone who has booked their appointments. Please ask in the office if you haven’t booked your appointment to see if there are still any time slots left. We really are looking forward to sharing your child’s learning progress with you and them.
Within our learning this week we will be consolidating our skills in Maths and revising over the concepts covered this term on place value, counting on and counting back. In Phonics, we will look closely at our existing knowledge of sounds and our blending of these sounds into 2 and 3 letter words.
Last week we looked at the wordless book, “Journey” by Aaron Becker and the children used their imaginative skills to create worlds that exist behind doors. We had some fabulous ideas so we will continue to work on these ideas this week to create our very own adventure stories.
Remember that our Reading Cafe is open on Monday of this week at 8.45. Everyone is welcome to come into their child’s classroom to share a book with them for 15 minutes. What a great way to start the week!
Week Beginning 4th October
Remember that our Reading Cafe is open on Thursday of this week at 8.45. Everyone is welcome to come into their child’s classroom to share a book with them for 15 minutes. We look forward to seeing you.
Week Beginning 27th September
This week our reading cafe will be held on Wednesday between 8.45 and 9.00 am. We look forward to welcoming any parents into Heron class to share a book with their child.
During the week the children will continue to explore the story of ‘The Storm Whale’ by Benji Davies and we will be exploring non fiction books and websites on whales to enable us to write some whale fact files as well as ending the week by writing or telling our own versions of “The Storm Whale. ”
We continue to develop our reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. The Reception children are making great progress and will be bringing home a small activity book to help them with their letter formation and the learning of RWI rhymes to go with each letter.
In Maths, we will continue to use skills to develop our understanding of place value in Year 1 and matching and sorting in Reception.
We will learn more about maps and making a map with a key of our school.
It is so important for children at this young age to share books, read and be read to, In line with our school policy we ask that children read at least three times a week at home. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. Please come and chat to me if you need further information on this.
We are looking forward to another week of great learning ahead.
Week Beginning 20th September
Thank you so much to everyone who sent in photos of your houses. The children absolutely loved sharing them with the rest of Heron class. They were so proud to talk about where they lived and particularly enjoyed explaining where their bedrooms were. We will be continuing our inquiry into “What is around us?” by looking at maps this week.
In English we are finishing our focus on “Beegu” by Alexis Deacon and will start to unpick our new text “The Storm Whale by Benji Davies where we will be comparing life on an Island, to our lives in Pawlett and the surrounding areas.
In Maths, Year 1 will be continuing their focus on place value by increasing their understanding of 1 less and 1 more with numbers to 20, The Reception children will be focussing on matching colours, shapes, numbers and amounts.
We are looking forward to a fun week ahead. Thank you for your continued support.
WELCOME TO THE START OF TERM 1!
A huge hello and welcome to the new year in Heron Class!
Your class teacher will be myself, Mrs Baltzer and I am supported by the wonderful Mrs Thomas. We are so excited to welcome our new learners as well as our old ones into Heron Class . Our learning theme this term will be “What is around me ?” So we will be focussing on our school surroundings and the village of Pawlett before looking in more depth at the UK and then the rest of the world. The children already seem to be interested in globes and maps so I think we are going to have a fabulous term.
Keep an eye on here for updates as well as all of our social media sites.
Looking forward to a really successful year of learning with you,
Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas
We would like to wish you all a relaxing and restful break over the Easter period. Looking forward to seeing you all from 8:30am on the 19th April for the start of Term 5!
Term 4 2021
28.2.21
Term 4, Week 2
Hello everyone!
We hope you had a great weekend enjoying a bit of sunshine at last! Are you ready for our last week of home learning?
I have been so impressed with all the amazing work you have been doing at home and I think you and your families all deserve a huge pat on the back whether you have been learning at home or in school. Thank you all!
We have a lovely week coming up as Thursday is World Book Day, so there will be some extra activities on books throughout the week. I am very excited as you know I love reading books!
We will also be continuing with our Learning Theme ‘How does your garden grow?’ We will be looking at changes that we might be seeing in our gardens right now as well as all the insects and animals that we might be starting to see. We will be looking at why some are good for our plants and gardens and why some are bad. There are lots of lovely books about this so we will be looking at a mixture of fiction (story) and non – fiction (information) throughout the rest of this term.
Please see last weeks post for a suggested timetable.
Have a great week!
Term 4, Week 1
Welcome to a new term!
We hope you had a good week and are ready for a new term of learning, hopefully some of which will be back in school.
This term we will be continuing with our Learning Theme ‘How does your garden grow?’ The focus this week is on food and where it comes from as well as some research on where certain food stuffs grow.
Here is the suggested timetable for lessons again that you can use throughout the week. Remember it is only suggested and you can do as little or as much of it as you want. You can even take most of it outside, which some of you are managing to do really well. I am so impressed with all the amazing learning that has been going on.
Remember, phonics lessons are not available until 9.30 but they are on You Tube for 24 hours. The Live Joe Wicks workouts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday go live at 9.00.
Suggested Time table
1.Wake up Shake up – Choose from one of the following:Penguin Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf0uKmKwnKs&list=PLk0Gre-lyNH-bDhDicPNJaxT5TIFggHrJ&index=2&t=0s Superheroes Unite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok7V1pWtRzs All I eat is Pizza https://www.youtube.com/watchv=Hl5dRW4E9hc&list=PLQxgThuujcHY0RYCvAwkKuP9bvwsaMAl_&index=6&t=0s Banana Banana Meatball https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ9q4U2P3ig&t=1s or Joe Wicks Live on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9.30 https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=joe+wicks+live
2.English – see daily lesson
3.Phonics – see daily lesson
Take a break – try another wake up shake up or go outside or go for a walk
4.Maths – Watch an episode of number blocks (BBC iplayer) as well as the daily Maths lesson https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b08bzfnh/numberblocks
5.Lunch time
6.Read- Read one of your favourite books or log on to Bug club to read a graded reading book. You should all have log ins now but do let me know if you have any problem getting into Bug Club or check out Oxford owls for access to RWI reading books.
7.Learning Theme or other curriculum area such as PE, Music, Art, RE – a different subject will be posted every day
8.Take a break and go outside and ride your bike or play some games or do some baking or gardening or a fun art activity or build something with a construction toy such as Lego.
Most of all, have fun! This is only a guideline and you don’t have to do everything. You can do them in any order. If you have a day when you can only do 1 thing that is fine.
Hopefully we will have a live catch up on Wednesday afternoon at 2.00 and all children are invited to take part in a game called socks or no socks so they can decide whether they want to wear socks for the call or not. They mustn’t tell anyone else on the call if they are wearing socks or not. Not sure if this ill work or not but it’s worth a try!
Have a great week!
Here are some additional useful websites for Reception and Year 1
Maths
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks1numeracy.html
https://primaryinteractive.co.uk/early.htm
https://primaryinteractive.co.uk/maths.htm
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/topics/numeracy
Phonics
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html
https://www.phonicsbloom.com/
Writing
https://www.jellyandbean.co.uk/free-resources/
https://primaryinteractive.co.uk/english.htm
Reading
https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0 – Bug club
(usernames and passwords have been sent to everyone)
https://www.storynory.com/ – Stories being read online
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/storyteller-videos/storyteller-videos-traditionaltales/ – Stories being read online
https://www.storylineonline.net/ – Stories being read online
Topic
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html – Other educational games
https://primaryinteractive.co.uk/early.htm – Other educational games
Additional Challenges or support methods for learning
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/blog/digital-learning-in-2021-were-ready-when-youare-parents
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zks4kmn
https://classroom.thenational.academy/subjects-by-key-stage/early-yearsfoundation-stage
Term 3 2021
1.2.21
This week is children’s Mental Health Week and in these strange times where children are missing daily interactions with their friends it might be useful to check some of the ideas on the website below.
https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/parents-and-carers/
Currently we are using Bug club for access to online reading books. However, we have had great news that Oxford Owls are offering free access to families to their online reading book library. We have recently started using RWI as our main reading scheme so this would be a great opportunity for your child to be able to continue with this scheme, reading books that are easily decodable.
Click the link below and select Oxford Owl for home (you will need to register but it is a free service)
Browse e books
Browse by series
select Read Write Inc.
press the green button
Browse the library
Read Write Inc.
A bookshelf should appear and you can select the book that your child is currently reading and choose the next book and then progress through the scheme.
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/
Please let me know if you need further help.
For those children not in school please access the remote learning through Tapestry. If you have trouble accessing the online learning set up for Term 3 please email info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk or call the school on 01278 684151.
Here are some additional useful websites for Reception and Year 1
Maths
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks1numeracy.html
https://primaryinteractive.co.uk/early.htm
https://primaryinteractive.co.uk/maths.htm
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/topics/numeracy
Phonics
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html
https://www.phonicsbloom.com/
Writing
https://www.jellyandbean.co.uk/free-resources/
https://primaryinteractive.co.uk/english.htm
Reading
https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0 – Bug club
(usernames and passwords have been sent to everyone)
https://www.storynory.com/ – Stories being read online
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/storyteller-videos/storyteller-videos-traditionaltales/ – Stories being read online
https://www.storylineonline.net/ – Stories being read online
Topic
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html – Other educational games
https://primaryinteractive.co.uk/early.htm – Other educational games
Additional Challenges or support methods for learning
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/blog/digital-learning-in-2021-were-ready-when-youare-parents
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zks4kmn
https://classroom.thenational.academy/subjects-by-key-stage/early-yearsfoundation-stage
5.1.21
Following the very recent announcement our school is only open to children of critical workers and vulnerable children. Wherever possible, children should remain at home and should only attend school if absolutely necessary.
I am sure you appreciate that this has been very short notice for everyone. Remote learning for Reception and Year 1 will be available on Tapestry from mid day today (5.1.21). If you have not managed to access Tapestry yet or need to contact us, please email info@ppsa51.@theplt.org.uk or call us this morning on 01278 684151
Further information will be available ASAP.
Thank you as ever for your continued support.
Term Two 2020-2021
End of Term Two Celebrations!
What a fabulous term we have had. In a “normal ” year we would have ended it with a whole school Christmas play to which everyone would have been invited, but this year, unfortunately we have been unable to do this. We did, however, have our own Christmas celebrations in Heron class including our own whole class choir who performed “Away in a Manger” and “We wish you a Merry Christmas” in spectacular fashion.
Please log in to Tapestry to view these performances.
Happy Christmas everyone and we really look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.
Term 2 Week 7 ( 14th December- 18th December)
One more week to go before Term 2 comes to a close! What a busy but brilliant Term it has been.
Last week we enjoyed a lovely walk around Pawlett looking at the beautifully decorated advent windows. The children loved looking at them and it stimulated lots of language which enabled them to design their own advent windows.
In the coming week Heron class will continue to enjoy the festive season by learning lots of Christmas songs, role playing the Christmas story, playing in our Christmas Grotto and making lots of lovely Christmas cards and crafts for you to enjoy. It is one of our favourite times of year to share with the children and we particularly relish sharing a wide variety of Christmas stories such as The Polar Express, Stick man, Dear Santa and The Snowman.
In maths this week, we will be using the theme of of Christmas weather to look for repeating patterns. We will make paper chains, print patterns for wrapping paper and made repeating patterns with Christmas decorations. The Year 1’s will also look at the symmetry of Christmas shapes such as bells, trees and snowflakes.
We are really looking forward to Christmas jumper day on Wednesday which will also be the day of our Christmas party which the PTFA have very kindly provided for.
Have a great week Heron class!
Term 2 Week 6 ( 7th December- 11th December)
This coming week in our learning theme we will conclude our learning on Who can be a Superhero? and will ask the question ” Can Father Christmas be a Superhero?” We will then start to look at Christmas and explore how it is celebrated in the UK. We will also look at the Nativity Story and its importance to Christians. I know we are going to have lots of fun reading a selection of Christmas stories, such as The Jolly Christmas Postman as well as singing Christmas songs and acting out the Nativity story.
We will also be doing lots of Christmas maths which will involve counting and lots of shape work and problem solving.
Spelling Shed is available to be used with new words added each week and we urge parents to help the children to log on themselves. Logins are at the front of the children’s reading diaries.
Term 2 Week 5 ( 30th November – 4th December)
Outdoor Learning – using view finders to find nouns to describe.
First of all here is some good news for our Year 1 parents! We are finally back on Tapestry after a long delay. In case of a future closure of our Bubble due to Covid 19 (hopefully this will not happen), then the Year 1 work will be posted on Tapestry as it was last year when they were in Reception. We will also be posting practical work on Tapestry but you may not receive as many notifications as a lot of the Year 1 work is in books. However, this will be a great opportunity to share some of the fabulous outdoor learning that the children have been doing as well as practical Maths and English and other Curriculum areas that are best recorded through photos.
This week we will be continuing to research real life Superheroes, many of whom work in the emergency services. In English, we will be practicing writing independently, using our knowledge of phonics and common exception words to help us to spell words independently. We will be using pictures as a stimulus for writing.
In Maths, the Year 1 crew will continue with our learning about numbers to 20 and will be ordering and writing them as numerals and words as well as solving problems using them. The Reception children will be focussing on the number 5 and will also be exploring the pentagon as an example a 5 sided shape.
Please log into Spelling Shed e to support your child’s learning. Logins for both are at the front of the children’s reading diaries. We would really appreciate it if you could teach your child how to log in themselves.
We have seen an increase in children reading at home and we are rewarding good effort in reading with our class Reading Champion Chart. If you have signed your child’s reading diary at least 4 times in the week they will get a star in their reading diary at the end of the week.
Another great week ahead Heron class!
Term 2 Week 4 (23rd – 27th November)
Wearing odd socks to remind us to be kind to everyone as part of anti-bullying week.
In the coming week in English we will be continuing with our daily phonics lessons with lots of practice blending sounds to make up words. We are currently having a big push on encouraging the Year 1 crew to spell their own words using their knowledge of phonics. We are also encouraging the children to learn the 50 common exception words that they are expected to know by the end of Year 1. The Reception Crew will be continuing to practice writing their names quickly and neatly as well as blending and reading simple words such as ‘in’ and ‘pin’.
In Maths we will be continuing to learn about shape. Year 1 will focus on identifying 3 D shapes and then looking at their properties which will include the 2 D shapes that make up their faces. The Reception Crew will be exploring triangles and circles.
Through our Learning Theme we will be continuing to look at real life Superheroes with a strong focus on History. We have been interested in people who care for us in hospitals so our focus will be on the history of nursing and we will be researching Florence Nightingale.
Term 2 Week 3 (16th – 20th November)
What a busy week we have had; Remembrance Day, Diwali and Children in Need. The children have all enjoyed doing a range of activities centred around these themes and have learned lots which has been obvious through their resulting work.
This coming week is ‘Anti Bullying Week’ and we would love it if the children could wear odd socks on Monday to acknowledge the fact that we are all different. Consequently there will be a big focus on PSHE this week to raise awareness and we will be using role play to explain what bullying looks like and what we can do about it. We will also explore the opposite behaviour which is kindness and we will look at all the different ways that we can demonstrate kindness towards others.
Through our Learning Theme we will be looking continuing to explore real life superheroes with an in depth focus on people who help us such as the police, fire service, ambulance service, to name just a few. In DT we will be making some vehicles used by real life superheroes, such as ambulances and fire engines so if you have any small and medium sized boxes such as a cereal box, please send them in with your child. In English we will be researching the jobs of these superheroes and will make some posters showing what we have found out.
In Maths the Reception Crew will be exploring the number 4, looking at different ways to make up the number as well as recognising and writing the numeral and making collections of 4 objects. This will lead onto an investigation into 4 sided 2D shapes such as squares and rectangles.
The Year 1 crew will be exploring 2D and 3D shapes. There will be a lot of practical work to help them to really understand the properties of these shapes and we will also be exploring our outside environment to see what 3D shapes we can find.
Please encourage your child to use Spelling Shed. Their passwords can be found at the beginning of their reading diaries.
We have seen an increase in children reading at home and we are rewarding good effort in reading with our class Reading Champion Chart. If you have signed your child’s reading diary at least 4 times in the week they will get a star in their reading diary at the end of the week.
Have a great week!
Term 2 Week 2 (9th – 13th November)
Last week was very busy with a super focus on outdoor learning where the children made bonfires in our outdoor area as well as exploring natural objects that flew.
In English this week will use what we have learned in our Learning Theme to continue to look at non-fiction books such as “I am Amelia Earhart by Brad Meltzer.” We will be making fact files and non – fiction pamphlets on real life superheroes (such as nurses and firefighters, etc.) after conducting our own research into what we think a real life superhero might be. We will continue to practice our phonics daily and use these skills to read and write our own words and compose our own simple sentences, remembering to use full stops and capital letters.
In Maths the Reception crew will be continuing with their mini Maths topic, ‘It’s me 1,2,3!’ where they will be focusing in depth on the number 3 and looking at different ways to make up this number using addition.
The Year 1 crew will be continuing with their focus on subtraction, finding the difference as well as comparing addition and subtraction .
As part of our Learning Theme we will be introducing some Geography to look at maps to see where Amelia Earhart flew her plane.
We are looking forward to the week ahead.
Bonfire Night – Making bonfires and firework pictures in our Outdoor environment
Term 2 Week 1 (2nd – 6th November)
Welcome back!
I can’t wait to start the new term after such a great start to our school year.
We will be continuing with our learning theme, ‘Who can be a Superhero? with a bigger focus this term on real life superheroes such a nurses, doctors, firemen etc. We will start by looking at some famous people who have achieved things that had not been done before. This week we will take a history focus and will look at Amelia Earhart, the American pilot who was was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. There will also be lots of science work looking at flight and how we can make paper airplanes fly.
In English we will use what we have learned in our Learning Theme to look at some non fiction books and compile our own fact files about Amelia Earhart and ourselves. We will continue to practice our phonics and use these skills to write our own words and compose our own simple sentences, remembering to use full stops and capital letters.
In Maths the Reception crew will be doing a mini Maths topic, ‘It’s me 1,2,3!’ where they will be focusing in depth on the numbers1, 2 and 3 and looking at different ways to make up these numbers using addition. We will also introduce the children to 1p and 2p coins and look at different ways to make up different amounts.
The Year 1 crew will be focussing on subtraction and will start off by looking at the language of subtraction, exploring terms such as difference, take away, less than, counting back and subtract. They will also be trying to solve lots of real life practical problems such as “I have 9 apples, my brother eats 2. How many are left? They will then look at writing their own mathematical statements using the equals and subtraction symbols – 8+2= 10.
We will start the week with some Outdoor Learning, exploring the school grounds to find natural objects that will fly, before making our own flying objects. And of course there will be plenty of paper plane making!
Term One 2020-2021
Term 1 Week 7 (12th October – 15th October)
The Term seems to have whizzed by and I can’t believe it is the last week of Term 1 already.
I am looking forward to talking to families on the phone about their child’s learning and progress on Monday and Tuesday of this week. It will be a very different parent /teacher meeting but it will be lovely to catch up with you and to give some suggestions as to how to help at home.
Heron Class are really enjoying their class book ‘Traction Man’ and this week in English, we will continue to make up our own Traction Man adventures and we will act them out and turn them into play scripts which I am very excited about.
We are also continuing to work hard on our phonics and reading skills.
Please note that Spelling Shed log ins have been added to the front of all the Year 1 children’s Reading Diaries. We will be setting spellings on there for the half term holidays and at the beginning of every future week.
In Maths, we will be continuing to develop our skills with place value, addition and subtraction, number bonds and ordinal numbers such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc
Looking forward to another great week ahead Heron Class!
Term 1 Week 6 (5th October -9th October)
Heron class loved their new book, Traction Man and have been fully engaged in their learning. They looked at the story setting and main characters and have really enjoyed having a Tuff spot with characters of the story to play with in a range of different story settings such as on the beach or in a forest or castle. This week the children will be drawing their own story maps of a whole new adventure for Traction Man who is an old fashioned action man doll. The Year 1 children will then try to write their stories using their own inventive spelling. The Reception children will make a shared story map and will act out their new adventures whilst an adult writes down what they have said.
In Maths we will be focussing on the Reception children’s counting skills to see what their next steps will be. We will also be looking at comparing size, mass and capacity, using vocabulary such as large/small, big/little, short/tall, tallest/shortest.
The Year 1 crew will continue to look at fact families and number bonds to 10 which they made a good start with last week.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Term 1 Week 5 (28th September – 2nd October)
The Year 1 children have been really engaged making their own comic strips this week. In fact we have been so impressed with them that they are going to continue to add more to their comics next week and we can’t wait to see the results.
We will be reading our new text Traction Man by Mini Grey which is a really fun book about the adventures of an Action Man doll. I can’t wait to see the children’s reactions to the story and the exciting activities we will be doing to help us to understand the characters, setting and plot.
In Maths, the Reception crew will be continuing with a mini project, Just like me, where they will be comparing different amounts . The book, “A Squash and a Squeeze” will be used as a springboard for lots of comparison activities.
The Year 1 crew will be continuing to consolidate their understanding of the equals symbol as well as the symbols for more than and fewer than.
Our Learning them will have a science focus this week as we will be making some Superhero capes and we will be exploring materials that would be the most suitable for a Superhero with special powers.
Have a lovely weekend!
Term 1 Week 4 (21st – 25th September)
What another fabulous week of learning we have had.
Reception Parents
We were delighted to finally get onto Tapestry (our online Learning Journal ) yesterday and were excited to see that so many of you had activated your accounts. Unfortunately though, this morning we have had some technical issues so we are unable to access Tapestry yet again. We hope that the service will be fully restored as soon as possible so that you will be able to see all the fabulous learning that your children have been doing.
The coming weeks work for Reception and Year 1
In Learning Theme and English we will be continuing to look at Superheroes . We will have a main focus on traditional superheroes and comic strips. The children will have opportunities to make up their own Superhero characters and will act out stories as well as making their own comic strips.
The Year 1’s will be writing very simple “I am… “sentences with a focus on capital letters, full stops and recognising and independently spelling simple words such as “am”, “my” and “is”.
In phonics we will continue with our RWI phonics programme and will be revising the phase 3 sounds with Year 1 and working on m,a,s,d,t with Reception.
Please read with your child at home and ask them questions about what they have read. The Reception children will bring home a library book on Monday which they can share wt home until Friday when they can exchange it for another book.
In Maths, the Reception children will be focusing on a Maths project, “Just Like Me”, where they will be matching and sorting objects according to shape, size and colour. They will be using the book “Monkey Puzzle” by Julia Donaldson as a springboard.
The Year 1 children will be continuing to explore Place Value with a focus on ordering numbers to 10, ensuring that they are really secure with the value of each number by doing lots of practical work. We will also be doing some recorded work where we will be looking for the correct formation of numerals.
We are looking forward to a great week of learning.
Term 1 Week 3 (14th -18th September
Well done to all of the children in Heron class last week for being so engaged and enthusiastic about their learning. You would never have know that this was the first time the Reception children had been in school full time for a whole week!
We started our new learning Theme, “Who can be a Superhero?” by thinking about all the Superheroes that the children already know. We had some fabulous drawings and collages made the children, ranging from Batman to Supertato. In the coming week we will explore the book “Superworm” by Julia Donaldson and will be thinking about the question, What makes a good Superhero? There will be lots of oracy work with the children being encouraged to ask questions about the Superheroes that they know and what makes them special. We will also be retelling and acting out stories and even creating our own ones too.
In Maths we will be exploring what the Reception children already know about numbers as well as practising our number formation and matching and sorting numbers and shapes.The Year 1 children will be comparing numbers within 10 to ensure they have a really secure understanding of each number.
We hope you have a lovely weekend. I think the children will be very tired so I hope you all manage to relax a little!
Term 1 Week 2 (7th – 11th September)
Well done Heron Class!
What a fantastic 3 days we have had! Mrs Thomas and myself can’t believe how well the new Reception children settled into the class and learned their new routines so quickly. We are very impressed!
We are also so proud of the Year 1 children who have been amazing tour guides for their new classmates and have been very mature in their attitudes towards work.
All the Year 1 Children have a new reading book to take home. These will come back to school and remain ‘quarantined’ until they go back into the general stock again. The children will change their book on a Monday and a Friday. Please encourage them to read the book more than once if possible, this will help to give them a deeper understanding of the text and the repetition will help them to recognise words. Please ask your child questions about their book and get them to give you their opinions of it. Ask questions such as
Did you like it?
Why? Why not?
What was your favourite part of the story?
Which characters did they like? Why?
We are still waiting for our new Reception Reading Diaries to arrive but hopefully they will be with us by the end of this week. We will send home a class library book on Fridays and Mondays for you to read to your child and share with them. We will do this for the next 4 weeks and then your child will start to bring home a reading scheme book. Please ask your child questions about the story such as:
What did you like?
Which was your favourite page?
Was there anything you didn’t like? Why?
In the coming week we will be starting our new Learning Theme – Who can be a Superhero? We will be focusing on the book “Supertato” and will be looking at what it takes to be a superhero
In Year 1 our Maths learning is currently based on place value and we will continue to explore different ways to make up 10. In Reception we are finding out what the children know about numbers and they will be provided with plenty of practical opportunities to demonstrate what they know so that we can develop their skills further.
Keep up the great effort Heron Class, We are really looking forward to the coming week.
Term 1 Week 1 (2nd -4th September)
Welcome Back!
A huge hello and welcome to the new year in Heron Class!
Your class teacher will be myself, Mrs Baltzer and I am supported by the wonderful Mrs Thomas. We are also very lucky this term as Mrs Blyth will also be working with us for 2 afternoons a week. We are extremely excited to meet all our new Reception children as well as welcoming back our Year 1’s. We can’t wait to work with you this year. We will post weekly updates on this website to keep you informed of the children’s learning journey.
Information that has been sent out from school should give you an insight as to how coming back to school will look. We understand that you may have questions so please ask us if you do. You are also encouraged to email the school if you require further information: info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk
We are really looking forward to getting to know you all in the year ahead and can’t wait for the term to start!
Term 6
Welcome to Term 6
Since coming back to school a couple of weeks ago, we have been having great fun in our Reception Bubble with Mrs Baltzer and Mrs Thomas. The Year 1’s have been engrossed in their learning next door with Mrs Elms, Mrs Barker and Mrs Blythe. We have all been doing alot of outdoor learning , creating environmental art pieces inspired by Andy Goldsworthy, creating bug hotels and snail houses, researching insect and animal habitats and doing some amazing observational drawings of snails.
We have been reviewing our phonics and applying our knowledge of sounds to spelling, writing and reading.
Our Maths work has involved measuring, capacity, place value and problem solving using our counting, addition and subtraction skills.
Please continue to look at our Google Classrooms or Tapestry pages for Home Learning.
22.5.2020
Following further guidance, we have issued the following letter for all parents and carers of our Pawlett Primary School Academy families. Please email us on info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk if you have any questions.
Reopening letter PPSA 22.5.2020
Term 5 Week 5
We hope you are all doing well and enjoying your home learning. If you are in Year 1 please go to Google Classrooms and if you are in Reception log onto Tapestry to find some exciting learning activities.
The website below could be really useful if you are looking for some new books to read.
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/books/free-ebooks/
Remember, if you have any questions at all please let us know on info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk and we will help!
Term 5 Week 4
These fun Reading Challenges have been created by the @OpenUni_RfP team.
Click on this link and choose your preferred age range and get going! Which reading challenge will you do first?
Term 5 Week 3
Welcome to a new week of learning. We hope you had a lovely weekend.
Remember, if you have any questions at all please let us know on info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk and we will help!
If you are in Year 1 please go to Google Classrooms and if you are in Reception log onto Tapestry to find some exciting learning activities.
This week for English we will be focusing on our Learning Theme – Whose Footsteps do I follow? We will be asking and answering lots of questions to do a little bit of research about our families and what their lives were like when they were about the same age as you. There will be lots of oracy (talking) and writing, practising our listing and spelling skills.
In Maths in Year 1 we will be looking at number bonds and part whole models so please continue to follow The White Rose lessons. In Reception we will be focusing on pattern and adding more to a given number and will be looking at the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Please continue to do the RWI phonics lessons and remember to read, listen to stories, share your favourite books and even write your own books. I know you are great at that!
The following link is a great way to practice your reading skills. It is so much fun and the great news is that it is free to download at the moment.
https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/blog/teach-monster-learn-to-read-app-free-coronavirus
Also don’t forget to visit Spelling Shed!Spelling Shed
Have a great week.
Term 5 Week 2
Welcome to a new week of learning. We hope you had a lovely weekend.
Remember, if you have any questions at all please let us know on info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk and we will help!
If you are in Year 1 please go to Google Classrooms and if you are in Reception log onto Tapestry to find some exciting learning activities.
In English we will be continuing to look at the story “Mr Gumpy’s Outing” by John Burningham and then at the end of the week we will look at some other books by the same author.
In Maths we will continue with the White Rose lessons which in Year 1 will focus on a mixture of concepts including capacity, counting in 10’s, making equal groups and making arrays. The Reception Crew will be doing some number activities based on the story, “What the Ladybird Heard” by Julia Donaldson as well as continuing with their work on pattern
Our Learning Theme, “Whose Footsteps Do I Follow” will have a geography focus this week and we will be thinking of where we live and the roads and things around our houses.
We look forward to seeing your work and your fabulous creative ideas.
Additional useful resources
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize
https://www.thebodycoach.com/blog/pe-with-joe-1254.html
https://www.ictgames.com/
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/blog/online-author-videos-storytelling-draw-along-challenges/
Google Classroom is now live! You will have all been sent login details, ANY problems please let us know on info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk and we will help!
Reception children – your learning remains through Tapestry, please continue to use this as you have been doing in usual times.
WELCOME TO TERM 5!
Today marks the start of term 5 and even though it’s not the start to the summer term we would have wanted or liked, we will all make the best of it.
Logins and passwords for Google Classroom will sent to you today. Along with a children and parent guide of how to use it. If you have any problems with this over the coming days and weeks. please let us know (info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk). It is all very new to us too but between us we will work it out – we promise!
We appreciate how hard it is to keep children motivated and engaged with home learning and many of you are also trying to work from home so please don’t put any pressure on yourselves or your children and only do what you can. We are here to help if you need anything so please contact us if you have any concerns.
The most important thing is that we all stay home and stay safe. We will continue to post lots of links to free online materials that are easy to access from home on Facebook and Twitter. From today BBC bitesize are launching daily lessons for all year groups which are a fantastic free resource: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize We will signpost you to some of these lessons on Google classroom.
Please take care and know that we miss you all so much and cannot wait until we can be together again.
3/4/2020
Good afternoon everyone! As Easter is fast approaching here are some Easter activities you could try over the holidays. Please try as many or as few as you want.
Easter Learning Theme Challenge Grid Early Years and KS1
Additional activities
t-t-5015-design-an-easter-egg-a4-activity-sheet_ver_2
t-t-002-ks1-easter-egg-template-colouring-sheets_ver_4
t-t-2546556–new-easter-dot-to-dot-activity-sheets_ver_2
T-T-17242-Easter-Themed-Maths-Activity-Book_ver_6
Enjoy! Have an eggsciting Easter!
It’s Friday and that can only mean one thing (well two actually but more of that in a moment).
#FreeWritingFriday
For just 15 mins today, find somewhere quiet and write – about anything you like, as long as you are writing – one rule – silent working! I will share the fact we are continuing this with Cressida Cowell (author of How to Train Your Dragon series and the Wizards of Once books) as she is the one who inspired us to start it.
The other thing that Friday means is #HotChocFriday! We’d like to see as many of you enjoying a well-deserved hot chocolate, because we feel you have all been going above and beyond at the moment. You know what mums and dads, you absolutely deserve one too, thank you for ALL your support at this time – send us your pictures of you enjoying your #HotChocFriday.
2/4/2020
Hello to all you distance learners out there! I wanted to say how exceptionally proud we all are at PPSA of what learning you are continuing to do whilst we are in this situation. It is really tough, we do understand and parents out there we are not expecting you at this point to be teaching your child NEW things, (don’t worry we won’t be asking you to teach the present perfect tense or fronted adverbials) but what you can teach them is how to boil an egg or re-wire a plug or how to build a den with nothing but a sheet and some clothes pegs! All of us are having to grow into our new roles at the moment, so give yourselves time to do this – we all need time to readjust.
After Easter, if we are all still in this current situation, we be using Google Classroom. More information will be sent out about this over the coming days. This will enable children (teachers and parents) to have a little more structure in their distance learning. Watch this space.
In the meantime here are some mindfulness ideas for kids – enjoy!
2/4/2020
Good morning everyone! Here are a few more activities to keep you going.
English
Look at the picture. Write a story about something you see in the picture or write some sentences to describe what you see. Remember to use some interesting adjectives (describing words).
Maths
Look around your house or garden to see how many numbers you can find. Write them down, checking you have written them the correct way. You can check here just to make sure they are correct. Of course you can use numbers that are much bigger than 20. Remember to look on food packets.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Or try an online game.
https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/countingCaterpillar/
1/4/2020
Good morning all! Welcome to April everyone. It is lovely to be hearing from you, emails, pictures, videos – they are all fabulous to see please keep them coming info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk
We have been updating our Facebook page – thank you to the parents who have sent me things to add, this is great.
We all know we cannot go out and about at the moment (except for essential reasons) so lots of places have opened up their virtual doors for us to visit.
Take a look at: virtual tours
Any of you want to get crafty and arty? Leila who runs create you has got products which can be delivered and she does a live class every Monday and Wednesday at 2pm and sets challenges for the children as well.
Thank you Louise for sharing that with us at Pawlett Primary School.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/210513623365870/?ref=sha
Let us know where you have ‘visited’ today!
31/3/2020
What a lovely sunny day it is today!
Here are a few more activities to help you with your home learning.
English – Here’s another activity that is similar to yesterdays. Write an a,b,c of food by either writing or drawing something for every letter of the alphabet..
a – apple
b – bread
c – carrot
Maths
Year 1
Choose a number between 7 and 20.
How many ways can you find to make it?
Can you find a subtraction?
Now try some different numbers
You could make or draw a part, whole diagram.
Or use an online one
https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/partPartWhole/index.html
Reception
Do the same as above but with numbers from 3 -10
30/3/2020
Good morning to you all. Here we are Week #2 of our ‘new normal’. I hope you all had a good weekend.
Here are a couple of things to do that wont involve looking at a computer.
English
Make an a,b,c of animals by either writing of drawing an animal (or bird) for every letter of the alphabet.
For example:
a – alligator
b – bear
c – cow
Maths
Year 1 – Go on a 3 D shape hunt around the house or garden looking for spheres, cones, pyramids, cubes and cuboids.
Reception – Go on a 2 D shape hunt around the house or garden looking for circles, squares, rectangles, triangles and hexagons (remember – 6 sides).
Lots of other activities will be posted on our pages this week, also on Facebook and Twitter.
I was sent this over the week, thought I would share it with you all.
Please keep in touch, send us pictures of your learning to info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk
27/03/2020
Good Morning!
Hope you enjoyed listening to Benji Davies yesterday. Another author we have looked at before is also reading his stories everyday so please check out the link below to listen to Oliver Jeffers.
https://www.oliverjeffers.com/books
What another beautiful day it is out there.
I have just been sent a link to @ChesterZoo as they are opening up their (virtual) doors for us all to spend the day at the zoo.
?? LIVE: A virtual zoo day at @chesterzoo! ??
As you can’t come to #TheZoo right now, we’ll bring it to you!
Join us on our @Facebook page tomorrow from 10am and enjoy a whole day of animal antics, LIVE from your sofa ?#StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/rNsMpCpnXk
— Chester Zoo (@chesterzoo) March 26, 2020
Enjoy!
26/03/2020
Below is a link to Instagram where the author Benji Davies is reading his book,”The Storm Whale” . Heron class focused on this book really closely this term so this is a great opportunity for the children to re-visit the story and see the author as well.
GOOD MORNING ALL! Watch this space for updates later….
25/03/2020
Hi everyone – we do hope you are all ok out there? Please get in touch with us if you are experiencing any problems with any of the activities we have suggested – or indeed just want to say hello – we would love to hear from you. We are all missing seeing you, drop us an email on info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk
There have been a few issues with some of the websites being a little overwhelmed with traffic, but as far as we are aware this has settled a little now.
We are looking into using Google Classrooms as this situation continues, but we will update you with how this develops and how we can all use it.
Take care of yourselves, stay safe, and stay in touch
Good Morning Everyone!
Click the link to a time table of free online lessons. For Phonics, I would recommend the 10.00 phase 2 Speed Sounds lesson for Reception and the Phase 3 Speed Sounds at 10.30 for Year 1 . In most cases this will be revision but it will enable you to see how good your children are. Please continue to do some of the other activities suggested in earlier posts. Mix it up a bit ! Have fun!
timetable for free online lessons UPDATED
24/03/2020
Here are a few more resources to help you.
Maths
Click the link below to find a range of practical maths activities that are linked closely to the Reception maths objectives. They are also great activities for Year 1 children to reinforce what they have been learning in Maths.
Any of the Numberblocks episodes provide a great way of revising what we have been learrning this year.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b08bzfnh/numberblocks
Phonics
This is a great way of keeping up with phonics learning. Perfect for Reception children and Year 1
Here is a link to Audible Stories – All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet.
Good morning all! Another beautiful day out there, try as much as you can to get some sunshine and fresh air albeit in a garden, balcony or even through an open window! Take care and stay safe.
Please continue to look at the timetable below, dated 23/03/2020 for a suggestion of things to do. We also invite all Reception Crew parents to upload any home learning onto Tapestry. We would love to see what you have been getting up to. We hope you are finding some fun things to do!
David Walliams is releasing a free audio story every day. Click here to find out more World of David Walliams. Thank you!
23/03/2020
Suggested TimeTable
Please click on the link above for some ideas of what to do and when!
10am today (and every day) there is a #MathsParty hosted by White Rose Maths.
Log in to WhiteRoseMaths/Homelearning
Select your year group, watch the video, try the questions, if you are stuck you can email mathshelp@whiterosemaths.com or email us at info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk – Happy Maths Party!
Useful links and resources for you to access over the coming weeks
We can’t thank you enough for your patience and kindness over the past week with regards to our current situation. This is an unprecedented situation that we find ourselves in and we know you appreciate that we do not know all the answers but we can assure that we will keep the communication lines open and keep you up to date with developments. Should you need to contact us please email info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
We will be updating all our class pages over the coming weeks. Learning resources have been sent home, along with reading books and exercise books in which children can use – they are theirs to keep.
Lots of learning related organisations are offering free access or free apps. Ones we would suggest are:
This is an absolutely fabulous resource for those learning to read – can’t recommend it highly enough.
https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/
We follow the small steps approach to maths and use White Rose Maths at school – this has been released today. It really is an excellent resource and the activities planned are exactly what we would have been doing in school. Once you get into the Home learning page click on Home Learning – Early Years for Reception or Home Learning – Year 1 for Year 1.
Please continue to encourage your child to read as much as possible and ask them questions about what they have read. You can also encourage them to tell you their own stories based on their favourite books. Heron class are great story tellers!
The Reception children have several packs of sound cards that have been sent home over the past term. You can encourage your child to tell you the sounds and then tell you words that start with each letter. They could draw pictures of the words as well as try to make the words up using their sound cards. For an extra challenge they can write the words themselves. The most important thing is to have fun!
More to follow…
