Well….the word of the day on Friday was POTHOLES!!!!
Two children gave us a very exciting (not so much for the parents) recount of their previous night’s adventure when their car tyre was damaged by a pothole.
Having noticed a few blank faces and puzzled looks, we researched images of potholes in roads. Hands shot up with many tales of potholes and damaged car tyres! Nearly all the children had a tale to tell!!!! As much as the discussions brought a smile to our faces, some of the detail in the stories were funny, we were so impressed that the children were using the word in the right context. They have all clearly had experience of ‘hitting’ a pothole but have not had the correct word in their vocabulary bank to describe it. Just goes to show the value of using the correct vocabulary linked to real life experiences.
Back to this week…..
Despite the rather wet start to our week, our spirits weren’t dampened! This was our first full week of 2023 and what a week it has been.
Reception have been focusing on using their subitising skills in increasing complex arrangements and working on developing their visualising skills, closing their eyes and explaining what they saw. They had lots of fun meeting Bertie the Badger who they helped with his counting! In the rainforest area the children have been very busy continuing to practise their counting skills, from counting sides on simple 2D shapes to making different arrangements with objects.
On Monday afternoon Year 1 began exploring Aboriginal Art, discussing where Australia is and what they might find there as well as listening to a story which had originated from there. They then explored making their own Aboriginal art using cotton buds to create dots around their handprints, we were so impressed by their focus and concentration throughout the lesson.
Year 1 this week have been focusing on understanding numbers and recognising different ways that these can be represented. They have been exploring place value within 20 and developing their understanding of numbers 10 through to 19. Within this the children have been using their knowledge of place value within 10 and have begun using sentence stems to say how many tens and ones each number up to 19 has.
In Topic, we started to explore further the different weather types that we would typically expect to see as the seasons change. We were very excited to see that next week were forecast snow on Monday / Tuesday, and were then disappointed to find that as the weather forecast was updated so the weather pattern changed - no snow forecast. Still, it allowed for a great discussion, rich in vocabulary about wind speeds, degrees, 24 hour clock, prediction, forecast and meteorologists!
Both EYFS and Year 1 have really ‘taken off’ with their reading recently, we are listening to to children read daily, not only their school reading books but reading words all around them in all subject areas. I read Jasper’s Beanstalk this week and as I read it to the class a few children were reading with me, quite naturally, they just started to read out loud simple because they could! It was a very proud moment! We have to say Thank you to all of you at home who are supporting the reading, it is clearly making a difference……and EYFS….you seem to be leading your own learning in phonics with almost no support from the adults - fantastic!
Finally, as we headed towards the end of the week, we had our inside PE session where we were learning to throw underarm, sending the beanbag directly to a partner…..lets just say we saw some interesting techniques and beanbags did not always arrive at the partners feet!!!! What we will say is that we saw a lot of resilience and perseverance and above all else, enjoyment, they laughed and laughed and so did we. (Taking photos in PE is so tricky because they are on the move all the time).
Friday is our outdoor PE session so trainers are required.
We have limited spare PE kit in school, so if your child has borrowed a spare kit please can it be returned so that it is available to others next time.
Reminder - kit in on a Monday and home on a Friday.
Year 1 spelling - home on a Friday to be returned the following Friday.