Phonics

This week we have recapped the following digraphs:

Archer the Star who makes an ‘ar’ sound. The action for this is holding your hands in the arms and opening and closing your hands as if you were a star.

Gordon the Horse makes an ‘or’ sound. The action for this is cupping your hands and lifting them up and down alternatively, as if you were a horse walking.

Kurt the Turtle makes an ‘ur’ sound. The action for this is putting one hand on top of the other and moving your thumbs round like legs.

Merlin the Gerbil makes an ‘er’ sound. The action for this is running your hand under your nose. This ‘er’ sound is longer and can be found in germ, herb and kerb.

Ryder the Spider makes an ‘er’ sound too but is a shorter sound than the one above, and can be found in words such as dinner, river and summer.

We have also recapped the common exception word ‘are’ and have been putting this into sentences.

 

Maths

This week we have been following and making maps and mazes, whilst using positional and directional language. These words have included first, then, next, finally, next to, under, between, up, down, around. As part of this, we worked in teams to design our own obstacle courses for our friends to complete. We had to think about the order of our equipment, how we would travel and the spacing between the equipment in order to be successful. Here are two of our designs.

     

Topic

On Monday we found that Evil Pea had tied up the fruit and vegetables and put them into graters, as well as leaving a trail of peas behind. We have written our own ‘wanted’ posters to put up around the school in order to explain to others what he looks like. We had to think about how to clearly describe him so that he can be easily identified, as well as making sure that our sentences were clear so that others could read them. We tried really hard to remember our capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. Here are two examples in case you spot him as home!

           

This week, P.E will be on Wednesday afternoon rather than Tuesday so that we can practise Sports Day with Ash Class, in order to work in larger teams.

Have a great weekend!

Phonics

We have continued to recap the digraphs ch, sh, ng, th, ai, ee, igh, oa this week, as well as our common exception words (CEWs) me, she, he, we, be, my.

We have been reading and writing silly sentences with these digraphs and words in them.

Maths

This week we have been exploring taking away and using a story method to tell a taking away story. An example is, ‘First I had 5 currants buns, then 2 were eaten, now I have 3 currant buns’. We also explored how to write number sentences using the taking away and equals symbols.

 

Topic

We have started our final author fortnight, reading Quest by Aaron Becker. The children have loved reading this sequel to the book Journey, which we read in the Spring term. We looked through the story and made up our own words as it is a picture book. We went on a quest to find the coloured pens, before returning to the classroom in order to write out own quests.

Ideas for home:

– Make up your own take away stories using toys you have at home.

– Draw a treasure map and go on your own quest. Where will you need to travel? How will you travel there? Where will you end up?

– https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/phonics-frog?phase=3

 

Our school fair in on Saturday 11th June from 12 – 3pm. Please come along for lots of fun! 😀

Phonics

This week we learnt the digraph ‘oo’ when we met Sherwood the Woodpecker. The action for this is holding your hand vertically like a tree stump and then tapping it with a finger.

We also learnt the words ‘was’ and ‘you’. These are words we can’t blend.

If you would like to practice our new digraphs oo, ow and oi, visit https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/2/dragons-den select Phase 3 and then the digraph you would like to practice. If the word is real, feed it to the green dragon and if it isn’t real, feed it to the red dragon.

Maths

This week we have been learning about ‘doubling’. We now know that if we double an amount, it means we have twice as many. We practised this by using Numberblocks in front of mirrors and doubling the amount of spots on butterfly wings.

Topic

This week we have been learning about how to keep healthy through healthy eating. We read the story ‘Eat your greens Goldilocks’ and helped her to sort healthy and unhealthy foods. We learnt about how to keep our teeth healthy and started an experiment to see the effect that certain foods have on our teeth by using egg shells, as they have similar properties to our teeth enamel. We are looking forward to seeing what happens!

Learning through play

We have been talking about weddings and making wedding cakes using oats. After reading a story about using clay, we collected some from the art cupboard and made healthy and unhealthy foods by moulding it.

As the weather has been warm, we have regularly watered our broad beans and strawberries. We have also planted peas, carrots and potatoes and look forward to watching them grow.

Have a great weekend 🙂

Phonics

This week we have learnt some new digraphs:

Brown the owl makes an ‘ow’ sound. The action for this is putting your hand on your forehead as if you have a headache.

A coin in the soil makes an ‘oi’ sound. The action for this is putting one hand to your mouth as if shouting and one hand to point at the floor (to the coin).

Boo the goose makes and ‘oo’ sound (a long oo sound). The action for this is looking around from side to side, as if watching tennis.

We have also learnt the common exception word ‘was’ (that we are unable to blend).

Use this game to practise reading words using our new digraphs. Is the word real or not?

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/poopDeck/

Maths

We have continued to look at numbers 11-15 and exploring how these can be made up using counters and Numicon. We have been playing games which involve matching the Numicon to the correct numeral.

At the start of our Maths sessions, we practise our number bonds. Use this website http://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/funnyFingers/ to find different ways to make 5 and then 10.

Topic

This week we have been learning about the role of a vet. We were really excited to meet Karen from a local veterinary practice on Wednesday who talked us through her job and answered our questions. We had a look at bandages, cones and a stethoscope.

Please note that we will be making pizza on Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th May, not Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th as originally mentioned.

Have a great weekend!

Phonics

We have recapped the digraphs ch, sh, th, ng this week and practised reading and writing these. We have also looked again at she, we, me, be, he and my which are all words that we cannot blend and just need to learn.

Maths

We have been exploring numbers 11 – 15 this week and playing matching games and bingo in order to pair representations of numbers with their numerals. We have also been estimating different amounts, which we now know as making a sensible guess.

Forest School

We had a great first session at Forest School. Everyone used their listening ears and we made sure that we helped to keep everyone safe. We built dens, played hide and seek, made dirt and stick potions and found different bugs, including a cocoon.

Topic

We have started to think about people who help us in our local community, starting off with the vet as it is currently our turn to look after the animals. We have begun to make a booklet to tell everyone how to care for the animals, as well as role playing vets and looking after our soft toy animals by making them homes.

Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend 🙂

We had a great day day on Friday for ‘Break the Rules day’.

Phonics

This week we have recapped the digraphs ai, ee, oa and the trigraph igh. We have practised finding these in words and writing simple phrases using finger spaces.

We have learnt the words me, be and my. We can’t blend these words and therefore need to just learn them.

Maths

We have explored 3D shapes this week and know that these are not ‘flat’ shapes. We have explored the names and properties of a cone, sphere, cube and cylinder by building with them and seeing which shapes can stack on top of each other.

Topic

We have continued to think about the Easter Story and learnt why Jesus was resurrected. We have talked about times that we may have needed to say sorry to our friends or family.

We have started to read the story ‘We’re going on an Easter Egg Hunt’. We acted out the story and have begun to think about where we would travel through on our own Easter egg hunt. Watch this space for our new edition of the story!

Ideas for home

Create a hunt at home with toys or coins. Can you draw a map to show where the coins or toys are hidden? Label your map to help your grown up find the treasures.

https://ictgames.com/mobilepagetellatrex/index/html  Select cvc or cvcc/ccvc and practise reading the sentences, deciding if they are true or false.

Explore different shapes in your home. Can you find a sphere, cone, cube or cylinder?

Have a wonderful weekend!

This week we have been continuing our RE learning, as we answer the question ‘Why do Christians put a cross in an Easter garden?’ We have read the bible to find out about the lead up to Easter, as well as the events that occurred on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

We made our own Easter gardens to show how we can remember what happened to Jesus and how important Easter is for Christians.

Phonics 

This week we have learnt 4 new digraphs:

Gail the Snail makes an ‘ai’ sound. The action for this is putting your hand flat like a snails body and then use your fist on top of your hand to make the shell.

Dee the Sheep makes an ‘ee’ sound. The action for this is stretching up as if you are just waking up.

Bright the Night Light makes an ‘igh’ sound. The action for this is jazz hands!

Boaty the toad makes an ‘oa’ sound. The action for this is to clench your fist in front of your throat and then open and close.

We have been making these digraphs, as well as others we have learnt with playdough.

We have learnt the words he, she and we. These are words we cannot blend and need to just learn them.

Maths

This week we have been comparing numbers to 10, saying whether they are bigger or smaller than each other. We have used a numberline to help us to make this decision.

P.E.

This week was our first week learning gymnastics with Vicky. We learnt about the importance of stretching, making different shapes using our bodies, as well as practising our jumping and balancing.

Ideas for learning at home

– If you have playdough, practise making the digraphs we have learnt so far or our common exception words she, he and we.

– Write numbers 1 – 10 on small pieces of paper and ask an adult to play a game with you. Each of you picks up a number, who has the smallest number, who has the biggest? How do you know this?

– Tell a grown up at home about the life cycle of a frog. How does the life cycle begin, what do the frogspawn grow into etc?

Have a great weekend and enjoy the sunshine 🙂

We have taken part in Science Week, with a whole school focus on ‘growth’. We started by watching videos of Oak Class as babies and toddlers. Thank you so much for sending these in, the children absolutely loved them and they created so many discussion points. We talked about what we could do as babies and how we have grown and changed into the 4 and 5 year olds we are now, making comparisons.

Our Year 6 ambassadors visited us to talk to us about how they have continued to change from Reception, their strengths and what they hope to achieve as they grow older.

We were excited to find that frogspawn had arrived in our classroom and look forward to finding our about how they grow and change next week. We have started to discuss what we think might happen and watching them in the tank as some of them have already started to grow into tadpoles.

Phonics 

This week we have continued to recap the digraphs ch, sh, th and ng. We have worked hard to recognise these within words, trying to remember to say the new sound the letters make, not seeing the sounds as individual ones.

We have learnt the common exception word ‘they’ which we cannot blend and just need to learn.

Maths

We have been measuring this week, which links to our growth topic. We have used the vocabulary taller and shorter to compare small word people and animals, as well as using multilink cubes to measure their height in non-standard units. We have also been looking at the sequence of our days, using vocabulary such as morning, afternoon and evening.

Learning through play

Building has been a big interest this week, making structures for different purposes. We have also been role playing ‘babies’ a lot, thinking about what babies need and how we can help to look after them.

Ideas for home

– Look at photos and videos of when you were a baby, how have you changed? What do you think you will be able to do as you get older?

– Next week we will be looking for signs of Spring. If you go for a walk, what can you see growing in Spring?

– Compare the height of different objects in your house. Which is taller/shorter? Can you order 3 or 4 items based on their height? How did you work it out?

Next week it is our turn to look after the animals. Please bring wellies in to keep in school for the week.

Have a great weekend 🙂

This week we have continued to enjoy travelling around the world! We have visited Africa with the Go Jetters, finding out how big Africa is and comparing the differences in landscapes across the continent. We have started to paint our own landscapes using water colours, exploring using different shades of the same colour.

Phonics

This week we have met 4 new characters from the Phonics Shed, who introduced us to more digraphs. Digraphs are 2 letter together that make 1 sound.

Wing the duckling makes a ‘ng’ sound. The action for this is flapping our arms with our elbows bent like a bird.

Charlie the chicken makes a ‘ch’ sound. The action for this is poking your head in and out like you are a chicken!

Blush the brush makes a ‘sh’ sound. The action for this is brushing your hands together like you are trying to get rid of dirt from them.

Theo the Moth and the Weatherman make a ‘th’ sound. There are 2 slightly different ways to say these sounds, which is why we have 2 characters. The action for both sounds is sticking your tongue out slightly as this helps us say the sound.

We have also looked at the common exception word ‘they’ as we cannot blend this word and need to just learn it.

Maths

This week we have been finding out different ways to make 9 and 10. We have used Numicon to explore number bonds to 10 and practised saying the whole number sentence, for example “8 add 2 equals 10.”

Learning through play

We have continued to pretend to go on holiday with our very large suitcases! Some of us made buses and boats using junk modelling or the woodwork station. We also used ice cubes to build igloos and explore the small world animals in the ice.

Ideas for home

– Write the digraphs ng, ch, sh and th on paper and place them around the room. Ask an adult to call out a digraph and run to this digraph.

– Use 9 or 10 toys and split them in different ways to find out how to make 9 or 10. You could use the peas on your plate at dinner time as a great way to prolong eating your vegetables!

– Create a boat, car, lorry or vehicle of your choice using junk modelling. How can you make your vehicle? What would you need?

Have a great weekend 🙂

We have had a very busy week back!

We started on Tuesday by reading ‘Mr Wolf’s pancakes’ and writing a shopping list for the ingredients that we needed. We all helped to make the pancake batter and then cooked our own pancake, thinking about how to stay safe when using a cooker.

Phonics

We have been learning about vowels and consonants this week. This has included pointing them out in the alphabet and practising our letter formation of them. We have learnt that there is nearly always a vowel in words.

Maths

We met Numberblocks 9 and 10 this week and found different ways of making these numbers. We have learnt that all numbers to 9 are made up of ‘ones’, for example 6 is made up of 6 ones, 3 is made up of 3 ones etc. When we found number 10, we learnt that it can be 10 ones or 1 ten and that the 0 in ’10’ stops the 1 from being cheeky and moving around!

Topic

We have started our new topic this week, ‘Our World’. We started the week by talking about England and identifying this on a globe. We have also visited The Artic, packing a suitcase of appropriate clothing and finding out about the animals that live there. Next week, we are off to Africa!

World Book Day

We had a great day sharing all of our books and guessing our character based on the prop we had brought in. Thank you to all parents for making such an effort.

 

Ideas for home

http://phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/flash-cards?phase=2#

– Using the above link, recap all of the sounds in Phase 2. Tell your adult some words beginning with the sounds you can see.

– Use Google Earth to find England. If you have been on holiday, try and find these places on a map.

– Think of different ways to travel around the world. You could Lego to make a boat or aeroplane, or you could create a new form of transport!

 

Have a wonderful weekend 😀