"Pupils behave well. They play happily together and consider each other’s needs very well.""Parents are right to be pleased with the quality of teaching at the school.""Pupils learn well because the work they do provides good levels of challenge and helps them learn new skills."100% of parents said they would recommend this school to other parents"The curriculum supports pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development effectively.""Pupils get off to a good start in early years."

Wrens 2018-19 
Mrs Carter, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy & Miss Elliott

Our last full week as Wrens!
Friday 19th July

It’ been a mixed week of watching the KS2 performance, transition morning and an Outdoor Learning morning so in between we’ve been practising our letter and number formations, recognition of numbers and amounts, place value, tricky words and writing sentences by describing some sea creatures. On Tuesday Miss Elliott made jellyfish with the class.

We’ve loved seeing the different homework projects come in and gave the children a chance to share with the class what they’d made.

Transition day was pretty exciting. We spent the morning in our new classroom and discovered our lockers to store all our belongings in. We met Mrs Musson 'officially' and told her about our likes and interests. We talked about kindness in the form of respect and friendship, as these are 2 of the school values that we are targeting for next year.

During our Outdoor morning on Thursday, we played some team games and ran around and counted laps of the running track! It provided a good boost of well-needed energy and team spirit.

Next week, we’ll be having lots of story time and shared reading as next year, there’ll be a big push on reading for pleasure.

To avoid the summer slump, if you can, please encourage children to practise one letter and number formation sheet each week, which I'll give out next Wednesday, continue learning to read and spell the tricky words (see below) and even the Year 1 Common Exception words and practise counting to 100! And read lots of stories!

Most importantly enjoy a wonderful Summer break together as a family.

See you in September!

Greenpeace
Friday 12th July

This week, we read Dear Greenpeace and learnt some facts about different sea creatures. Then we learnt about how plastic is spoiling our environment and harming our marine life. The children designed some posters to put up around the school and sorted our left over packaging from Arts Week, ready to be recycled. We explored our surroundings and labelled the different materials we could find. The children were surprised to discover just how much plastic there is around us.

Dear Greenpeace is a story written in a series of letters, between Emily, who finds a whale in her pond and Greenpeace. We had a go this week at writing letters to different people asking them to stop using unnecessary plastic. We found out that whilst McDonalds no longer use plastic straws, they do still use plastic lids for their drinks. So some of the Wrens wrote to McDonalds.

Congratulations to Arthur P this week for inspiring our writing and being an advocate for plastic recycling. He has worked so hard to spread the message and we’re really proud of him!

In Maths this week we’ve been playing jungle animal top trumps, using tens and units to make up numbers from 1-20 to understand those tricky teens and we’ve also been subtracting turtles by rescuing them with nets.

Our last full week will include a big push on phonics, addition and subtraction and writing sentences to secure our understanding before the summer break.  

Enjoy a wonderful weekend!

Art Week

Friday 5th July

This week, I launched our Arts Week Assembly on deforestation. We learnt about the importance of the rainforests on our planet and about the different animal and bird species that they are home to. Wrens have spent the week celebrating and creating minibeasts from recyclable materials in an effort to reuse some of the materials that cause havoc to our planet. We’ve been painting and printing colourful minibeasts, collaging with magazine cuttings, threading with polystyrene, moulding and sculpting from clay, creating dance movements to represent the life cycle of a butterfly and learning to sing ‘I am the Earth.’ Some of us presented our dance in an assembly on Thursday to the rest of the school.

We’ve continued to practise our phonics in the mornings and practise our number formations to make sure the numbers to 20 are the correct way round before the end the year.

It’s been a really fun, exploratory week and we’ve loved seeing the children engrossed in their own creativity.

Next week, we’ll be reading the book Dear Greenpeace and learning about different endangered animals around the globe. We’ll be measuring against the actual sizes of some animal’s body parts!

Enjoy a wonderful weekend!

Mad about Minibeasts!
Friday 28th June

In preparation for Arts week next week, we’ve been learning about Minibeasts and describing them. We’ve been on minibeast hunts in the wooded area and outside in our garden and we’ve made homes for them. We’ve studied them carefully with magnifying glasses for our writing. It’s been quite a crafty week as we’ve painted butterflies and made minibeasts out of playdough and craft materials. We’ve read the rhymes in Mad about Minibeasts, looking for words that describe each minibeast and words that rhyme.

We’ve had a big focus on using our phonics this week, in sounding out real and alien (nonsense) words; spotting digraphs and trigraphs in them and carefully sounding them out.

In Maths, we’ve practised making numbers up to 10 on a tens frame with counters to see how many different combinations of the same number we can make.

We’ve enjoyed some lovely reading sessions outside in the sunshine too!

Congratulations to Eloise who is our Star of the Week. Eloise is so focused every day and has a fantastic attitude. More importantly, she is a really kind friend!

Next week, we’ll be studying the book The Great Kapok tree in more detail and learning about deforestation. We’ll use the illustrations in the book to recreate the awe of the rainforest and the animals that need our help!

Enjoy the sunshine!

Grandad's Island
Friday 21st June

This week, we read the story of Grandad’s Island to start introducing the children to tropical lands – like the rainforest, as this will be our focus for Arts Week next month. The children loved the story! We studied the illustrations in the book and noted the differences between Grandad’s home and the Island and we described a picture of the rainforest, imagining we were there. The children have worked in different pairs for some of their activities to ensure they get used working alongside children they don’t usually play with.  

In Maths, we practised representing numbers to 10 with symbols and recognising all the numerals. Some children even started writing out the numbers in words.

We’ve also been sounding out some alien words to improve our phonic knowledge, recognising the digraphs/trigraphs in them first! Some children have challenged themselves to write their own!

Sports Day was a real success today. The children were really supportive of each other and we encouraged perseverance, talking about what it meant before we went out in the afternoon.

Congratulations to Katie who is our Star Performer this week. Katie was set two challenges to learn to spell her tricky words and to try and improve her handwriting and she’s smashed both!

Have a lovely sunny weekend!

Rookery Farm
Friday 14th June

This week, we learnt about different farm animals before taking a trip to Rookery Farm. We talked about where the animals might live and built some enclosures for a number of farm animals. We also worked in small groups to design a farm, practising our discussion and negotiation skills.

We read the story Farmer Duck and wrote a letter to the Farmer from Duck, describing how sad and tired he was of running the farm, all by himself.

The farm visit on Wednesday was wonderful. We had the farm to ourselves and all the animals were out. We had a good run around in the soft play, saw the field animals first including pigs, lambs, donkeys and lamas. Then we had a picnic lunch before visiting the Pets Corner and playing in the park and sandpit. The children were so well behaved and well-mannered and made us really proud.

We’ve been writing recounts of our farm visit for the remainder of the week; what we enjoyed and our favourite animals.

In Maths this week, I introduced the children to part-whole diagrams which help us split up a whole number into different parts. We did lots of practical investigations with Numicon and then started to record some of our findings. This is a concept that the children will use in Year 1.

The lapathon was a success today with Wrens running 207 laps between them!

Next week, we’re going to read Grandpa’s Island and start to look at the Rainforest. We’re going to do a big phonics push too to secure all of our phase 3 and 4 sounds and tricky words.

 Let’s hope for a break from the rain. Have wonderful weekends!

Dear Zoo
Friday 7th June

Our first week back has been a real success. The children are so ready for some more structured learning now and have started to work at tables all together. They’ve adjusted really well to the new routine and have enjoyed showing us their ‘Year 1’ attitudes!

On Monday, we discovered a box that had sent to us by a zoo. We guessed what might be inside by looking at the box to discover some clues. It was a real surprise when a tiger jumped out! We then read Dear Zoo and the children enjoyed playing guessing games where they described different animals to each other. They were quite fascinated by the tiger so we learnt some facts about them. Apparently they have over 100 stripes and there are 3 different types! Next, we read the story of The Tiger Came to Tea. The children then retold the story in their own little books, focusing on using capital letters, finger spaces and fullstops. We’re helping the children to form their letters and numbers correctly with our morning challenge activities and we’re recapping all of the capital letters over the next few weeks.

In Maths the children have been sorting objects into groups by their characteristics; colours, flat 2D or solid 3D, amounts, sizes etc… We’ve also sorted different objects by lining them up, counting them carefully and matching them to the correct numeral. We practised counting on from a given number too.

On Thursday we learnt about Pentecost for our Church Service on Sunday. Wrens made some doves to represent the Holy Spirit and some windmills! We also took part in an Anti-Bullying workshop which they found really engaging. 

Congratulations to Oscar who is once again our Star Performer. Oscar shows us that he is ready to learn every day. He willingly reads and writes to his very best ability and keeps our classroom safe and tidy.

Next week, we’ll be visiting Rookery Farm to see lots of animals and to find out what they eat and how to look after them. We’ll be writing a recount of our experience and looking at time in Maths. We’ll talk about seconds and minutes and use some timers to measure how long it takes to complete some activities.

Enjoy your weekends!

Wrens 2018-19 
Mrs Carter, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy & Miss Elliott

Handa's Surprise!
Friday 24th May

This week, we looked at the continent of Africa and the country of Kenya. We read the story Handa’s Surprise and then practised our question writing, using question marks. We explored some exotic fruits, read their name labels and thought about where in the world they had come from. Some children had a go at drawing and painting them and then Mrs Musson helped us to weigh them against each other, comparing their weights and ordering 3 at a time. On Thursday we got to taste and describe some of the exotic fruits as a snack!

We’ve also practised subitising – recognising the number of objects in a small group without counting them, like on the face of a dice. We used some numicon to add 2 or 3 numbers together by layering them and practised counting on from a given number.

We’ve been assessing the children with their reading this week – checking that they have consolidated their sounds and tricky words. We’re going to have a big push on reading and writing in the last term to make sure children are feeling confident before going into Year 1.

Congratulations to Amelia for being our Star Performer this week. Amelia always tries her hardest with all her learning and we’re really proud to hear that she extends her learning at home.

If we do have any parents who would like to come in and read with some of our children next term, we’d really appreciate your time to help instil a love of reading. The children love stories being read to them!

Have a wonderful break!

Understanding the world!
Friday 17th May

What a glorious start to the week we had! Sun and lots of outdoor fun! Our learning began by learning the 7 different continents of the world. We then talked about different ways to travel and shared our own experiences. The Wren’s each wrote out a passport and checked in for a flight as we role played being on a plane, taking off and landing somewhere exotic!

In Maths we’ve been recapping ‘sharing’. In order for the teachers to afford a lovely beach holiday together (we wish!), the children helped us share some spending money. We shared pennies out, counting the total of different 'equal' groups and asked if it was a fair share?

Flying on a plane is a quick way of travelling but ships and boats are much slower so we discussed lengths of time. We’ve been counting up and down in seconds and timing ourselves jumping and hopping. Miss Elliot shared the story of the Hare and the Tortoise and helped us to retell it. We then wrote sentences to describe the events that took place in the story, using a story map.

Mrs Crouch shared with us her suitcase for a holiday in a hot country, like Portugal. We labelled items in her case by sounding out the words carefully. Then Mrs Carter shared her suitcase from her trip to Iceland so we compared the different objects and places.

Congratulations to Gabriel who is our Star Performer this week. Gabriel has made so much progress with his reading and writing and continues to amaze us with his incredible attitude to learning. He is is so helpful in class when tidying up and is really kind. What a superstar!

Next week we’ll continue our ‘sharing’ work in Maths and will continue to ‘retell’ and act out stories in sequence. We’re going to be learning more about our planet and practise using some technology.

Have lovely weekends.

Maths and mixing colours!
Friday 10th May

Wren’s have had a productive week; writing independently, junk modelling, making patterns with colours and shapes, mixing primary colours together, measuring time in seconds, sequencing our daily timetable and using laptops to paint, type and play interactive games. We’ve been practising our independent Addition and Subtraction too using a number line. We’ve also tried some Guided Reading in groups where we share a text together, each reading a sentence and discuss the text afterwards and answer questions.

I’ve been assessing the children’s knowledge in Maths against number and shape and measure and next week we’ll be revisiting money – alongside a week of ‘Travelling the Globe’. We’re going to explore the different continents and think about where in the world we might like to visit, perhaps on a plane or a boat and try some foods from different countries!

Congratulations to Eli for being our Star Performer this week. Eli so good at initiating his own activities and extending his own learning and shows us that he’s ready for year 1. What a super role-model!

Have great weekends!

Kings, Queens and Castles.
Friday 3rd May

We’ve had a jam-packed week of learning with a double maths focus! The Wren’s have finally built the small wooden castle which had been one of their challenges last week and have enjoyed playing with kings, queens and knights. At one point there was even a dinosaur invasion!

We learnt about the royal family and in particular our Queen. Wren’s have enjoyed learning fun facts about her; like the fact she has 2 castle, 9 thrones and has owned 30 corgis! She didn’t go to school but enjoyed swimming and art as a young girl. We talked about some of the important jobs she does, like working closely with the army and visiting different countries and then we thought about what we would do if we were King or Queen. In order to feel like royalty we designed and made our own crown, drawing round shapes to create some jewels. In doing this, we practised our cutting skills and writing of shape names and colours.

A challenge this week, has been to build a castle from solid (3D) shapes so we had to consolidate our shape knowledge. We worked as a class to sort flat and solid shapes and drew around 2D and 3D shapes in pairs to design castles. We even went on a 3D shape hunt with Mrs Musson!

We’ve also practised counting backwards on a number line and completed some subtraction sums by ‘jumping back’. We’ve had a focus on writing out number lines to 20 this week, to make sure all our numbers are the right way round. We’ve loved exploring the sounds instruments make and getting creative with paint outside.

Next week, we’re going to have an Assessment week, just to make sure we know what children can do to inform the next few weeks of planning.
We’ll continue with our Royals topic though because the children are really enjoying it.

Please do practise asking your children to write short sentences if you can, making sure they can hear all the separate sounds.

Are there any parents who would like to volunteer to hear children read or read stories to them during the afternoons?

Enjoy the bank holiday!

Dragons Wren!
Friday 26th April

What a fantastic start to the Summer term! We’ve had a great first week, reconnecting and talking about our Easter break. We started by learning about St. George (and the dragon) and reading the story of the Paper Bag Princess; Not a typical fairy-tale story but a very funny one.  Although our topic is about royalty, the children loved the dragon character in the story so… we were really shocked to discover some large eggs in our classroom on Wednesday morning! We uncovered some footprints too on the carpet! We used our detective skills to imagine what could have come out of it.

We’ve practised some addition sums using some mini dinosaur eggs and some children have even managed to work out some tricky missing number addition sums!

Wrens have been busy building castles and were challenged to build a bridge over the rainbow river so that boats could pass underneath and so that it was secure enough to cross.

In PE this week, we experimented with different ways of moving; slowly, quickly, up high and down low, like that of a Chinese dragon. We then experimented with instruments to make some music that represented the sounds and beat we heard when we listened to some Chinese music. We also practised playing a rhythm and singing along to a call and response song.

Congratulations to Eloise for being our Star Performer this week. She has really impressed us with her confidence and independence this week and has been so helpful in class.

Next week we’re going to recap subtraction using a number line and objects, to show ‘taking away’. We’re going to practise counting backwards and build castles using 3D shapes, describing their properties.

We’re also going to talk about the royal family and discuss the role of our queen. We’re also going to design some crowns and write about what we do if we were king or queen!

It’s so good to be back. Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Easter!
Friday 5th April

Our final week of the Spring term and what a difference we’ve seen in learning attitudes! The Wrens are so keen to write and want to read for pleasure. Wren’s undertook their first piece of independent writing this week in their very own writing book! They were so excited by this challenge and produced some really amazing recounts, all about their visitor on Monday - a Police Community Support Officer!

We’ve learnt about the Easter story and the theme of forgiveness. Each Wren has made their own Easter garden with a cross and some cress to represent new life. We talked about the symbol of the cross and why we celebrate Easter with eggs.

On Wednesday, Greens Norton Medical Centre kindly hosted us for a very special tour of the surgery. We got to handle some medical equipment and found out how the department is run, using the computers and telephone system. We met Dr. Hartley too just before we left. 

On Thursday we performed a song ‘Spring Chicken’ in the church during our Easter service and took our Easter gardens to share. Today, Louis, Katie and Ava represented our class in the Talent show! They were so courageous!

After the Easter holiday, we’ll start a brief topic called The Royals, in which we’ll introduce the children to the Royal family and talk about our families too. If you have any examples or would like to produce a family tree at home over the holiday, it’ll be a great opportunity for the children to share. We’ll then continue with a bit of a fairy tale theme of Princesses, Knights and dragons and read some fun stories to act out. Then our plan is to explore the Animal Kingdom and our planet. This class are real animal lovers and love the outdoors so we’re hoping to incorporate their interests into some research work.

I hope the children have a well-deserved break and that you get some quality family time together over the holiday.
Happy Easter!

Midwives and Motors!
Friday 29th March

What an exciting week we’ve had! It started with a visit from some lovely Midwives who answered our questions about looking after new born babies. Thank you to Mrs Knight and Mrs Cockerill for offering their time. The children loved learning about how the umbilical chord feeds a baby and the instruments used to hear a baby’s heartbeat. It inspired some great role-play and helped us understand the job role of a Midwife.

We then read When The Doorbell Rang which taught us all about sharing a plate of cookies. It wasn’t enough just to read the story – so we acted it out in groups using a real bell and of course, real cookies! The children really understood the concept of dividing the cookies equally between different numbers of plates. We then designed and made our own cookies using 2D shape cutters and wrote some descriptions using shape names, colours and different flavours.
We’ve had another alien invasion this week too – some aliens with very odd names (that help us improve our sounding out and blending skills) landed and left some of their slime!!!

In our Maths, we’ve been doubling numbers to 20 and halving too. Every time we line up to go anywhere, we count forwards and backwards to 22 to practise our number recall. It’s really helped us with ‘one more and one less’. 

Today we were again really lucky to have another visitor – thank you Mr Coates! He works as a Formula 1 Engineer for Mercedes! He showed us the new car that Mercedes have built and we got to see how quickly a team can work together to change 4 tyres in 2 seconds! He brought in some car parts and Lewis Hamilton’s race suit! I'm not sure who was more excited - the children or myself and Mrs Crouch! What a way to end the week!

Next week we’re going to learn about the Easter story and make some Easter crafts for our church service. We have a Police Community Support Officer visiting us on Monday and are popping over the road to the Medical Centre for a tour of the surgery and to meet a doctor.

Thank you for supporting the Wrens in making such wonderful homework. Our table looked amazing tonight in the exhibition - definitely the most colourful!

Have wonderful weekends and Happy Mother’s Day to all our lovely mummys.

The Selfish Crocodile
Friday 22nd March

This week our chosen story has focused on ‘making relationships and treating others with respect’. The children have enjoyed retelling the story of The Selfish Crocodile in their own words by creating their own little books. Mrs Marsh has welcomed many proud Wrens in her office, excited to show off their writing!

In Maths this week, Wrens have recapped on their 2D shape names and properties and have recreated patterns using colours and shapes. They’ve also practised recognising their numerals from 11-20, out of order.

Mrs Starmer kindly volunteered to talk to the class about her role in the Fracture Clinic on Tuesday. She taught the children all about bones and showed us an x-ray photo of a broken arm. She then demonstrated how to plaster an arm, using Eli as a model! It provided some great stimulus for our role-play. There have been no end of injuries unfortunately!

Mr Pullen also offered some of his time to show the children how he cuts wood as a tree surgeon. The children were so excited to see his chainsaw in action. He cut up some logs for us to play with and created a big pile of sawdust! We then watched a video to see a Chipper in use and learnt how to tell the age of a tree. Thank you both so much for inspiring our learning.

Next week, we’ll be having a Maths focus on sharing, halving and doubling – using the story The Door Bell Rang. The children will also design a delicious cookie and write a description about it.

We will soon be learning our phase 4 consonant blends and tricky words so I have put a copy in some of the book bags today for you to pre-teach with and use over the Easter holiday. Please keep reading the phase 3 tricky words and see if the children can spell them too!

It’s officially Spring! Have lovely weekends.

 

People who help us: The Medics!
Friday 15th March

Our week has been inspired by the book Zog and we’ve considered the role of Doctors and Nurses. The children have started to create their own role-play doctor's surgery by creating signs, posters and labels. Greens Norton Medical Centre have kindly agreed to host us for a tour on Wednesday 2nd April so each of the Wren’s have thought of a question they’d like to ask a doctor when we visit.

As an additional Literacy task, the children have been trying to unpick some scrambled captions that describe pictures, writing them correctly underneath. We’ve had a push on learning our tricky words by playing Tricky Word Bingo which they've really enjoyed.

In Maths, we’ve been counting forwards and backwards along a number line to 20 and using positional language to describe which numbers come before and after a given number, to help us understand ‘one more and one less’. We’ve recapped on our 2D shape names and their properties and have been measuring our individual weights on a set of scales in the doctor’s surgery.

We were very lucky to have a visit from April in Year 5 who shared a lovely book that she’d written and illustrated. It inspired the Wrens to start creating their own books, about princesses, mermaids and dinosaurs!

Arthur Knight made some beautiful hedgehog shaped bread rolls and shared them with the class, earlier in the week, as part of his homework project.

Congratulations to Eli who has been working exceptionally hard on his writing, his number skills and his decoding. He really has stood out for accepting lots of challenge and achieving with confidence!

Next week we’ll be reading ‘The Selfish Crocodile’ and discussing kind behaviour and friendships. We’ll continue to recap our shape knowledge and the children will be encouraged to retell the story in their own words by making their own little book.  

If you’d like to come and talk to the class about your occupation (whatever it may be!), we'd really appreciate just 20 minutes of your time, to inspire our learning. The children become so excited by anything new and different!

Have wonderful weekends!

Wrens love reading!
Friday 8th March

We’ve had another busy week with the likes of Evil Pea doing some terrible things to fruits! The children have produced some excellent writing about it. We’ve had a Maths focus too; estimating amounts and then checking by counting and weighing potatoes and sprouts!

World Book Day on Thursday was exciting and we enjoyed listening to Aliens Love Underpants. Some of us produced some crafts related to the book and we all learnt a song to perform in Assembly.

We have introduced some new books to the children that have sparked some more interest. They’re linked to the Read Write Inc. phonics scheme and contain some select pages at the front of the book to introduce the children to key sounds and tricky words (highlighted in red throughout). We will continue to use these books as reading books for a while.

In phonics this week, we've looked at 'oi' and 'ar' (coin and park) and the children have practised writing some different words with these digraphs in. They love being given the challenge of underlining digraphs and trigraphs in sentences before attempting to sound and blend the words. 

Congratulations to Ava who is our Star Performer this week for producing some amazing writing and for helping others to sound out and write words. She really is an inspiration and we wouldn't be without her!

Next week, we’ll be learning the story of Zog and building a Doctor’s role-play area with the children. We’re hoping to visit Greens Norton Medical Centre too, for a tour, but we’ll keep you posted. We’re going to look at numbers that are one and two more or less and recap on our shape knowledge; naming and describing them.

Have a lovely weekend.

Evil peeeeeaa!!!
Friday 1st March

Gasps were heard as the children entered the classroom for their first week back. A very evil pea had snuck in during half term and captured a group of very vulnerable vegetables! The hunt was on to capture Evil Pea. The children scribed suggested speech from the distressed vegetables and designed Wanted posters to inform the rest of the school about the vicious villain.

Children had to hack and saw the carrots free from blocks of ice and and pluck the peas from poisonous jelly using tweezers. Today, they had to take part in an obstacle assault course to set the vegetables free! We had to practise some number bonds and subtraction tasks to pass Evil Pea’s quests too. We used concrete objects like counters, Numicon, number lines and drawings to represent our workings out.

We’re still learning the digraghs in Phase 3 of our Phonics and the children have been using some phoneme frames to segment the words we learn, writing the letters that work together (digraphs and trigraphs) in the same box. In Kinetic letters we’ve been writing capital letters. We know that capital letters appear at the start of sentences and for our names and names of places.

I’ve popped a list of high-frequency words into book bags this week to practise reading (and spelling) if your child is ready, and also a copy of their latest sound assessment so you know what sounds to practise. Do use the Mr Thorne phonics videos on YouTube to help you. This week we have focused on ‘ur’ and ‘ow’. (fur and owl)

Congratulations to Chase who is our Star Performer this week. Chase has been challenging himself in both Maths and writing this week and shows that he is a super role model!

Next week, we anticipate more antics from the Evil Pea as, we haven't managed to capture him yet! We’ll be super sentence building, estimating amounts, weighing vegetables and using our fine motor skills to create some Supertato superheros! 

Have a pea-ceful weekend!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rze89HB9u8g&safe=true

Wrens to the rescue!
Friday 15th February

Our last week has been very exciting with a top secret mission to rescue Mr. Snappy who was kidnapped by the Joker! Wrens devised plans to save him, discussed their options in meetings, took clipboards outside to spot and jot down clues, interviewed staff and other children and wrote messages in response to the Joker. Some wrote to Mr Snappy too to reassure him that we could help. The Wrens thought carefully about their individual super power and superhero name and designed masks, costumes and badges.

In Maths the Wren’s shared superpowers between Superman and Batman equally, writing out and explaining a Maths story (a division sum).

Congratulations to Riley who is our Star Performer this week. Riley wrote 2 fantastic letters to Mr. Snappy and the Joker this week and really impressed us with both his sounding out and his handwriting! His focus is lessons is amazing and he loves a challenge!

When we come back after half term we’re going to continue with this theme as it has really captured the children’s imaginations. We’re going to read a series of books about Supertato who is a super potato! There are lots of other vegetables involved so it might be helpful to make sure the children know their vegetable names!

We’ve assessed the children on their sounds, numbers and shapes this week and have changed reading books again for the holiday.

We hope the children enjoy a wonderful break. See you soon!

The Good Samaritan.
Friday 8th February

This week the Wren’s have been thinking about their qualities and what makes them a kind person, like the Good Samaritan. They’ve written cards for each other and have made friendship bracelets to show their appreciation. 


We built a fruit and vegetable shop in the classroom and introduced the children to money, as the Good Samaritan had to buy food and medicine to help the Jewish man. The children role-played looking after each other when injured and got to handle real money; sorting it and examining how each of the coins look. They've enjoyed writing some shopping lists too and we’ve been practising sounding out and writing some tricky fruit names. 

In our Maths this week, Wrens have been measuring distances and objects around the classroom using feet and have been using positional language to describe where things are. In P.E today, they took part in an obstacle course, calling out the positions they were in when in contact with apparatus or the mats; over, under, through, on top of etc... 


Congratulations to Reuben for being our Star Performer this week. He has made fantastic progress this last half term and is so proud of himself – as are we. We love his cheeky personality and how much he makes us all smile. We love his enthusiasm for learning too. 

Next week we have a Superhero theme. We want to create some more exciting opportunities for writing and will be turning ourselves into superheroes to complete a top secret mission! You may hear all about Mr. Snappy!

Have restful weekends.

Daniel and the Lion's Den
Friday 1st February

Wren’s learnt a new story from the Bible this week and have enjoyed role-playing, puppet making and den making! They imagined what Daniel might have felt being thrown into the lion’s den and wrote prayers to God asking for his help.

We’ve continued adding up numbers along a number line to consolidate this method and have been using numicon to show the value of our sums. We’ve also used compare bears to group objects and add them together. We talked about odd and even numbers and ‘one more’ and ‘one less’ but will come back to these topics again soon when we start to share and divide.

The children are doing really well with their phonics and are learning more of the Phase 3 tricky words. One of their jobs this week has been to write them out and read them back to an adult. We’re seeing some really great handwriting as the children continue to improve their letter formation and pencil grips.

Congratulations to Max who is our Star Performer this week. Max's confidence has increased socially and he is really motivated to learn. We love that he challenges himself with Maths activities and we love that he likes to add his opinions and answers during our inputs.

Amelia, Reuben and Esme received their Bronze awards too!

Next week, our story focus will be 'The Good Samaritan' and we’ll be focusing on being kind and generous and also talking about equality.
We’ll be estimating and measuring short distances in foot prints and using positional language: above, under, next to etc. And ‘left’ and ‘right’!

Wrap up warm this weekend and enjoy Winter at its best!

Animal Addition!
Friday 25th January

This week the children have demonstrated their understanding of Noah’s Ark by retelling each part whilst drawing on their story map. They've explained ‘what’ it meant when the dove returned with an olive branch and ‘why’ God sent a rainbow.
They’ve also been thinking about what they might pack in a suitcase if they were to stay on the ark. We’ve taught the children to sound out words and match the sounds to letters using Phase 2 and 3 grapheme (letter) mats.


On Tuesday with Mrs Elliott, Wrens wrote their own promise about looking after the planet on a raindrop. Their beans are starting to sprout and they’re so excited to see some progress after watering them for a week.


To aid our learning of addition, we’ve been grouping animals and then adding up the total by jumping along a number line. We then switched to using numicon to show the numerals in our sums. We’ve also been recapping on what the numbers past 10 look like in terms of their value, using numicon. E.g. 11 means 10 and 1;  12 means 10 and 2.


Congratulations to Louis who is our Star Performer this week. Louis adds his own knowledge and experiences to our learning and works really hard during our independent activities. He’s shown lots of kindness and been really helpful too. We wouldn’t be without him!

Next week, we’re going to be reading a new story – Daniel and the Lion’s Den. We’ll be doing some drama, talking about our emotions, writing a prayer and continuing to add using a number line. If you can, please practise counting forwards and backwards to and from 10 (and 20) with your child and from different starting points too. E.g. 8, 9, 10, 11...., 8, 7, 6, 5, 4.

Have a lovely weekend. 

Rainbow Wrens
Friday 18th January

Wrens have really enjoyed learning about Noah’s Ark this week and have been very creative, as carpenters and artists. Mrs Crouch transformed the role-play shed into Noah’s workshop and we’ve observed lots of imaginative play. We’ve practised counting in 2’s as the animals entered the ark and have been making rainbows by mixing the primary colours. We’ve used a variety of coloured materials to assist our experimentation including playdough, tissue paper, cellophane and even skittles! We’ve also been experimenting in the water tray to find out what materials and objects float or sink and making our own boats.

We learnt the song ‘The animals went in two by two’ and then on Tuesday Miss Elliott shared some instruments with the children and taught them how to play along with the beat! The Wrens then created their own shakers so we can continue to practise playing a rhythm.

The snow on Thursday was a welcome surprise and inspired some descriptive discussion. We had a good play in it before it melted away. Today we found some very interesting shards of ices in all different shapes.

Congratulations to Sebi who is our Star Performer this week. Sebi’s enthusiasm for school and learning brings a smile to our faces every day and he is such a gentleman with the most impeccable manners!

We’re going to continue with this story next week, giving even more attention to Maths; counting out animals from a large group, adding small groups of animals together, adding up the number of legs animals have in a group and consolidating our counting in 2’s. It’ll also be a good opportunity to learn more about some animals in general and compare them to ourselves.

Enjoy a restful weekend.

Welcome back!
Friday 11th January

We’ve had such a positive start to the new term! It really is good to be back. We hope you’ve all had a lovely break over Christmas. All the adults in Wren’s would like to thank parents for the lovely gifts we received.  

To launch our new topic ‘I Believe’ (Stories and lessons from the Bible) we’ve been reading the story of Creation this week and ordering the events that took place. To link to God making the land and sea on the third day, we’ve had a Science focus and explored different plants and what they need to grow. Earlier in the week, the children took clipboards outside and made some observational drawings of plants and trees and labelled different parts of a plant. Some helped Mrs Crouch to pot some pansies whilst others studied their petals and leaves through magnifying glasses.

To retell the Creation story, children have developed some story maps with drawings, in order of the days, and have practised writing a few key words. We also created some story bands using 5 coloured beads on a bracelet to help us retell the story. Each coloured bead represented a different part of the story: characters, the setting, the beginning, middle and end.
Our Maths focus has been to use ordinal numbers to sequence the days in the story and we’ve learnt the days of the week in a form of a song.

Every afternoon, during our handwriting session, we’ve been encouraging the children to strengthen their fingers to make them super writers by completing a range of fine motor activities.

Today, Wrens planted their own bean seed to look after over the next few weeks. Whose beanstalk will reach the castle in the cloud first? Whose will be the tallest?

Congratulations to Esme who is our Star Performer this week. Esme has made a really conscious effort with her learning and has blown us away with her sounds and writing. She is really focused when she does her activities in class and always tries her best! And she’s been helpful around the classroom too.

All reading books will be changed on a Monday from now on and then we’ll stagger reading with each child throughout the week, Please do make sure books and reading records are in bags daily and do record any reading that takes place at home. Most children have started to learn phase 3 sounds now but please do continue to practise blending words from the booklets I sent home before Christmas. (cv and cvc words)

Next week, our focus story from the Bible will be Noah’s Ark – we’re going to be learning about animals, counting in 2’s, mixing colours to create rainbows, adding groups of animals and building an Ark as Carpenters!

Have wonderful weekends!

 

Away in a manger.
Friday 14th December

It’s difficult to put into words how proud we are of all Wren’s have achieved in their first term of school. They have grown in so much confidence and are becoming more responsible and independent. They really have worked their little socks off!

This week has been extra special because it began with our Nativity play. Didn’t they do well to perform to two big audiences?! It really is a huge achievement for them.

For the remainder of the week, the children got creative and imaginative and we captured some lovely moments. They built and decorated a large Christmas tree from the blocks outside and also built a sleigh, using bells to act out a Christmas narrative. They printed with metallic paint, made decorations and paper chains, continued to write lists for Santa, including ‘nice’ lists, wrote cards to each other and created a Christmas tree scene using and naming 2D shapes.

Congratulations to Isabel who is our Star performer this week, although Isabel consistently stands out for being ready to learn, patient and very hard working. Eloise also tried school meals this week and really enjoyed them! Di in the kitchen awarded her for having the courage to try something new.

Today we joined the children in the lunch hall for Christmas lunch and then Santa popped in for a quick chat. He wanted to check that we’d been looking after things in the classroom and continuing with our good behaviour.

We tested the children on their phase 2 sounds, tricky and high frequency words this week and have included a word bank in book bags, so children can consolidate their blending skills at home and over the Christmas period. Do keep revisiting the words when you can.

To continue our ‘I Believe topic’ in the New Year, we’ll be studying a selection of Bible stories, starting off with the story of Creation in the first week back. We’ll be talking about new beginnings and learning the days of the week and doing a little bit of science in learning about the life cycle of a plant.

Don’t forget that on Monday we have our carol service in church in the morning and on Tuesday, a Jack and the Beanstalk pantomime!

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New year.

The Christmas countdown begins.
Friday 7th December

It’s been a really magical week in Wrens. The countdown to Christmas has begun and we’re all feeling very excited. We decorated our a Christmas tree with 2D shape baubles and matched up some labels to our 3D shaped presents underneath. We discussed their properties – how many sides, corners, edges and faces they have.

Mrs Elliott Introduced ‘advent’ as the arrival of something or someone. She explained that the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas are called advent, when Christians wait and prepare for celebrating the birth of Jesus. The class learnt some very important facts and created an advent wreath (a circle to show that God lasts forever). They learnt that the 4 candles around the wreath are lit each Sunday leading up to Christmas, with the 5th being lit on Christmas day. They discussed that the Crib scene serves as a reminder of the Christmas story and they began to understand why Christians use Advent calendars - to count down the days until Jesus’ birth.

We’ve been practising our tricky and high frequency words and going on hunts around the classroom for them. Sometimes the words have been so tiny that we’ve had to use magnifying glasses to read them!

Our creative skills have been tested this week- we’ve been making small wreath decorations for the Christmas Fair. It was a tricky task to wrap the pipe cleaners around a doughnut ring, but the children persevered with this fine motor activity.

Di and Tina in the kitchen helped us to create our own gingerbread cookies too, in the kitchen. They sent us the recipe which we studied in class and then we weighed out the ingredients. We are so grateful for the time they spent with us and for inspiring our learning.

A huge congratulations to Sofia who is our star performer this week because she’s ‘just that’! A star on the stage; learning 10 lines for our Nativity play and remembering when to speak them too. All the Wren’s have worked really hard in our rehearsals and we can’t wait to perform it to you next Tuesday. We’ll be doing a dress rehearsal to the rest of the school on Monday so please bring in any additional costume pieces you’d like to include.

Guess who got in touch this week?! Only Father Christmas! He sent Wrens a video message asking them to get in touch so we’ve been very busy letter writing.

Next week, we’ll be having an RE focus and learning why we perform a Nativity play at Christmas time, connecting the baby Jesus with the adult Jesus and looking at a copy of the Bible ready to learn some bibles stories after the Christmas holiday.

Have festive weekends!

Baptisms, babies and balancing scales
Friday 30th November

Wren’s have learnt all about Christenings this week and preparing for a new baby in the family. They’ve loved this topic as many of them enjoy role-playing as Mums and Dads.

Miss Elliot talked to the children about how a community might welcome a new baby into the church and discussed what gifts we might give to a baby and their family. This linked with our learning of the Nativity story which the children have practised sequencing as a Maths and Literacy activity.


Further Maths this week has been inspired by the weighing of a new baby, so we’ve been using scales; comparing the weight of objects and using the language heavier, lighter and balanced. The children have been exploring the classroom for different objects to weigh and compare.
We’ve also been learning about capacity using some bottles and jugs in the water tray, identifying whether they are full, nearly full, half full, nearly full or empty. We’ll come back to this topic later but you can extend their learning at home by asking children at meal or bath times how full their cups or baths are.

Congratulations to Kiara who is our Star Performer this week. Kiara has learnt so many of her sounds and her letter formation and handwriting has blown us away! She writes so carefully and neatly and is really proud of her achievements, as are we.

We’ve included a bookmark in children’s reading records today with the tricky words we’d like them to practise reading on sight. Next week we’re going to test the children on reading some of the high frequency words too. You have a copy in your individual packs but I’ve added them here too. Please practise the first column with your child so that we can test towards the end of next week. If your child knows more – then great, they can learn more from the second column and so on. 


December is here so it’s time to get Christmassy! Next week, our Maths focus will be 2D and 3D shapes (in the form of wrapped up presents under the Christmas tree!) and we’ll be writing a Christmas wish list for Father Christmas! Be sure to stick around after school next Friday for our Christmas Fayre as I hear he’s paying a visit! We’ll be doing some work on Advent too and recognising numbers in random order.

Please make sure that children bring in their reading books and reading records every day so that we can read with them and record it. Also so we can change their books weekly and add different reading lists when needed. Thank you.

Have wonderful weekends!

Get me to the church on time! (And words that rhyme) 
Friday 23rd November

We’ve had a really creative and fun week, all inspired by The Scarecrows’ Wedding. We’ve learnt about rhyming words and have been retelling the story by making actions. We’ve followed this up by drawing a story map to sequence it – a skill that we’re starting to teach. The children draw symbols to represent characters, items and actions. Once the children have drawn their symbols, we ask them to retell the story by reading their pictures in order.
Watch Pie Corbett tell the story of The Little Red Hen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdvJZD-cplg&safe=true

Wrens enjoyed decorating biscuits to represent the characters in the story (Betty and Harry) and some made puppets by selecting different materials to represent their clothes and hair.
The story gave us a great opportunity to look at a list of items needed for a wedding. We practised counting objects in a group and modeled adding one more of each item to the groups. We asked ‘What is one more?’ and used a number line and Numicon to help us add. (Numicon is a fantastic Maths resource – a different coloured piece to represent each number. It’s really helping the children to visualise the value of numbers and is really helpful in adding and subtracting)

On Tuesday Miss Elliott discussed Christian places of worship and talked about the cross being a symbol of Christianity. The children role-played being inside a church by singing, praying, listening to stories, reading from the Bible, getting Christened and getting married. Then they made some stained glass windows and some crosses by tying wool around twigs.
We’ve been consolidating the ‘Jumper’ family in our Kinetic letters sessions in the afternoons and writing in our ‘best’ booklets.  

Well done to Amelia this week for being our Star Performer. Amelia is so helpful and polite around school and tries really hard with her learning. We love her attitude!

Next week, we’ll be learning about Christenings and babies! We’ll be measuring in Maths, comparing different weights and looking at capacity.
Have a wonderful weekend. Wrap up!

Wrens plan a party!
Friday 16th November

With so many November and December birthdays, it’s been quite a fitting time to learn about how and why we celebrate birthdays this week. The children have loved role-playing 'tea-parties', writing cards to each other, wrapping up presents and adding gift tags. We’ve practised so many of our fine-motor skills! Wren’s planned their own party and wrote individual invitations to each other so today we had a class party and played some games!

On Tuesday Mrs Elliot shared the book ‘Twig’ by Aura Parker and discussed Heidi’s feelings of loneliness. She asked the children what they could do to show care. Then each of the Wren’s thought about words they could use to recognise special things about each other and made a very special friendship tree.
They also made some Heidi characters from twigs that we collected on Monday afternoon from the wooded area. This tied in with Anti-Bullying week and we discussed how being unkind with our hands and our words can make others feel but also how acts of kindness can make others feel.

In phonics we’ve been putting the 5 tricky words we’ve learnt into sentences and have sounded and blended some words with the special friends ‘c’ and ‘k’ who work together in words like duck and black.

In handwriting we’ve learnt to write the whole of the jumper family (h, b, r, m, n and p) and the children have done so well in remembering the rhymes and starting points of the letters. Please let me know if you'd like to order any Kinetic Letters cards with all the rhymes printed on them.

A big well done to Eliza for earning her Star Performer certificate this week! Eliza is so focused in her learning and always tries her very best. We love how creative she is and how she perseveres with everything she does. She is also a caring and helpful friend to others and we’re really proud of her.

Next week, the focus is weddings - the celebration of love! More chances to write place names and menus, count flowers in bouquets, order numbered bunting…and wrap up presents! The children really have loved that challenge! We'll have a focus book - The Scarecrow's Wedding by Julia Donaldson.

Have a great weekend.
Tissues at the ready for Children in Need tonight! 

Celebrating Diwali and commemorating Remembrance Day
Friday 9th November

It’s been a very busy week as usual, learning about two very special events. The first half of the week, we focused on Diwali and read the story of Rama and Sita. The children role-played in some costumes and then we each made and decorated clay diva lamps which we lit whilst thinking about all the good things in our lives. The children have been making their own beautifully decorated rangoli patterns too – in rice and on paper. The second half of the week focused on Remembrance and we talked about how we now remember soldiers who fought for our country and how poppies grew in the fields once the fighting was over. We each made a poppy for our Remembrance garden and some children made wreaths and little wooden airplanes.

Our phonics groups are doing really well. We’re practising our sounding and blending skills and learning the 5 tricky words on sight. I’ve been writing out some short sentences and the children have been spotting the tricky words in them and discussing the letters and sounds that they know and noticing rhyming words too.

In Maths, we’ve been counting objects and thinking of the correct numeral to represent our answer. This is sometimes quite tricky for the children as numerals to 10 out of sequence can throw them, so we’ve been recognising the numerals 6-10 out of order to secure our knowledge.

The Post Office has been a huge hit! Letters and cards have been written in abundance and posted in the postbox and packages wrapped up and tagged. There have been daily postmen and women emptying the post box and taking the mail to the post office in a large hessian sack.

We’ve spent some time on our new running track. The children have loved challenging themselves to keep going until they’ve completed a whole lap, even though they’re tired.

Well done to Betty for being our Star Performer this week! Betty is a wonderful role model to us all and has impressed us with her learning and creativity this week, on top of being a wonderful friend and being extremely polite. She always perseveres and tries her very best.

Next week, we’ll be learning about Birthdays and Anniversaries so calendars will come in to play for Maths and we’ll learn to sequence the months of the year – and talk about some very special dates – our birthdays! It’s also Anti-Bullying week so we’ll be discussing what we like and admire about each other and undertaking acts of kindness.

Have a wonderful weekend. 
Lest we forget.

I believe...
Friday 2nd November 2018

…that Wrens have made a fantastic return! Once again, we’ve been blown away by how ready to learn our little Wrens are and how well they’re adjusting to school life and adapting to our routines.
In the mornings as they practise writing their names, we’re amazed by the new pencil grips most of them are adopting and how carefully they form their letters.
Up until Christmas now, our new topic ‘I believe’ will focus on celebrations and festivals. That’s birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, christenings, Bonfire night, Diwali, Remembrance, Christmas and everything in between. It’s a really good opportunity for us to write as we often send cards for many of these occasions. The role play shed outside has transformed into a working Post Office and inside the classroom we have a postbox so please do help the children to write out some cards at home that they can post.
This week, we’ve discussed the celebration of Bonfire night and how to keep safe at this time of year, around fireworks. Mrs Elliott helped us to understand the importance of keeping our pets indoors and looking after them. We’ve been very creative in class, making rockets from junk modelling and printing and drawing fireworks whilst discussing their colours and the sounds they make. And some children have role-played building platforms to launch fireworks from outside!

In Phonics we’ve been recapping our Phase 2 sounds and blending some simple cv and cvc words. The children are now in groups so they’re getting more focussed inputs. In Maths we’ve been ordering numbers to 10 and matching up their corresponding values, with spots on dice. We’ve also been counting backwards, from 10 to 0 (blast-off!) And in our handwriting sessions we’ve been practising writing numbers 0-5. In P.E today we practised some guided dance. It involved creating big actions as we pretended to get dressed up nice and warm to attend a fireworks display. We then imagined we were kicking and throwing Autumn leaves and hunted around for some sticks to build a big bonfire.

A huge congratulations goes to Arthur Knight for being our Star Performer this week. Arthur stands out for his incredible enthusiasm to learn, his impeccable manners and for being a fantastic role model in demonstrating our school values. He always wears a big smile and is so friendly and kind too.

Next week, we’ll be learning about Diwali and Remembrance day.
Enjoy the fireworks this weekend and stay safe!

Our first half term!

Friday 19th October 2018

This week, we’ve been learning about growing up and talking about the stages of life; starting out as a baby, growing into a toddler, then into a child, a teenager and then an adult. We’ve also looked into the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. We asked the children what they might like to be when they’re grown up and many of them have considered becoming vets and firefighters. (A couple of power rangers and mermaids too of course!)

We’ve discussed how our bodies grow in length and height and have measured each other against the wall in the playground. We’ve also been measuring objects around the classroom and recording our answers in charts. The unfix has been a fun resource to measure with and some children have competed to build the tallest tower! We’ve been comparing and ordering different length caterpillars and we found out from a fiction book that the blue whale is 30 metres long! We then read A Snail and a Whale and compared the sizes of whales to snails - using our very own pet snail Rainbow and some metre sticks.

Handwriting is really starting to improve, as we continue to work on our pencil grips daily. We’ve been learning to write numbers this week and some of the letters we’ve been learning in phonics; s, a, t, p, i, n.

On Tuesday we did some yoga with Mrs Elliott and she helped us to understand how we can stay healthy and look after our bodies. We classified food into healthy and unhealthy groups.

In an Assembly on Wednesday, Mrs Marsh helped us to recognise signs in our body which help tell us we’re feeling ‘unsafe’. We talked about different scenarios at home, at school and 'out and about' and discussed how to remain safe in all situations. We then took our thoughts back to the classroom and designed some posters to help remind others.

This week, the green house won in Wren’s so their treat was to play Buried Treasure on laptops this afternoon. It’s a great phonics game that we’ve been using at the end of our phonics lessons to consolidate our learning.

Congratulations to Gabriel who is our Star Performer this week. He is an excellent role model who has been noticed throughout the school by adults and peers. He has wonderful manners too and really deserved to be recognised.

Where has the time gone? We’re so proud of our little Wrens and how much they’ve achieved this half term. We’ll see you back on Tuesday 30th October.

Caring and sharing!

Friday 12th October 2018

This week we’ve been learning about our local community and how we can look after it. We’ve talked about people who work in our community and school and how a community brings us all together as a big family. We’ve used Google Earth to zoom into Greens Norton and have discussed important buildings in this village; the post office, the church, the doctor’s surgery etc. We’ve also discussed recycling and how to care for our planet too. It was interesting that some of the children knew all about waste in our oceans and the animals, like turtles, which get caught in plastic.

In Maths the children have been doing lots of counting. We decorated gingerbread men with a specific number of buttons and used conkers to count out objects to 10. We’ve practised working in pairs to help us develop our communication and work cooperatively with others.

We’ve started to learn how to hold our pencils correctly for effective writing and have practised writing out some of our sounds. Please do practise the following sounds if you can! s,a,t,p.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mrs Elliott demonstrated how to share resources and work together in small teams. The children practised these skills by building jigsaws and playing board games – practising turn-taking.

We were so proud of the children’s performance in the church on Wednesday for our Pop UK concert and were so impressed with the evening turnout. Thank you to all the parents who accompanied us on the walk to and from the church again!

A huge congratulations goes out to Oscar-Jay for being our first Wren to receive Star Performer! Oscar was nominated for his amazing attitude to learning and for being kind.

We’ve also had a friendly competition in class with our coloured house groups. Children earned marbles throughout the week and the winning team got to decorated biscuits this afternoon.

Next week, we’re going to be learning about ‘growing up’ and different occupations. We’ll be measuring in Maths and practising more of our sounds and handwriting. If any of our parents have interesting occupations and would like to come in to talk to our children about what you do, we’d love to hear from you, especially if you have to wear a special uniform!

A pop-tastic week of learning and singing! 

Friday 5th October 2018

Another fun week has flown by and we’re all feeling a bit more settled. The children have learnt where their individual carpet spaces are and have adjusted to new routines. We’re so impressed by how many children come in each morning and practise writing their names and how many are so ready to learn!
This week, we’ve been back outside again in the woodland area, looking to see if more leaves have fallen and to practise mark-making and team-building. Reverend Ben paid us a visit too and read us a story from the bible. He was very funny and we loved listening to him. We’ve been learning all about our bodies and our emotions – discussing times when we feel happy, sad, angry and confused. 
In Maths, we’ve been counting using some interactive Maths games online and recognising and matching numerals. The children have been working on laptops in pairs to count spots on ladybirds and buttons on gingerbread men. (Topmarks.co.uk)
On Wednesday and Thursday Curly Claire from Pop UK taught us all some songs to sing for our concert next week. It was so exciting that we’ve been rehearsing in the classroom and playing instruments alongside the songs!
Our topic work about our bodies has also proved to be very stimulating and we had doctors, nurses, surgeons and hygienists working around the clock to make sure patients were getting the right treatment!
We’d like to say a big thank you to the kitchen for cooking the most delicious meals! The clean plates and beaming smiles are proof of it! We have a fantastic number of children eating fresh hot food every day.
This morning we trialled our first P.E session in the hall. The children did a brilliant job of getting changed independently and organising their piles of clothes. They listened well to instructions for our traffic light game and lined up sensibly. We attended our first Celebration Assembly too and were awarded another certificate for 100% attendance! We can’t wait to choose our first Wren next week for a special award!

Shapes and Scarecrows!

Friday 28th September

It’s been a busy week in Wrens. We’ve been looking at 2D ‘flat’ shapes and 3D ‘solid’ shapes and identifying them around us. They’ve been popping up in the sand tray and around the outdoor area and we’ve even noticed them in our classroom in the form of light switches, tables, cupboard doors and windows! We’ve discovered that our planet is a 3D sphere shape, as well as the sun and moon! Have you seen the moon this week?! We’ve made some moonlit pictures of townscapes with some 2D shapes to represent buildings and a moon in the sky. Our discussion of the moon led to a spaceship being built outside with the blocks and some cylinder shaped tubes being used as telescopes. The children also built a racing car. They’re so imaginative! Junk modelling has been very popular this week with all the 3D shaped packaging that we have in class. Please keep asking the children to spot shapes around them at home.

In preparation for our Harvest service in church, we produced some fantastic art work of fruits and vegetables. We used finger printing, vegetable stamps, chalk pastels and felts to decorate them. We’ve learnt all about Harvest and how our fruits and veg are grown. Mrs Elliott role-played with us on Tuesday how to ‘give’ food to people less fortunate so we knew why we were ‘giving’ in church today.

It’s been a very active week – we’ve taken advantage of the sunny afternoons and got outside to practise climbing on the wall and across the Trim Trail to strengthen our arms and core. We’ve been practising our hula-hooping and throwing and catching skills too.

This morning in church we were so proud of the Wren’s. They sat beautifully throughout the service and performed Dingle Dangle Scarecrow so confidently.
A big thank you to all the parents who walked down to the church with us today and carried some of our food.

Fish finger Friday was popular today. We’ve never seen so many clean plates and so many smiles! The children are so excited to be able to go out to play on ‘the big playground’ with the rest of the school. We joined the rest of the school on Thursday too for our first Assembly.

To conclude this week's learning, we decorated the playground to practise our mark making this afternoon. Shapes, numbers, letters, patterns and portraits all appeared! Next week, we’ll be learning about our bodies and how we grow. We’ll also learn how to manage some of our feelings too.

Have wonderful weekends!

Our first full week!

Saturday 22nd September

What a fantastic, fun-filled week we’ve had! We’ve been very busy in Wren’s learning all our numbers to 10 and beyond and learning about the season of Autumn. Numbers have been popping up on blackboards and in sand trays as the children show us just how ready to learn they are. We’ve been practising some animal poses from Kinetic Letters too to strengthen our bodies for writing. (I will explain more about this in a parent meeting after half term.)

It’s been very busy again in the mud kitchen and the house with children establishing new friendships groups. They’ve taken part in some creative activities too – making self-portraits with paper plates and practising their cutting skills.

We took an exploratory walk into our little wooded area and hunted for signs of Autumn yesterday and the children loved collecting different coloured leaves with different shaped edges. They then took wax rubbings from their leaves back inside the classroom. In the afternoon, we decorated a giant tree as we talked about the leaves beginning to fall from the trees.

We’ve been starting to discuss Harvest too and how thankful we are to the farmers for helping to grow our fruits and vegetables. Next week we’ll be attending a church service to celebrate Harvest so please do talk to the children about different vegetables on their dinner plates.

Rainbow the snail had ‘snack time’ with the class this week and enjoyed some delicious mango! The children have really taken to her and will soon start to look after her themselves.

I can’t iterate just how proud we feel of our little Wrens. We have talked about being responsible and safe this week and they are really showing us acts of responsibility – making sure felt pen lids are replaced, putting their rubbish in the bin, tidying up after themselves and stacking their wellies neatly.

We achieved a 100% attendance award for the first week of school too!

Next week, we’ll be talking about our community and homes and incorporating some 2D and 3D shape learning into this by making houses and buildings and identifying shapes around us. If you have any spare recycling that you’d like to bring in for the children to do some junk modelling, it would be very much appreciated.

The children deserve a good rest this weekend. Well done Wrens!

A huge welcome to our new Wrens!

Friday 14th September

What a fantastic first week! We couldn’t have asked for a smoother transition for our lovely Wrens. They came in with so much confidence and have settled into school life extremely well. What has really touched our hearts is how kind and friendly the children have been towards each other and how well they have been playing together and sharing equipment. We’ve practised using our listening ears on the carpet during circle time and have been lining up like penguins to go into the hall for lunch. The lunchtime staff have been so impressed with how the children have queued for their lunch and sat down to eat.

To launch our topic about ‘Ourselves’ and our surroundings, the children have;

  • discussed the letters in their names and the sounds they make
  • decorated their initials
  • printed their names with foam letters
  • practised writing on the ground in chalk
  • drawn portraits of themselves and their families
  • acted out in the Home Corner and written shopping lists
  • dug in the mud pit and made cement to build houses
  • constructed walls and built a shop with the big building blocks outside
  • practised their balancing skills on stilts and scooters
  • used magnifying glasses to discover bugs in the soil
  • made delicious cakes in the mud corner and so much more!

We’ve been so impressed with the children’s tidying too. They have really looked after their new classroom and equipment and have enjoyed seeing their names move up onto the rainbow, our class chart.

Next week, we’ll be looking more at numeral recognition and counting to 10 and beyond so this is something you could practise at home together.
We’re so proud of our Wrens and can’t wait for another wonderful week.