"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 2019-20

W/C  16th March 2020

Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett

 

This has to be the most peculiar blog entry that I have ever written. Of course these was some amazing learning, as ever, from our amazing Wrens.  However, this week,  I just want to say a few words to the parents and children of this most wonderful class.

We do not know how long the children will be out of school and I am hopeful that we will get back together in some way. However, to each and every Wren I wanted you to  know this. You are important as we all move into this uncertain time. Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett will be thinking of you each day and know you will continue to be amazing. We will keep in touch using both the website and Tapestry and hope you will be able to update us on your progress.

Please look at our home learning page each day and stay in touch with us and each other and let us hope that we can get together in person again really soon.

Stay safe everyone and look after each other.

The Wrens Team

Wrens 2019-20

W/C  9th March 2020

Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett

Sports Relief

Today, Wrens were ready, set, GO! We talked about why Greens Norton supported Sports Relief this year and were pleased that they were helping to improve the lives of others. The Lapathon this morning was a huge success with Wrens completing a huge amount of laps together.

On Monday, we received a message from poor Pirate Pat. Pat is a rather silly pirate who has been stranded on an island for a short while. By putting a message in a bottle, Pat let us know about being completely lost and unsure about where he is. Silly Pat. We all wrote back to him with plenty of offers of help. Some Wrens asked good questions so that we could work out where he was, while others promised to bring him cookies, hot chocolate and even pizza. Never fear; Wrens are here Pat!

In maths, Wrens have been exploring combining amounts to find an overall total both inside and outside. We have talked about how we can record our maths ideas with everyone having a go.

In our outside area, Wrens have been creating obstacle courses based on, ‘My Grandma is a pirate’, hunting for treasure in the sand and even creating sailing boats to float in our water tray.

Our Star of the Week this week is Thomas. Thomas has been spotted working really hard on his phonics and applying this learning in his own writing. What a superstar!

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 24th February 2020

Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett

 

A visit from our local PCSO Kev. 

The children of Wrens had a very important visitor this week, who delivered a very important message about road safety. The children were all able to talk about a time when they had been somewhere where there had been close to cars (supermarket carparks, Greens Norton park, the walk to school to mention but a few). They were very sensible when they were asked to think about why it was important to think about their own safety and not just rely on the adult they are with. Wrens were even able to create some rules and use these to create road safety posters- amazing work! It was great fun to go out onto the playground and practise some of these rules with our friends. So, when you are out and about, we now have some road safety experts who will be able to help you to cross the roads in a safe way.

World Book Day

Every year, this anticipated event never fails to disappoint! On Thursday, who should walk through Wrens classroom door but Elsa, Batman, a pirate, cat boy, Peter Rabbit and a host of other remarkable characters! Wrens love of books is clear with everyone able to share what their favourite character or story was. For some it was almost too difficult to choose. Wrens listened carefully in the special assembly and as always, took  a very active role in the special reading buddies this week.

With a recent spate of coughs and colds, Wrens have been thinking carefully about hygiene and how we keep ourselves and others safe. The children were confident to talk about why hand washing is so important and when we should be washing our hands. We learned a very thorough method supported by Mrs Crouch (our resident qualified nurse) and are definitely up to the challenge of stopping the viruses in their tracks (maybe with a few timely reminders). 

Our Star of the Week was Alivia, who has been noticed going over and above in so much of her learning. She has such a cheerful manner and it is a joy to see her learning go from strength to strength. 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 24th February 2020

Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett

It has been another wet and windy week, but it has been Wrens great learning that has blown us away this week. We have begun a brand new pirate adventure. On Monday Mrs Wizard and the children created some amazing pirate call and responses to begin our voyage and it has been wonderful to hear these being used in the pirate roleplay. So far we have discovered treasure on a desert island, rescued some stranded friends and been lost at sea! Who knows what adventures we will have next week. 

Phonics has continued to go well and it has been great to see the children applying what they have been learning in their independent reading and writing. There are clearly some naughty pirates around based on the wanted posters that have been created! 

Maths explored different representations of number bonds to 10 and the children have been extremely busy in creating their own reprentations for this as well. Later in the week, we recapped on the numerals themselves with all children completing a short program on the school i-pads. 

We had a visit from the school music service on Thursday and Wrens listened amazingly well as the instruments were introduced. Our favourite tune was definitely the theme tune from Wallace and Gromit as it put a smile on all our faces. 

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 10th February 2020

Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett

It has been such a busy final week of the half term and Wrens have been as hard working as ever!

We have been writing about the amazing planes we have made in the last weeks. Our phonics sessions have really paid off as the writing has shown huge improvements compared to the start of the half term. Everyone is thinking carefully about letter choices and using a strategy called ‘Fred fingers’ to help them her the sounds that make up words before making a spelling choice.

In maths, Wrens have continued to explore counting strategies with numbers up to 10. Throughout our learning, we have counted our jumps, our steps, ourselves- in fact anything that could be counted has been counted this week. Independently, children have continued to explore part/whole models for ten and have been confident to explain different ways of making ten.

Inspired by the huge amounts of rain, in music we explored ‘Singin’ in the rain’, performed by Gene Kelly. This happy tune had us stomping around in imaginary puddles and splashing the poor adults who happened to walk through the hall at the time.

As it is our final Indian themed week, we decided to explore the festival oh Holi. This yearly festival (usually at the start of March) celebrates the beginning of spring and the celebration of good over evil. Although it is a Hindu festival, everyone is invited to join in- and we certainly did! It helped us to look forward to the wonderful coloured flowers and warmer weather on the way. With that in mind, we hope all the wonderful Wren families have a fantastic half term break and we look forward to seeing the children back for more learning adventures next half term.

W/C 3rd February 2020

Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett

What a wonderful week. Although the sun was out, it has been rather chilly and Wrens have been super sensible when learning outside and staying warm by doing up coats and making sensible decisions about how long to stay out.

Our reading and writing has taken big steps forward this week both in the Read Write Inc sessions and independent learning. Mrs Musson hid some tiny words around and the super sleuth Wrens tracked them down and read them very well. Some were even hidden in spaghetti this week- what a wriggly way to develop our reading skills.

In maths we have been using dominoes and skittles to explore totals and the Wrens have developed some great strategies for counting and checking total amounts. We also explored a giant tens frame on Friday, which recapped some previous learning and Mrs Barnett was extremely impressed with the different ways of making ten that the children found.

Wrens continued to learn about India and explored rangoli patterns, spicy playdough, a sand safari of different Indian animals and some quite amazing beads that were used in a real Hindu wedding. As always, Wrens have busily explored all the opportunities.

Thank you to everyone who has brought in boxes and bottles so far. Wrens have been busily constructing some amazing planes and are looking forward to continuing this next week.

Well done to Molly who was Star of the Week. Always eager to learn, she is a real pleasure to have in Wrens class.

Have a wonderful weekend and see you on Monday.

Enter text...

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 3rd February 2020

Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett

What a wonderful week. Although the sun was out, it has been rather chilly and Wrens have been super sensible when learning outside and staying warm by doing up coats and making sensible decisions about how long to stay out.

Our reading and writing has taken big steps forward this week both in the Read Write Inc sessions and independent learning. Mrs Musson hid some tiny words around and the super sleuth Wrens tracked them down and read them very well. Some were even hidden in spaghetti this week- what a wriggly way to develop our reading skills.

In maths we have been using dominoes and skittles to explore totals and the Wrens have developed some great strategies for counting and checking total amounts. We also explored a giant tens frame on Friday, which recapped some previous learning and Mrs Barnett was extremely impressed with the different ways of making ten that the children found.

Wrens continued to learn about India and explored rangoli patterns, spicy playdough, a sand safari of different Indian animals and some quite amazing beads that were used in a real Hindu wedding. As always, Wrens have busily explored all the opportunities.

Thank you to everyone who has brought in boxes and bottles so far. Wrens have been busily constructing some amazing planes and are looking forward to continuing this next week.

Well done to Molly who was Star of the Week. Always eager to learn, she is a real pleasure to have in Wrens class.

Have a wonderful weekend and see you on Monday.

 

 

W/C 20th January

Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett

This week we have been super busy learning all about India. We have looked at Indian dancing and had a go at copying some moves as well as making our own music. 

in mathematics we have been looking at the number 10, finding ways to make the whole of ten, looking at how we write number 10 and what each number means and finding different ways of counting to 9 and 10. We  have also looked at ten frames and made a large ten frame where we positioned ourselves onto the frame, using coloured jackets to put us into groups. We have also painted rainbows and counted how many stripes we made.

In literacy we have written thank you postcards to Emma the pilot who visited us last week, and made our own passports. Today we have started to look at Indian spices and have had a go at writing their names as well as looking at their appearance and smells.  We have also started to read Elmer as a class and begun to story map it. 

Outside we have been making rangoli patterns using coloured rice, jumping and hopping in hoops to make ten, making the Indian flag with coloured paper, which was tricky as it kept blowing away in the wind! We have also begun to paint elephants using special spiced paint, which smells amazing as we paint. We have also had a go at colour mixing, using pipettes to gradually add two colours together to see what happens. 

In PE we have continued to hone our hockey skills working on our ball control. 

In music we have listened to Frogs legs and Dragon teeth by Bellowhead, and tried to describe the style, identify instruments and find the beat. We also practised our nursery rhymes seeing if we could perform the actions to the song and sing along. 

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 20th January

Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett

This week we have welcomed an exciting visitor! On Wednesday Emma came to see us. Emma is a pilot and brought in some gliders to explain to us how planes fly. She was able to answer lots of our questions that we had thought of to ask her, like "How many pilots are there on a plane?" and "What do you do if someone on board is not very well?"

In mathematics we have continued to look at number bonds, moving on from 5 and looking at 6, 7 and 8. We have used part. whole models to show how we can make the whole of 5, but also used balls, teddies, pegs and numicon to further understand what numbers mean and how we can split them and combine them. 

in literacy we have labelled items we intend to pack in our suitcases and started work on making our passports. We will continue this next week. 

In PE we have continued with our ball control skills, but have wowed our teachers by using Hockey sticks to move balls very carefully around. 

In music we have listened to the Mars, part of the The Planets by Gustav Holst. We thought the composer was very successful at creating the mood of the planet Mars, as some of us found the music quite scary! It reminded us of Star Wars too. We were really good at listening out for instruments and are getting pretty good at identifying them. 

On Friday, we have started our visit to a new country. We moved from China to India and we looked at some key features of our new country ready to continue our learning next week. 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 13th January

Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett

This week we have continued jetting off to China. Because it is such a long haul flight we have started serving refreshments on route. When we got to China we found out about Chinese New Year and have been learning the story of the Jade Emperors challenge to the animals to name each year.
We have worked with Mrs Crouch to make a dragon! Have a look at the photos.  We are hoping to use the dragon to create our own dragon dances when it stops raining. 
In mathematics we have been deepening our learning about number bonds to 5. We have been learning about the whole of 5 and how it can be split into 2 different parts. We have found lots of ways to show this. 
In PE we continued to work on our ball skills, along with practicing our aim and working as a team. 
We have been working together to write out our boarding passes for our flight to China and then had a go at laminating them! We noticed the difference in the sheets before they went into the machine and afterwards and tried to work out what had happened. 
In music we have listened to Beyond the sea by Robbie Williams, discussing if we like it and why, listening to the beat and moving to it. 
As well as all this we have continued with daily phonics and kinetic letters, ensuring we take every opportunity to work on our strength! 

W/C 6th January

Mrs Wizard, Mrs Musson, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Barnett

It has been a fantastic start to the New Year and the Wrens have settled back into routines really well. We have barely been in the classroom as we have been jetting off to different parts of the world in our new airplane! We have been learning about checking in at an airport, going through security, getting on the plane and most importantly listening to the safety briefing once on the plane. We have been thinking about what to pack for our trips and used our phonics to make lists of things to take on holiday.
In mathematics we have been learning about number bonds to 5 and have been investigating different ways to make 5. 
On Thursday we landed in China and have began to learn key facts about this country. We will continue to investigate over the next few weeks but so far we have looked at Chinese music and dances, creating our own outside. We have also started to have a go at writing Chinese numbers using chopsticks to make marks in rice. We have looked at the Great Wall of China and talked briefly about Chinese New Year. 
In PE we looked at ways we can control a ball and in music we have practiced listening and identifying rhythms, different instruments and the structure of pieces of music. We have talked about whether or not we like a piece of music and discussed why. 

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 16th December

Mrs Russell, Mrs Wizard, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy

Happy Christmas!

In Wrens this week we have been busy getting ourselves in the Christmas mood! On Monday we made cards and then used our best Kinetic Letters formation to add a message inside.

On Tuesday we took part in the Christmas Church service where we sang the title song from our smash hit production of Miracle in Town! We then shared a delicious Christmas lunch with the rest of the school whilst proudly wearing our Christmas crowns. On Thursday we played a variety of Christmas games in P.E, including a festive version of musical statues. We then continued the party into Friday with more games and a dance competition, all whilst sporting our finest Christmas wear!  We were shattered by the end of Friday and are very much looking forward to our Christmas break!

All the staff in Wrens would like to say a massive thank you for the very generous presents, we are overwhelmed with your kindness. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Lastly, I (Mrs Russell!) would like to say how much I have loved teaching the Wrens this term and what a privilege it has been to get to know them. I am looking forward to hearing how well they get on over the coming year and I wish them all the best as they continue their journey in Reception. .

Happy Christmas!

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 9th December

Mrs Russell, Mrs Wizard, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy

Crafty Christmas

In Wrens this week we have been busy getting ready for Christmas.

The children used their phonic knowledge to write letters to Santa and make cards for their friends and family. They wrapped presents for each other in Santa's workshop and made a train track to take Santa to the North pole. They used pipe-cleaners, beads and ribbons to create wreath decorations, made paper chains and enjoyed using the Christmas paint stampers. We also experimented with coloured chalks to create artwork inspired by the Northern Lights.

In maths we focused on finding one more than a given number and explored what happened when we added one more to a group of objects.

In Phonics we have been practising our blending skills to read a range of CVC words and in Kinetic letters we learnt how to form the letters y, g, f and j.

In P.E the children worked together as a class to play a range of parachute games. They took it in turns to sit in the middle of the parachute and be spun around by their friends, even Mrs Murphy and Mrs Russell had a turn!

Well done to Maisie who was our Star of the Week. Maisie is a really kind friend to her fellow Wrens and she gives 100% to her learning. Well done Maisie.

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 2nd December

Mrs Russell, Mrs Wizard, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy

Christmas is coming!

This week we have been busy rehearsing for our Christmas play. The children have been singing their hearts out and learning their lines and they are very excited to perform it to the rest of the school on Monday and to their families on Tuesday afternoon. The children have also used the small world characters and puppets to retell the story of the very first Christmas.

This week the children enjoyed lots of Christmas crafts. We used pipe cleaners and coloured beads to make candy canes to sell at the Christmas fair .The children enjoyed choosing which colour beads to add to their candy cane, some children even created repeating patterns . The candy canes proved very popular at the fair and sold like hot cakes! We also painted Christmas trees and created paper snowflakes to decorate the Wrens classroom.

We finished off our animals topic by creating a giant tiger display by combining the children's paper animal patterns and  paint effect grass.

In Kinetic Letters the children learnt the Slider Family which includes the letters k,v,w,x and z. We are so impressed with the children's continued effort in Kinetic Letters and it is great to see the positive impact that the sessions are having on their writing.

Our star of the week this week was Jack , well done for all your hard work this term and for the kindness you show to your fellow Wrens.

 

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 18th November

Mrs Russell, Mrs Wizard, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy

Sorting it out!

This week we focused on sorting and comparing groups of objects. The children sorted objects into groups and compared the quantities using the words fewer, fewest, more, most and equal to. They counted the objects and wrote the numerals to represent the quantities. 

We continued learning about how to look after pets and the children used their phonic knowledge to write about what different pets need. We are so pleased at the progress the children are making in phonics and how they are applying what they have learnt to their reading and writing.

In Kinetic Letters we have moved onto the window cleaner family! This family teaches us how to correctly form the letters u, l, t and i.

In P.E we put all the movements together that we had practised last week to retell the story of Dear Zoo. We also practised skipping and hopping.

After reading the story of Noah's Ark the children enjoyed  building an ark with the large wooden blocks  to save the animals from the flood! They also used different media, including paint and pastels, to create representations of a variety of animals.

A big congratulations to Freddie who was our star of the week this week.

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 11th November

Mrs Russell, Mrs Wizard, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy

Dear Zoo...

For the next few weeks our focus book in Wrens is Dear Zoo. In the story the main character writes to the zoo to ask for a pet and they send a variety of animals, the majority of which have to be sent straight back!

We thought about which animals would be suitable as a pet and which would not! We learnt that having a pet is a big responsibility and we talked about what animals need to stay happy and healthy.

The children each wrote a letter to the Zoo and used their phonic skills to segment the sounds in the words they wanted to write.  They then wrapped up animals and wrote descriptive words on the boxes about the creatures inside. We promise that no animals were harmed during this activity!

In maths the children sorted animals according to their characteristics. They grouped them based on their colour, size and patterns.

In P.E we created movements to represent the different animals in the story: an elephant, giraffe, lion, camel, snake, monkey, frog and puppy.

On Friday it was Children in Need and Wrens enjoyed some Pudsey themed activities. They also learnt about where the money they raise goes to.

Well done to Jaymi-Rose who was our Star of the Week on Friday. We are all really proud of your hard work and how focussed you are on your learning.

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 2nd November

Mrs Russell, Mrs Wizard, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy

A full first week back!

Wrens classroom was taken over by animals this week! The children sorted the animals into wild, farm animals and pets. Some of the children described how they had been to a zoo or a safari park and they quickly set about building enclosures to stop the lions eating the other animals!

The children talked about the pets they have at home and trips they had made to the vets. They set up a vets surgery in the story corner and gave medical treatment to a variety of poorly pets! Next week we will be reading Dear Zoo and will be writing letters to the zoo to ask for a pet. We will be labelling animals and sorting them according to their characteristics.

This week we also celebrated Bonfire Night. The children used a variety of media and materials to create firework art and in maths they used 2D shapes to make rockets. In P.E we used the pom poms and ribbons to help us create movements inspired by fireworks. 

Outside the children built a dark den and explored light and dark using the torches and glow sticks.

On Friday the children attended the Remembrance assembly lead by the Royal British Legion. We were so proud of the respect they showed during the service. Afterwards some of the children made poppies to 'remember the soldiers'.

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 21st October 

Mrs Russell, Mrs Wizard, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy and Mrs Meddings

A fantastic first term!

Wrens have completed their first half-term and what a busy term they have had! We are all so proud of how amazingly well they have settled in and how resilient they have proved themselves to be. 

This week we completed our focus on We're Going on a Bear Hunt.  We adapted our story maps and created new characters, settings and events based on the style of the original text. The children created cosy reading caves outside and enjoyed snuggling up with a teddy to share a book!

In Phonics we learnt y and z and have nearly completed the first set of sounds! After October Half-term we will be sending reading books home with the children and will hold a meeting to give you more information about how we teach reading at Greens Norton.

In Maths the children sponge-painted repeating patterns and used Numicon to recreate familiar pictures and patterns. They enjoyed sorting a range of objects by size, colour and shape and could talk about the reasoning behind their groupings.

On Friday we learnt about the festival of Diwali and enjoyed creating rangoli patterns using a variety of materials and making playdough diva lamps. We watched the story of Rama and Sita and learnt how Hindus prepare for and celebrate Diwali.

We couldn't pick just one Star of the Week for Friday so decided that the whole class should receive the honour for their hard work this term. Once again, we are so proud of the children for the amazing start they have made in Reception. Well done Wrens! Have a fantastic Half-term holiday.

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 14th October 

Mrs Russell, Mrs Wizard, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy and Mrs Meddings

Busy Wrens!

Wrens continued their focus on We're Going on A Bear Hunt this week. The children created their own story maps and used a combination of pictures and words to re-tell the story. Some children worked together to create their story maps. The children are now using the sounds they have learnt in phonics to begin to write simple words.

In maths we have been focusing on number 6 this week and we will continue to explore this number next week using dice games and dominoes. The children have also enjoyed playing maths games on the whiteboard.

The children have been busy painting bears and making shape bears using circles and triangles. They have used the large wooden blocks and material to build a cosy cave for the bear!

We had another lovely reading buddies session with Kingfishers on Thursday. It's so nice to see how much both classes enjoy spending time together with a good book! 

Next week we will be adapting our story maps and we will also be learning about Diwali.

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 7th October 

Mrs Russell, Mrs Wizard, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy and Mrs Meddings

Working hard in Wrens!

This week we have immersed ourselves in the story of We're Going on a Bear Hunt and the children are now able to recite it pretty much word for word! They have used small world characters and large scale props to retell the story and we created a story map using pictures to help us remember the text. Next week we will be making our own versions of the story map and adding our own characters.

In P.E we recreated the story using movements to show how the characters overcame the obstacles they faced on their journey to find the bear.

In Maths we continued to explore the number 5. We experimented with how we could represent it on the five and ten frames and the children were challenged to collect sets of 5 objects. Next week we will focusing on number 6 and we will begin to sort objects using different criteria.

In Phonics this week children learnt u, b, f, e, l and are doing really well with their blending. In Kinetic Letters sessions we have been focusing on getting our 'three friends' working together to enable us to hold a pencil correctly. We are also continuing to practice our animal positions-Lizard, Lion, Gorilla, Meerkat and Penguin to help our bodies become stronger.

On Thursday the children enjoyed their first buddy reading session with Kingfishers.

Well done to Lucia who was our first Star of the Week!

 

 

Wrens 2019-20

W/C 30th September

Mrs Russell, Mrs Wizard, Mrs Crouch, Mrs Murphy and Mrs Meddings

Another busy week in Wrens!

This week in Phonics the children learnt p, g, o, c and k .  They are beginning to blend the sounds they know to read some words. In Kinetic letters we have been practising our pencil hold and have been strengthening our holding fingers with a variety of fine motor activities.

This week we read Jack and the Beanstalk. The children were able to talk about the characters and we created a story map to help us recall the main events.  The children enjoyed joining in with the words and actions! 

In maths the children used the five frames and ten frames to represent the numbers 4 and 5 in different ways. They also ordered numbered leaves to 10 and matched gold coins to each leaf. The children made beanstalks using the large coloured blocks, some children even created repeating patterns!

In the outdoor area the children looked closely at leaves using the magnifying glasses and enjoyed doing observational drawings of them. They used the cardboard tubes to create chutes for conkers.

On Friday Wrens went to their first ever assembly! They made us all very proud with how well they sat and listened to Mrs Marsh.

Next week we will be reading We're Going on a Bear Hunt. We will also be choosing our first Star of the Week!