Wow! What a busy three weeks we had at the end of last term!
We’d like to say a huge thankyou to all of the parents for your continued support. Thank you to the parents who were able to volunteer their time to help on our weekly outings to the museum to see the Quentin Blake exhibition. Thank you to the parents who came into school to talk about their jobs. The children were exposed to such a variety of careers and occupations and it promoted some interesting discussions. Thank you to everyone who was able to make the Spring performance and the Outcomes evening. It was wonderful to see so many of you in school.
During the last three weeks of term we had Science week, Healthy Me week and a week focusing on Easter.
During Science week, we did lots of investigations such as using our sense of smell to predict what scents were in each pot. We predicted what would happen when we put flower stems into coloured water and then we observed them to see what happened over three days. We also learnt about what sorts of jobs scientists do. We were lucky enough to have a parent in to tell us about his job as a scientist and the children did an experiment with him where they had to mix different materials and observe the reaction. We then had a go at making ‘potions’ in our own learning time, experimenting with mixing different materials.
We celebrated Red Nose Day and St Patrick’s Day. We learnt about St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. We have also been learning about Easter and how Christians celebrate. We gave the children the opportunity to speak about all of the things that they will be doing over the Easter holidays and traditions that they often do at Ester time.
We continued our topic learning on what people do all day and we had a parent visit to tell us about his job as a plumber which the children linked back to the work we had done on the construction industry. We had another parent in to talk about her job as a physiotherapist and the children very much enjoyed learning about the bones in the body from the life size skeleton that she brought in! Another parent spoke about his job as a musician and brought in a key board and some technical equipment and showed the children how he made different types of music. The children have really enjoyed learning about all of these fascinating jobs that people do.
We have been learning about how we can be healthy. We have been learning about different types of jobs that people do to help us to stay healthy and well. The children have been learning why it’s important to clean their teeth twice a day and why we wash our hands to keep germs from making us poorly. We also learnt about healthy foods and having a balanced diet. We had a visit from a parent who told us about being a chef and told us about some of the delicious food she cooks and why it’s important to keep a clean kitchen. We also had a visit from a parent who is a GP who explained how he helped people to get better.
In Phonics, we learnt the trigraphs ‘air’, ‘ear’ and ‘ure’ We enjoyed the Monster Phonics version of the story Rapunzel in which Tricky Witch and Yellow I helped Rapunzel escape the tall tower. We also practised some new tricky words including have, it’s, do, so, come, some, were, one, like, little, what and when. We have also learnt the digraph ‘oi’ and practised reading all of the tricky words that we have learnt so far.
In Maths, we have been learning about 3D shapes and their properties and consolidating learning to further develop our understanding of the different concepts we have learnt last term.
Supporting your child at home
- Please continue to read your child’s Monster Phonics book at least 3 times a week and practise reading by sight the tricky words that were given out at parents evening.
- Model how you read and re-read your own writing to check it makes sense. This will encourage your child to re-read what they have written to check that it makes sense.
- When trying to recall number bonds to 5 and 10, intentionally give your child the wrong number of objects, for example: say that you are going to plant 5 seeds, but only give them 2. Then ask “how many more do I need to have 5?”
- Physical Development – Provide a range of different sized ‘balls’ made out of familiar materials like socks, paper bags and jumpers that are softer and slower than real balls. This will in turn further develop and refine a range of ball skills including: throwing, catching, kicking, passing, batting, and aiming.
Any other information
- WATER BOTTLES – As the weather continues to improve, please can you ensure that your child has a water bottle in school every day.
- BOOK BORROWING –Please remember in order to borrow a new book on Friday you must return the previously borrowed book by Thursday.
- LUNCHES- The children will be choosing their own lunch options daily, from next week. In preparation for this you might like to talk to your child in the evening before about the choices for the next day.
We hope you are enjoying the Easter break and we look forward to welcoming you back into school on Tuesday 18th April.
Mrs. Fisher and Mrs Murrell
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers
