This week we have been learning all about Chinese New Year. It has been an action packed week with lots of exciting learning taking place. To understand why the Chinese zodiac is made up of 12 different animals, the children learnt all about the story of the Chinese animal race and that this year is the Chinese Year of the Rat. In Literacy, the children had to write ordinal numbers and the animals that came either first, second, third or fourth. Some children even composed some sentences independently, which related to the story. Some of the other activities this week have included making a paper dragon in art, writing their names vertically (like the Chinese) using black paint, producing a paper lantern and the children also made red lucky money envelopes, which are traditionally shared during the Chinese New Year celebrations. 

In the Secret Garden this week, the theme of the Chinese New Year continued, with the children making four of the animals from the Chinese zodiac using natural materials. These were then used to help retell the story that the children had already learnt in class. 

In maths, the children have been learning to handle data. They were very excited to get a letter from Cliff the Chameleon, who could't decide what colour to wear for a party, so the children initially had to vote for a colour, which was recorded to find out which was the most popular. We talked about how this information could be presented so it was easier for us to see the results. They then went on to look at some pictures to record how many of each colour chameleon they could identify. 

Mr Horne has been most impressed with the children's ICT skills as they have been working very hard for him. Most recently, they have been using the Paint programme to produce pictures of Dinosaurs linked to our most recent topic. this has developed their mouse skills as well as their general computing knowledge. I'm sure you will agree, that the pictures look amazing!

Congratulations to everyone who was awarded a 'Well Done' this week. There were no birthdays, but I know we will be celebrating some more next week. 

This week the children are bringing home some Green and Red words in their RWI phonics wallets, which they can use at home to improve their reading skills. For your information, Green words are those which are phonetically plausible, whilst Red words are the tricky words. A guide which includes ideas for using these in a fun way at home has been written and hopefully shared with you, but you can also find a copy below should you need it. It will also be saved on the school's website. Please spend time using these, as this will improve your child's blending  and reading skills. If you have any questions, please feel free to speak to your child's class teacher.

Next week we will be starting a new topic called 'People who help us'. As people need to be able to quickly respond to emergencies in various types of vehicles, we are asking the children to bring in something with wheels for Show and Tell next week.

Have a lovely weekend everyone! 

The children have absolutely loved our Dinosaurs topic and I am sure they are sad it is coming to an end, as they have been so engaged and become very knowledgeable on the subject... we now have many fantastic palaeontologists!

In Literacy this week, we have been reading lots of facts about Dinosaurs and then recording some sentences about what we have found out. The children have been working hard to write with more Independence and are now using their phonic knowledge and Fred Talk much more to do this, which is great! The children have also been very busy producing dinosaurs using their initials, making dinosaur pictures of their skeletons, finding out which dinosaurs were herbivores, carnivores or omnivores and looking closely at dinosaurs to identify whether they walked on two or four legs. We have even conducted  a science experiment linked to the story Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs, which was great fun, and involved trying to retrieve a 'dinosaur egg' from a bucketful of water without touching anything. 

The children are all continuing to work hard at letter formation and presentation. They have mostly mastered the 'perfect pencil grip' and posture and there are pleasing signs of improvement. Keep up the good work!

In maths this week, the children have been working practically to use the vocabulary involved in adding and subtracting by making equal sets of dinosaurs and using the language of 'more' and 'fewer'. 

With regards to our continued efforts to get the children reading, we will be adding some RWI Green words to their RWI wallets from next week (Thursday). These words contain all of the sounds the children have learnt and which are also phonetically plausible. A support guide is in the process of being written which will also be sent home to you, so that you will have lots of ideas for using them in a fun way with your child to further enhance their learning. In addition, on the Rushmere Hall website under 'Curriculum', then 'Literacy' and then 'Reading', you will find files of all of the RWI sounds. This has been produced so that, should you so wish, you can open this up at home and the children can scroll through the pages recounting the sounds as they go. Please be aware though, that most of the children have only learnt Set 1 sounds,  so don't panic if they become a little stuck on the other sets! We also plan to send home some Red words. These are tricky words that are not phonetically plausible and so just need to be learnt e.g. 'I' and 'my'; again, please practice these with your children. Obviously if you have any questions regarding RWI, please contact your child's class teacher. 

Congratulations to everyone that received a well done or celebrated a birthday this week. It sounds like the children have been experiencing some lovely birthday parties! 

For your information, next week in class we will be celebrating Chinese New Year. As the colour red is so symbolic of this celebration, we are asking the children to bring in something red for Show and Tell.

​Have a lovely weekend everyone.

The second week of our dinosaurs topic has been equally as busy for the children, with lots of exciting learning taking place. In Literacy, the children had to choose a picture of a dinosaur and then write a sentence, using Fred Talk to help, to describe it. Our 'wow' word of the week has been palaeontologist, as we have been trying to help the children understand that we have learnt about the existence of dinosaurs through evidence that has been studied. To that end, the children have been playing at being palaeontologists by using brushes to hunt for 'bones' in the sand, made fossils and cut out, assembled and stuck skeletons of a dinosaur to discover it is a T-Rex. Other dinosaur activities this week have included labelling a dinosaur, making and naming a dinosaur using our own names e.g. Miaosaurus or Henryosaurus, and learning dinosaur songs. 

In Maths, the children are continuing to learn addition and subtraction as this week they have been finding the number that is one less than a given number. They have been doing this by initially generating a number with one or two dice and then subtracting 1 from this. 

Congratulations to everyone that received a Well Done this week, or celebrated a birthday. 

Next Tuesday for Show and Tell, we would like the children to bring in something beginning with the letter 'd'. 

A gentle reminder please, that nail varnish is not permitted in school. We are aware that the children like to have it on for special occasions or as a treat, but please can you ensure that this is removed for school. Please could you also make sure that all school uniform is named. We have quite a collection of clothing that gets left behind or misplaced throughout the day and it is very difficult to find who it belongs to, especially if the children don't realise they have lost something!

Wishing you all a lovely, and hopefully not too soggy, weekend!

 Welcome to the first blog post of the Spring Term! Christmas already feels like a distant memory, but we hope that you all had a happy and restful Christmas break. We would also like to thank you all for your generous gifts and good wishes; your support is very welcome and means a lot to us.

We've began the new term with a new topic - Dinosaurs! This has been received very excitedly amongst the children, with some being quite expert on the subject already! Our WOW word of the week has been 'prehistoric' and so to help the children understand what this means, some of the children have completed a timeline activity to show that this means 'before our history', which is a difficult concept to grasp. We have also had fun in art, making paper plate dinosaurs, which have then been printed using bubble wrap to represent scaly skin. I'm sure you will agree they look most effective.  The children have also used shapes to recreate dinosaurs. In RE, the children had to think about the qualities needed to be a super hero. We then discussed, having read Snail and the Whale, how we all have super powers which we used to help each other. 

In Literacy the children have been applying their phonic knowledge and using Fred Talk to compose simple sentences about what they did during the holidays. In maths, the children have been finding one more than a given number.

This week the children started in their new Read, Write Inc. groups and they have coped brilliantly with the changes following the assessments that took place at the end of last term. We are hoping that this half term will see many more children moving on from Fred Talk to blending, as this will mean that they can move up to a 'ditty' Group, which means they will be able to then bring home a reading book. Obviously, anything you can do to help support your child at home would be most appreciated and certainly be beneficial.

In the Secret Garden this week, the theme of dinosaurs carried on as the children went on a dinosaur hunt! Once they found one, they organised them against different criteria to sort them. Different dinosaurs were identified by looking at their different features. We then counted the dinosaurs and discovered we’d found the most number of triceratops and the least number of T-Rex’s. 

Congratulations to everyone who received a learning award this week.

For Show and Tell next week, we would like the children to bring in something old. This is loosely linked to our dinosaur topic, as they existed a long time ago!

​Have a lovely weekend everyone!