Reception Newsletter

We have had an interesting couple of weeks in Reception. The children loved last week's Science Days where they got to experience lots of different types of science. We looked at density in liquids, we went on a nature walk and enjoyed the science outside and we made our own playdough, observing what happened when we mixed different ingredients together. We were also so lucky to have a visit from The Royal Institute, who put on a very exciting show for us!

This week, we have been discussing healthy eating and talking about the Eatwell Guide and the rainbow of foods, where the children try and eat as many different colours of food as they can. We introduced the different food groups as well and encouraged the children to try and think of as many different types of carbohydrate, protein etc as they could. 

The children have really impressed us with the way they embraced learning about doubling in Maths this week! They loved using mirrors to press up against cubes and show the double amount and some children were even able to write the corresponding number sentence! We also made double patterns on  a giant butterfly with some shiny gems!

Year 1 Newsletter

 We've been busy, busy, busy in Year 1 in our first full week back to school after Christmas!  The children have been so excited by our new topic 'Why is Africa is special place?' especially in our art lesson, where we looked closely at African masks and did some amazing observational drawings of them using oil pastels. 

In our writing lessons, we started a story writing unit and began by investigating tortoises!  We went into the immersion room to watch a video and looked closely at pictures on the walls.  We worked together to think of lots of words to describe how they look and how they move, wrote them on post its and stuck them on the walls!  Following that we began to learn the traditional African story 'How the tortoise got its shell', using a story map and actions.  It was great fun!

 

Finding the difference between 2 numbers has been our focus for maths this week.  The children have worked so hard at this tricky concept and we are so proud of them!

In our first ever World Views lesson we focused on bullying.  We acted out some bullying scenarios and thought about why people might bully others.  In RE we are exploring friendship and what makes a good friend.  We have learnt some stories from the Bible where Jesus was a good friend, such as when Jesus met Zacchaeus. 

 

To diene, or not to diene, that is the question!

Maths
This week in maths we have been exploring place value and understanding the value of each digit in two and three digit numbers. 

We have explored this through a range of different mediums such as dienes, marbles and pictorial representations. The children have loved using the dienes to demonstrate their understanding of ones, tens and hundreds. The children are encouraged to vocalise their understanding of numbers through speaking frames within the lesson. 

• There are ten 1's in ten. 
• There are ten 10's in one hundred.
• There are ten 100's in one thousand.

Below are just a few images of our year 3 mathematicians hard at work using their place value charts to explore numbers and dienes. Well done year 3!

 

Year 1 Newsletter

 Fun at Frinton!

We were all so excited that we could go on our school trip to Frinton beach, and despite a few drizzles of rain, we had an incredible day.  The children were wowed by their first sight of the sea, were so good at finding all the things on their scavenger hunt and built superb castles!  Having a paddle seemed to be the favourite activity though, jumping over the waves and enjoying see their teachers getting rather wet, brought huge smiles to their faces.  We are so so proud of their fantastic behaviour throughout the day too. 

Amazing Art!

In our art lessons we have been looking at seascapes by Rachet Bennett.  In order to create our own, we have been practising our colour mixing and creating sea and sandy coloured backgrounds to print on.  We used string, scrunched up tin foil and bubble wrap to print onto our painted paper.  We will then tear these papers into strips and pick out ones we like to create our own seascape printed paper collages. 

There has been so much else going on in Year one over the past couple of weeks too!  Pattern making and measuring in maths, learning about the bravery of Grace Darling and writing her story in English, investigating the best material for a lifeboat in science and to top it all off, an awesome sports day!  The children were amazing sportspeople, cheering others on, persevering even when they were worn out and giving every event their absolute best.  We couldn't be more proud!

Super Subtraction

Today in maths, Year 3 practiced how to identify key information in worded questions and apply our knowledge to find the difference.

Below are images of some of our keen mathematicians at work. We've shown great partner work today and always aim to support our learning buddies whatever the subject.

We used a range of resources to help us develop our understanding and recognise that questions can come in all shapes and sizes.

Dienes were a great way for us to see how we can exchange hundreds, tens and ones within a subtraction sum. This made us experts when it came to column subtraction and bar models!

Here is an example of some great work we did today. It's clear we have taken pride in our work and enjoyed learning about difference, column subtraction and bar models.
Well done Year 3!

 

Year 1 Newsletter

 Well, Year 1 have done us so proud with their determined attitude towards their learning.  All the children learning at home and those learning in school. The children have stepped up to all the different tasks they have been challenged with and we are so impressed by the standard of work we have seen. You are amazing Year 1, you should be very proud of yourselves!  We would like to send a huge thank you to all the parents and carers too.  You are supporting your children brilliantly!  Thank you for all you are doing to ensure your children achieve the best they can. 

Here are some glimpses of the wonderful work that has been going on over the past two weeks.

In English, we have been describing tortoises with adjectives and learning to retell the African traditional tale, How Tortoise Got His Shell, using a story map and actions!  The videos that we have seen have been a joy to watch!  You are incredible storytellers!

 

Poppy-Rose's sentences about tortoises

Stella retold the story How The Tortoise Got His Shell with wonderful expression, remembering all the punctuation too!

As well as completing the daily maths activities, some children have also had a go at some tricky maths challenges too!

              Eva's number bonds challenge                                  Josh's shape challenge

  

Jumping into our new topic about Africa, we asked the children if they would like to live there.

Here are a couple of their answers!

 

It's a YES from Ariana                              and a NO from Hector!

 

In art, the children have been exploring different paper collage techniques such as tearing and cutting.  Radley produced a fantastic grid full of examples of the different things you can do when tearing and cutting paper!

We know the children are missing each other and so they also had a task to get in touch with a friend!  Some children had a great time zooming and facetiming each other!  

Others made cards and wrote letters. 

'Good friends are like stars.  You may not always see them, but they are always there.'

  

                Stella made a card for Roya                                     Miri write a letter for Leelah

                                                        Alexandra wrote a letter for Beth.

Milla wrote a lovely letter to the whole of Year 1!

 

Equality and balancing addition number facts

 Year 1 have started to learn about equality and balancing number facts.  The children have been deepening their understanding of the equals symbol = and know that it means 'the same as' and 'is equal to'.  The children know that whatever is on one side of the equals symbol has the same value as whatever is on the other side. 

We used cubes and counting objects to help us make numbers in different ways and then placed them on either side of the equals symbol.  We used our speaking frame to describe what we had made, using different mathematical vocabulary for addition and equality. 

Here are some of the balancing number sentences we made. 

3 plus 3 is equal to 2 add 4

4 add 2 is equal to 5 plus 1

2 plus 3 plus 1 is equal to 2 and 2 and 2

1 add 1 add 1 add 1 add 1 add 1 is equal to 4 plus 2

The total of 3 and 2 and 1 is equal to 2 and 4

3 and 3 added together is equal to 5 plus 1

Subtraction in Year 1

 Over the past few weeks, Year 1 have been becoming experts at subtraction!  We have been making up our own subtraction stories, using cubes, crossing out objects in pictures and using a number line to count back!  We have been writing number sentences to match and cherry models too.  

Now we know that when we are subtracting, we are taking away one of the parts that make a whole, leaving us with the other part!