Headteacher: Anna Moss

19.04.24

Hello Red Class Families,

The children have made a great start to the term and have been finding out lots about Africa and our focus country of Ghana. We’ve been working hard on doubles and halves, singing ‘Chip the Chopper’ every day. Use one hand as the log and one hand as the axe and then say ‘10’ and hopefully they will call back 5! Wake and Shake has also been a big hit with Shakira echoing down the corridor. 

PE was fun in the wind. Not only were the children set the challenge of kicking and dribbling a football, they had fun controlling it in the wind! We’ve also linked PE and Maths, this week, as we’ve been using positional language. We’ve been inside, in front, behind, to the side and even under hoops, bean bags and crates. As well as positional language, we’ve been recapping odd and even numbers to 10.

Not only have there been changes in the classroom, but we’ve also had some changes at home with the homework book! Here are some top tips for homework:

• The topic homework is completely optional. However, it does prepare the children for Year 1 and I know lots of the children are very excited about completing their first piece of homework.
• Homework certificates are presented each Friday. Please return homework books by Thursday. I like to give Reception children a little longer.
• As topic homework is optional in Reception, you can choose any of the homework options. When we move into Year 1, it becomes a little more formal and we need to stick to the ‘choose an option from each column rule’.
• Please keep reading! If you read daily (or as often as possible), it makes a big impact on progress.

I’ve been really impressed with the children’s transition into Afternoon Clubs. They’ve risen to the challenge of working with older children and new grown ups. Thank you to Miss Kuriger for leading clubs and preparing the children so well and for Mrs Hipkiss’s hard work in the Forest.

Thank you for coming to see me at parent consultations. It was lovely to share the children’s achievements and their next steps. Reports were sent home earlier this week in a brown envelope. Lots of their targets have already been achieved. This is particularly relevant to their Phonics targets as we rehearse our phonemes every day.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class XXX

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22.03.24

Hello Red Class Families,

This week was all about Easter. We shared the Easter story and discovered why this is such a special festival for Christians. We made Easter gardens and Easter cards too.

It was time for fire-lighting and toasting at Forest School. There were lots of happy faces and the children look forward to more adventures at Forest School next term. The groups for Forest School were posted on Parent App today. The children may come dressed to school in their Forest School clothes on their Forest School day. Forest School will now take place during afternoon clubs.

Thanks to H's golden ticket, we were treated to cakes today! It was a lovely end of term treat. Miss Smith also said goodbye and presented the children with some new toys. Miss Smith said she would visit soon.

I started my parent consultations on Wednesday. It was lovely to share each child’s progress and to talk about their journey in Red Class. I look forward to seeing our last few families after Easter. Hopefully, after a good rest, I’ll have a little colour in my cheeks.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Easter break. Whether you’re at home or away, enjoy your time together.

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb, Miss Andersen and Mr Chan

01.03.24

Hello Red Class Families,

Fingers crossed the Red Class bug is setting sail out of the classroom! I know lots of parents have suffered too. For those still at home poorly, we wish you lots of love and a speedy recovery.

In Circle Time (Personal, Social, Health, Economic Education), we looked at healthy eating. We compared two lunchboxes made by Mrs Webb and identified healthy and unhealthy foods before talking about a balanced diet and that we are allowed treats in moderation too. The children then created their own healthy lunchbox using role play food and by drawing pictures.

In Maths, we introduced Mr Odd and Mrs Even who helped us to find odd and even numbers by looking for pairs. Miss Smith helped us to learn about ordinal numbers. Can you put your teddies in a line and find 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd? At parent consultations, I’ll be giving every child their own personal Maths target to help move their learning along.

We’ve completed Phonics assessments, this week. The single letter sounds are embedded as well as ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘th’, ‘ng’. There was varied success with digraphs such as ‘ai’, ‘oa’, ‘ar’ and ‘or’, so we’ll focus on these throughout the rest of the term. Again, I’ll issue a target at parent consultations to support early reading.

Running was the focus for PE. We talked about high knees and pumping our arms from hips to lips. I think we have a few sprinters ready for sport’s day! In History, we looked at boats and ships through time. For example, simple boats in Ancient Egyptian times to modern cruise ships complete with slides and swimming pools today.

We’ve managed all our reading sessions, this week, so we’ve sent home two books. Around 6 children didn’t have any books in their bag today. I’ve sent books home with all children, so please return any that are outstanding. All group reading books can be accessed as eBooks too.

Next week, I’ll be sending home appointment slips for parent consultations. If you need to change the day or time, please contact the school office.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

23.02.24

Hello Red Class Families,

This week, we set sail into our new topic, ‘Pirates’. The children have been busy making pirate ships in Play and Explore and creating pirate ship pictures for our display. Using a fictional character, Anne, we started to learn about the life of a pirate. By the end of the topic, we will tell Anne if we think being a pirate is a good idea. So far, the food doesn’t sound appealing with hard biscuits, bread and rotten fruit! Luckily, Red Class will be learning how to make a healthy pirate drink in their Design Technology lessons using fresh fruit! Further information about our topic work can be found on our class newsletter.

We have now covered all digraphs and trigraphs for the year in Red Class! We will spend the rest of the year revising our sounds, reading longer words with double letters or two or more digraphs. We will also be concentrating on using our letter sounds to spell as we try hard to listen to the sounds and record them using the cursive script.

Today, we sent home one book as we need to keep our group reading books for another week due to staff illness. Throughout this term, the children will continue to receive two books. The first book will be matched to their phonics ability and the second is their group reading book. After reading three times in the week, the children should be able to read the second book fluently with very few mistakes.

In Maths, we’ve been learning about tally marks and how to use these to represent a number. We recorded tally marks to 5 and used our number fans to link the numeral. At home, the children can use straws, lollipop sticks or cotton buds as tally marks or they can use a pencil to record the marks. Remember to ‘cross the gate’ at 5. Perhaps vote for your favourite drink and ask your child to record the tallies for each option.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend,

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

P.S. Wishing all our poorly Red Class children a speedy recovery with lots of rest this weekend.

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02.02.24

Hello Red Class Families

Today, we waved goodbye to Mrs Birley. She was last seen heading to her car with a basket of Red Class treats including a Redmond Bear all of her own! We also visited St Catherine’s Church with Mrs Birley. Rev. Sheri gave us a guided tour and helped us to find out about our local church. Next week, we will make a photo board of our trip.

Phonics lessons introduced double letters, this week, including ‘bb’ in rabbit and ‘mm’ in hammer. In these words, two letters make one sound. We read longer words by chunking them, for example, sunset becomes s-u-n/s-e-t. We also looked at a new digraph and trigraph.

air – chair in the air

er – a bigger digger

We used the part/whole model for subtraction and there were some fantastic questions in the ‘Guess my Number’ game. Well done if you’ve played this game at home using the 100-square. Next week, we’ll be naming, making and talking about 3D shapes.

In RE (Religious Education) lessons, we talked about special places. The children named their own special places and then linked this to the church as a special temple for Christians. Next week, we will think about our trip to St Catherine’s Church and name, describe and talk about the purpose of some of the special things we found there.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

P.S. Ask the children if they can remember Tony Chestnut (a song from music). If you sing, “Tony Chestnut knows I love him” and touch the body parts to match (toe, knee, chest, head (nut), nose, eye, heart), hopefully they might be able to give you a little performance.

26.01.24

Hello Red Class Families,

Today, Red Class turned into a cinema. We settled back to watch 'The Wind Blew' with our Nursery friends and a pot of popcorn. Next week, our topic changes to ‘What’s Special?’ We will focus on special places and take a little trip to St Catherine’s Church as a special place for Christians.  

We introduced the following tricky words in Phonics: my, by, all. Below, you will find our digraphs and trigraph from the week and their catchphrases.

ur – Curl the fur.

ow– Wow owl!

oi- Boing! Boing!

ear – Get near to hear.

Handwriting lessons focused on ‘g’, ‘q’, ‘s’ and ‘e’ using the cursive script. We will continue with ‘f’ on Monday as it follows the same pattern as ‘e’.

In Maths, we used the Part-Whole Model for addition using concrete apparatus. The children identified the parts e.g. 3 and 2 before combining them to find the whole. In Mental Maths, we continued to count in 1s and 2s and we used the 100-square to play ‘Guess my Number’. To play this game at home, click the following link for an interactive 100-square: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares Choose a number and then invite your child to ask questions e.g. Is it more than 10? Is it less than 20? Does it have 4 ones? Is it in the 2s? Keep splatting the incorrect squares until you’re left with the answer. This game supports mathematical vocabulary and recall of facts.

PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) focused on ‘sad’ and how this emotion can look and feel. We used a painting of a sad clown to think about why he might be sad and then role-played ways to make him feel happier. We talked about how we have the power to help other people to feel happy by using kind words and actions.

Rolling was the name of the game in PE. Again, some very interesting work! We explored tuck and pencil rolls and recapped our travelling movements. Next week, we’re using the benches!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.

Best wishes,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx

19.01.24

Hello Red Class Families,

In PE, we used different body parts to travel around the hall. There were lots of interesting ideas! Next week, we move on to rolls! In Phonics, we focused on ‘oo’ (moon), ‘oo’ (book), ‘ar’ (car) and ‘or’ (born). We used catchphrases to remember them.

oo – Zoom to the moon.

oo – Hook a book.

ar – March in the dark.

or – Born with a horn.

We also introduced three tricky words: was, you, they.

Handwriting lessons focused on ‘c’, ‘o’, ‘a’ and ‘d’ using the cursive script. Today, we created a flag using these letters as decoration and I was really pleased with the children’s effort and progress. In Maths, we continued our work on teen numbers and then moved on to counting in 2s. We used concrete apparatus, pictures and a song to help.

In Art lessons, we explored textiles. The children persevered to cut, stick and arrange different textiles in their art sketchbooks before learning how to dip dye a cotton square using food colouring. We’ll be using our skills, next week, to make props for our blockbuster film, ‘The Wind Blew’.

It was time for the children’s hearing tests, this week. Results can be accessed through the School Screener Parent Portal. When the children change learning partners and their carpet spaces, I will take this information into account.

New eBooks have been added. We swapped books for all children with books in their bags. If you’re missing a reading book, please return the previous books on Monday.

Wishing everyone a happy weekend,

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx