This term our Learning Theme is "What is dark?" During this theme we will be thinking about the changes in the season that we see around us, Bonfire night, nocturnal animals, the stars and space. Here are some of the stories that we will be using to support our learning during this term.

Term 2 Week 1 Update

We have had a lovely start to term 2, even if it has been a little wet and windy. We have been learning our new phonemes l, ll, ss and the common exception word "go". In maths this week we have been learning about the 5 ness of 5. Our new learning theme is "What is dark?". The children enjoyed helping to build our dark tent ready for exploring all things dark and exploring using our torches and different colour filters. We are also working really hard on our upper body arm strength to support our writing and had great fun playing games with balloons and the parachute.

Week 2 Update

What another busy week we have had. We have learned the phonemes j,v,x,w and the common exception word 'me'.

We have enjoyed learning our story 'Wow said the Owl' creating actions for our retelling. In Forest Explorers we created our own leaf owl creations and have been creating our own artwork based on Vincent Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night'. 

Robin Class joined the rest of the school to take part in our first Crew session, working with children from across the school, thinking about the importance of how we are all special and different ahead of anti bullying week next week.

Term 2 Week 3 Update

What a great spotty day we had to celebrate Children in Need.

This week we have been learning the phonemes y, z, zz and the common exception word 'be'.

In our maths work we have been thinking about how different parts make up a whole. We have explored this through parts of an animal that make up a whole, parts of a picture and parts of the Numberblocks 2 and 3.

As part of out learning theme "What is dark?" we have been talking about nocturnal animals and some of the differences they have such as big ears for hearing, big eyes for seeing or a very good sense of smell. We created some great clay hedgehogs using our fine motor skills as part of our learning.

This week has been National Nursery Rhyme week and to mark this we joined up with some of the children from Stepping Stones to share some of our favourite nursery rhymes.

This afternoon we spent some time with our Buddies. We went into the ICT suite to play our new game Numbots. This is a resource that you can use at home to support your child's number skills. Each child has been given an individual login which is stuck in the front of their reading record. Please find attached more information about Numbots.

Term 2 Week 4 Update

We have had a lovely week learning our poem "Bats are sleeping" and of course we have some lovely actions for our retelling. The children have been really excited to learn some of our new digraphs (2 letters that make one sound) qu, ch, sh and the common exception word 'he'.

It was lovely to welcome our grown-ups into school on Thursday to share a maths session with you. This week we have been thinking about the different shapes and numbers we can see in a 'Stampoline' https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08dnngm/numberblocks-series-1-stampolines based on the Numberblocks. The children were developing their ability to use spatial vocabulary and talk about the numbers that they can see within the Stampolines.

As part of our learning about "What is dark?" , we have started to talk about space. We shared the story of Astro girl, a little girl who wanted to be an Astronaut and were set the task of 'can you launch a rocket into space?' We created our own paper rockets and talked about how the rocket needs a 'big push' to blast off! We created our 'big push' by blowing   into our straws to launch the rockets into the air.   

Term 2 Week 5 Update

This week we have been poets creating our own nocturnal animal poems based on our class poem "Bats are sleeping". In our phonics this week we have been recapping all of the consonant digraphs and common exception words that we have been learning over the past few weeks.

In maths this week we have been focusing on the purpose of counting – and showing a number of fingers that is equal to a simple number picture. We have been developing the children's understanding the concept of cardinality – that the last number in the count tells us ‘how many’ things there are altogether – and begin to applying this concept to count more abstract things, such as claps and jumps.

As we have been learning our songs for our Nativity we have been learning the story of the First Christmas and thinking about the different characters in the story, who they feel is the most important character and why.

Term 2 Week 6 Update

In class this week we have enjoyed sharing the story of Funnybones and joining in with repeating language that we can hear. 

In maths this week we have had a focus on squares and rectangles. We have been sorting them, spotting them in the environment and creating pictures with then and talking about their differences.

On Thursday afternoon we were exciting to have our first dress rehearsal of 'Our First Nativity'. We invited some of the children from  Stepping Stones to come in and watch. The Robins were fantastic and they are looking forward to preforming to the rest of the school and our grown ups next week.

Term 2 Week 7 Update

What a magical Christmas week we have had. We had a lovely whole school visit to the Church on Monday where we shared songs and the story of the First Christmas. On Tuesday we preformed "Our First Nativity" to our friends and families, on Wednesday we had a whole school trip to the Panto which was great fun, if a little loud at times. Followed by our yummy Christmas Dinner on Thursday and we were able to watch Kingfisher and Kestrel class perform in their Christmas Extravaganza on Friday.  

We have also enjoyed creating Christmas cards, decorating Christmas pudding biscuits, sharing Christmas stories (Father Christmas needs a wee was a particular favourite) and learning and talking about the properties of shapes to create Christmas pictures.