Settling into school

The children have been settling into Robin class really well. They are coming into school brilliantly and getting used to the routines in the classroom. 

While settling in we have:

-enjoyed independent learning in our indoor and outdoor environments

-joined in with singing songs, sharing stories and circle times

-played listening games

-been on a tour of the school to see some of the other classrooms and rooms in the school

-shared some of our shoe boxes (don't worry if you haven't brought yours in yet - there is still time!)

-talked about our school rules 'Be Ready, Be Respectful, Be Safe' and what this means we will be like in school and in Robin class

-shared The NSPCC story of "Pantosaurus and the Power of Pants" and the Pantosaurus song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SzbMEVYiyg.

We use this across the school as part of learning about staying safe. Talk PANTS is here to help children understand their body belongs to them, and they should tell a safe adult they trust if anything makes them feel upset or worried. 

-enjoyed spending time in the 'big area' with some of the older children in school (and finding some of their siblings!)

-trying school dinners- they all did so well trying their school dinners for the first time this week, we had lots of clear plates which is always lovely to see.

-joining in with our first PE session with Mr Shoulders. Each week we will build up to getting changed for PE so this week we just changed our shoes. Next week we will aim for PE shoes and shorts! Please make sure that your child has their fully named PE kit in school.

-made some new friends and had fun exploring!

We have really enjoyed starting to get to know your children and are really excited for our year ahead together.

Weeks 3&4

During the last 2 weeks we have been learning about how we learning in different ways though our dinosaur characters. We have a 'Try-o-saur', 'Explore-o-saur' , 'Think-o-saur' and 'Mistake-o-saur'. So far this week have had lots of 'Try-o-saur's!'

This week we have enjoyed learning our new phonemes i, m, n and d to add to our s, a, t, p that we learned last week. The children are remembering the actions to each of our phonemes and writing the letters on their whiteboards during our phonic sessions really well.

In maths we have been helping squirrel to count accurately and given her some rules to help her count as she was getting all muddled up as a class we decided that squirrel needed to...

-put the things you want to count in a line
-point to one object at a time and say one number at a time
-say the number names in order
-count slowly making sure you don't count it again

We have been working really hard on our story telling of "The Three Little Pigs" using our actions and repeated story language. The children particularly enjoyed the repeated phrase "NO! Not by the hairs on my chinny, chin, chin!"

We have had fun starting to get to know our woods in our Forest Explorer sessions and playing '1, 2, 3 Where Are You?' and collecting sticks to build houses for the three little pigs. The children have been listening carefully and following the rules well, remembering to come back to base to make a circle. Please bring in a pair of wellies for these sessions if you haven't already.

We have also been getting ready for our Harvest worship that is coming up in a couple of weeks. We have been going into the hall for worship, learning songs with the whole school and learning a special song that Robin class will be sharing at our harvest worship.
 

Week 5 

This week Robin class enjoyed a 'Knife and Fork Training' session with Evie from Chartwells. They learnt how to hold a knife and fork properly and practised spreading butter onto bread. We also found out how it is important to hold the food still, to help cut it into small pieces ready to eat. Everyone tried really hard and did a great job!

This week we have been learning the phonemes g,o,c,k. The children are working really hard to blend these phonemes to read simple words and write them on their whiteboards.

We have been focusing on the 3ness of three and making collections of 3 for the 3 bears and noticing that 3 can be made of 3 1's, 2 and 1 more or 1 and 2 more.

In our story telling this week we have been innovating our own Three Little pigs story. As a class we created the Three Little Cats and the Big Bad Dragon and in our group learning we have created our own versions such as The Three Little Moles and the Big Bad Badger and The Three little Bunnies and the Big Bad squirrel. The children have enjoyed using the puppets and finger puppets to innovate their stories.

We have also been thinking about different animal habitats and what animals live where. We made sure that the worm we found in the classroom and the grass hoper we found in our painting area went back to the right habitats.

Week 6

What a busy week! This week we have added the phonemes ck, e, u and r to our growing list of phonemes we are learning. In maths we have been thinking about the number 4 and about the different shapes what we can make to represent 4. At the start of the week we went on a treasure hunt to find the Gingerbread man. The children are really enjoying joining in with " Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread man". It was lovely that so many of your were able to come and join us for our Harvest celebration on Thursday afternoon and spend sometime with the children in the classroom after. 

Week 7

What an amazing first term the Robin class have had in school.

This week the phonemes we have been learning were h,b,f,ff. In maths we have been using our subitising skills to identify more and fewer and enjoyed playing dice games with our friends hedgehog and squirrel.

We were scientist one afternoon this week investigating the best materials that we could use to stop the Gingerbread man from getting wet. We looked at the materials and talked about what they were like before making our predictions about which would be the best material to keep him dry, we then tested our ideas to see if we were right.

They had the challenge of getting into and out of our fantastic waterproofs for our Forest Explorers session this week! They were fantastic at helping each other and were brilliant 'Try-o-saurs'. They used natural materials to make some super people and animal designs too.