Week Ending 25th June

 

Despite the incredibly unseasonal weather this week, the sun shone on Hedgehogs for Wednesday afternoon's Forest School session.

The children were very interested in minibeasts all afternoon-  we turned over many a log and tree stump to see what was living below.

Aside from Forest School, the children's main project this week was to write their Legends of the Dragon, based on the incredible triptychs they created last week. The children were so keen to write and did a wonderful job; so much so that I'll be turning their legends into a book for the classroom.

In other learning this week:

Phonics:

Reception children revisited oi and ow, and focussed on spelling words with these sounds in.  If you'd like to practice these, you can play some games of Boggle. You could set a timer and see how many words your child can build in 5 or 10 minutes, or have a race to see who can build the most words in that time.  I'd recommend having them written out on cards so that your child can move them around (rather than 'in a row' as traditional Boggle is, I tend just to give the children cards and they can put them in any order they like). 

Year 1 children looked at the ow/ou alternatives. They started a word search which we did not have time to finish - if you'd like to finish it for homework you can find it here. 

The spelling list for next week's challenge is here. 

Maths:

Maths has been all about money this week! We spent a lovely morning on Thursday setting up a lollypop and ice cream shop. The aim was for children to recognise the different coins. This is a really good one to practice at home either by setting up a shop yourself or by taking your child to an ice cream van, or similar, to use money in a real context. 

Have a very good week end and I will see you next week!

From Miss Nash.

Week Ending 18th June

 

What a warm week it's been! The children in Hedgehog Class have taken advantage of the weather and we have been outdoors and under the trees a lot. 

In our story, some dragons have been discovered under the hill where the castle has been built. We are currently in the process of deciding what to do with them. 

We had a particularly lovely Forest School session this week, including some children making and trying cleaver (sticky weed) juice and others learning how to build a fire. 

In other learning:

Phonics and Spelling:

Reception children have been revisiting 'ar' and 'or'. You can practise this using these silly sentences. Read the sentences and draw a picture to match. 

Year 1 children have been learning that the 'ea' grapheme can sound like an 'ee' (as in cream and dream) or an 'e' (as in head and spread). 

Next week's spelling challenge words are here. 

Maths:

The children have been weighing items using bucket scales. They've been using the words heavy, light, heavier, lighter, heaviest and lightest to compare items. Year 1 started to weigh items using cubes. 

The best way to practice weighing at home is by baking! Of course, this is using more formal measures but it's great for children to measure out ingredients carefully and weigh them in grams. 

Have a good weekend and I will see you next week!

Miss Nash :0) 

Week Ending 11th June

 

We have (finally) had a very sunny week in Hedgehog class. It's good to be back for the final half term of the year and the children have been happy and enthusiastic all week. 

In our mantle story, the Queen had chosen a location for the castle. We created it in a tuff spot, talking about geographical features and why they are needed for castle living. we also added some animals - this led to an interesting discussion about which animals would have been around, and in England, 1000 years ago. Following the discussion, we removed the lion from the woodland the the orca whales from the river!

The following day, it was finally time to build the castle! We learnt about castle features and the children worked together to create the castle. Later, Year 1 and some keen Reception children labelled a picture of the castle using the correct words for each part. On Thursday, all of the children wrote a report about the castle for Queen Matilda. 

In other learning:

Phonics

Reception children continue to work through the phase 3 digraphs. We recapped 'igh', 'oa' and 'ur/ir'.

To practice these you could play pictionary. You draw the picture, your child writes the word. Before you start, write down 'igh' 'oa' and 'ir' and remind your child of the sound they make. Some suggested words:

night
light
moat
boat
goat
bird
girl

Year 1 children have been learning spellings with the u_e and ew patterns. They will be tested on these next Friday during the spelling challenge. As always, please work on the spellings that suit your child - whichever spellings they find to be a good level of challenge. You can find the words here. 

Maths

Reception and Year 1 children have all been learning about volume and capacity this week using terms such as 'more' 'less' 'full' 'empty' 'nearly full' 'nearly empty' 'half full' 'half empty'. Year 1 have also been measuring capacity.

This can be practised in any way you like around the house - talking about cups of drink, buckets of sand, half-eaten yogurts...

If you'd like to play a game, the children enjoyed this game.


Have a good weekend  :0)

Miss Nash