Spring Term Week 2: Elephants!

 Hello Hedgehog Parents,

Well, that week flew by in a blur of elephants, forest school and frost! 

We said a very sad goodbye to Hannah, who has been in Hedgehogs since September 2020. She will be very much missed.

Our class now houses a herd of six elephants in a beautiful enclosure. The children have been working on creating their elephants for quite a while and are very proud of them. On Wednesday it was decided that they would need a suitable enclosure, so we had a look at some examples from zoos and wildlife parks before creating our own. During the morning the children learnt that elephants (and other animals) need food, water and shelter to survive. 

The children then made signs for the enclosure, explaining to visitors what could be found inside, for example, a 'hot mud pool' for rolling in!

Maths this week.

Reception have been focussing on the number five. They have been making patterns with five pebbles to decide which representation they like best. We looked at the 'dice' pattern for five and why it is so useful (because we can see 4+1). 

The children are beginning to learn their bonds to 5 and how to represent these in different ways. 

This week you could play a game we like to play (which I may have mentioned before). This week it is called Five or Not Five? and can be found here.  The number cards mentioned can be found here - you won't need all of them!

Year 1 have been looking at numbers to 20 and learning that teen numbers are made up of 10 and some more. They have been counting objects by making a group of 10 first, counting on from 10, and making their own representations of numbers to 20. To practice this, you could use these cards to play pairs or snap. 'Snap' is more of a challenge, as the children have to quickly recognise the representation to 20 (one person has the number cards, the other one has the ten-frame cards).

Year 1 have also started looking at number bond to 7. 

Phonics

Reception have added  j, v and w  to their repertoire of sounds. For some blending practice, play Roll and Read using this document (you can choose one sound, or work your way through them! This document includes 'x' as well which we haven't yet looked at in class).

Year 1 have looked at 'ea' as in head, bread and instead, and they have learnt that 'w' can sometimes be spelt with a 'wh'. Our Friday spelling challenges will resume next Friday - here are the words!

Mrs Albana Bregu joined us this week as our PGCE student teacher. You will be seeing a lot of her over the next couple of months, so please do say hello and pass on any messages to her as you would do to myself or Mrs Gyau-Awuah. 

Below are a few photos of our week. 

Have a good weekend!

From Mrs Simpson