Happy half term!

 Dear Hedgehogs and Hedgehog Parents,

Happy half term! 

Well done Hedgehogs on another marvellous half term. It's been full of fun and learning and you should all be proud of yourselves. 

Parents, it was good to see you the other day for our open session - thank you so much for coming. I am sorry I didn't manage to talk to all of you, but hopefully you were able to get a glimpse into life in Hedgehogs and to see some of your children's work. 

As you saw, we are continuing to be Elephant Keepers and have moved on to a new chapter of the story: the Ice Age. The archaeologist, Rashka, suggested it might be a good plan to find ourselves a woolly mammoth, to join our herd of elephants. With that in mind, we have started to think about what it might be like to travel back in time to the Ice Age. The story will continue next half term.

On Thursday we had a lovely walk in Howe Park Woods. The children were brilliant both during the bus journeys and at the woods. We spotted a few interesting things (some bright red fungus and a curious robin, amongst others!) and hopefull we will go back soon for a whole day. 

Phonics:

Reception added 'or' and 'oa' to their repertoire of sounds. To practice these, create a letter muddle. Draw each of the following:   fork,   corn,   goat,   boat,  soap,  short. 

Then give your child cards with these letters on:

f     k      c     n    g    s   p   sh      or (x3)    oa (x3)    t  (x3)    

Their challenge is to see how quickly they can spell the 6 words, using the cards you have given them. 

Year 1 added au (as in 'haul') and 'oe' (as in 'toe') to theirs. We'll have a spelling challenge on Friday 4th March, so your word list is here.  Please try to learn all of the words on the list this time!

Maths:

Reception focussed on the five principles of counting. Lots of counting around the house will help with this! You can find an explanation of the principles here. 

Year 1 have been looking at numbers to 100, learning what each digit in a two-digit number is worth (for example '31 has 3 tens, worth 30). 

To practice this, play race to 100. 

Reading books: I am very sorry that due to not being in on the last Friday, we were not able to ensure all of the children had new reading books. 

I hope you have a good half term, and I look forward to seeing you all in a week's time!

From Mrs Simpson