Welcome to the Summer Term

 Hello Hedgehog Parents,

It was lovely to have all 22 Hedgehog children back this week! What with chicken pox, covid and the Easter holidays, it's been a long time since we were all together again.  In true Hedgehog style the children have had a happy, positive week together. 

This term things will be a little bit different. To help with transition to Squirrel Class, the Year 1 children will be doing their Mantle of the Expert with myself and the Year 2 children. During this time Reception will take part in a variety of child-led and adult-led activities, mainly outdoors, with Mrs Gyau-Awuah. We will also continue to do lots of storytelling and drama as a whole class through our literacy lessons which will focus on traditional tales. 

We started with Jack and the Beanstalk. We thought about what breed of cow Jack might be selling, then the children were given the task of creating some collage cows:

The children went on to try to sell their cow, using adjectives. One of the Year 1 spelling objectives is to add -est to an adjective to change its meaning: so, you will see above some cows that will give you the sweetest milk, that have the pinkest noses and the softest fur. The children went on to write down their descriptions. 

In other news, there are two guinea pigs in school called Edward Whiskers and Sebastian. The children learnt how to carry out their daily care this week and will be doing so in small groups each day.  We have also done a lot of country dancing practice ready for Sunday's May Fayre. 


Maths this week.

Reception have been taking part in some low-key maths assessments to see what needs to be taught next. 

Year 1 have begun a unit of work on multiplication. They learnt how to identify and make equal groups, and how to describe them using mathematical language. For example: There are 5 groups, with 3 in each group. 

You can practice this by making equal groups out of anything you can find: lego bricks, pasta on a plate, soft toys.....  . The important part of this is that your child can articulate what they see using the above example of a sentence. 

Phonics this week.

Reception have learnt that the 'ur' phoneme can be spelt using: ur  and  ir
You can practice these using this activity or this activity - both require you to read each word together, spotting the ur or ir grapheme, and then decide whether it is a real or a nonsense word. 

Year 1 have looked at  air  (as in 'pair') and ear (as in 'bear'). These are a bit tricky, because there aren't really any rules as to which one is used when. So here is the spelling list - I've kept it quite short, because of the lack of rhyming patterns and other tips and tricks! The main thing to remember is that air is much more common than ear.

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend - see you on Sunday, and then on Tuesday!

From Mrs Simpson

Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter Hedgehogs and Hedgehog Parents!

We had a really good final week of term. Our Mantle of the Expert story came to an end, with the children rescuing the last mammoth from a hungry cave man (don't worry, they provided the cave man with an alternative diet) and bringing it back to 2022. It was introduced to the elephant herd and they all seemed to get along well. 

The children also had their marble jar treat, with pyjamas, teddies, a film and Easter basket making. Arthur, Emily, Joshua, Jemima, Isabelle and Theo, you were missed! We are looking forward to seeing you all again after the holidays. 

Finally, on Friday we had our Easter service and egg hunt, and the sun shone so everyone was happy!

The most important thing over Easter is to have a good holiday – rest and enjoy yourselves! 

Here are some things you can be practising to keep you ticking over - resources can be found in this folder.

·    Reception:

     Read books on Rising Stars

P   Practise your letter formation (sheets are in the folder) - practise each family at
a time because they are linked to each other

Play games subitising numbers - first to 5, then 6, 7, etc (various resources in the folder)

Practise writing numbers to 10 (number formation rhymes are in the folder)

Make sure you practise your sounds so they don't fall out of your head! You can use phonicsplay.co.uk, or https://www.phonicsbloom.com/  (selecting phase 2 and phase 3 sounds)

     Write a diary or a post card to me about your favourite days - one or two sentences is enough! Parents, help your child to say their sentence, put spaces between words and hear the sounds in words. 

Year 1:

     Read books on Rising Stars

Count in 2s, 5s and 10s

Learn your number bonds to 10:
https://www.ictgames.com/saveTheWhale/index.html
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Practise reading alien and real words, ready for the phonics check in June
You can use phonicsplay.co.uk, and there are also some resources in the folder

Practise your place value knowledge:
https://www.ictgames.com/sharkNumbers/mobile/index.html
The 'race to 100' games in the folder - there is a 100 grid game and one where you need to collect 1s and 10s

Measuring in centimetres and metres, and recording the measurements correctly

Writing a diary - pick a few of your best holiday days and write a diary, or write a post card and post it to me at school!

    Have a lovely break Hedgehogs - see you in the summer term!

    From Mrs Simpson

Spring Term Week 11: whatever the weather

 Hello Hedgehog Parents,

With staff and children away, the weather not really knowing whether it's spring, summer or winter and the beginnings of May Fair dancing practise... it's been a busy and unusual week!

We started the week by watching Joshua and Jemima's poems that they recorded for last week's homework - they were very proud of themselves!

On Thursday we were quite surprised to see snow falling from the sky! By the afternoon it was warm enough to continue with our Forest School plans, but at various points throughout the session we had to hide from yet another flurry of snow or sleet. Luckily we had a fire going in the cabin and managed to shelter with a story and some spontaneous hot chocolate. 

Our mantle story is coming to an end, but we are not there yet. The children continue on their quest to find a woolly mammoth to bring back to 2022. However, their progress was halted when Ewan was gravely injured by a sabre tooth tiger. The children learnt all about natural and man-made materials before determining which natural material would be most suited to making a bandage for him. 

Once Ewan had recovered, the children snuck out of the cave and continued their search. They decided a mammoth would most likely be found on the grasslands, or by the lake so that's where they looked.... and they found one! Fast asleep next to the lake. Unfortunately, as they were watching the mammoth, one of the children noticed a nearby hunter-gatherer, spear raised, ready to kill the mammoth. They decided to intervene and stop the hunter-gatherer. The man said he just needed the mammoth for his dinner, and to feed his family. The children then spent some time learning about hunter-gatherers and what alternative foods they could provide for the man and his family, rather than mammoth. They did some wonderful work, creating paper 'clay' bowls filled with berries, nuts, mushrooms, fish and honey. 

They also learnt that clay was a natural material and they used clay to make some ice age hunter-gatherer bowls. 

In other learning:

Maths:
Reception children have been focussing on '1 more' and '1 less' with numbers up to 10. To practise this you could have a go at this game. 

Year 1 children have been learning to measure in centimetres using a ruler. You can practise this simply by measuring things around the house! 

Phonics:
Reception children have added 'oi' to their collection of digraphs
Year 1 children have been practising reading alien and real words for the phonics check. 

Next week I will be carrying out phonics assessments on all of the children, including a practice phonics check with the Year 1 children to establish what work needs to be done in the summer term as we head towards the statutory Phonics Screening Check. 

Your homework this week is to revise all of the sounds we have learnt so far. You can do this by:

* playing 'sounds splat' - Adults write the digraphs all over a large piece of paper. Say a sound and your child has to splat it as quickly as possible. This can also be turned into 'sounds jump' - digraphs are spread all over the floor and children have to jump to the sound as you say it

* playing games on phonicsplay.co.uk - some are free, but it is worth the subscription to play the other games. 

Reception digraphs:   qu sh ch th ng ai ee igh oa oo ow oi ar or 
Year 1 digraphs:  
(ai):  ay   a_e    (ee)   ea   ie   e_e   (igh)  ie  i_e   (oa)  ow  oe  o_e  (oo)  ue  ew u_e
ir   ur   er   ou  oy 

Finally, the most important news of the week is that the children have filled up their marble jar again! This means that they have earned a treat - a Parentmail will follow with details. 

Have a good weekend

from Mrs Simpson

Spring Term Week 10: All sorts.

 Hello Hedgehog Parents,

This week's blog is a short one! It's been a different sort of week, with Poetry Day, Mothers' Day activities and a third of our class away for much of it.

Poetry day was wonderful. The children learnt a poem to perform by heart: The Lion Roars. Incredibly, they managed to learn it all in half a day and performed it outside to the rest of the school. I was very proud of them!

The Lion Roars With a Fearful Sound

The lion roars with a fearful sound,

Roar, roar, roar!

The lion creeps, its prey to catch,

Creep, creep, creep!

The lion pounces with a mighty leap,

Pounce, pounce, pounce!

The lion eats with a crunching sound, 

Crunch, crunch, crunch!

The lion sleeps with a gentle snore,

Snore, snore, snore!

Then they had a go at writing their own poems based on it. The  Year 1 children wrote a poem each about a mammoth, while the Reception children wrote a shared poem. In the afternoon the children joined others from Squirrel and Badger classes to do some shared poetry making outdoors. 

On Wednesday we read the story 'Humbert' by John Burningham. It is about a pony who pulls a scrap metal cart but who has bigger dreams. The children loved this story and did some art work of Humbert as well as writing a diary in role as him. 

Thursday, of course, was Forest School - a particularly warm, sunny and happy one. 

Then on Friday it was lovely to have so many of you at school for our Mother's Day Breakfast. Thank you for coming!

Homework this week is a little different. Your challenge, Hedgehog children, should you choose to accept it, is to learn a short poem off by heart and recite it. Either come and tell me the poem at school, or film yourself reciting it to send to the office email address!

Year 1 children - I am sorry that once again we were unable to do your Friday spelling challenge (though it was lovely to have mothers in for so long!) but we will do it on Monday instead. You have no new words to learn this week, so just focus on your colourful spelling lists. 

Have a good weekend!

From Mrs Simpson

Spring Term Week 9: Goodbye, Mrs Bregu!

Greetings Hedgehog Parents,

After nine weeks with us, and lots of time spent particularly with the Year 1 Hedgehogs, we said 'goodbye' to Mrs Bregu today. The children drew her some pictures and signed a card for her, and she promised to come and visit us once her studies are finished this year. 

In our story this week the children learnt a bit about ice age weapons. As we learnt last week, there were many dangerous animals around during the Ice Age and it was decided that we needed to be able to defend ourselves from harm. The children learnt about the different
natural materials that weapons were made from and went on to design three weapons that might be useful to them when we go back into our story. We really, really don't want to be eaten by a sabre toothed cat. 

The children also completed some art work, learning how to add texture to a painting by using different brushes in different ways. 

During Forest School the children were given the opportunity to see a robin up close. Arthur's cat had unfortunately acquired a robin, and Arthur and his family thought the children might like the opportunity to see it up close because it was so beautifully preserved. The children were given the option to look or not to look at the robin, and they all wanted to see it. They were amazed by its tiny features, especially the miniature feathers. 

Aside from all of the above:

Maths this week:

Reception children have been learning how to estimate. This is a great skill and one which takes practice! You can practise this skill easily in daily life or you can play a game where you take a handful of objects (fewer than 20 is recommended at the moment), place them down, each estimate the amount and award a point to the person who is closest. Then repeat! Tip: to determine whose estimate is closest, use a number track and mark each person's estimate on it, before counting how many objects there actually are and marking that amount on it too. 

Year 1 children have started a new unit of work on measure. They have used the terms: long, longer, longest, short, shorter, shortest and tall, taller, tallest to compare different items. It was hard for them not to revert back to 'big' and 'small' when comparing sizes, but we are getting there! 

For this week, you can just practise this orally with the children as you go around and about. Encourage them to practise using the correct mathematical language to compare the heights of family members, trees or flowers (for example), or the length of their fish fingers. 

They also, along with Reception, began to measure length using non-standard measures - in this case, their feet! They learnt how to measure in their feet by placing one foot directly in front of the other, with no gaps. This work will continue next week!

They've also been counting in 5s. Lots of practise of this would be very, very useful. One option is to use a song like this one, but of course to help the children to pronounce their numbers with 'TY' in them!

Phonics this week

Reception children have added  ar and ow to their bank of digraphs. This week, please just do some sounds recognition practice. A good way to do this is to chalk the digraphs all over a pavement somewhere, or a paved area if you have one, and as you call out different digraphs your child has to race to them. This can be done indoors as well, if you write the digraphs on A4 paper and challenge your child to jump to the correct one. As a reminder, the digraphs we have learnt are: qu sh ch th ng ai ee igh oa oo or ar ow  

Year 1 children looked at the three graphemes ir, ur and er. They focussed on adding 'er' to a verb to make a noun: for example, turning 'jump' into 'jumper' or 'read' into 'reader. 

Here is next week's spelling list. Hopefully there are some rhyming patterns to help!

Finally, I have to apologise because I have been unable to upload any photographs this week. I will endeavour to add them to the blog on Monday!

Have a very good weekend,

from Mrs Simpson

Spring Term Week 8: Ice Age progress

 Dear Parents,

This week, the children made significant progress with their Mantle story. On Monday they were summoned to Devon by Rob Bourn, who had made an exciting discovery. During some excavations, he and his team had unearthed some mammoth remains. The children were invited to carry on the excavations and to their excitement found pieces of mammoth tooths, tusks and bones. They pieced together the finds back in the classroom (this was obviously in our story, but the excavation really happened! To find out more look at this news article).

With that in mind, we decided that, in order to find a woolly mammoth, we should return to Devon, 10,000 years ago. One of the children had the idea to use a time turner (as in Harry Potter) to help us travel back in time, so they all made time turners. This was a great project involving a range of DT skills and tools and the children did a fantastic job of it. 

Next, on Wednesday we travelled back to the Ice Age (having thought about what it would look like and feel like). Unfortunately, we didn't get far before we encountered a range of dangerous animals. We stepped out of the story to find out more, and spent the rest of the session learning about ice age animals and which were the most dangerous (the carnivores!). 

Aside from our Mantle story, the children had a great Friday morning when Mrs Bregu taught them a bit about Albania, her home country. They saw the the landscape, learnt about the flag and (most importantly) tried some delicious food. 

Thursday afternoon was so sunny that we couldn't resist going for a walk. Our original plan was disrupted when we discovered that one of our favourite trees had been severely damaged by the storms. The upside of this was that the children had a lovely time exploring the fallen tree and using their climbing skills!

Maths:

Year 1 have finished their unit of work on numbers to 100. Continual practice of identifying how many tens and 1s are in a number, and how much each digit is worth will be helpful for the children, for example: 
64 has 6 tens and 4 1s. The 6 is worth 60 and the 4 is worth 4. 

To practice this play shark numbers. 

As you play, talk about what each digit is worth in each number and practice counting in 10s and on in 1s. 

Reception have continued their work on subitising and have also been ordering numbers and revisiting number bonds to 5. 

To practice bonds to 5, you can use this 5 Specked Frogs animation. As you go, talk about the bond it represents (eg if there is 1 frog in the pond and 4 on the short, 1 and 4 makes 5) and keep reciting the bond. 

For an extra challenge, you can create a 'pairs' game. Lay down the numbers 0,5,4,1,3,2 face down and play pairs, turning over two numbers and keeping them if they make 5. You can add spots to the cards to help your child to work out whether they make 5. 

Phonics:

Year 1 have focussed on 'oo' alternatives:  oo, u_e, ue and ew (the last one was brand new). They also looked at alien and real words and practised spotting digraphs and trigraphs in order to read them. This is a necessary skill for June's phonics check, so your challenge this week is to practice it! 

Go to phonicsplay.co.uk, click on 'resources' and play 'buried treasure'. Choose 'ue' or 'ew' and play the game, reading alien and real words. 

Due to our lovely Albanian morning, we did not do our spelling challenge - we will do this on Monday instead. 

Reception have added 'igh' and 'qu' to their bank of digraphs and trigraphs. 
Practise these using phonicsplay.co.uk - go to 'resources' and 'buried treasure', then choose 'phase 3' and the digraph you want to practice. This is a good game for spotting digraphs in words and for sounding out and blending. 

We have had a really lovely week. It feels like spring is on its way!

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Simpson

Spring Term Week 7: Books!

 The main theme of this week was... BOOKS. 

The children visited Waterstones on Tuesday where they were given a tour of the book shop and learnt all about what goes on there. Then on Wednesday we celebrated an early World Book Day which was just lovely. The children made a World Book Day t-shirt and a mini book (which they brought home to finish off), and they created a new front cover to enter into a competition that Mrs Bloomer set us at Waterstones. 

Aside from that, we have also managed to fit in some reading, writing and maths!

Phonics

Reception looked at the new digraph 'oo' which can make a long sound (as in moon) or a short sound (as in book).

You can use the grids and pictures here (ignore the 'ar' ones!) to play a game: each player has either the short or long oo grid. Cut out the pictures, turn them face down. Take it in turns to turn one over and say the word. If it goes on your grid, keep it and glue it down. If not, put it back. The winner is the person to complete their grid first. 

Year 1 learnt one new grapheme this week: ie. This grapheme makes two different sounds:

'ee' as in 'field'
'igh' as in 'tie'. 

Next week's spelling challenge words are here.

Maths

Reception continued subitising this week, looking at numbers 1 to 5. Once again, you can use some of these cards to play pairs or snap! For an extra challenge, ask your child how they know what a number is (e.g. they might say they saw a row of 3 with 1 on top so they knew it was 4). 

Year 1 have been ordering numbers from greatest to smallest and vice versa, and also looked at patterns of numbers within a 100 grid. You can practise this using one of two sheets - a tricky one here, and an even trickier one here. 

Have a good weekend!

From Mrs Simpson