Welcome back and a very happy and healthy New Year wish to you all. It was lovely to see everyone back on Tuesday and the children all seemed genuinely pleased to see their friends again. Early morning child initiated play has been full of chatter and sharing news and we also had a new addition to our class, Jovan comes from Belgrade and speaks Serbian. .He has very little spoken English at the moment, however he has made amazing progress throughout the week and the children have welcomed him into their play .
We had our 'Values' assembly on Tuesday and Mrs. Driver introduced us to the value for January which is kindness.
In literacy our writing this week was about our Christmas presents and moved on to writing speech bubbles from the story of the Lion and the Mouse and Mr Big goes to the park. Use of the word grid should improve for independent writing as we work on our writing, reading and spelling skills throughout this term, both in school and at home. Practise some word finding with the grid so that your child can use it independently and gets to know which words are on it and what they need to try for themselves in their word book. You say a word they point to it.
As part of our work on spoken language we acted out the story of ‘The lion and the mouse’ using the stick puppets. If your child has not involved you in the acting out of the story with their puppets, have a go this weekend!
New spellings will come out on Monday once I have looked at what they have remembered from last term, which I will do over the weekend.
Maths has been a revision and consolidation week, to assess the individual and group needs. Everyone has improved with laying out their numbers in a number line and answering questions on what is 1 more, what number comes after, before or between others. Some children get confused with 1 less and number recognition of 13, 15 and 20 is a common issue. Have a go with your child and see how they have progressed and where some work could be done at home to support their learning in class.
The schedule for Show and Tell is in your child’s book bag, keep it safe and available for reference. Please remember your baby and toddler photos for ‘Show and Tell’ for Wednesday. If you bring them in on Monday I will keep them safe and it will remind those who have forgotten. Bring them in an envelope and don’t let your child show everyone before school as we play a ‘match the baby to the toddler ‘game. If you intend to e-mail them to me please do it at the weekend so that I have time to print them off.(My e-mail is on the letter)
I hope that you have found and read the letter about the purpose of the collection box that your child brought home today. It is for loose change over the next few weeks and to be kept at home until 15th February please.The money will be counted in our maths work and sent off for Samali, the child from Africa that we sponsor.
Apologies for the lack of photos in the blog this week. Mrs Stephenson only works 4 mornings and 1 afternoon for these next two terms and the rest of us are shocking at remembering to take pictures. We will have to get the children more involved again!
I am sure that you have all said your goodbyes to Andrew and his family as they leave us for new adventures in California. As a class we have said that we will keep in touch and of course Andrew will be able to access our weekly blog on the website to see what we are all up to! We wish him and his family all the very best of luck.
Once again, just a reminder that I am always here if you have any questions, problems or anything that you think that I need to know about your child.
Have a great weekend.