What have we been up to?

Autumn Term 1:

Chestnut Class have had a busy first term, getting to know us, each other, the classroom, the school, the routines and expectations and that is just the start of it!

In addition, they have been introduced to Bug Club Phonics and Numberblocks, Forest School sessions, Music and PE.

And, finally (although this is not an exhaustive list) they have been having fun!

The term also included activities around creating ‘All About Me’ books, discovering nature and the changing seasons, roleplaying families/homes, creating artwork to express their interests, taking turns to talk and listen to each other in ‘show and share’ sessions and listening to lots of stories and poems.

Autumn Term 2:

This term we will be focussing on festivals and celebrations. We have been looking at the similarities between different customs and religions and how people experience certain events across the world.

Week 2 - Chestnut Class participated in a remembrance service and learnt about the significance of poppies. We also began finding out about the Hindu festival of Diwali and how some of the celebrations compare to those experienced during Bonfire night. The children have been creating firework pictures, rangoli artwork and are in the process of making clay diva lamps.

Week 3 - This week we have been focussing on the Christian celebration of Christmas. The children have been told a variety of versions of the Nativity and this will help the children to have ownership of their script for the Christmas Play. They have also been choosing the characters they would like to be and thinking about what they might say.

Other news – We enjoyed discovering frost and ice in our outdoor area and this led to a science experiment about freezing and melting. We later observed a robin singing in our wild area that we encouraged by using a bird song app. The children were also excited to see our new reading swing chair, which was kindly bought by the PTA. Thank you!

Week 4

This week we have been working on the Christmas Play script ready for our rehearsals next week. The children have all contributed, suggesting phrases and writing captions that have helped to form the script. Each child will have a short amount of dialogue and narration to learn and will be practising in the hall most days leading up to the dress rehearsal. The children watched a previous FS Nativity production (current Year 5 class) and were keen to know what to expect. We also showed them the stage and discussed the need for costumes, props, microphone, lights and backdrops to make the performance special.

Other news – The children all busily made advent calendars to start the lead up to Christmas next week. Each child will get to open their advent calendar and have the choice of either a chocolate smartie or savoury cheese star as a little treat with their fruit or vegetables at snack time.

We have also entered a portrait competition after creating pastel self-portraits following our ‘This is Me’ project. The artwork will be displayed alongside the now decorated clay Diva lamps at the end of this term.

Final Weeks of Term

It has been a wonderful (and busy) lead up to the end of term, culminating with an incredible Nativity performance from Chestnut Class. We were so proud of all of the children who certainly lived up to their potential and delivered their best show of all. It was so good that it blew Mr. Poote away (sorry to have alarmed any members of the audience who were not expecting him to fly off his chair!)

We also showcased some of our artwork for this term; with clay divas from our Divali celebrations, self-portraits from our ‘All About Me’ project and some characterful hedgehogs from Forest School.

The children also earned another row of pants on the line for all their hard work in the rehearsals, ending with a class party for their treat on the last day (in their PJ’s!)

We hope that you and your children have a special Christmas and hopefully manage some rest before we start the new term.

Wishing you all Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year.

Mr Poote and the FS Team

Spring Term 1:

Week 1

Welcome back and Happy New Year!

I hope you have all had a good Christmas and New Year. It has been lovely to reconnecting with the everyone and to hear about the children’s Christmas break. This week we have been going back over routines and expectations and helping the children settle back into school life. It can be quite an adjustment for some and they will surely be feeling the effects of full days and early starts again.

We have been recapping the phonemes taught last term and have six more before we start the next phase of our phonic programme. We will send the last sets of sounds out next week when they have all been introduced and then we will be going back over all of the sounds with a greater emphasis on blending and segmenting as well as letter formation.

We have done an assessment on how well the children have retained the phonemes and we will share this with you for reference. This will help to support and focus on any gaps in their learning.

Other news…

We have introduced an opportunity for children to choose a story for us to read at the end of the day and the children are encouraged to write down their choice and post it in a box to be selected at random (please ask your child about this). This week one of the books chosen was about a Trip to London, which provided an opportunity to look at London and Long Crendon on Google Earth, picking out familiar landmarks and comparing where we live to our capital city.

We have also been asking the children to think of ideas for a new role-play area. We will be learning about the Lunar New Year, in particular Chinese customs and this will be an opportunity to initiate a small topic starting next week.

Finally, we will be looking at the world in general this term and finding out about the environmental impact humans have on earth, specifically on nature. We will be launching this with an exciting virtual tour around Plymouth Aquarium on Monday.

We are still waiting for our new website to be launched, which will allow us to add photos of some of the things that are happening, but until then, please keep a look out for photos in the classroom to show what we have been up to. It is going to be an exciting term!

Week 2

This week we had a virtual visit to Plymouth Aquarium to launch a project on conservation. The children enjoyed an interactive live tour of the marine life tanks, which was very exciting! We saw turtles, sharks, rays to list but a few. There was also an opportunity to ask questions and to relay some of our own nature facts. The education lead was really impressed with our knowledge and good listening! This was the perfect platform for our project on oceans and habitats. We watched some footage of Sir David Attenborough talking about how we can do our part to tackle climate change. The children have also been listening to a number of stories and factual books about plastic waste and its impact on the animals in our seas. (You may have one or two questions coming, so be prepared!)

Other news...

We have now completed the first round of our phonics teaching (you should have a complete set of sound sheets to refer to). Next week we will be consolidating the phonemes taught with an emphasis on blending, segmenting and writing. The children will be paired up and working together to practice writing on whiteboards during a short dictation session. Please continue to support 'hand-over-hand' when rehearsing letter formation at home to ensure correct pencil grip and orientation.

The children enjoyed some fun ice collection and playing in the frost this week, with a few experimenting with patterns and shapes. We also looked to see how quickly the ice melted when we finally had some sun!