Another wonderful week has flown by in the Owls classroom! It has been fantastic to welcome the children back after the half-term break, and they have settled back into school life brilliantly. We would also like to extend a very warm welcome to our newest student, Abigail. It has been a pleasure meeting you and we are so glad that you have joined our Owl community!

In Maths this week, we have been completing our learning on Statistics by interpreting pictograms. The children have practised using and reading keys, applying their 2, 5 and 10 times table knowledge, and finding the difference between two sets of data. To finish the unit, the children completed an assessment to demonstrate their understanding of everything they have learned. Owls, can you tell a grown-up what you have learnt this week? Why not create your own family pictogram together?

In English, we have begun exploring our new stimulus, The Way Back Home. This heartwarming story tells the tale of a boy who befriends a Martian, and together they help one another repair their machines so they can return home from space. During the week, the children discussed and sequenced the story before drawing their favourite part. Our focus this half-term is instructional writing, and the children have thoroughly enjoyed completing a grammatical feature treasure hunt, particularly looking for imperative verbs and words ending in the suffixes -er and -est. We have also explored how to make our vocabulary choices more ambitious when writing instructions. Owls, can you explain what an imperative verb is? Can you tell a grown-up about your favourite part of the story?

In Phonics this week, we have been learning about the "ti" (sh) grapheme and how to add suffixes to words containing this spelling pattern. The children particularly enjoyed revisiting the song Commotion at the Station and reading U-Hoo's Big Commotion to support their understanding. Thank you for continuing to support your child's reading and phonics practice at home using Spelling Shed.

This week has also involved lots of exciting Science learning. The children enjoyed designing their own plant pots on paper before creating them from clay. They showed great creativity and care when bringing their designs to life. We then explored the life cycle of a plant and completed a challenge where the children had to correctly reorder each stage to demonstrate their understanding. Owls, can you tell a grown-up how you made your plant pot and what inspired your design? What can you remember about the life cycle of a plant?

The children have worked incredibly hard this week and have come up with some fantastic ideas in class. We are so proud of their enthusiasm, resilience and positive attitudes towards learning.

Well done, Owls – keep being wise and keep soaring! We can't wait to see what exciting learning next week brings.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs A and Mrs T-D 😊