Welcome back and happy new year!

We have had a great first week; settling back into the usual routines and it feels like the children were never away!

This term our topic is ‘Our Amazing World’.  We have begun by looking at maps and asking the question ‘What is a map?’  We read Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins and plotted the story into a map in order to recall and retell it together.  We also acted out the story using real objects to represent the farmyard, such as the mill, haycock, beehives and pond.  The children retold the story by walking around, over, through and past the various obstacles.  We then progressed into turning the real objects into a picture map on a giant piece of paper.  The children gained a good understanding of what a map is and how it is used.

In maths we have been consolidating 5 and the composition of 5.  We sang 5 currant buns and talked about one less.  We also represented the amounts on a 5 frame and used a numeral too.  We also had a teddy bears’ picnic, where we shared the currant buns between different amounts of teddies.  We talked about more, fewer, fairness, equal to and solved problems around these concepts.

We had a fabulous day of baking on Tuesday when we made bread rolls!  The children weighed and measured the ingredients, left it to prove and then formed the rolls to cook and then eat in the afternoon.  They were delicious!  You can see photos of these on our class page.

In PSHE we learned about different ways to keep healthy. We talked about eating healthy foods, exercise and washing our hands to keep the germs away.  We did a great glitter experiment, where one child put glitter on their hands (to represent germs), then shook hands with other children, who then shook hands again.  The glitter ended up over everyone’s hands; showing how germs are spread.

We enjoyed our first Forest Learning session of the new year this week by creating a route through the forest just like Rosie did on her walk around the farmyard.  The children moved, over, under, around and through the forest and could talk about their journeys, using propositional language to explain where they went.  Please see photos on our Forest Learning class page.

In Monster Phonics this week we learned the alternative ‘oo’ sound (as in book).  Tricky Witch has changed Cool Blue’s oo to oo in some words.  We read Little Red Riding Hood which contained lots of oo words.

We also attended our very first Celebration Assembly this week, on Friday afternoon.  From next week the children will begin to win awards for Respect, Pride or Success or receive a leaf for the Tremendous Tree for good behaviour.  You will be invited in via a message on Parent Hub the night before, if your child is due to receive one.

Have a lovely weekend and we will see you next week.