This week we have continued our learning all about The Great Fire of London.  We learned about why the fire spread so quickly and, using their knowledge from last week’s drama workshop, the children knew that the houses were made of wood, they were so dry and the weather was hot. There was wind that helped to spread the fire and there were no fire brigades then, so it couldn’t be put out very quickly.  We made a human chain to learn how people had to pass buckets along a long line from the water source to the flames! The children also built houses made of construction in class and added paper flames to them.  We also learned about Samuel Pepys and his diaries and that he buried his cheese and wine to save them from getting burned!

In English we thought about our senses and using an image of the Great Fire, we brainstormed as a class, words that described what we thought we could hear, see, smell and feel.  For example, see red and orange, hear shouting, smell smoke and feel heat. Their imaginations grew and we had some lovely ideas. The children then used their phonics to sound out words to add to their own senses sheet.

In maths, we learned about one more and one less up to 5. We sang the song ‘5 currant buns’ and acted out the rhyme using children and buns, noticing how there was 1 less bun each time.  We explored these amounts on 5 frames and physically placed one more and one less using counters.  We then noticed the numerals on a number track and spotted how one more comes after and one less comes before the given number.

We have been very busy practising our Nativity on the stage!  The children are trying hard to remember what to do and say.  Please help your child to practise their lines at home.  Please could you send in your child’s Nativity costume now.  We’d like to have them all in by the week beginning the 4^th December please. (Next week).

In PSHE we listened to the story ‘Farmer Duck’ and thought about how our behaviour can have an affect on others and to consider actions that are fair and unfair.  We acted out the story and talked about  why working together and being kind to each other is so important.   How can we do that in our classroom and at school?

Remember to check our Forest Time sessions photos in the Forest Time section of this class page.

In Monster Phonics this week we learned the sound oo which the monster Cool Blue makes. 

Please see the video in the Monster Phonics section of our web page to see the actions for these sounds and practise those from the start to end.

We also introduced the words then, them, this, that, said.  We have sent home set 10 of the High Frequency Words to learn this week. Please continue to practise reading these at home.  Thank you for sharing the children’s reading books with them.  The share together book that your child chooses is simply to enjoy, with you reading it to them.  These are not intended for the children to read!  Please read reading books as much as possible (daily would be ideal) even though it is repetition, it is so good for their memory of words, blending sounds and building up their confidence to read fluently.

Have a lovely weekend!