We have another amazing week in Robins class.

In English we have started reading a new book “Handa’s Surprise” by Eileen Browne. The story is set in Africa.  In the story Handa visits her friend, carrying some fruits as a gift.  We looked closely at some of the fruits from the story; banana, orange, mango, guava, passion fruit and pineapple. We also felt the fruits and smelt them.   We discussed the story and focussed on the descriptions of the different fruits.  We then placed a variety of different fruits on the table for the children to explore and we then wrote our own descriptions of the fruits using two adjectives.  E.g. red, crunchy apple.  Long, yellow banana. Soft, juicy orange.  The children thought of some great descriptions!

In our topic work, we have started to learn about Africa.  We chose this as a contrasting locality to Antarctica.  We have looked at Africa on a map and a globe and learned that it is made up of lots of different countries.  We have also looked at photographs of Africa and the children started to understand what it is like commenting that it is hot and sunny among other things. We have already started making comparisons between Africa and Antarctica. The children immediately noticed that the temperature is much hotter.  They have commented on the variety of animals that live in Africa compared to Antarctica and that it is populated with people, towns, cities, trees etc whereas Antarctica is not populated at all (save for the explorers).

We also cut open the fruits from the story Handa’s Surprise and explored what they look like inside.  We then made careful observational paintings and drawings of the fruits.  The children have created some fabulous artwork!

In maths we have been continuing our learning of different ways to make 10.  We have looked at different amounts in ten-frames and said the total using our subitising skills.  (Knowing the number of items by recognising the pattern or arrangement of objects).  We have played a great game to help us practise our subitising skills and our number bonds to 10.

Next week we will continue our learning about Africa.  We will look at the different towns, cities and houses and compare them with those in England. We will also look at some African artwork and will produce some African-style art work of our own.

We are also looking forward to our zoo visit in a couple of weeks where we will be able to see up close some of the animals that are native to Africa and Antarctica.

Forest Schools

Don't forget to look at our Forest School page to see what we have been doing.  This week amongst other things we have been looking for signs of Spring and we have been climbing trees (closely supervised of course!) Please see photos on our Forest Schools page. 

https://www.repton-pri.derbyshire.sch.uk/10322/

Homework

Please continue to read regularly with your child at home.  It really is making a great difference.  Don’t forget you can also access extra online reading books on Bug Club.

https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0

Spelling Shed

Please support your child to practise sounding out and spelling their words on the Spelling Shed app. It helps them to use and apply the sounds they have learned recently in phonics.  This week we are practising words containing the “or” digraph.  The children score points every time they practise their spellings on spelling shed and each class competes against each other for fun.  The top three scoring classes are read out in assembly each week.  Let’s see if our Robins can get onto the leader board next week.

https://play.edshed.com/en-gb/

Have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday.