Chaddleworth St. Andrew’s & Shefford

What a busy week it has been! Preparations are well under way for our Christmas Nativity. The children have worked very hard trying to learn their lines, remember where to stand and remember all the words to the songs! We can't quite believe that the Nativity is almost upon us and so as we took to the stage this week we knew the words "practice makes perfect" were certainly appropriate for our week ahead!

However alongside this there has also been lots of learning going on so let us begin our week of two halves, one in the classroom and one on the stage!

In maths Year 2 have been thinking about adding by making 10. For example, 8 + 4 = ? They have been thinking about how the second number can be partitioned so that one of the parts goes with the 8 to make 10. It is then easier to add on the rest of the ones.

With 8 + 4, we would partition the 4 into 2 parts, each part being worth 2. We could then rearrange the calculation. So...

8 + 4 = 10 + 2

10 + 2 = 12

This is why it is so important that your child knows their pairs of numbers that make 10. The aim is for the children to instantly know these facts without having to work them out. The children have used different pieces of apparatus to help them, from tens frames to part whole models.

Year 1 have also been working very hard in maths. They have continued thinking about the two parts of a number that make up a whole. This week the focus numbers have been number six and number nine. Ask your child how to make this numbers. They have worked them out systematically so keep going over the facts! For example, for number six, 0 + 6 = 6, 1 + 5 = 6, 2 + 4 = 6 all the way up to 6 + 0 = 6.

In Literacy Year 2 have been thinking about the Christmas Story. They have boxed the story up into different parts, thinking about which important vocabulary they will need for each part. Next week they will re-tell the story and write it. This is in preparation for writing a recount once we have visited the museum next week.

In spelling Year 2 have been thinking about the alternative ways of writing "j". These are g, "ge" and "dge".

J is used at the start of a word unless i , y or e follows it. If these letters follow the "j" sound, "g" is generally used. For example, giant and gem.

If a word ends in "j" there are two choices. If the "j" sound follows a short vowel, we use dge, for example hedge.

If the "j" sound follows all other long vowels and consonants, we use "ge". For example, age and village. The "a" is acting as along vowel "ai".

In P.E. on Monday, the children were lucky to have another session with a sports specialist teacher from Park House. This week the focus was on speed stacking. This is where lots of cups are stacked, repositioned, turned upside down etc often against a set amount of time. The children had great fun!

On Wednesday, we walked to the village hall in Great Shefford to hang our decorations on the village Christmas tree. It was a lovely frosty morning which made the event feel even more special!

gobble! gulp! hmmmm! mmmmmm!

sssshhhhh! CRRREEEAAAKKK!!!!!

What else could make us create sounds like these but chocolate cake of course! As we continued reading one of our favourite Michael Rosen poems, Kingfishers laughed and read with amazing intonation, changing the pitch of their voice whilst reading to convey the emotion, attitude and Michael Rosen's intent. It was lovely to see how well Kingfishers have understood Michael Rosen's intentions with this poem, understanding the temptation around the chocolate cake and enjoying discussing whether Michael's mum would in fact ever allow him to have another piece of chocolate cake again!

Over the weekend have a think about these questions and why not draw a picture of your favourite cake!

What is your favourite cake?

Why is it your favourite?

Who makes it?

What noises do you think you would hear when eating it?

After an afternoon rehearsing it was time to get some fresh air with Coach Tom, so outside we went and we were delighted to be developing our attack, shoot and defending skills again, with our first activity our sharks and fishes game, which we always love!

This week it was a very close game, the sharks were extremely fast but our fish were certainly not giving up!

Once we'd warmed up we were then split into pairs and played a farmer and sheep game, would the farmer catch the sheep before they escaped?

We had a great MNR session!

We can hardly believe that the end of the week is already here and what a wonderful way to end but with an afternoon of our Nativity carols and then some exploration of our Victorian suitcase! What would we find inside the case this week?

As we opened up the case we could hardly believe our eyes! An actual coin from Queen Victoria's coronation, a glass jar from the Victorian times, a Christmas card and a cross stitch! Kingfishers were all amazed that these items were actually from the Victorian times and still looked in such good condition!