Happy New Year!

Firstly we would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

We hope that all of our families had a wonderful Christmas and thank you all for the thoughtful gifts that you so kindly gave to us at the end of last term. 

Before we dive into the week we have a question to ask.

Do you have a spare 10 minutes in the morning when you drop off - if so would you like to stay in the classroom and listen to two children read. This does not have to be a regular thing, just as and when you have a moment - let us know in the morning and we will line someone up ready for you!

Your support will make such a difference.

Thank you

w/b 06.01.2025

A new term and a new week

We can't quite believe how quickly the festive season came and went, and just like that it's 2025 already and we have been met with a freezing cold start to the year but what more could we ask for than the magic of snow? As the children came excitedly back into Robins, full of stories of Christmas, there was one main thing on their mind and that was 'It snowed at my house Mrs Brown!!!!!'. They could barely contain their excitement and as the week progressed the weather didn't disappoint and we were treated to more than one flurry of snow! 

As part of our morning routine, we check the weather on the BBC weather page - we have introduced vocabulary such as United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, temperature and degrees. We talked about water freezing at 0°, but it was no good just talking about it, we had to find out for ourselves. We filled a beaker of water and left it outside all day, at 3.00 before going home it was time for one last check of the day......no, it was still a liquid, it was still water. We checked the forecast and noticed it was going to be below freezing overnight. Someone suggested we leave the cup out all night....so that is exactly what we did. You guessed it, the next morning the liquid was a solid and it had turned to ice! Super exciting!

All this talk of freezing temperatures and icy conditions led us nicely into our small world area where this term, we are exploring the polar regions. Robins loved going on an adventure with the polar bears, penguins, orcas and seals....through the snow and ice, they braved their way....who knows where their adventures will take them next week!

Robins have come back ready to take on further challenges and build on the progress made last term. The new morning activity involves fine tuning our letter formation. Every morning we will continue to reinforce and embed the formation of the cursive style script. You know how the saying goes - use it or lose it - well we will certainly be using our writing skills every day in Robins. 

Even when we found it a bit tricky at first Robins showed courage and determination to keep going! We even used our phonic knowledge to think of a word beginning with the sound we were practising to draw a picture and label it!

Our writing didn't stop there, we then took this into our free flow, selecting a picture and then writing the CVC word on our whiteboard! Wow what a start to the year!

In Jigsaw (PSED) we started the year by introducing our new theme of 'Dreams and goals' and discussed how sometimes we might be faced with challenges where we need to show courage and work together to overcome them. We then split Robins into two groups and had 2 minutes to see if we could work as a group to build the tallest tower!

Despite finding it a bit challenging at first, Robins soon found that if they worked together they could build a tower and that even if their tower fell down they needed to show resilience and begin building it again. It was great to see Robins enjoying themselves working as a team and adapting so quickly!

In Maths this week we were focusing on making comparisons between quantities, including when the quantities of objects are equal. Robins enjoyed using their 'claw' to pick up cubes from the basket and then place them along the line, they then counted how many cubes they had managed to collected before showing me by selecting the correct number card. We then compared the quantities using the following language 'more than', 'fewer than' and 'an equal number'. 

And of course there was always time for some 'frozen' activities.....

Tuesday's could only mean one thing.....the return of PE! This week we were developing our balancing skills and using the theme of the circus to help us! Whether we had been to the circus or not, it didn't matter because we immersed ourselves into the experience and after we warmed ourselves up we were soon ready for the high top!

As the balancing activities were set out for some there were sounds of 'ooooo's' and 'ahhhh's' and for others it was more of a 'I'm not doing that!' but we were soon reminded that this term was all about courage and how we could help each other to overcome our fears! As we all practiced our balancing on the first two benches we were soon building our confidence and by the end of the lesson everyone and I mean everyone had balanced along the thin bench! What an achievement, everyone in Robins were awarded a blue courage leaf for truly showing determination, courage and bravery! We couldn't be prouder of you all....and of course you all developed your balance skills as well!

Part of the EYFS curriculum is for children " to use a range of small tools, including scissors, paint brushes and cutlery", in order to achieve this skill, we have introduced our Friday "cutlery development sessions" - it sounds awfully technical but basically, we were making toast and learning how to use a knife to spread and cut. Our 'reward' was to eat the product of our efforts! Naturally, myself and Mrs Langford took our time to demonstrate EVERY step (yes, including eating the toast - well it had to be done). Special mention here to Everly's Auntie Karen, we were repeatedly informed that Auntie Karen and Everly do this thing all the time! The children thoroughly enjoyed it and it was a great way to end a very cold and for some quite an emotional, exhausting and overwhelming week!

It wil take a little while for the us all to get back into routine but we will get there - there is no rush.

Have a great weekend - and see you all on Monday!