Week 5 - 4th October

This week's page is a long one so I will try my best to keep the points brief but for those of you who know me well, know I am a talker so keeping things brief is going to be a challenge for me - haven't quite understood the concept of less is more!!!!

I want to start off with a huge thank you to those of you who were able to attend the phonics workshop this week - turnout was great, your enthusiasm was terrific and we just know that with your support we are going to have a class of super readers (most of them came in on Friday and couldn't wait to get stuck into reading). 

So how did the rest of the week unfold - lets find out......

On Monday we welcomed Mr Warren to the school for a whole school, full day golfing experience. Robins learnt how to hold a putter correctly, recognising that it looks very similar to their leg and foot, learning how to align it and check if it looked the same....this really helped with their putting skills.                                                                                     

As their confidence grew Robins kept hitting the ball closer to the 'hole' in the middle of the hall with some of them even getting a hole in one!!!!! 

With each turn we took, we could take a cone away and as we progressed Mr Warren taught us how to position our mats to ensure the arrow was pointing in the right direction. By the end of our session everyone had managed to get the ball into the 'hole'....what super golfers we were, it might be time to take some autographs now!

Also, this week we started our Jigsaw sessions (which is our whole school teaching approach to personal, social, health and economic education, PSHE) with a particular focus on supporting children's mental health and wellbeing through mindful activities. Within Jigsaw the children will meet different Jigsaw characters each year as well as Paws the cat, these characters are also physically cuddly characters within the classroom. The Jigsaw programme aims to nurture children's development as compassionate and well-rounded human beings.

Each session begins by a chime bar being played and a 'calm me' script being read to the children. This is used to centre the children's attention and help them relax their bodies and calm their minds. These scripts use very simple breathing and visualisation techniques. 

In Jigsaw this week Robins met Jigsaw Jennie for the first time and even though she was a bit shy she was really excited to meet them all! We talked about the rules in Jigsaw and how we all need to respect each other when listening to each others thoughts even if we have another idea. Jigsaw Jennie then shared her favourite song with Robins called 'Together' and can't wait to start teaching them the song next week!!!

Moving on, in our Phonics sessions, the children are learning more and more sounds and now have quite a bank building up and the Phonics sessions are becoming more exciting! During this CVC matching game the children were able to find the correct magnetic phonemes and place them onto the sound buttons, we then worked together to segment and then blend them together to read the words.

In your child's Reading Record wallet you will see a key ring with all the Phase 2 sounds - so far we have learnt 

s     a     t     i     p     n     m     d     g     o    

Next week we will be learning ( please feel free to do some pre learning over the weekend)

c     k     ck     e     u     r 

It was not just Phonics that was exciting this week, Maths was too, with the introduction of subitising - if you don't know what subitising is, ask your child (it's being able to recognise an amount without counting - just by looking.) During our Maths lessons, we had lots of images flashing up on the board and the children had to shout out the amount they saw, but it had to be done instantly....no counting!

I promise I am trying to keep it brief (but feel I am failing) !!!!

It was National Poetry Day on Thursday so of course, it was the perfect time to learn a poem. I am sure if you ask, your child will recite the whole poem with very little support from you - give it a go!

And finally....on Friday we went on our first welly walk. We didn't go far, just a quick walk around the block to set the expectations, it was quite exciting! We put on our hi-vis jackets (the children were calling them life jackets which was rather worrying.....don't quite know what they thought was going to happen!!!!), Teddy had spotted an amazing grasshopper during lunch time and wondered if it had made it's way to the bug hotel located in the village - we did look but couldn't see it, perhaps it was too early for a 'check in'.

When we arrived back to the classroom it was time to wind down, have our milk and get ready for the end of the day, however, some soft and fluffy little visitors popped in to see us. We wish this could happen every Friday!

And finally finally - I am not what you would call tech savvy - I have heard about followers on Instagram but can't really hold a conversation about it as my knowledge is very limited, however, I feel we have two new 'followers' to our page this week - so welcome to Ms. Munday's Dad, I hear you are a huge fan of this page and also welcome to Mrs Kimber's grandaughter, who despite being only 8 weeks old is learning all about what we get up to in Robins! 

Have a great weekend everyone and see you all on Monday (as well as seeing you all next week in parents evenings)