WEEK 8 - End of Term 1

What a fantastic start to the school year Robins have had, we can't believe that we are already at the end of Term 1! As we get ready to spend our week off from school digging deep into pumpkins, running through crispy leaves and even seeing some fireworks, we started the week with some wonderful retelling of trips of Welford Park to see the Spectacle of light, it sounded amazing!

"It was dark and cold but I saw lots of pretty lights" 

"We didn't get home until bedtime!"

This led us fantastically into our RE lesson this week, where we started learning all about Diwali, the festival of light! The children loved watching a video about a little girl who was celebrating Diwali with her family and we saw how they decorated their house both indoors and outdoors using candles and even glowsticks in the trees! Some of us thought this was a particularly good idea as it would help animals see a lot better in the dark...."Cats and dogs can then see the lights and know when they get home"!

We then used salt dough to make our very own Diva candle holders, using our thumbs to make a circle in the middle and then pinching the sides to form the rim. We then pinched one part of our candle holder to form a tear effect...we can't wait till after half term when we get to paint them with bright colours and decorate them with sequins!

Within Maths this week we continued to develop our subitising 'instant recognition' skills, focusing at the start of the week at looking at small quantities to see if quantity had changed or only the arrangement. Robins also discussed the different ways to represent the same number using our fingers..

          Can you show 3

           a different way?

 

 

Robins then played subitising hunt and were given two cards with pictures on to subitise. They then had to find the correct table to put the picture they had subitised onto, were there 1, 2 or 3 on their card? The hunt was on!

On Tuesday they were ready to subitise some more and soon we were engaged in a game of Bingo! The children loved taking it in turns to pick a card to subitise before carefully checking whether they needed it for their Bingo board, everyone was very pleased that they got to shout "BINGO" once all their cards had been subitised corrected, what super subitising! 

On Tuesday it was PE. Robins love their PE lessons and this week's lesson certainly didn't disappoint!

As they entered the hall we immediately heard "It's an assault course!" and "Wow, look at the tunnel!", the children were hooked and today we put all of those skills that we've been practicing into action. From negotiating the space around us, to developing our balance along the benches, weaving through the cones and then finishing by jumping over the hurdles!

It was lovely to see how far the children have come since our very first lesson together and even when they found something difficult they showed great resilience and enthusiasm for having a go!

We finished off by playing Mr Freeze where we had to make either a star, tuck or straight pose each time Mrs Brown called Mr Freeze, some of us started to melt a little bit and went a bit wobbly but the poses were fantastic!

Before we sign off for the week, we wanted to draw your attention to some additional Phonics blending sheets that we have put in the book bags. We have already come to the end of Phase 2 sounds and after half term we will be moving onto Phase 3. Just to make sure that the children are super confident we have given your child some sheets they caan 'read' at home. What we have been finding in class (this is all good by the way) is that when we, the adult sounds out the word - the children can blend and say the word with confidence, however, when they sound the word out they sometimes find it trickier to blend - this is all part of the process and next steps of learning to read. Over the half term encourage your child to sound talk and blend - the more they do it themselves the easier it becomes. Once this step is cracked then we are READERS!!!!! How exciting.

Also, just to add to the excitiement, after half term they will be learning to write. We use the cursive style of handwriting and introduce children to vocabulary such as lead in strokes, lead out strokes, ascenders and decenders! But again, dont panic - we will hold a 15 minunte workshop on Thursday 7th November 3.20-3.35 (ish) so if you want to join us you will be more than welcome - it is not as difficult as it sounds!

Have a wonderfulf half term - stay safe and see you all again on Monday 4th November