Week ending 20th September 2024

I am sure by now you all know about the 'Helper list' - well can you believe it, everyone has had a turn already, yes, we have worked our way through the class list, so come Monday we start at the top of the list and do it all again. It won't be long before the children themselves work out 'how many sleeps' until their turn - it is something so simple but it means a huge amount to the children, their self esteem goes through the roof, just listening to their confidence when asking others their names, asking them to line up or take a message to another class - such a privilege for us to see it all in action and watch them 'grow'.

This week we added a few more things to our daily timetable. It is only our second full week and already we are seeing routines becoming embedded, they are recognising their names on their book bags and water bottles as well as being able to find their 'places' on the tables as they come into the classroom in the morning, they are becoming more independent and less reliant on our support. They are asking when are we going to sing the days of the week song (we sing it everyday and I hardly have to sing along with them anymore), they look forward to putting their feeling flowers in the pot - I might even go so far as saying they enjoy tidy up time - everything is fun and that is exactly the way school should be - they don't realise just how much they are learning.

As we enjoyed what might be the last few days of Summer, Robins started the week with smiling faces as they all came back after a weekend break from school! They were very excited to tell us all about the adventures that they had been on over the weekend, whether this be spending time at home with their family, playing with their favourite toys or for some of our Robins, taking a trip to the park, it was lovely to hear their excitement as they recalled all their facts.

There was however one member of Robins who had been on a particularly big adventure at the weekend and despite being a little bit sore on Monday morning she was eager to tell us all about her adventure! At the weekend Mrs Langford had been busy raising money for Pulmonary Fibrosis by completing the Thames Bridges Trek where she walked an amazing 25km across London, crossing 16 bridges and only stopping once for a break! We are so proud to have Mrs Langford as a Robin and loved seeing the medal that she got as recognition for this amazing achievement! 

In Maths this week the children continued to explore matching, sorting and comparing with this week's focus on them identifying a set. We created different sets of objects and Robins enjoyed using real lunch boxes to select a delicious lunch and create a set, also recognising what objects might not belong in the set such as a pencil or a book! In the end all of us had a sandwich, a carton of milk, an apple and a pear....wow what a lunch! They then used this understanding of creating sets in thier independent learning time in the Home Corner.

What sets can you think of that you use at home? 

A really important part of our Library time is introducing the children to a wide range of vocabulary. Even before opening the book Mrs. Langford talks about the title, author, illustrator, spine, blurb and flick test - this week, ask your child - "We don't say the name of the book, we say the.....? Hopefully they will say title, they may even remember the word blurb and what the blurb does, if not don't worry, these are words that they will be exposed to daily, they will soon have the answers tripping off the end of their tongues!.

Look at our creations this week! It has been wonderful to see how creative and imaginative all our Robins are, from drawing dragons to creating birds in junk modelling, drawing pictures of their family to making colourful containers, we've simply been blown away by them all!

My particular favourite was when a 'lion' came over to talk to me! (luckily it was a very friendly lion.)

On Wednesday, we were ready to burst with excitement, yes it was Pantomimus (music lesson) and we met Danielle. Danielle is one of the most fantastic music teachers and she comes in every Wednesday afternoon to teach us. It is so difficult to take photos during Pantomimus sessions because the children are rarely still, they are up dancing, skipping, clapping etc. At the end of the session, Danielle brought the children back from the hall into the classroom and their smiles were enormous -we think Wednesday is going to be the most favourite day of the week for some children. 

Also on Wednesday we had our first 'House Meeting', we headed off into different classrooms, depending on where our House were gathered, Watermill (Green), Arlington (Red) or to Anvil (Purple). Our brief was to welcome new members and get to know each other and to design and create a House team display. We don't want to reveal too much as it is still a work in progress - all I can say is watch this space as soon as the displays are up in school, we will do a 'big reveal' right here! This is just a little taster of what Watermill got up to....

And finally.....and this really did make me smile... on Friday, I was in the classroom during lunch time, in fact, I was typing up this page. It was almost 1 o'clock and I heard thunder and it was loud. I headed outside to the playground just to check that all the Robins were ok and that none of them were worried or frightened by the thunder - well I don't think they even noticed, they were all still outside playing happily. Five minutes later it rained and rained and rained and there was even more thunder, again, it was loud - did it bother the Robins, absolutely not they got stuck into their phonics learning followed by a bit of relaxing Cosmic Yoga!

What a way to end the week.

Have a great weekend and see you all next week.

(and good luck to the Red Kites who are heading off on their residential trip next week, don't worry about your younger siblings, we will look after them - just enjoy yourselves).

(and finally finally, for those of you who are planning on attending, enjoy the Newbury Show over the weekend and make sure you pop over to see the school stand and say Hello).