Autumn Term 2020

 

This is a very strange year for us all.

My aim is to keep class 1 as normal as possible and to continue to help every child flourish, despite the unprecedented times.

For those of you with children that have previously been in class 1, there are a few logistical changes to the day.

We will be spending a lot more time outside using and enjoying our wonderful outdoor area. This means your child will need a coat every day. The children will then have small group literacy and numeracy activities in the classroom, on a rota, throughout each morning. 

We will not be having playtime or lunchtime with other classes and we are no longer allowed whole school Collective Worship. Please explain this to the older brothers and sisters, so that they are not disappointed when they cannot play with them on the playground.

Who Am I?

This will be our first topic this year.

Within this theme we will be looking at who we are, our likes and dislikes, our families, our senses, parts of the body, favourite food, portraits, birthdays and where we live.

 

There will also be a mini topic on Maweni Primary ( our sister school in Tanzania) and of course CHRISTMAS!

We also like to take into consideration the children’s interests; therefore we will also cover a number of mini topics developed by the children. Keep an eye on the 'This week!' page for more information.

Reception (Class 1) is part of the Early Years Foundation Stage. We work from the same framework as your child’s nursery or preschool. If you are unsure about this or would like information about the end of year expectations then please take a look at the ‘Supporting your child in class 1’ page.

Every day we will be learning a new sound. At Hanley Swan we follow the ‘Read, Write, Inc’ scheme (Please see the ‘Read, Write, Inc information page). It is multi-sensory, active and particularly suitable for young children. It also means that the children are being taught the main 42 sounds of English, not just the alphabet sounds. With this knowledge they are taken through stages of blending sounds to form words and then to reading. At the same time they are taught to write by identifying the sound and relating the letter to those sounds. To help you understand a little bit more about phonics I will send home an information booklet for you to read. It will be in your child’s ‘Reading folder’ along with some other games to play.

Reinforcement of the sounds is very important and each week I post on the 'This Week' page the letters that we will be covering. Please spend a few minutes each evening going over the sounds with your child and helping them to learn them. You can read them, spot them around the house, spot them in magazines & newspapers and find them in reading/story books. Most important of all is to have fun with them.

At Hanley Swan primary school we use the cursive script for writing. The children are taught cursive handwriting right from the start in class 1. This is important for parents to know in case you are writing outside of school. All letters start and finish on the line, if you are unsure about the letters there is a printable alphabet on the ‘Supporting your child in class 1’ page.

Activities in maths will involve sorting, matching, counting and shape/pattern work. Initially these will be largely practical and include the playing of number games and singing and acting out number songs and rhymes, followed by the undertaking of simple recording activities.

 

We will be starting Forest School in a couple of weeks. The children will need wellies (and these are best kept in school). I will let you know on the ‘This week’ page when it is due to start.

 

PE will take place each week. Please make sure they have their PE kit (named) in school every day. When it gets dirty and/or at the end of each half term they will bring it home for a wash.

 

Things to bring to school

PE Kit – Stays in school and sent home to wash if dirty and/or at the end of each half term.

Wellington boots– Stay in school.

Water bottle - returned each day

Packed Lunch 

Coat and if needed cold weather clothes.
When hot – hat and sun cream

In Book bag – everyday :
Reading Folder & Home school liaison book.

(Details about these will follow on the ‘What are we doing this week?’ page)

 

 

 

6.12.20

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Over the next 2 weeks we will be having a lot of Christmas fun. We will continue to explore the story of the birth of Jesus, we will be making Christmas decorations, playing games and making the most of the exciting time of year.

 

On Tuesday we are having a live lesson from the Worcestershire Recycling centre. Michelle, the Educational Liaison Officer will be talking to the class via Microsoft Teams on the importance of recycling during the festive period.  

 

Hopefully, on Friday we will be joining in the Gruffalo live experience. This will be a chance to watch the Gruffalo production live from the West End in London.

 

On Wednesday 9th December the children will be doing a winter dance - please could they have a winter hat (labelled) in school on that day.

 

We will be having a Christmas party on Wednesday 16th December - more details to follow on the Weekly Words.

 

I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! It has been a fabulous term and your children have been a delight to work with. They have ALL worked very hard and deserve a happy and enjoyable Christmas holiday. 

 

 

 

30.11.20

The Countdown to Christmas

 

It is the start of ‘advent’ and we will be celebrating this is class 1 this week. We will begin to look at the story behind this special time of year, we will be creating a ‘Santa’s workshop’ in class and enjoying all things Christmas. We will also be doing a mini theme on the story of 'The Gingerbread Man'.

 

 

23.11.20

Toy Stories

This week we will be exploring stories that involve toys and making up our own Toy Stories. We will be using puppets, toys and our own creations to role play, act out and enjoy little plays that involve toys. 

 

We have several children with clothes that are not named. Please make sure that ALL their clothes are named, it makes it easier for us to find the correct owners.

 

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the parent consultations last week! It was a delight to talk to you about your amazing children and please do not forget to come and ask if there is anything else you would like to know.

 

16.11.20

Diwali and Toys

The week will start with some exploration of the Hindu Festival of Lights - Diwali. We will be learning about where this celebration comes from, who celebrates it and what they do to celebrate it. 

Following this we will be continuing with our theme of toys and exploring stories that involve toys. We will be looking at the variety of toys in the classroom and paying particular attention to the electronic toys. The children will get the chance to play with a programmable toy this week – the Bee Bot.

 

Please do not forget that it is Parents' Evening this week. I look forward to speaking to you all via Teams.

 

9.11.20

Remembrance and Toys

This week we will be starting our new theme for this half term - Toys!

We will be talking about a favourite toys, what makes a good toy an how we play with different toys. If it is possible, it would be great if you could take a photo of your child's favourite toy and email it to class1@hanleyswanps.org.uk (you may get a bounce back email - do not worry, I have still received the photo).

On Wednesday it is Remembrance day, we will take this opportunity to talk about what it means and do some related activities.

 

 

 

2.11.20

Bones and bangs!

 

I hope that you have all had a lovely half term? This week we will be finishing off our theme on 'ourselves'. We will be taking a look inside our bodies and finding out about how our body works and what holds us up - our bones. Funny Bones books will help us out along the way.

We will also be learning about the history behind bonfire night and doing some firework crafts.

 

 

I am pleased to report that all children have made good progress in their sound acquisition and some of the class now know all of the alphabet sounds. These children have started the Read, Write Inc. scheme. For more information on this please see the Read, Write, Inc. page.

 

19.10.20

Our 5 Super Powers

This week we will be looking a little deeper at who we are and what we can do. We will be exploring our 5 senses, how our body is made up and what we can do to develop our super powers.

 

In literacy we will be continuing to blend CVC words, developing our handwriting (particularly our names) and revising  the letters sounds that we have covered so far this year. We have now introduced all of the alphabet sounds plus 'th', 'sh', 'ch', 'ng', 'nk' and 'qu'. If you are missing any of these sounds in your packs then please let me know. 

 

 

Have a lovely half term if I do not get to speak to you this week and remember to keep, reading and revising the letter sounds as frequently as possible.

 

 

 

12.10.20

Hedgehogs and Hibernation

Following on from last week's Autumn theme, this week we will be enjoying finding out about and having fun with hedgehogs.

We will be talking about hibernation, making dough hedgehogs and creating hedgehog homes in Forest School.

We will also be continuing with name writing and introducing more cursive letters.

 

 

 

5.10.20

Autumn leaves are falling down...

Autumn is finally here and this week we will be celebrating this. We will be going on an ‘autumn adventure’ finding evidence for the new season and using the things we find for art and design activities.

Our handwriting this week will concentrate on name writing. We will write our names in a variety of ways and concentrate on helping each child develop their cursive writing.

 

cvc - consonant vowel consonant https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zxfyjty/articles/zs2crdm 

 

Please remember to provide a pair of wellington boots for your child this week. They enjoy going out in the rain and it would be a shame for your child to miss out on splashing in puddles. 

 

Our learning takes place in the classroom and in the outdoor classroom everyday. Could you make sure that your child has a vest / t shirt under their uniform to provide them with some comfort on these cooler days.

 

 

 

28.9.20

Harvest continued...

This week we will be finishing our Harvest topic. We will also be finishing off the story of the Little Red Hen and, hopefully, making bread.

We will also be starting to introduce handwriting this week. We will start by looking at the 'long ladder letters' (l, i, t, u, y &j). 

Please remember that we do cursive script writing, please see the writing support on our class pages for more information.

 

This week we will start Forest School. We will be taking part in this activity on Monday afternoon. The children will NOT need to bring/wear old clothes, the school will provide a set of waterproofs for them to wear. They WILL need wellingtons.

 

Thank you to everyone that returned the reading books on Friday. Do not forget to bring in the library books on Monday.

 

 

cvc - consonant vowel consonant https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zxfyjty/articles/zs2crdm 

 

21.9.20

The Little Red Hen and harvest

This week we will be learning all about harvest time and using the story of the Little Red Hen to help us. We will be exploring where our food comes from and the variety of fruits and vegetables we have.
This week we will also be talking about healthy eating and the importance of eating fruit and veg.

 

I am trying a new format for our literacy and numeracy teaching this week - a simplified weekly table. 

This should help you to have a better understanding of what has been covered, and will help you to support your child if they have to have time off because of Covid testing.

 

cvc - consonant vowel consonant https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zxfyjty/articles/zs2crdm 

 

Library Book

I hope that you have enjoyed the library book over the weekend. 

The library book will need returning on Monday. This gives us a chance to 'quarantine' them for the week ready for the children to select a new one next Friday.

 

Reading Books

I am very pleased to say that on Monday your child will be bringing home two reading books to read at home during the week.

You will keep these books for the duration of the week and then return them to school on a Friday.

This will happen each week - Receive the books on a Monday, return the books on a Friday.

 

Please make sure you share a book every night, start to get into a routine and make this time together very special, it will help you in the long run. It is very important to re-read the books to develop their phonetic memory, awareness, ability and confidence. If they get to a point when they have memorized the book (which is good), ask them to point to the words as they read, ask them to identify certain words on the page, and cover words up and ask them to tell you what words are under your thumb. In other words, have fun with the book!

You only need to share a book for a few minutes each night and hopefully this will help your child develop a positive routine for reading. Regular reading also has a huge impact on children's progress throughout the year and their time at Hanley Swan C of E Primary school.

If you need help with reading at home, please see the 'Learning to Read' page  https://www.hanleyswanprimaryschool.co.uk/learning-to-read/ 

 

To help with reading, I have also sent home all of the letters that we have covered so far. Use these letters to make cvc words and play with at home.

 

 

14.9.20

Look at me!

This week will be all about ‘showing off’. Every day the children will have the chance to show off their skills to the rest of the class. These skills could be anything from things they already know, to newly acquired skills. Hopefully this will develop their self-confidence, promote a positive attitude to learning and give everyone a chance to see who they are sharing their class with. We will be exploring what we are all very good at and some of the things we are not so good at.

In Read, Write Inc we will be learning the sounds i, n, p, g and o. We will also be teaching how to blend letters, with a little help from our friends the ‘Alphablocks’.

 

Maths this week is all about counting − chanting numbers in order up to 10 and then 20, counting items into a set, counting items taken from a larger set, matching a number of items to a numeral, matching written and spoken numerals and being able to count accurately using one-to-one correspondence. Children should also understand conservation of number and be able to count along a number track 1−6.

 

If your child has access to digital media and you would like to have a look at some maths ‘activities’ together, then we will be using ‘The Numtums’ and 'Numberblocks' to support their learning. Please take a look at the Cbeebies website.

 

If you have a ‘tablet’ of any description and you have not already done so, then please download the Cbeebies apps. There is a Cbeebies play/ play island, a Creative app, an Explore app and a Cbeebies story app. They are all excellent and meet the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. Have fun!

Now the children have settled into school we will start adding in some of the other activities that we do in class. On Thursday this week we will be doing PE. Please make sure that their uniform is named and that they can, at least, have a go at dressing and undressing themselves. Please do not let your child be the scarecrow of the class!!

 

School set up...

Hanley Swan is a small school with four classes and within the four classes we have 7 year groups. This can be a little confusing, so to help you out here is the school set up:

Class 1 (1 Year group) - Reception or Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Class 2 (2 Year groups) - Year 1 and Year 2

Class 3 (2 Year Groups) - Year 3 and Year 4

Class 4 (2 Year Groups) - Year 5 and Year 6.

Secondary school - Year 7 +

 

 

7.9.20

Where are we?

What a great couple of afternoons we had last week!! Your children were brilliant! They settled in wonderfully and it already feels as if they have been part of our school family for ever! Please do not forget that they are still very young and may still become upset occasionally. If this is the case make sure you give them loads of extra cuddles and words of comfort and do not worry – they will ALWAYS been absolutely fine once they are with us in school.

 

We will be exploring the classroom and outdoor facilities in more detail this week. We will be looking at the classroom and where everything goes and working on our ‘tidying up’ skills! There will also be a few opportunities to have a look around the school grounds and pop into Forest School, the playground and our new wildlife garden.

 

We will start to learn our letters this week. We will be covering m, a, s & t and using them to read some simple CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words like sat and mat. There will be a ‘Write dance’ session (pre writing movement activities), where we will begin to attempt to write these letters and the letters in our name. Please remember that we use cursive handwriting at Hanley Swan.

 

In maths we will be counting to 10 and above with correct 1 to 1 correspondence and counting out loud to 10/20 and back.

 

Please make sure that you bring in their PE kit and labelled wellington boots this week. They will also need a coat EVERY day.

 

Home Liaison Book
On Monday your child will bring home this very important book. 

The ‘Home liaison book’ is for communication between home and school. It can be used in any way that is useful for individual parents. Here is a rough guide to get you started:

 When your child brings home a reading book we will write the title in the ‘Title’ box. This helps us keep a record of what your child has read. If your child reads other books with you at home (please please please make sure you do!!) you are more than welcome to write them in as well, but that is up to you.

The ‘Pages read and comments’ box is for you to note down how far you have got in a book if you have not read it all. You can also add information about things you have noticed whilst sharing the book, e.g. likes, dislikes, letters/words they have struggled with, etc.

In the ‘spellings’ box I will write words (later on in the year) that they are finding tricky, you can then look at them at home.

The ‘Home/school message’ box is for you to write any important information in. Changes to who is picking your child up, questions and any other information about your child that you think will be important to us in school. I will also use this box to write information in if I do not get a chance to speak to you.

The blank box can be used for anything you like…doodle, draw, scribble, colour…

If you have limited time in the evening I would rather you spend an extra 2 minutes cuddling, reading or talking to your child than filling the book in. I hope this helps.