Autumn 2019

2.12.19

Recycling, library and Christmas!

A mixed bag of themes this week. We will be finishing off our work on 'environmental issues' with a visit to EnviroSort on Wednesday and getting ready for our open afternoon on Friday. Please feel free to pop in and see what the children have been up to.

We will also be visiting Upton library on Wednesday and enjoying all they have to offer. Please remember that reading is so important and make sure that you talk to your child about the visit and the importance of books. It would be great if you could also follow up our trip with your own visit to the library - Upton, Malvern or Worcester.

Finally, we will be starting to learn about Christmas. This week we will be creating a Santa's grotto in the classroom and using it for some core Early Years skills.

In literacy we will be continuing with reading simple sentences and handwriting the 'one armed robots'.

In maths we will be focusing on numbers 9 and 10 and looking at 3D shapes in our environment. 

Do not forget the Christmas Fayre on Friday after school.

25.11.19

Environmental Issues - Reuse, Recycle and Reduce

This week we will be introducing the three R's. We will looking at different waste materials, sorting them and working out how we can reuse and recycle them. 

In literacy we will be going over some of the sounds that the children are less confident in and we will be doing a lot of blending. Our handwriting this week will be introducing the 'one armed robots'. This letter family all start with the 'r' movement and include 'r', 'n', 'm', 'b', 'h', 'p' and 'k'.

In maths this week we will be continuing to look at our numbers to 10 in detail. The focus will be on numbers 6, 7 and 8.

Please do not forget to return the form for our trip next week (4th December), it is going to be a very exciting day!

18.11.19

Environmental issues - Plastic bottles

Our environmental project continues this week by looking at plastic bottles. We will be using the information book ‘The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle’ to learn about how plastic is made, how it is used and what we can do with it after it has been used.

It is also World Nursery Rhyme week, so we will be singing and enjoying nursery rhymes every day.

In literacy we will be revisiting ‘sh’, ‘ch’ and ‘th’ and using them in our reading. Our handwriting will be finishing our first visit to the ‘curly caterpillar letters’ (c,a,d,o,e,g,q,s,f).

Maths will be looking in more detail at each of the numbers. We will be looking at what is and what is not that number/amount, how the number/amount  is made up and anything else interesting about that number.

On Thursday I have arranged for the school nurse to visit class 1 and teach us about hand washing. She will go through the procedure and top tips, and will hopefully bring in her special hand washing test that will show them all that they are not very good at hand washing at the moment! Please take time to talk to your child about it as hand washing is crucial in limiting the spread of illness and upset tummies.

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.

11.11.19

Environmental issues - Plastic bags

This week we will be continuing our work on environmental issues and climate change. We will be focusing on the issues surrounding plastic bags using the book 'Somebody swallowed Stanley'. There will be discussions about the product, how it is used and is there a better way of carrying things. We will be talking about how Tanzania is leading the way in eliminating plastic bags and using old bags for some art and D&T activities. We will also be having a workshop with the team behind the Worcester store 'Pack it in' on Wednesday. During the workshop they will be teaching about using less packaging and helping us become more sustainable shoppers.

On Monday we will be exploring the history behind Remembrance day and on Friday we will be discussing the charity 'Children in Need'.

In literacy we will be learning ‘ar’, ‘or’, 'ir', 'ou' and ‘air’ and continuing with our handwriting. A big thank you to those parents who are reading regularly, we can already see a big difference in their progress.

In maths this week the children will be chanting numbers to 20 and beginning to chant numbers to 100. They will count ten items into a set, and will begin to count up to 20 items into a set. They will count accurately using one-to-one correspondence and understand conservation of number. They will learn to write numbers to 10 and begin to compare and order numbers to 10.

Please do not forget that it is Parents Evening this week and Children In Need on Friday!

4.11.19

Tanzanian Travels

I hope you have all have a very good half term.

I am back from Tanzania and this week I will be sharing my experiences with the class. I will be comparing and contrasting Hanley Swan with Maweni. We will be comparing schools, villages, life, toys, food and environment/climate. This will then feed into our next mini topic on climate change and environmental issues for the coming weeks.

In literacy we will continue to blend CVC words, develop our handwriting and will be starting to learn set 2 sounds, beginning with 'ay', 'ee', 'igh', 'ow' and 'oo'.

Maths will be number games and using and applying numbers to 10.

14.10.19

Our 5 Super Powers and Tanzania

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. We will also be finding out about our Maweni Primary School in Tanzania

In literacy we will be continuing to blend CVC words, developing our handwriting (particularly our names) and revising all of 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' this week. If you are missing any of these sounds in your packs then please let me know ASAP. 

This week in maths we will be practising subitising numbers up to 6 using fingers, objects and dots on a dice.

Have a lovely half term if I do not get to speak to you before I head off to Tanzania. Your children are an absolute delight and have worked very hard since starting school. Over the holiday remember to keep singing, reading and revising the letter sounds as frequently as possible.

7.10.19

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.

In literacy we will be learning v, y, w, z & x. We will continue to blend blend blend and will continue to look at some of the ‘long ladder letters’ (l, i, t, u & y) when handwriting. These letters all have the same pattern. Start on the line, up and down!

In maths this week the children are learning about the days of the week, reciting the names and beginning to order them. They will use language related to time such as ʻyesterdayʼ, ʻtodayʼ, ʻtomorrowʼ, ʻmorningʼ, ʻafternoonʼ, ʻeveningʼ and ʻnightʼ. Children will also be introduced to the language of position, playing hide and seek with a teddy bear using key vocabulary such as ʻinʼ, ʻonʼ, ʻoverʼ, ʻunderʼ, ʻbesideʼ, ʻleftʻ and ʻrightʼ.

On Tuesday we have Pedestrian Training. This is a specific session tailored to young children about walking safely on or near roads.

We will also be starting Forest School sessions. This week it will be on Wednesday afternoon. We will supply each child with a full set of waterproofs to wear but they will need a pair of wellies in school (preferably to leave in school) on Wednesday.

30.9.19

Harvest continued…

This week we will be finishing our Harvest topic. We will be unpicking why we celebrate Harvest and enjoying the Harvest Service on Friday morning (9:00am at the church). We will also be finishing off the story of the Little Red Hen.

In literacy we will be learning the letter sounds, e, l, h, r & j. We will also be starting to form letters accurately by looking at letter families. This week we will be looking at the ‘Long Ladder Letters’ (l, i, t, u & j). Please remember we do cursive script writing.

In maths it is another week about counting; chanting numbers in order up to 20, counting 10 items into a set, counting up to 10 items taken from a larger set, matching how many to a numeral and matching written and spoken numerals. Children will learn to count accurately using one-to-one correspondence and come to understand conservation of number. They will subitise numbers to 6 and count along a 1−10 number track.

Do not forget the reading meeting on Tuesday - everyone is welcome.

23.9.19

Harvest and the Little Red Hen

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 learning a song for our Harvest Festival and exploring a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Over the next few weeks we will be talking about healthy eating and the importance of eating fruit and veg.

In literacy we will be learning the letter sounds ‘c’, ‘k’, ‘u’, ‘b’ and ‘f’. We have started to demonstrate blending simple words and this week we will crank it up a notch. The children will be having a go at blending CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words and spotting a few high frequency words like ‘I’, ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

We will also start handwriting this week. We will be using ‘Write dance’ (mark making to music) and looking closely at letter formation. Please remember we use ‘cursive’ letters straight away.

This weekʼs maths learning is all about patterns. Children will copy, continue, describe and create patterns using colours, shapes, objects, sounds and actions. We will also continue with numbers to 10 and 20.

Reading

At the end of this week the children will be bringing home their first reading book.

Please remember that we have not covered all of the letter sounds yet and your child may need some/a lot of support. For the first book we will read it with them in class. When they bring it home please be VERY enthusiastic about the book and make sure that you give your child the quality time that they deserve. Read it together and enjoy.

A number of parents have asked for support with 'reading at home' and so I invite anyone who is interested to come along on Tuesday 1st October at 2:45pm and I will offer advice, support and answer any questions that you have.

Please make sure you share the book every night or morning,  start to get into a routine and make this time together very special, it will help you in the long run.
You only need to share the book for a few minutes each night/morning 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.

You do not have to have a new book everyday, so if your child enjoys the book keep it a little longer. If you would like a new one then please write ‘finished’ in the comments box and we will do our best to change it as soon as possible.

School set up...

I have had a number of parents ask about the class names/numbers. It can be quite confusing so here is a list...

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 +

16.9.19

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!

www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/article-cbeebies-apps
 

9.9.19

Where are we?

What a great first week last week was!! Your children were brilliant! They have all 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.

Now the children have settled into school we will start adding in some of the other activities that we do in class. On Thursday 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!!

We will be exploring the school in more detail this week. The children will get to visit all the classrooms and meet all the staff. We will be looking at the classroom and where everything goes and working on our ‘tidying up’ skills!

We will start to learn our letters this week. We will be covering m, a, s, d & t and using them to read some simple CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words like sat, mat and mad. Alongside a ‘Write dance’ session (pre writing movement activities) 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.

Every day last week I sat in with the children whilst they ate their lunch. They were great and they all ate most, if not all, of it every day. I will continue to support them in the lunch hall and let individual parents know if there are any issues.

Please do not forget the ‘parents meeting’ on Tuesday at 2:45pm - come to the school office and Mrs Harrison will direct you from there.

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 new book we will write the title in the ‘Title’ box. This helps us keep a record of what your child has read (they choose their own books from the appropriate level). 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 (this is important so that we can try to encourage them not to pick a similar book again), 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 if you do not have time to talk to me in the morning/evening. 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.
 

6.9.19

Library Time

The children have their first library book in their bags today. Please enjoy it over the next few days. The library book and folder does not need to be in the book bag every day, it only needs to be in the book bag on a Thursday or a Friday. We will then return them to the library for changing.