Holly Class w/b 20th March 2023

Another fun- filled week in Holly Class! This week we based our learning on the book ‘Shark in the Park’ and took our telescopes with us to forest school just like Timothy. We made lots of observations and worked in partners to draw pictures of what we saw on our journey from school to the meadow. We will use these drawings to make our own maps next week!

In phonics this week reception have been recapping some previously learnt phonemes, including ‘sh’ ‘th’ ‘ng’ ‘ai’ and ‘ee’. They have practiced writing these sounds with correct letter formation, segmenting and blending words and even having a go at writing them. Year 1 have continued to recap their phase 5 sounds, tricky and alien words in preparation for assessment week and the phonics screener. This included writing the individual sounds, full words and bringing them together to write full sentences.

In maths this week reception have consolidated their learning on ‘more’, ‘less’ and ‘equal’ using physical objects. We found it is easier to remember what these words mean when we used the actions! They have also practised counting beyond 20 and noticing patterns in the numbers. We have had lots of fun exploring our class math games each day. Year 1 have been completing assessments throughout the week, as well as exploring the concept of mass. We have used scales and counting cubes to measure the mass of different objects in the classroom.

In literacy this week, reception have been practising their letter formation using chalk in the tough tray as well as playing rhyming card games. They have also written short sentences describing the shark from ‘Shark in the Park’ and created their own story characters! Year 1 have worked as a group to create their own story map and have performed the actions to reception class. They have used the story map to write up the story, making sure to include all of the skills from our checklist.

We also shared the poems we have learnt at home and it was so lovely to see everyone speaking so confidently! Everyone did a fantastic job! Well done to the finalists and the winner!

In RE this week we have began our focus on Easter, answering the question ‘Why is Easter special for Christians?’ We watched a video about the Easter story and had a big discussion about what we had learnt before using pictures to write about the key events. We have also begun practising our song for the Easter church celebration!

Finally, we took part in an Eco afternoon at the end of the week. As a whole school, we went outside to plant our very own class pants in different types of soil! I wonder which soil will be the best? How will we able to tell?

I am very excited to see what next week brings for us. Have an amazing weekend!