Ashton Under Hill First School

Shaping Bright Futures Together


Week Beginning 23rd January 2023

Another week has passed us by and we have filled it with plenty of learning and fun.

In our writing lessons we have been busy planning out a quest story. The children have been inspired by Wolf Brother which we are reading in class. They have had to create original characters, a setting from another land and plan the action around what the characters were searching for. They have been using all their imaginative brain cells and have come up with some superb ideas. They will try really hard to include all the grammar they have been taught this half term to show progress with how they structure their ideas, sentences and dialogue. I can't wait to read them!

In topic we have been continuing to find out about how Baghdad was a centre for world trading and learnt about the origins of the Silk Road trade route. The children investigated what products and resources different placed produced and how important it was to trading with other countries. Next week we will be looking at how the rich of Baghdad lived their lives and then move onto comparing Baghdad with London and cities in Egypt in the 9th Century CE.  

On Wednesday the 'Open the Book' group came to our assembly and some volunteers from Oak Class helped to retell the first part of the story of Joseph, So far he has been betrayed by his brothers, had his multicoloured coat destroyed and sold as a slave. At the end of the story he had been put in prison - the children are eagerly awaiting the next part of the story when the group visit again, to find out what happens to him next. Check out the gallery for some images of the children helping to act out the story.

We have been using Islamic art to inspire our own art work over the last couple of weeks. The children have looked at the types of colours used and the way that patterns repeat. As a result of this, we have looked at warm and cool colours and tessellating patterns. Have look in the gallery to see what we have created so far.  

We have been starting to learn the songs for our play and putting new words to familiar tunes. We've stepped up our rehearsing too and are starting to work how the action plays out on the stage. We have a long way to go yet and some children need to find their 'brave boots' when it comes to performing in front of others, but we have high hopes for some surprise performance over the next few weeks. Please encourage your child to learn their lines and not rely on their scripts so much.

Next Friday (3rd February) is Number Day, we are hoping plenty of Oak Class will dress up for the event and support the NSPCC fundraiser. We will spend a larger proportion of the day, than we usually do, doing maths activities and developing our number sense and problem solving skills.  I have got my outfit sorted, I hope the children have too!