‘Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear.’
Czeslaw Milosz
We have reflected this week on remembrance and what the poppies represent, we started our week with a 2 minute silence. We have continued our half term exploring the nativity story through a range of texts, we always start with the scripture. Our focus this week was that Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger, we thought about how that would feel and made our own stables. We sang away in a manger to celebrate the stoy of Jesus’ birth, this is also one of our nativity songs.
What have we been learning this week:
We have started to practise our nativity, I have been so impressed with how many children have remembered their lines. We are singing our songs every day too! We have really enjoyed making transient art poppies and we have learnt how to take our own photos on the iPad.
It was lovely to see parents and grandparents for our second stay and play session, the children loved sharing their hard work and showing you how amazing they are in their phonics lessons. There will be many opportunities for you to come into school over the year, I have made a questionnaire, if you could please fill it and and let me know the best days and sessions for you that would be great, you can select more than one option.
Music with Miss Lavelle: We have been practising our nativity songs, thank you for those who have been practsing their lines at home. I was blown away, we have made a great start and we are excited to get the stage out next week!
Phonics: please remember when practising your sounds at home, not to add ‘uh’ on the end. We have enjoyed learning our phonics in smaller groups. Our sounds this week were ‘ch’, ‘ng’ and ‘sh’ Sound mats have gone home, over the next few weeks we will tick the sounds your child knows and let you know which sounds to practise at home. I will also make RWI videos that you can scan on your phone or tablet and watch at home, please bear with me as it takes time for me to create them so I will send them home as soon as they are ready.
Reading Books: please can you sign to let us know you have read together at home. These books will be changed every Monday, please can you ensure reading folders are in bags every day so books can be changed and we can listen to your child read in school.
Maths: This week we have been looking at parts and wholes by investigating our own bodies and familiar toys. Yesterday we put out Mr Potato head, he needed help with his parts so we could make him whole. The children loved using their iPad to take their own photos of their whole Mr Potato head.
Conversation Starter:
Can you remember the stem sentence from Maths? My ….. (hand) is a part of me and the whole of me is ….. (Miss Drummond)
We have turned our Role play area into a Sainsbury’s, Mrs Kroll has done a wonderful job and we have loved playing in it. We have enjoyed the challenge of writing our own shopping lists.
PE: We have been so lucky with the weather this half term, we worked in pairs and threw a ball and a bean bag to each other to practise our throwing and catching skills.
As part of our understanding the world we have been discussion Autumn, we have chosen our class tree and we will observe it throughtout the year to see what happens. We found out our tree is a deciduous tree ask your child if they can remember what that means.
PJ Day to raise money for Brian House
This half term for our understanding the world we are looking at toys past and present, it would be lovely if you could email me some photos of: your child’s favourite toy and photos of you/grandparents playing with a toy or have a discussion asking what their favourite toy was when they were your age. I’m going to be looking at my photos too, to share with the class. This is an optional homework task but we do enjoy sharing photos and discussing our families in class and it provides a wonderful opportunity for the children to learn about the past.
Optional Homework Challenges:
It is wonderful that the children are so excited about their learning and to see how keen they are to continue this outside of school. We welcome any opportunity to share these learning experiences with you at home, which is why we have created ‘optional challenges’ across each year group which can be explored over this Autumn 2 half term.
These challenges link to the wider area of our curriculum, there are some activities to help with retrival and some with topics that are coming up.
Below you will find the optional challenges linking to the topics and areas of learning that we will be exploring this half term. These fun challenges are designed to cover a range of skills without being stressful or time consuming for you at home. You are welcome to complete them in any order you wish and it would be lovely to see pictures or examples of things that the children have enjoyed at home.
As always, thank you for your continued support.
Let’s Celebrate:
Lunchtime awards:
Our lunch time certificates are awarded by the lunch time team to those children who they see being wonderful role models and using marvelous manors:
Well done to our Role Model Sadie and Tommy for his Marvellous Manners.
Thank you both for being such wonderful role models and for remembering those acts of kindness everyday!
Well done to our certificate awardees: a ‘Kiki Chameleon’ for remembering all your nativity lines and making a smiley face for nursery, your kindness and creativity gave them all a smile. A ‘Cooper Crab’ for your focus and hard work in phonics, you have worked so hard this week to learn sounds that you missed while off ill.
Whole School Virtues - Intentional and Prophetic:
Thank you for being intentional with your every day acts of kindness, you welcome everyone with a huge smile and care for all of your friends.
Henry the Dog: Henry is going home with this person for coming into school every day with a huge smile and asking all the teachers how they are. Thank you :)
A huge congratulations to Mrs Hartley, she has had a baby girl called Freya, we have made a lovely card in class to give to Mrs Hartley.
Important Information and Upcoming Events
Show and Tell:
Please look below to see which day your child can share their show and tell news. We love to celebrate each child’s achievements in class. So we use show and tell as an opportunity to share things that they are proud of, or to share something that is important to them. Great show and tell examples are: sharing photos, bringing in certificates or medals, a souvenir from a trip out or something that they have made at home.
Important Reminders:
Nativity Follow that star
Our nativity performances will be on Wednesday 4th December at 9:30 and Thursday 5th December 9:30 please can you keep practsing their lines at home, then work on a loud voice.
Travelling Nativity: each day a child will take home our travelling nativity, you will receive a text if you child is taking the nativity home. There is a book inside where you can add photos or draw pictures and then return it the next day. You can email any photos to me and I can share them with the class.
Polite reminder that we are a Nut free school. Please can you bring in healthy snacks please refer to the poster for suitable snacks, we always have fruit avalible too.
PE
Our PE days are Tuesday (outside) and Wednesday (inside). On these days, children can come to school in their PE uniform and will remain in this for the day. We kindly ask that velcro trainers (white, black or navy) are worn as this allows the children to be indepoendent when taking their shoes off and putting them back on. Polite reminder that for health and safety reasons, no jewellery is to be worn on PE days. We kindly ask that this is removed at home before coming into school.Art T-shirt
Please can you bring in an art T-shirt, if you haven’t already, these help us keep uniforms as clean as possible.Jumpers: please can you check that your child has brought the right jumper or PE jacket home, they can easily get mixed up when bags are being packed, there are a few missing in class, thank you.
if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at:
d.drummond@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk
Thank you for all of your support
Have a lovely weekend
Miss Drummond, Mrs Summersall, Mrs Kroll and Miss Forster