Week 7

I can’t quite believe we’ve reached the end of our first half term already! We had a wonderful final week together. On Tuesday we invited parents in to class to help us with our reading challenges during discovery time. 

We’ve enjoyed one reading challenge in particular this week - matching words and pictures. We’re getting much more confident with recognising graphemes and blending them together.

In maths this week we have continued to deepen our understanding of the numbers 3 and 4. We have shared objects between 3 and 4 people and practised showing these numbers on our fingers in different ways. On Monday we even mixed maths and PE together to play a special beanbag game! We had to throw the correct amount of beanbags into coloured hoops, being careful to read the numerals correctly each time.

In outdoor explorers we learned all about squirrels. We explored the similarities and differences between red and grey squirrels and found out that squirrels collect lots of nuts during the autumn so that they have enough food to eat when the weather gets colder. They have to be very clever to remember where all of their nuts are hidden! We then went on a hunt for squirrel nests in the trees on the field (they’re called dreys). We think we found a couple! Then we tried to be little squirrels and crack open acorns to reveal the soft nut inside. It was tricky!

The salt dough leaves we made last week finally dried. This week we used autumn colours to paint them. We can’t wait to bring them home after half term.

On Thursday we were treated to a whole day with Ken and Ian from Open Box Theatre Company. We did three special workshops in which we used our imaginations and experienced the magic of story-telling. What a fantastic way to end the week!

Week 6

This week we have continued to learn new phonemes in our daily phonics lessons. We learned ck, e, u and r as well as the tricky word ‘I’. We’re becoming more and more confident with our grapheme recognition and letter formation every day.

We started something new this week - Drawing Club! This is a really fun time in which we get together and enjoy a story (sometimes read from a book and sometimes told from memory) or an animation. We learn new vocabulary which we practise with actions each day and then draw a picture to answer a question from the story.

Our story this week was ‘Not Now, Bernard’ and our vocabulary was gobble, ignore, fearsome, destroy, leaking, splatter, chomp and astonished. We drew pictures to show where the monster came from, how we could get rid of him and what he liked to eat.

In outdoor explorers we learned about an artist called Andy Goldsworthy. We enjoyed looking at his artwork and were amazed that he managed to make all of his sculptures using natural materials like leaves, stones and sticks. Then we went onto the field and made our own natural sculptures.

In music we read the story Rosie’s Walk and thought about what sounds might match the accidents the fox has. We used different instruments to help us re-tell the story with sound effects.

In discovery time we made salt dough leaves using sycamore, oak and beech tree shaped cutters, wrote disgusting recipes to make in the mud kitchen, splashed about in the rain and exercised our hands and arms using paint rollers and play dough mats.

Week 5

What a busy week we’ve had! We have continued to learn new phonemes and graphemes every day during phonics (we’ve learned 12 so far - wow!) and even started guided reading sessions. We will do these sessions daily from now on. It’s lots of fun sharing a book with our friends.

In maths we learned about repeating patterns. We enjoyed exploring how to make repeating patterns in different ways throughout the week - we printed with vegetables (carrots, swedes and potatoes), made fruit kebabs, used prayer stones and multilink cubes.

In Outdoor Explorers we learned all about the signs of autumn before going on an autumn hunt around the field. We looked for red, brown and orange leaves, conkers, sycamore seeds, acorns and spider webs! We had lots of fun throwing our sycamore seeds into the air and watching them spinning to the ground.

We were very lucky to be able to look after the school Guinea pigs, Pearl and Tallulah this week! They need feeding every day, so we will be taking it in turns with the other children in the school to have a go at giving them their food. They like a little cuddle and stroke, too!

In PE we have been practising our throwing, balancing and running skills. We have balanced bean bags on different body parts, thrown them into targets and had a go at throwing them up into the air and catching them, too.

We’ve enjoyed dressing up as people who help others in the community, sharing our summer scrapbooks, singing counting songs with 5 little aliens, building houses and pictures with loose parts and playing with our new dolls house during discovery time. We’ve been strengthening our hands, arms and fingers during funky fingers sessions by balancing marbles on golf tees and picking buttons out of play dough with tweezers. It’s hard work, but great exercise!
 

One of the highlights of our week was when we got to have a go on a bouncy castle for our sponsored bounce for books event! We all had 2 minutes to bounce as many times as we could. The money we raise will help us buy new home reading books.

Week 4

In school this week we have started to discover the joy of mark making! We have been drawing amazing pictures, practising writing the new graphemes we have been learning, making magic buttons and placing signs around our environment. We even decided to make our small world into a fairy garden, decorating stones and pieces of wood to entice the fairies. 
 

In maths this week we have been thinking about the words ‘more’ and ‘fewer’. We have been exploring what these words mean by reading and acting out stories like A Squash and a Squeeze, building towers of differing heights and counting sounds. 
 

We had our first music lesson this week. It was so much fun looking at all kinds of different instruments, learning their names and listening to what they sound like. We had a go at playing our instruments loudly, quietly, quickly and slowly. We were very good at following the instructions on the ‘stop/go’ sign.

On Tuesday we had our very first Catherington Spirituality Day. We learned about different ways of thinking - thinking about ourselves, others, the world and things beyond what we can see. We made a mirror, a door, a window and a candle out of junk modelling materials to remind us of these different spiritual moments. Then we visited the field, met our spirituality tree and watched the clouds float by… it was a beautiful afternoon!

One of the best moments this week was being able to use our fabulous new water wall! Thank you so much to Mr Peters for making it for us!

Week 3

This week we started to learn some phonics sounds! We learned what s, a, t and p look and sound like as well as having a go at writing them. We impressed Mrs Burden so much with our amazing efforts that we all earned a golden ticket!

In maths we have had lots of fun subitising dots (this means spotting how many there are without counting them out). We have been finding groups of 2 and 3, showing them on our fingers and talking about them in different ways. Then we read a story called The Button Box and explored different shapes, sizes and materials of buttons before sorting them in different ways.
 

In Outdoor Explorers we talked about Catherington and learned the word village. We talked about the things we can find around our school - a pub, a church, a pond and lots of houses and fields. Even though it was raining outside we still managed to enjoy the field in our wet weather gear!

This week we thought about what makes a safe and happy classroom. We came up with some really good ideas! After we’d written them down on a big piece of paper, we all stuck our own little star onto the list to show that we all agree to follow these special rules.

Every day we have special ‘funky fingers’ sessions. During these sessions, we work on making our whole bodies stronger so that we become ready to write. This week, we focussed on balance. We walked along lines like we were on a tightrope, jumped from dot to dot and strode from footprint to footprint. We were very good at balancing!

On Friday we had so much fun using the bikes and trikes for the first time! We loved zooming up and down the big playground with our friends. Whilst we were waiting for our turn, some of us joined in with a dough disco session. These routines are great for making our hands, arms and fingers strong.

We officially made it to the end of our first full week at school - we have worked so hard and are very tired… Time for a restful weekend!

Week 2

We have had lots of fun this week getting to know each other better and finding out more about our school.

We went on a tour and visited all of the different places in the building. We met the children in Seahorses and Turtles Class and all of the adults that work at Catherington. We loved visiting Mrs Burden in her office and were so excited when she gave us a special smelly sticker!

In class we read the story ‘Have You Filled a Bucket Today?’ and learned about our Christian values of love, respect and courage.

In phonics we have been singing songs and listening to lots of rhyming stories. We listened to a fun story called ‘The Listening Walk’ and then went on a listening walk of our own! We heard children singing, cars zooming, birds tweeting and shoes plodding. 
 

In maths we have been listening to counting stories and practising counting to 10 and back. We sorted animals into those with 2 legs, 4 legs and 0 legs and then played ‘What’s the time, Mr Wolf’ on the big playground.

We have been having so much fun exploring Dolphins Class and making lots of new friends. We have served our own morning snacks of cereal and bread each day, learned how to line up, crafted with all sorts of different materials, written special messages and played lots of fun games. It’s been a wonderful week!

Week 1

Miss Willett and I had a wonderful time visiting all of the Dolphins and their parents during home visits this week. Thank you for being so welcoming, it was great to be able to spend time with you and find out more about your children.

We were extremely impressed with how much courage the children showed each afternoon during their school sessions, too. They all came into class confidently and ready for action! We can't wait to see you all again next week.

Thank you to the parents who were able to join me for our meet the teacher session on Wednesday evening - I hope it was useful for you to see the classroom again and talk through what you can expect over the coming weeks.

For anyone who was unable to attend, please find the powerpoint presentation below. As always, if you have any questions, please ask!