Termly News

Spring Term 2024

There has been lots of exciting learning this term and we cannot believe how fast the time has gone!

This term in Phonics we have been learning our Phase 3 graphemes as well as reviewing Phase 2. The children have been working hard to read words with double letters and learning how to use chunking to read longer words. They have enjoyed using their phonic knowledge to support them with writing words and sentences about what they can see in images linked to the amazing books we have read. We have enjoyed reading ‘The Rabbit, The Dark and The Biscuit Tin’, Owl Babies, The Teeny Weeeny Tadpole’ and ‘A Little Seed’. We also particularly liked ‘Supertato’ where we created our own supermarket, made our own fruit and vegetable superheroes and wrote about where we thought the peas were hiding when the school cooks couldn’t find them!

We have really enjoyed exploring the cold winter weather this term and what changes it causes to our environment. Acting as scientists, we carried out an ice experiment where we used a range of materials such as salt and warm water to see what would happen to the ice. The results were quite interesting, although we were a little sad to see that it all did still melt! As the weather got a little warmer we started to learn all about animals and their lifecycles. We first learnt about nocturnal and diurnal animals and were surprised to learn the reasons why some animals sleep during the day when we are awake! Then we had a delivery of frogspawn which has visited all three classrooms to give the children a memorable first-hand experience of lifecycles by immersing them into a scientific exploration of frogs, pond life, metamorphosis and growth. We absolutely loved exploring our frogspawn and were so excited when they turned into tadpoles! We thoroughly enjoyed observing them and the physical changes that occurred in their lifecycle.

In maths we built upon our number knowledge by exploring the composition of 6, 7, 8 9 and 10 using more practical resources and our subitising skills to build these numbers. We played many games and songs to help us learn our number bonds to and within 10. We then looked at double facts to 10, playing games with dice and tens frames to support our learning. In the last few weeks we worked on recognising and naming 3D shapes and finding 2D shapes within the 3D shapes. We went on a 3D shape hunt to see what real 3D objects we could find. Finally, we looked at sorting and creating patterns, some of us were good a spotting repeating patterns in our environment.

This term we have had many exciting events such as; World Religion Day, Safer Internet Day, World Book Day and Science Week!  On World Religion Day we enjoyed exploring the religion ‘Judaism’ by colouring and completing craft activities to make our own Mezuzah Boxes and the Star of David. World Book Day was one of our favourites as we got to come to school in our comfy pyjamas! We explored the storybook, ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ and particularly enjoyed decorating and eating ladybird biscuits during our Cosy Bedtime Read Session. We were also lucky enough to have Year 6 visit our classrooms to share some lovely stories with us! During Science Week Year 5 came over and we went outside to explore the concept of change over time through the seasons. We used this knowledge to help us create blossom trees using tissue paper.

We also celebrated Chinese Luna New Year with a whole range of fun activities – such as, listening to celebration music, reading the story of the Chinese Zodiac and trying some noodles and rice.

Towards the end of the term we looked at all of our cute baby photos and played ‘Guess Who?’ which helped us to understand the concept of past, present and future. In the last week we learnt about the Easter Story, completed fun crafty actives including baking our own chocolate nests and even had a visit from a real life CHICKEN!

Autumn Term 2023

We have had a wonderful start to the school year.  This Autumn, the children have been very busy getting to know their new school and we have thoroughly enjoyed spending time getting to know all of them!  There has been so much excitement, learning and fun.  We have been working on setting expectations, introducing them to our Golden Rules, routines and thinking about how we can celebrate our differences as well as what makes a good friend.  In addition, we have introduced the children to the wonderful world of Westfields Infant School with Odd Socks Day, Reading Matters Week, Time to Shine Day to name just a few...

In terms of curriculum highlights, we have particularly enjoyed learning the Phase 2 graphemes (simple sounds) and learning to blend these sounds to read words.  We have had many fun topics such as 'All about Bears' where we read 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' and acted it out around the school grounds, to see if we could spot signs that a bear has been to visit us.  We found bear paw prints in the ground and then we used our sounds to help us label photos from our 'Bear Hunt Walk'.  In maths we made repeating patterns using bear paw prints and sorted natural materials into groups using variety of criteria.

We also immersed ourselves into a world of traditional tales, starting with Jack and The Beanstalk where we counted magic beans and matched them to their numeral on leaves from Jack's beanstalk.  In literacy we discovered and named some GIANT items that had fallen down from the top of the beanstalk and we got creative and painted characters from the story.  Our next traditional tale was 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'.  We wrote where the Troll may have ended up once he had been butted off of the bridge and in maths we found different ways to make 5 and looked at one more, one less than a given number.

We have also been very lucky to experience some WOW moments!  First we were lucky enough to have one of our lovely parents in to talk to the children about the celebration of Diwali.  Then we had a Diwali feast followed by an Assembly to light all of our diva lamps, it really was an exciting learning experience.

As a year group, we carried out our very first science experiment this term, by investigating 'What would have happened to the Gingerbreadman if he swam through the river?'  The children were so enthusiastic about making predictions and testing their theories.  In and around the classroom we opened mini bakeries, which was lots of fun.....and even more mess!

What a festive end to the term we had with our wonderful Year Rs performing their very first Nativity.  All of the staff were so proud of all the hard work, joy and enthusiasm the children showed during the performances.  The last couple of weeks of term were very busy days filled with crafts, music, festivities ... alongside plenty of glitter.  The children acted as elves around the classroom, we began practising subtraction by taking away amounts of Christmas lights and then wrote our own number sentences.  We even had a visit from Father Christmas!

All of the children should be very proud of what they have achieved and we cannot wait to see what the next term will bring!