Hi everyone! Happy New Year!
Sorry I didn’t manage to get a blog out to you last week — it’s been a very busy few weeks!
Mrs Smith has absolutely loved settling back in at Strathmore and getting to meet you all and build those lovely relationships. It’s so nice to have her back!
The children have been absolutely brilliant coming back after Christmas — full of new energy, enthusiasm, and resilience. We’ve already seen some beautiful work and wonderful learning over the past few weeks, and we can’t wait to see what else they achieve this term. We’re really looking forward to sharing their achievements with you when you come to see their books next Friday.
English
In English, we introduced the children to the final book in our traditional tales unit, Stop! That’s Not My Story! by Smriti Hall. It’s a wonderful story about a girl who falls into different fairy tales and has to jump through the pages to escape because none of them are her story.
The children have been focusing on remembering to start sentences with capital letters and end them with full stops. After exploring the book, we planned and wrote our own versions, imagining that we had fallen into a fairy tale that suddenly went wrong. Their ideas were incredible and so much fun to read!
The children also had their first opportunity to publish their work. They took great care as they edited their writing and then wrote it up neatly to create their own mini books — they were so proud of their finished pieces.
Maths
In Maths, we’ve been building on the place value work we did last term with numbers to 10, and have now moved on to exploring numbers up to 20. The children have been looking closely at each number from 11 to 20, exploring different ways to represent them, and learning how to be “clever counters” by making 10 and then adding some more.
Next week, we’ll continue this learning by focusing on number lines. The children will make their own number line to 20 and use it to help answer questions about which numbers are greater or less than others.
Any support at home with recognising and writing teen numbers is greatly appreciated. These numbers can be tricky at first, as children need time to understand that they are made up of tens and ones. This understanding is an important part of place value and will continue to be a key skill throughout the next few years of their maths learning.
Topic
In PE, we’ve just started a lovely yoga unit. The children have been brilliant at learning poses linked to animals and stories, and we’ve also talked about some of the key ideas behind yoga. It has been wonderful to see how calm and relaxed everyone feels by the end of each session.
In Art, we’ve been exploring colour through paint. We revisited the children’s Reception learning on primary and secondary colours and introduced the colour wheel this week. Using watercolours, the children practised mixing colours carefully and really enjoyed experimenting with different shades.
In PSHE, we reminded the children about the regulation stations in our classroom and how they can use these to help manage their feelings and emotions. We have also talked about different ways we can feel happier and what we can do when something doesn’t feel quite right.
Outdoor Learning (Forest School) - Tuesdays
We are so excited to be outside for our Outdoor Learning sessions with Hannah this term. It’s such a wonderful season for exploring nature, and the children always work so beautifully and collaboratively together during these sessions.
Just a reminder that this Tuesday activity will replace Monday’s PE session for this term only. This means that PE kit days are now Tuesday and Wednesday.
We also recommend that children come with a good waterproof coat and, if possible on wetter days, waterproof trousers so they can fully enjoy their outdoor experiences. Gloves and a hat are also really helpful for keeping warm on chillier days.
Reminder
Lastly, we noticed that quite a few children didn’t return their Little Wandle reading books today. Please could we kindly ask that these are brought back on Monday, or as soon as possible, so we can change them for your child.
In future, please can we make sure these books are always in school on a Friday.
Thank you so much for your support, as always! x