This week we began our topic on Space. We read the story Whatever Next, about a bear who builds a rocket and travels to the moon. We placed objects related to the story in the classroom, and the children have enjoyed retelling the story. We also worked on retelling the story by writing simple phrases for pictures in the book. We talked about whether we would like to go to the moon and we wrote lists of items we thought we should bring with us.

On the creative table we designed and built our own rockets using junk modelling materials. We looked at pictures of rockets and planned our own before we began. We came back to our models the following day and looked at how we could make them even better. Some children painted their models and others added new parts. We then painted pictures of the rockets we had made.

We learned that astronauts travel into space. We looked at videos that an astronaut called Chris Hadfield has made, where he shows us how does some daily routines in space. We looked at how he makes his lunch, how he brushes his teeth and how he sleeps while he is in space. We made our own astronauts pictures, drawing our space suits and using collage to complete them.

In maths this week we looked at weighing. We had some ‘moon rocks’ in the classroom and the children were encouraged to investigate the balancing scales using them. We looked at the vocabulary of ‘heavier’, ‘lighter’ and ‘balanced’ and discussed how we could make one side of the scales either heavier or lighter.

In phonics this week we learned three new sounds; ‘sh’, ‘ch’ and ‘th’. We call these digraphs – two letters when placed together make a new sound. We have practised reading and writing words containing these sounds and these new sounds have been added to your child’s sound tag. I have also placed the next set of tricky words on your child’s tricky word tag.

Now that many of the children are reading, we will be focusing on fluency and comprehension when reading with them. The best way to achieve these skills is for your child to read their book a number of times. It is important to check your child’s understanding of what they have read by asking them questions as you go along.  

Next week we will continue our topic of space. We will read the story ‘The Way Back Home’ and we will learn facts about the planets in our solar system. If your child has any books at home on the topic of space, they can bring them in to share with us next week. We will also be learning about Chinese New Year next week.

Have a lovely weekend Toucan Class.