Our first full time week in school was very busy, full of lots of new learning and fun activities. The children are all managing their new routines well and are happy and settled in the classroom. Lots of new friendships are being made and that's lovely to see. Their personality are shining through and they are getting to know the expectations of being in school. It's wonderful to see how quickly they are doing all of this, how well they are coping with all the new experiences. I can't believe we're only in week 3!

This week we started our formal Phonics lessons. We learnt the sounds 's', 'a', 't' and 'p'. We practiced pronouncing them correctly and how to write them too. We have special Phonics writing books that we are practising our handwriting in and use our whiteboards some days too. Please see the letter in your child's school bag with the information on how you can support this at home. You may also have noticed that there is a Phonics Learning page on our main class page too, so each week I will upload the letter on to there too and any new information over the next few weeks as well. So have a check at the end of each week just in case we have added anything new.

(As a school we are trying to use less paper to help the environment so apart from the actual sounds sheet, most things will be on the website with the odd thing emailed out to you.)

Our Maths focus this week was number 1. We have been thinking about 1 as an amount, a value, a quantity, a digit, a word and how we can represent it using every day resources (such as pencils and pieces of Lego), parts of our body (1 finger, 1 nose, 1 head) as well as Maths resources (Numicon, fives frames, dice, dominoes and playing cards). We explored where we might find the number 1 (buses, front doors and birthday cards), looked at it on a clock and what it means. We looked at 1p coins and and the only shape with one side, a circle. We spoke about the importance of 1, as it is the number that we start with when counting out an amount. It's surprising how many ways you can represent such a small number! We are also using the programme 'Numberblocks' to support our Maths learning this term. Each week there is an episode that will link to our new focus and the programmes have been written to be both engaging and educational. This week we watched Series1 Episode1, just in case you would like to watch it at home with your child. It can be found on the CBeebies website and YouTube. 

We have been thinking about what makes us special this week. We read 'The Mega Magic Hair Swap' by Rochelle Humes and 'Here We Are' by Oliver Jeffers, thinking about differences, similarities, likes and dislikes and why all these things make us unique, special and important on planet Earth. We have painted some wonderful self portraits with Mrs Forty, thinking about our features and mixing colours carefully. They look amazing!

PE on Monday was a success and the children really enjoyed themselves with the coaches. Coach Vicki was so impressed with their listening skills!

We are working hard on independence in class, especially now that it is coat weather! We are trying hard to not say 'I can't do it' but instead giving things a go and then thinking about how to ask for help from a friend or one of the grown ups. Today, everyone managed to put their coat on by themselves when it was time to go outside, so make sure they keep this up at home! Next job, zips!! Get practising now so that when the weather gets colder they can be independent with this too!

Enjoy the weekend everyone. Have lots of fun and stay warm! See you all bright and early on Monday!