Acorns

A Magical Week of Light and Remembrance in Acorn Class! We have kicked off our new term’s theme on Celebrations with a wonderfully thoughtful and creative week in Reception. Our story of the week was Little Glow, which sparked lovely discussions about different celebrations and the special light within all of us.

Ahead of Remembrance, we spent time reflecting on why we remember those who gave their lives in the past so that we can live as we do today. The children expressed their learning through beautiful artwork:

Poppy Art: We painted individual poppy masterpieces ready to display in the church.

Transient Art: In our tuff tray, the children arranged loose parts to create striking poppy designs.

Forest School: Outdoors, we collected fallen leaves and painted them into vibrant poppies.

We also explored the traditions of Bonfire Night! We talked about why it is celebrated and shared exciting stories about what we might do over the weekend. The children then created dynamic bonfire and firework art using paint, crayons, and coloured pencils.

In Maths, we took an in-depth look at the number 5. We worked on accurately counting up to 5 and explored different ways to compose the number. Using our hands was a favourite anchor for this—recognising that we have 5 fingers on one hand! We also introduced the 5-dice frame format, and the children had fun building their own collections of 5 using hand templates and dice frames.

Year 1 & 2

Key Stage One 

This week, Year 1 have been working hard on their number bonds to 10! The children have used hands-on materials like ten-frames and counters, and numicon to explore how 10 can be partitioned, alongside fun songs to help build quick recall. They are doing a fantastic job recording their number bonds too. Year 2 have spent the week tackling the tricky but hugely important skill of adding by making 10. The children need fluency recalling bonds within 10 to help them master this skill, so please do continue to practice number bonds at home.  How quickly can you recall that 5 need 2 to make 7 or 6 needs 3 to make 9?

Year 1 and 2 spent time reflecting on the meaning of the poppy and how we wear them to say thank you. The children designed and coloured in their own poppies saying thank you for the soldier's bravery, sacrifice and kindness.

Our KS1 artists had a fantastic time experimenting with lines and mark-making this week! Using a range of materials like charcoal, pastels, and pencils, the children explored how pressing hard or light creates different line effects. They also looked at famous artist Bridget Riley's artwork, discussed the artists' techniques, and learned new vocabulary to describe their own line creations. 

Expect to hear the KS1 classrooms sounding festive as we have started learning our Nativity songs!  This year's production will be 'The Twinkly Nativity' and will take place on 15th and 16th December. Year 2 will all have speaking parts and scripts will be sent home to learn next week.

Well done for a fabulous first week back in school everyone, you continue to make Mrs Barrasford and Mrs Fox very PROUD!

Year 3 & 4

What a fantastic first week back! We have come back into our learning with a bang, and the children have been absolutely amazing! They have shown wonderful enthusiasm, curiosity and excitement as we have started our new topics.

Geography – Who Lives in Antarctica?

This week, we started our exciting new geography topic, Who Lives in Antarctica? The children explored lines of latitude and longitude, the Equator, and the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. They then put their new knowledge to the test by using coordinates to locate countries across the world, successfully finding a country on each continent! We also investigated the different climate zones around the world and discussed how a country's distance from the Equator affects its climate. The children asked some fantastic questions and really impressed us with their geographical skills!

Science – States of Matter

Our new science topic got off to a brilliant start with a fun, practical lesson exploring solids, liquids and gases. The children used their scientific observation skills to classify different materials using a Venn diagram. This led to some fascinating discussions! For example, the children realised that a bottle of shampoo could fit into all three categories: the bottle itself is a solid, the shampoo is a liquid, and the air inside is a gas! It was wonderful to see the children thinking so carefully and explaining their scientific reasoning.

Reading – Mr Penguin and the Lost Treasure

We have absolutely loved starting our new guided reading book, Mr Penguin and the Lost Treasure by Alex T. Smith. The children are already thoroughly enjoying the adventures of Mr Penguin! We would really appreciate it if as many children as possible could have their own copy of the book. This would allow them to bring it into school and then practise reading at home with you, showing off their fluency, expression and understanding of the story. Repeatedly reading a familiar text is one of the best ways to develop reading fluency and confidence. Thank you so much for your support with this!

RE – Has Christmas Lost Its True Meaning?

We have also started our new RE topic, exploring the big question: Has Christmas Lost Its True Meaning? This week, we reflected on what Christmas means to us. The children had great fun acting out their own Christmas traditions while their classmates tried to guess what they were! It was particularly lovely to hear their thoughtful reflections. Rather than focusing only on receiving presents, many children spoke about spending special time with family, showing love, the happiness of giving gifts and the feelings associated with receiving something thoughtful. It was a wonderful reminder of what makes Christmas special to so many people.

DT – Textiles: Book Covers

This week, we started our exciting new DT topic, Textiles, where the children will be designing and making their very own book covers! Our focus this term is on fastenings, so the children began by investigating different types, including poppers, zips, toggles and buttons. They had great fun exploring their own coats and clothing to see how many different fastenings they could find! We then discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each fastening, thinking carefully about how practical, secure and easy to use they were. Later in the term, the children will use what they have learnt to choose a suitable fastening for their own book cover designs. We can't wait to see their creations! 

Well done, everyone, for such a brilliant first week back! We are looking forward to another exciting half term of learning! 

Year 5 & 6

We hope you all had a lovely half term break, the children came back eager to share their news and we enjoyed hearing about what they got up to! 

We haven't wasted anytime with the build up to Christmas and kicked off our guided reading sessions looking at the poem 'Twas the Night before Christmas' which the children were really excited about. They had a lot of fun memorising and performing it to each other.  

In PE we have started our dance unit and the children started to learn a dance in groups of four with a 1,2,3,4 beat - we have got some very talented dancers among us! 

In DT we are exploring structures.  We looked at a variety of different playgrounds and focused on their design features, themes and safety aspects.  The children then designed three different parks of their own thinking carefully about what structures would be suitable for different age groups. 

In RE we looked at the Christmas Story and focused on how different versions of events can affect what people believe.  They looked at different news sources descibing an incident and they were able to distinguish between a reliable source of information and one that could have been made up.  It gave for some lively discussions about gossip!  

This term we are doing Geography and this week we started looking at population and used an atlas to compare the population of different countries taking their size into consideration and decided whether that country was densely populated or sparsely populated.

In English we spent some time on Remembrance and talked about how important it is for us to remember all those brave soldiers who sacrificed so much for our future.  We looked at photos and read personal accounts and the children were able to appreciate not only what the soldiers went through but also what the people who stayed at home did behind the scenes to keep the country running.  They finished by writing some beautiful letters to show their gratitude and these will be displayed in our local church, so please pop down this weekend to have a look.