Dear Parents/Carers,

The children have been extremely busy this week!

This week in Reception, the children have been engaging in various hands-on activities. In the provision, they've shown great creativity and collaboration by building impressive towers and imaginative houses using various construction blocks. Academically, they've been focusing on early literacy skills, diligently practising writing their own names and learning more new phonemes during their phonics sessions to help them with reading and spelling.

In their English lesson, the children in Year 1 have been busy focusing on descriptive writing by creating a fact file for 'The Lonely Beast'. They practised using adjectives to describe what the Lonely Beast looks like, focusing on its appearance and characteristics. In their maths lessons, the children worked on developing their number sense, mastering the concepts of 'one more' and 'one less' for numbers up to 10 through engaging practical activities.

This week in Year 2, the children have been immersed in descriptive writing by creating a setting description for both before and after a hurricane, linking their work to the book Island Born. This has allowed them to use powerful language to capture the dramatic changes in the environment. In Science, they have been learning about microhabitats and the essential things animals need to survive, such as food, water, and shelter.

Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed their trip to Wild Wood on Thursday where they participated in a Stone Age workshop. They were learning about tools from the Stone Age Era and even had the opportunity to watch a demonstration of Stone Age firelighting. The children were extremely enthusiastic to share all of their learning about the Stone Age when they were back in school on Friday. 

The children in Year 4 enjoyed their RE lesson which focused on developing their understanding of how Muslims worship. They learned about the Five Pillars of Islam and focused specifically on Salah (prayer), exploring its significance and practice. In maths, the children mastered ordering numbers up to 10,000, which involved identifying the smallest and greatest numbers within a set and confidently answering reasoning questions to demonstrate their deep understanding of place value.

The children in Year 5 have been strengthening their understanding of place value by rounding numbers to the nearest 1,000, 10,000, and 100,000 in their maths lessons. They frequently used number lines to visualise the process, a skill they then applied to estimating answers to make quick, sensible calculations. Concurrently, in Science, the class investigated reproduction in living things, focusing on the differences between asexual and sexual reproduction. They explored various life cycles, examined how offspring develop and inherit traits, and compared and contrasted the specific life cycles of mammals and birds. 

In their English lesson, the Year 6 children have been thoroughly enjoying reading the class text, Max and the Millions. As a key writing task linked to the story, they developed their non-fiction writing skills by creating a detailed non-chronological report about the various settings in the book, including the green, red and blue kingdoms. This report included comparing the different environments and outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each. In maths, the children deepened their understanding of number theory by mastering factor pairs and identifying and understanding prime numbers.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Miss Capes, Mrs Jackson and the Maundene Team  

Developing strong oracy skills is crucial for children's success in school and beyond. It empowers them to express themselves confidently, think critically, and engage effectively with others. To support this vital skill, our weekly newsletter will feature fun and engaging oracy activities that families can enjoy together at home, fostering communication and building confidence in your children.