English

For our first week back in term 2, we began by looking at our new story, 'Hermlin' by Mini Grey. The learners discovered different clues in our shared area including a suitcase, a map, some envelopes and even microscopes! We began by writing our predictions of what we think would happen in our story and finished the week immersing ourselves into the new story.

Ask your child:

Which decoding words and tricky words have you been practising in school this week? Can you have a go at practising them together at home?

Group 1: rain, tail, sail, mail, wait, the, see, feet, weep, sheep, deep, feel, meet, need, put, is, tight, high, light, night, right, fight, might, pull, you

Group 2: whale, wheel, shoulder, breakfast, toe, head

want, water, any, many, again

Group 3: for, torn, fork, sort, horn, born, torch, push, surf, burn, curl, fur, hurt, turn, my, how, cow, down, owl, town, now, by, oil, coil, boil, soil, join, coin, all

Group 4: red, dig, rock, hat, hug, hot, big, bed, tick, fin, cup, bin

Reminder: Please make sure to return the reading folders every Wednesday so we can prepare the new book to be sent home on Wednesday (1ST and 1EP) or Thursday (1ER and 1VR).

Maths

This week in Maths, we have been learning about counting and understanding numbers up to 13. The children have been practising counting forwards and backwards within 20 and recognising 10 as a group of ten objects. We have focused on helping them understand that numbers 11, 12 and 13 are made of one ten and some ones.

The children explored these ideas through hands-on activities, counting real objects, grouping them into tens and ones, and building teen numbers using concrete resources. They used counters, cubes and drawings to help them see how numbers are made and to strengthen their understanding of place value.

We also encouraged the children to talk about their thinking and explain how they know a number is made, helping to build their confidence and mathematical language.

Ask your child:

How do you make 11, 12 or 13 using a ten and some ones?

Can you show me a group of ten?

Can you count forwards and backwards from a number?

 Science

Our focus for Science this term is plants. We have some really exciting things planned for the term including exploring Nadeen's own garden produce and the beautiful medicinal trees that form Nadeen's landscape!

This week, to begin our investigations, we have been cutting open fruit and vegetables to explore the different types of seeds inside. We have been making comparisons and wondering about what happens when we plant seeds. We have shown curiosity about how different fruits and vegetables grow. 

We also explored the different scents of citrus fruits and herbs such as lemon, lime, orange and grapefruit, along with mint in our water exploration zone. 

This links beautifully to the end of last term where we explored which materials can be composted. 

Ask your child:

Does your fruit/vegetable have seeds? Are they big, small or tiny? Do all fruits and vegetables have seeds?

Spend some time this weekend chopping fruit and vegetables and talking about the seeds you find. 

Enquiry Learning

This week in enquiry learning, we have been busy exploring our shared area and recreating paintings and drawings in art with different mediums, linking closely to our science learning. We have also enjoyed being detectives, carefully examining clues connected to our English book. Our curiosity has continued to grow as we explored the curiosity cube, investigating and learning about a variety of different seeds.

Ask your child:

What clues did you find when you were being a detective in English?

Can you tell me about the shared area you explored this week?