Phonics

This week in phonics, we have been focusing on our letter formation – practising saying the sounds correctly while also writing them neatly. We’ve also been revisiting our Level 3 sounds and continuing to practise blending to read words more fluently.

Maths

In maths, we have explored the concept of equivalence and have been making and describing double arrangements. The children have been representing numbers within 5 using their fingers, dice frames, and rekenreks. We’ve also used spatial language to describe different arrangements and investigated the commutativity of addition facts. Alongside this, we have been representing “5 and a bit” numbers up to 10 using tens frames, dice frames, rekenreks and fingers.

Helicopter Stories

An exciting part of our week has been working on Helicopter Stories. At the beginning of the week, we read The Three Little Pigs. We gathered together on the carpet, creating a stage area in the middle. We went around the circle, inviting children to choose whether they wanted to play a character in the story. If they chose not to, we moved on, so others could take part. As the story unfolded, the children stepped into their chosen roles and acted out what was being narrated. Later in the week, the children were encouraged to create and tell their own stories, which were scribed exactly as they shared them. The following days, they had the chance to hear their stories read aloud and act them out together. If they were the author of the story, they even got to choose which character they wanted to play! Some stories were just a few lines long, while others filled a whole A5 page.

PE

In PE, the children enjoyed playing a game called Kick It, which is similar to rounders. The girls had the first turn to come up, kick the ball and run to the cones and back before the boys passed the ball back to the bowler – then they swapped over. Everyone showed great teamwork and enthusiasm. We also practised some calming yoga this week.

Understanding the world

In Understanding the World, we explored finding the sea on a map. We talked about what the sea looks like on a map compared to the land, and then looked closely at a world map together. Afterwards, the children sorted different creatures into whether they would live in the sea or on land, helping them to make connections between maps and real-life habitats.

Finally, as we come to the end of the term, we kindly ask that any library books and phonics reading books be returned as soon as possible so that we can get everything ready for the summer break. Thank you so much for your support!

Star of the week: Congratulations to Anabia and Oscar K, who are our stars of the week. Anabia is our star of the week for having a great first week in Acorn and Oscar K is another of our stars of the week for always following our classroom rules. Anabia and Oscar K will be taking home their certificates this week. 

Please remember to put the library book in your children's book bag to be returned. These reading books and library books have been collected. If you have not yet brought in either book please do so by no later than Thursday 17th. Please can you remember to put these in your children's book bag. If they have not been returned, I will have to follow this up. If they are damaged or lost, please make one of the Acorn team or the office aware. 

Any issues or concerns we need to know about, please speak to the Acorn team before and after school or email at: acorn@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk

Well done to all the children for their hard work and enthusiasm this week!