We have had another busy and exciting week in Acorn Class, with lots of learning taking place across all areas of our curriculum!

Phonics

In Phonics this week, we have learnt two new sounds: ‘t’ and ‘p’. We practised saying each sound and learnt the accompanying action to help us remember them. We have been working hard on our blending and segmenting skills, using the sounds we have learnt to read and build words.

We have also been practising writing our new sounds and have even started some early word writing. The children have been having a go at writing the word ‘sat’, which has been a fantastic first step towards writing words independently. We also enjoyed colouring pictures that began with our new initial sounds, helping us to recognise the sounds at the beginning of words.

Maths

In Maths, we have been exploring how numbers can be made up of smaller amounts. We have been learning that 2 is made of 1 and another 1 and identifying when a collection is made up of 3 objects.

We have also started exploring the number 4, recognising that 4 can be made from four 1s. Alongside this, we have been developing our understanding of sorting by creating and identifying our own sorting rules. The children have enjoyed thinking carefully about how objects can be grouped and explaining why they belong together.

Understanding the World – All About Me

As part of our All About Me topic, we have been learning more about our bodies. We began by singing and joining in with the actions to ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’.

We then talked about different parts of our bodies and learnt the names for them. The children helped to add labels to our body display on our working wall, helping us to remember and use the correct names for different body parts.

Art

In Art, we read the lovely story ‘In Every House on Every Street’. This encouraged us to think about our own homes and the people who are special to us.

We talked about who we live with and the children then drew pictures of the people in their own homes. These have now been put together and displayed to look as though we all live along the same street. It has been lovely to see all of our different families represented!

PSHE – Zones of Regulation

In PSHE, we have continued exploring the Zones of Regulation. We talked about what the different zones are, what they mean and how we can use different strategies to help ourselves stay in the Green Zone, where we are ready to learn and make good choices.

We also explored a scenario involving Miss Evans' magnets! We thought about what might happen if someone took something that belonged to us and how we might feel. We first looked at what could happen if we reacted badly and discussed why this would not be a helpful way to respond.

We then learnt about the ‘Stop and Tell’ method. If someone is doing something we don't like, we can put our hand up and clearly say “Stop!” If they do not stop, we know that we should go and tell a trusted adult who can help us.

RE

In RE this week, we discussed why we went to church on Friday and thought about why Christians believe that God is important. We learnt that Christians believe that God is the King of the world, and because of this, His name should be used carefully and respectfully.

On Friday, we went to church for our Harvest Festival. Thank you so much to all of the families who kindly sent in food to contribute to our Harvest collection. All of the food that was brought in was kindly donated and taken with us to church as part of our Harvest celebration. It was lovely for the children to be part of this special event and to understand that Harvest is a time when we can be thankful for the food we have and think about helping others.

We also talked about how it might make someone feel if we used their name in a mean or disrespectful way. This helped us to think about how important names are and how we should use them kindly. We learnt that Christians believe God created the world and everything in it for us, so it is important to use God's name in the right way and to show Him respect.

We also looked at Miss Burkinshaw's ring and talked about how it is precious to her and therefore needs to be handled with care. We discussed what the word precious means and thought about things that are precious to us, such as our family, a favourite toy or something special that has meaning to us. We talked about how we look after things that are precious and why we might want to protect them.

Finally, we thought about why God is precious to Christians and why His name is precious. This gave us lots of opportunities to talk about respect, kindness and taking care of the things that are important to us.

Another fantastic week in Acorn Class! 🌟

Star of the week: Congratulations to Emine, who is our star of the week, for working hard in Phonics to sound out words. Emine will be taking home her certificate and Wilfred the Elephant to write in the book all about her time spent with Wilfred over the next week and will bring him back next Thursday. If you are unable to print photographs, you can email them to acorn@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk, and we will print them for you to add to Wilfred's book.

Please remember to read with your child, even for just 5 minutes! Please also remember to record it in the reading record. We will only change your child's book if you have read with them 2 or more times in that week! Reading books are changed on Monday's and Thursday's. Please also remember to have the library book in your children's book bag on Thursday to be changed. 

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