In phonics, we learnt our new tricky word ‘a’. We talked about how tricky words are special because we can’t sound them out — we just have to remember them! We learnt that when ‘a’ is on its own in a sentence, it’s said as “aye”, not “a”. The children practised reading the word in sentences and helped to write some sentences as a class to describe pictures.
We also learnt two new sounds this week: ‘d’ and ‘g’. We practised saying each sound with its action, writing the letters, and spotting and sounding out words that contain them.

In maths, we have been working on hearing and joining in with the counting sequence to 5. We learnt the song “5 Little Peas” and talked about how we have five fingers on one hand, so when all our fingers are up, we know we are showing 5. We practised careful counting — making sure we count each object, action or sound once and only once.
The children also discovered dice frames and noticed that, like our fingers, a dice frame always has 5 spots. When two dice frames are put together, that makes 10 — just like when we hold up both of our hands!
Later in the week, we explored capacity, comparing which containers hold more or less and experimenting to see what would fit in different containers.

In literacy, linked to our topic of Traditional Tales, we read The Three Little Pigs. Together, we created a story map to show the order of events in the story.

In art, we used a range of materials to make the pigs’ houses — straw, sticks, and bricks — thinking about what order to use the materials. 

In PE, our theme was People Who Help Us. The children became ambulance drivers and moved around the hall following different commands — walking for “go,” running for “blue light,” jumping for “speed bump,” and walking backwards for “reverse.” We then talked about doctors and played a fun game of Stuck in the Mud, where “infections” (children with red cones) tagged others, and “doctors” had to unstick or heal them.
We also practised positional language, following instructions such as stand on the bench, sit in the hoop, and stand beside the spot.

In RE, we talked about Who is God and came up with words to describe Him. One of our words was ‘Creator’. We watched a video about the Creation Story and discussed what God made on each day, including sea creatures on the fifth day.
We then met Tom and Tessa, two Christian children who brought a treasure box filled with jelly, books, pictures of jellyfish, and a Bible. We talked about how jellyfish are alive and jelly isn’t — then had lots of fun making our own jellyfish crafts!

Star of the week: Congratulations to Arabella, who is our star of the week, for being an amazing role model to her peers in all areas. Arabella 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.

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 Tuesday's and Thursday's. Please 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