We have had a fantastic start to Term 4!

Phonics

This week we have been recapping our Level 3 sounds that we have learnt so far to build confidence and fluency.

We have also learnt:

• A new sound: ‘sh’

• New tricky words: ‘we’, ‘me’ and ‘be’

The children have practised reading and writing these words and have been trying very hard to write their own sentences using the tricky words. We are so proud of their independence and effort in their writing!

Maths

We have been working on ordering Numberblocks in a staircase arrangement, exploring numbers more than 5 and less than 5 and representing the numbers 8, 5 and 3 in different ways. Throughout the week we practised using the sentence stem:  “___ is more than ___.”

We have been working with quantities up to 10 and discussing how smaller numbers can be hidden behind bigger numbers.

This week one of our favourite activities was our pizza topping game! The children closed their eyes while the number of toppings changed, then had to decide whether the amount was more, equal or less.

We have also been learning about doubles up to 8 and finding doubles in practical ways.

Drawing Club – People Who Help Us

We have started our new topic: People Who Help Us.

This week we read Busy People: Vets. We discussed what a vet does, why vets are important and what tools and equipment they need. 

The children:

• Drew a vet

• Created their own pet needing help from the vet (for example, a dog with a bandage)

• Designed a vet uniform or scrubs

• Wrote sentences about their pictures

It has been wonderful to see their creativity and sentence writing developing.

PE

This term we are focusing on Dance and Gymnastics.

In Dance, we have:

• Explored moving different body parts

• Used Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

• Played movement games such as Bop It

In Gymnastics, the children have been:

• Copying and creating body shapes

• Practising tuck, straight, star, pike and straddle shapes

• Developing control and balance through different games and challenges

Chinese New Year

We also recapped Chinese New Year and read the story Dragons in the City, learning about family celebrations and traditions.

Star of the week: Congratulations to Sammy, who is our star of the week, for working really hard in her speech interventions! Sammy 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 Friday'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

We are so proud of how well the children have settled back into learning this term. Thank you, as always, for your continued support at home!