Welcome back to Acorn Class! We hope everyone had a lovely break. We have had a very busy and exciting first week of Term 2, with lots of new learning and experiences.

Phonics

This week in Phonics, we began by recapping some of the sounds we have already learnt. We practised sorting pictures into groups according to their initial sounds, listening carefully to hear which sound each word began with.

We then learnt two new sounds: ‘d’ and ‘g’. We practised saying each sound and learning its action before using them in words. The children have been working hard on their blending and segmenting, listening carefully to hear the individual sounds in words and then putting them back together to read the whole word.

We also practised writing both of our new sounds and had a go at writing words containing them. We have been working particularly hard on our letter formation, thinking carefully about where we start each letter and the direction our pencil needs to travel.

We have also continued to practise writing our names, developing our confidence and independence when writing our own names.

Maths

In Maths this week, we have been focusing on the number 5. We practised hearing and joining in with the counting sequence to 5 using the song ‘5 Little Peas’. We also talked about our hands and noticed that we have 5 fingers. We discovered that when we put all five fingers up, we can see 5!

We practised counting objects, actions and sounds, making sure that we counted each one only once. We also thought about the quickest way to make 5. Using hand templates, the children found five objects and placed one object on each finger. We then replaced the objects with counters, placing one counter on each finger to represent 5.

The children were introduced to a dice frame. We talked about why it is called a dice frame and noticed that, just like our hands, it has 5 spaces. We filled the spaces with counters to represent the number 5.

We then explored how 5 and 5 make 10, using our two hands and two dice frames. This gave us the opportunity to see how two groups of 5 can be combined to make 10.

We have also begun exploring capacity. We talked about what the word capacity means and looked at different examples of containers and thought about how much they could hold.

Drawing Club

This week in Drawing Club, we read the story The Three Little Pigs. We talked about the characters, what happened in the story and some of the key vocabulary from the book.

The children were then given a challenge to imagine that they were going to build their own house. We thought carefully about what materials we might choose to make our houses strong and interesting. The children came up with some fantastic and imaginative ideas, including pillows, sweets and metal!

It was wonderful to see the children using their imaginations and talking about the reasons why they might choose different materials.

Art

In Art this week, we continued our learning around The Three Little Pigs. We recapped the three different houses from the story and remembered the materials that each little pig used.

The children then had a go at creating the three houses themselves. They used different materials, including straw, cut-out sticks and cut-out bricks, and worked carefully to put the houses in the correct order.

We talked about how each house looked different and thought about which materials might make the strongest house.

PE

In PE this week, we worked on our ability to follow instructions and stop safely. We talked about being aware of the people around us and thinking carefully about who is close to us when we are moving around the space.

We then worked together with a partner, developing our teamwork skills and learning how to move safely alongside someone else.

We also focused on developing our balancing skills, both when staying still and when moving. The children used beanbags to practise balancing on different parts of their bodies. This was a great opportunity to develop our coordination, control and concentration.

Our First Trip Out of School!

One of the most exciting parts of our week was going on our first trip out of school! We went to the park with our buddies and had a wonderful time exploring what it is like to go on a school trip.

We talked about how we need to behave when we are out of school, including walking safely, listening to adults and staying with our group. It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to practise these skills in a real-life situation.

We also enjoyed spending time with our buddies, playing together and building those special relationships between the younger and older children.

A huge thank you to all of the parents who came along to help us. We really appreciate you giving up your time to support us and help make our first trip such a success!

Star of the week: Congratulations to Grayson, who is our star of the week, for fantastic sounding out and blending in phonics. Grayson will be taking home his certificate and Wilfred the Elephant to write in the book all about his time spent with Wilfred over the next week and will bring him back the Thursday after half term. 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

What a fantastic first week back! We are incredibly proud of how well the children have settled back into school and how enthusiastically they have approached all of their learning. We are looking forward to another exciting week in Acorn Class!