Thursday 30^th March

We are nearly at the end of another busy half term in school. I would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents who came to our Art Exhibition. I am sure you are all incredibly proud of the children’s work and we are very grateful for your continued support with your child’s learning. The children performed the songs beautifully and really enjoyed showing you all their work.

This week, the children have been busy learning lots of facts about space and making a fact file. We talked about non-fiction books and looked at lots of books about space. We enjoyed reading the story ‘Whatever Next’ and pretended to go to space in a cardboard box, just like the bear in the story. The children used their imagination and made their own stories.

The children have really enjoyed performing lots of songs on our stage outside. They have been working together to writing the lyrics during exploring time and then performed their songs to the class. Some children even decided to be the conductors and others played instruments alongside the children singing. It has been wonderful to see the amazing team work and smiles on the children’s faces as they perform to us. Yesterday, we enjoyed our Cricket session and we are looking forward to a Dodgeball session tomorrow. In RE, we have been learning the Easter story and attended whole school Mass in church this morning.

In Maths, we have been comparing amounts to 10. We counted to 20 and built a tower and compared the number of bricks in our towers. Some children made a number line to 10. We also enjoyed playing in the water tray where we had to find 2 pieces of Numicon which added together to make 10 in the water beads.

This week in Phonics, we consolidated our learning so far. In your child’s book bag, they have a grid with the phonics sounds we have learnt so far and all the tricky words.

Please see the photographs below of our busy week in school. I hope you have a fantastic Easter, and we look forward to seeing the children when we return.

Thursday 23^rd March

This week has been assessment week in school. We are incredibly proud of all the children in Reception class and the amazing progress they have made with their learning this year.

The children have started making their rockets. We looked at lots of different pictures of rockets and talked about the different parts. We drew a picture of our design and made it on the floor with the materials. We talked about how we will attach all the parts together and what we will use to decorate it. The children have started decorating their rockets today and will hopefully finish them tomorrow. The children are excited to show you their rockets at our Art Exhibition on Tuesday. Thank you for all the materials you sent into school for our rockets.

Phonics sounds: ar, or

Tricky words: have, one  

Thursday 16^th March

The children have enjoyed learning all about Space this week. We have started to learn a song all about going to Space in a rocket. We made aliens and wrote all about them. On Tuesday, the children were very surprised to find their aliens went missing. They made posters to stick around school and worked together to make a trap. In PE, we practised our under arm and over arm throwing. The children enjoyed trying to throw the bean bags through different parts of the climbing frame. Yesterday, we looked at the painting ‘Starry Night’ by Vincent van Gogh. We looked closely at the colours and lines on the painting. We have started to make our own picture using different media. The children enjoyed experimenting with water colour paints and wax crayons on large pieces of paper.

In Maths, we have been representing and sorting numbers 9 and 10. We used a tens frame to represent the numbers. Some children made their own tens frame outside using sticks. We ordered numbers to 10 and talked about the composition of numbers 9 and 10.

In Phonics this week, we revisited the sounds and tricky words from last week.

Phonics sounds: oo as in ‘food’ and oo as in ‘book’

Tricky words: when, said

Thursday 9^th March

We have had a busy week in school. In PE, we practiced our throwing and catching. We enjoyed playing a target game where we had to hit the cones with beanbags. We enjoyed watching a video about a little girl who lives in Africa. We looked in her house and her school. We compared it to our own houses and school. We learned that she must walk to get water every day. We learnt all about life in Africa and sorted lots of pictures.

In Literacy, we have been focussing on full stops. We wrote sentences to label pictures. We spotted all the digraphs in our words too. We enjoyed listening to the story ‘Stuck’ by Oliver Jeffers which the children chose to buy on World Book Day from St Catherine’s Hospice. In Maths, we played lots of games to consolidate our learning about addition. We also learned about length. We ordered the children from shortest to the tallest and measured our feet. We also made play-dough snakes and compared the length of the snakes using shortest and longest. 

New Phonics sounds: oo as in ‘food’ and oo as in ‘book’

New Tricky words: when, said

Thursday 1st March

On Monday, we had a visitor come into school who showed us lots of different science experiments. We had to predict what was going to happen. Our favourite experiment was when we made a fizzy drink explode. It nearly touched the ceiling!

Yesterday, we had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day. The children looked amazing in their hats. We read the story Elmer and decorated our classroom door as Elmer. The children had the opportunity to buy a book, year 5 came and read our favourite stories to us, we made animal masks and went on a book treasure hunt outside.

In Maths, we continued to learn about addition. We played a game with dice and dominoes and wrote addition sums. We learned all about the numbers 18 and 19. In PE, the children enjoyed playing our star game. We learnt how to do an over arm and under arm throw. We enjoyed throwing lots of different equipment into hoops.  

We continued our learning about Africa. We talked about animals in Africa and made an animal out of a paper plate. We also performed some African dancing and made an African necklace. The children used cotton buds to decorate their necklaces.  

Please see the photographs below of our learning this week.

Thursday 23^rd February

Welcome back! We have had a fantastic week in school. We enjoyed listening to all the children’s news about half term during Key Worker time.

We have started our learning about our wonderful world – far away. We looked in our new talking basket to begin our topic. Inside the basket we found lots of different flags, the Eiffel Tower, a rocket, an astronaut, an aeroplane, and an Australian Hat. We enjoyed listening to the story ‘Handa’s Surprise.’ We retold the story using dance in the hall. We also wrote a list of all the different fruits in Handa’s basket.

In Maths, we played a matching pairs game and compared numbers 6, 7 and 8. We also learned how to combine two sets of objects together. In PE, the children found lots of different ways of being a star. They balanced using their hands and feet. We travelled along equipment and balanced on benches and boxes. The children jumped off and made a star shape. They enjoyed playing our catch a star game for the warm up too.

We also compared Longridge to Africa. We talked about Africa and looked at lots of pictures of houses and schools.

New Phonics Sounds: igh, oa

Tricky Words: are, like

Thursday 9^th February

Our final week of the half term has been very exciting. This week, we celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week. We took part in mindfulness activities, played a skittles feelings game, made friendship bracelets, wrote kind messages to our friends, sang songs with Miss Borgen and took part in a talent show. We enjoyed playing lots of turn taking games and completing jigsaws with our friends. We are looking forward to wearing something that makes us feel happy to school tomorrow. The children have been amazing this half term and made fantastic progress with their learning. We hope you all have a wonderful half term with your family! 

Phonics

Our Phonics Sounds: ai ee

Tricky Words: all, her

Thursday 2^nd February

This week, we have compared our school now and in the past. Tomorrow morning, we will be going for a walk to the old school house, down the back lane. We looked at photographs of school in the past and been on a tour of the school to compare the rooms. We also made a video of our school for new children to watch and find out about our wonderful school. In PE, the children learnt lots of different ways of travelling on their hands and feet. The children enjoyed listening to the story ‘What the ladybird heard.’ Lanky Len and Hefty Hugh used a map to try and steal the cow. Some children then chose to make a treasure map and we set up a pirate area outside. In Maths, our focus numbers this week are 16 and 17. We continued our learning about capacity. We also used the scales to measure the weight of different objects. We compared the objects using the language heavy and light. We also sorted numbers 6, 7, 8 and learned how to make each number using Numicon.

Phonics

This week in Phonics, we re-capped our learning from the past few weeks. Below are the sounds and tricky words we have learnt so far.

Our Phonics Sounds: s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f ff l ll ss j v w x y z zz sh ch th ng qu

Tricky Words: I, no, to, go, into, the, you, they, was, my, be, he, she, we, me

Thursday 26^th January

This week, we have been celebrating Chinese New Year. We listened to the story about The Great Race, made dragons, danced, wrote our names in Chinese, decorated our classroom, and made a rabbit. The children also really enjoyed eating prawn crackers!

In Literacy, we have learnt the story 'Mr Gumpy’s Outing' off by heart. We worked together to think of lots of different actions for all the animals in the story. We innovated the story and added our own animal into Mr Gumpy’s boat. In Maths, our focus numbers are 14 and 15. The children enjoyed making the numbers using Numicon, writing the number and learning one more and one less than the number. We have also been learning about capacity. We enjoyed filling cups with different amounts of rice and comparing the amounts. 

In PE, the children turned into monkeys! They were challenged to climb under and over lots of different equipment. The children particularly enjoyed climbing under and over our climbing frame.

Phonics

New sounds: th, ng

Tricky Words: you, they

Thursday 19^th January

Yesterday, we had lots of fun playing in the snow. We wrapped up warm, put our wellies on and went outside. We found lots of signs of Winter. We wrote phonics sounds, our number of the day and our names in the snow. We played some Phonics games and even made a snowman!  The children named their snowman 'Snowy.' We then read a story all about animals that live in the Arctic. The children asked to make some iceburgs for our Arctic water tray. We put water in the freezer and waited for the water to turn into ice. We have also continued our learning about Longridge. The children painted a cardboard box and turned it into a building in Longridge. They also drew their own map of Longridge. In Maths, we have been writing addition sums to make 4 and 5.

Sounds we have learnt this week: qu, ch, sh

Tricky Words: my, was

Thursday 12th January 

We have had another busy week in school. Please see below some photographs of our learning this week. We begun our learning about Longridge. We know that our school is near Longridge. We looked at photographs of different parts of Longridge including the Library, Post Office, Aldi and High Schools. The children learned that there are lots of shops on Berry Lane and a long time ago there used to be a train station. We used the construction materials to make a large map of Longridge. 

Maths 

In Maths we have been focussing on one less. We played lots of games to help us understand one less. The children particularly enjoyed standing in a line and pretending to be on a bus, stopping and letting one person get off, then counting how many people were left on the bus. Ask your child at home to tell you one less than numbers to 10. You could play the bus game too! 

We have continued learning about a different number every day. We have been learning about numbers 11 and 12 this week. Write the number and ask your child to tell you what it is. 

Literacy and Phonics

The children enjoyed following a recipe to learn how to make Rice Krispie cakes. The children wrote instructions and enjoyed eating them on Wednesday. We invited 2 year 1 children into our class and taught them how to make the cakes. 

Sounds we have learnt this week: x, ,y, z, zz

Tricky words: we, me, be 

Thursday 5th January

Happy New Year to you all! We have really enjoyed seeing the children again and hearing all about the exciting things they have been doing over Christmas. The children enjoyed telling their friends all about their Christmas holidays in key worker time.

In Literacy, we read the story ‘In every house on every street.’ We talked about our own houses and what we use the different rooms for. We drew a picture of our favourite room and wrote some words about it. In Maths, we have been learning all about number 5. We used Numicon to find different ways of making 5. The children helped me to write addition sums and some children even wrote their own on a whiteboard. We made different shapes with 5 blocks and compared the different shapes. We also talked about one more and one less than numbers to 10. As part of our morning routine, the children have enjoyed learning about a new number every day. 

We shared our topic basket with objects related to our new topic. We found a map, brick, house, people, pig and pictures of Longridge. We are looking forward to learning all about our local area next week. In RE, we started our new topic called 'Celebrating.' We met our new friend Bobby the Bear and celebrated his birthday. We talked about lots of different things we celebrate with our friends and families. 

Phonics

New sounds we have learnt this week: j, v, w

Tricky words: he, she

Phonics game - write the following words on pieces of paper. Hide them in your house. Ask your child to go on a hunt to find the words. Bring them back and read them. 

jet, vest, will, wig, van

Thursday 15^th December

We have had a very fun week in school. The children were amazing in the Nativity show on Tuesday. We are so proud of them all for their fantastic singing and dancing. We hope you enjoyed the show. On Wednesday, we enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner wearing our Christmas jumper. We pulled crackers and sang Christmas songs. We have also been learning the Nativity Story. The children worked in groups to sequence the story using pictures and used role play to retell the story. They have enjoyed playing with our Nativity scene during exploring time.

Thursday 8^th December

Our Elf has continued to get up to mischief this week. He has been watching us all week and left us some challenges. We have been working hard to practise the Nativity songs, ready for our performance next week. Thank you for coming to watch our performance of the gingerbread Man story. The children really enjoyed retelling the story and we are very proud of the children for learning the story off by heart. In RE, we have been learning the Nativity Story. The children have enjoyed playing with our Nativity scene and retelling the story with their friends.

Our learning

We have been assessing the children to see all the sounds and tricky words the children have learned this half term. The children have made fantastic progress with their reading. Thank you for all your support with your child’s reading at home.

New sounds we have learnt this week: ll, ss

Tricky words: I, no, go, to, the, into

Friday 2^nd November

We have had a very busy week in school. The children really enjoyed the pantomime on Thursday. In RE, we made a class advent calendar which we have hung on our washing line. The children enjoyed decorating our Christmas tree and our classroom. We have a class Elf who seems to be getting up to lots of mischief. On Thursday, we found him reading a story in our reading corner and this morning he was hanging from the washing line.

Literacy/Phonics

We have continued our learning all about The Gingerbread Man. We are looking forward to our performance of the story for you all on Tuesday.

We have been learning some new sounds this week. 

New sounds: f, ff, l

Tricky words: I, no, go, to, the, into

Maths

In Maths we have been learning lots of positional language e.g. behind, in front, under, in, on, between

We have also been learning all about number 4. Some children made the number 4 ‘Numberblock’ during exploring time. We have been talking about the composition of number 4.

Extra homework challenges:

1. Go and hide a teddy in your house. Ask your child to go and find it. When they find it, ask your child to describe where it is using positional language. E.g. The teddy is under the chair.
2. See if your child can tell you some numbers which add together to make 4. E.g. 3 and 1, 2 and 2, 4 and 0.

Thursday 24^th October

We had lots of fun this morning completing the Superhero assault course for our chosen charity, St Catherine’s Hospice. The children were amazing superheroes! They climbed onto equipment, jumped off, went through tunnels, over bridges and lots more. Please see the photographs below. We will let you know how much money we raised soon.

Literacy/Phonics

We have continued our learning all about The Gingerbread Man. Yesterday, we made some delicious gingerbread biscuits. The children followed the recipe and measured all the ingredients. They put them into the oven. Luckily, none of the Gingerbread biscuits escaped and the children ate them all up at the end of the day. The children labelled some pictures of things they used to make the biscuits.

We have been consolidating our learning in Phonics this week. Please see below all the sounds and tricky words we have learnt so far.

Sounds (phonemes): s a t p i n m d g o c k ck u b r h e

Tricky words: I, no, go, to, the, into

Topic and RE

In RE, we have begun our learning about Advent. We made an advent calendar together which we will open every day in December. We have been learning all about Florence Nightingale. Last week, the children wanted to make a hospital in our classroom. We then decided to compare hospitals now and in the past. We learnt all about Florence Nightingale and how she was a very special nurse. We looked at lots of pictures and used role play to compare the hospitals, no and in the past.

Thursday 17^th October

What a busy week! We have celebrated Safety Week and National Nursery Rhyme Week. Please see below all the exciting things we have been doing.

Literacy/Phonics

In Literacy, we have been learning to orally retell the story ‘The Gingerbread Man.’ The children worked in groups to choose actions for different characters in the story.  The children wore masks and pretended to be characters from the story. The children enjoyed going to the Library and choosing a new book to share at home.

Sounds we have been learning this week in Phonics: h, b, r

Tricky words: no, go

Maths

In Maths, we have been learning all about shapes. We went on a shape hunt, made shape pictures and had lots of fun making shape patterns. The shapes we have been learning about are circles, triangles, rectangles and squares. We talked about the similarities and differences between the shapes.

Go on a shape hunt in your house and see how many different shapes you can find!   

RE

In RE, have started a new topic called ‘Birthdays.’ We had a birthday party. We played pass the parcel, danced to music and even ate some chocolate cake.

We also talked about looking after God’s wonderful world. We went litter picking and recycled some of Miss Ollerenshaw’s rubbish from home.

Topic

This week is safety week. We have been learning all about people in the community who keep us safe. We used role play to show how people in the community help us. We dressed up as nurses, doctors, firemen and policemen. The children decided to turn our home corner into a hospital.  This morning, we talked about road safety. We talked about how to cross the road safely. We stood by the church and crossed the road safely. Mrs Poulton surprised us by driving past. We had to make sure we waited for her to go past before we checked the road was clear and then crossed the road. Miss Ollerenshaw pretended to be a lollypop lady too.

The children have also really enjoyed singing and learning lots of nursery rhymes. Ask your child to sing their favourite rhyme to you!

Thursday 10^th November

Literacy/Phonics

In Literacy, we have continued our learning about Supertato. On Monday afternoon, we found somebody had stuck our carrots onto the table. The children guessed it was the evil pea and decided to make a trap to try and catch the evil pea. We also made wanted posters and stuck them around school. We told other classes to watch out for the evil pea and let us know if they saw him. On Wednesday, we came into school and found the evil pea was caught in Oliver’s trap. The evil pea and his friends were splatted all over the table. The children have continued to make lots of traps, just in case he returns! 

Sounds we have been learning this week in Phonics: ck, e, u

Tricky words: to, I

Maths

In Maths, we have been learning one more and one less. We played a game with bean bags and buckets and compared the amounts in the buckets. Ask your child to tell you one more and one less than numbers to 5.  

RE

In RE, we shared our Baptism pictures with our friends. During class worship, we talked about Remembrance Day and made poppies. We painted the window display in our classroom.

Topic

The children wanted to learn all about Sleeping Beauty. We read the story and retold it with our friends. In PE, we retold the story Jack and The Beanstalk using actions. We also completed lots of jumping activities and even learned how to play hopscotch. We have been enjoying playing hopscotch in our outdoor area.

Thursday 3^rd October

We have had a fantastic week back in school.

Please see below some of the activities we have been doing this week.

Literacy/Phonics

In Literacy, we have been reading the story Supertato. We had lots of fun making our own Supertato. We described our Supertato to our friends during key worker time. The children also enjoyed listening to the story ‘Funny Bones’ and making skeletons.

Sounds we have been learning this week in Phonics: o, c, k

Tricky word: the

Maths

In Maths, we have been sorting and matching numbers 1, 2, and 3. We hid the numbers around the classroom and played a matching game to match the number to the quantity. We sorted numbers 1, 2 and 3 and some children were even able to tell us one more or one less.

RE

In RE, our topic is ‘Welcoming.’ We visited our church before half term and talked about how we are welcomed into God’s family. We looked at pictures of our visit to church and recalled the different parts in the church. We have also begun our learning about Baptism. If your child has been Baptised, please send a picture in of their special day to show everyone. We attended Mass on Tuesday with the whole school to celebrate All Saints Day.

Topic

Our topic this half term is Fantastic Fantasy. We started our topic by looking in our talking basket and discussing all the things inside. We found a knight’s helmet and sword, characters from fairy tales, superheroes, and lots more. The children asked for a Superhero Area outside. They worked together to decide what they wanted in the area and helped to set it up. We also celebrated Diwali, the festival of light. In PE, we experimented with different ways of moving. We learnt how to control an object by touching, pushing, patting, throwing, and catching.

In PSHE, we have been talking about all the things that make us special. A dinosaur came to visit us and taught us his favourite song. We looked into a mirror and sang his song. Ask your child to sing it to you and talk about what makes them special. 

I'm special. You're special.

There's no-one quite like me.

I'm special. You're special.

Clap if you agree. (Clap, clap).

Thursday 20th October

What a busy first half term we have had. The children have been amazing and settled into school. We have enjoyed sharing lots of stories, learning numbers, patterns and comparing length in Maths. In Phonics, we enjoy learning new sounds and we are beginning to segment and blend words.

We enjoy learning through play during exploring time and we have made lots of new friends. Please see below some pictures of our learning from this half term.

Thursday 6th October

Art - Arcimboldo 

We have been learning all about the artist Arcimboldo. We made fruit faces in the style of Arcimboldo. We then cut out lots of pictures of our favourite fruit and made a face. 

Can you guess who is hiding behind the fruit face?

Our first few weeks in school

We have had an amazing first few weeks in school. We have made lots of new friends, settled into the school routines and had lots of fun. Our topic is Marvellous Me and we have been learning all about ourselves. We shared our chatter bags with our favourite things and talked about our wonderful families. 

In Literacy, we have really enjoyed reading the story 'Owl Babies' and retelling the story. Mr Fitzgibbon gave us an egg. We are so excited to see what is inside when it hatches. We have learnt the phonics sounds s, a and t and played lots of fun games to help us to segment and blend. We have taken part in collective worship and learnt our special school prayers.