Hello everyone,

It has been a slightly unusual week, as I was home with a fever for much of it. However, it sounds like the children had a wonderful time while I was away! They used paper, pipe cleaners, scissors, tape, and glue to design and create colourful trains. The students were incredibly crafty and creative. Recently, they have also been using cardboard to make toys such as puppets, puppet theatres, and even skateboards. It has been lovely to see how resourceful and imaginative they are becoming.

At the beginning of the week, we enjoyed a storytelling event. The children listened to the classic story Farmer Duck and then created beautiful duck collages using coloured paper. We also completed a short writing activity based on the story. Farmer Duck teaches us an important lesson about teamwork and pitching in to help, rather than leaving all the hard work to one person. We talked about how this connects to our own classroom, especially during tidy-up time — when we all help, the job gets done much more quickly!

In mathematics, we have been working hard on learning how to “bridge 10” when adding. This is a challenging concept, but with practice and perseverance, we will continue to grow in confidence and accuracy. To keep variety in our learning, we also explored shapes and their properties (attributes). We described a circle as having one curved side, and a square as having four straight sides. We discussed the difference between a square and a rectangle — I wonder who can explain it clearly to Mum and Dad at home? We also began exploring simple repeating patterns and will continue looking at how patterns can be created in different ways — with shape, size, colour, numbers, on paper, and using physical objects.

Friday was especially fun as we celebrated our monthly birthday party and then enjoyed a trip to the park. Although the weather has been up and down, we are starting to see signs of warmer days ahead — the first hints of spring!

We have also begun working on the graduation video for the Milky Way class. The end of the year is approaching quickly, but we are excited for all that is still to come and what lies ahead.

Wishing you all a restful weekend!

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/shape-patterns