Can you believe we’re two terms down? When I think back to September and those first few weeks, I beam with pride thinking about the progress the children have made. Not just the academic side, but the kind, helpful, and excited learners, who eagerly rush to the door in the morning. It makes my heart sing!
We welcomed the children back for the last three weeks of the Spring term, and as usual Stars class settled back into our daily routines like they had never been away. We focussed a lot of our time on well-being and recapped who to speak to at home and at school if we were worried, how to regulate our emotions and things we can do if we are feeling tired. We learnt about Spring, going on a Spring walk around our school and using the Ipads to take photographs. We looked at British spring flowers and created observational paintings. In Maths we recapped numbers 1-20, and practised ordering them and solving number problems. We explored 3d shapes, and used words like ‘curved’ and ‘flat’ to describe them.
Following the children’s interests, we will be starting with a ‘Growing’ topic. Some baby caterpillars have come to stay, and we will be watching carefully to see what happens over the next few weeks. We will be planting, identifying parts of the plant, and finding out about what plants need to live. We have begun to enjoy chapter books in class, particularly stories by Roald Dahl. The children have we learn about Roald Dahl next…I can’t wait!
This term we will be focussing on writing and encouraging the children to write sentences independently. We know the children are brilliant at their phonics, know the letters and can sound out words. Now they need to have a go at doing this themselves. We had a discussion in class and decided it was sometimes a bit tricky BUT we can do hard things! (I think this might be our new motto).
As always, there is lots you can do to support at home. I will continue our weekly blog this week and suggest ideas of things you can do to consolidate your child’s learning. See below are some general ideas…
Write a card to a loved one,
Write a shopping list,
Write clues to find some treasure
Write with pens, paint, sticks in mud\glitter\sand\custard.
Name numerals 1-20, and place in order.
Add two groups together by counting on from a number.
Count in twos to 20.
Develop upper body strength by hanging from the monkey bars for as long as possible.
Throw and catch a ball.
Develop independence getting dressed.
Spring 2021
An unusual start to our Spring term, with many of our Stars working remotely from home. Although our school days have looked differently, it hasn’t stopped Stars class being amazing learners and producing some fantastic pieces of work.
Following the children’s interests, we have covered lots of exciting topics. We explored the Arctics, looking at the environment and comparing with our own, found out about the animals that live there and experimented with ice. Some of our highlights include making penguins, creating a penguin assault course, and finding the quickest way to melt ice.
We especially enjoyed our Space topic, starting it off with an exciting video of a spaceship landing in the playground! We wondered what an alien would be doing visiting Earth and made our own aliens, labelling the body parts. We enjoyed the story ‘Whatever next’ and thought about what it would be like to travel to space. We made a list of all the things we would need so we could prepare for our space adventures. We loved learning about the different planets and sang a song to help us learn the order.
We have continued to learn new sounds in phonics, explore number and shapes, keep ourselves fit through PE and think about how to persevere at a challenge. We have just started our Traditional Tales topic, focussing on ‘The Gingerbread Man’. We will be learning the story by heart, drawing story maps, before creating our own versions of the story.
In a few weeks we will all be back in class together and we can’t wait! Don’t forget to check out our weekly blog to see all our brilliant learning and if you’re on Twitter, follow Manland school to see what learning looks like for all our pupils.
Autumn 2020
Welcome! What a wonderful few days we have had in Stars class. The children have been so enthusiastic starting school and full of energy in the mornings. We have been very impressed with how happy and independent the children have been coming into school. We have been getting to know your little Stars and finding out about their interests. Dinosaurs, fairies, dogs and monster trucks all seem very popular, we’re certainly going to be exploring some interesting topics this term. This half-term we will be creating a class charter, talking about our feelings, building friendships, enjoying stories, learning sounds and working with numbers one to ten. You can find out more information on our Curriculum Planner. We have lots more exciting learning ahead of us, including exploring the life cycle of a ladybird, finding out about plants and how they grow.
