Mrs MacMorrin and I would like to wish Miss Stafford and her family good luck as she gets ready to start her maternity leave!

We are both looking forward to seeing you all at school in January, and we have lots of exciting things planned for you.

We will be using Disney's story of 'Up' to help us become explorers, and we will be visiting two very different parts of the Americas.  Mrs MacMorrin will be taking you right up north to Canada, and I will be discovering the wonderful rainforests of Brazil.  So much to see and so much to do, we can't wait to get started!

I wonder if you can find out the names of any animals that live in Canada or Brazil?  Perhaps you could write a list to bring back to school!

Have a wonderful Christmas holiday - see you in the New Year!

Mrs Wainwright & Mrs MacMorrin

Thanksgiving and Hanukkah

Thanksgiving

The children all made sweet potato cakes to celebrate Thanksgiving.

They learnt the story of Thanksgiving and from that mapped out the journey of the Mayflower and then discussed the food the people made.  The children then used clay to make their own turkey.

They made Native American head dresses.

Hanukkah
The children learnt about the Menorah candle and that children play games with dreidel.
The children wrote about Hanukkah and decided on their own sentence focusing on sounds in words and letter formation.

The children learnt about the days f the week and how to order them.  We learnt this through a song to start with and then order the days.  Children did this very well and needed very little adult support.

The children learnt that at Hanukkah they celebrate by giving sweet gifts.  The children all gave each other a sweet gift and then ate it.  The children used this time to concentrate on their table manner and how we should act in a restaurant.

Diwali & Friendship Week

To celebrate friendship week, we played games and wrote one thing each about a friend to make a friendship chain.
What a lovely week this was.  The children all learnt the story of Diwali about Rama and Sita.  They all made pictures of the best part of the story and then wrote about it.

 We made our Christmas stars for the Friends of Fordham

We moulded clay to make diva lamps that are used to help Rama and Sita find their way home.

We also went outside to chalk our own Rangoli pictures on the playground.

For maths, we looked at 2D shapes, discussed names and made different pictures with shapes.

During choosing time, the children had music on to listen to whist playing.  They decided to sit and watch instead...such amazing concentration and dancing!!!

Remembrance Week

This week we have been learning about Remembrance and what this means.  The children have talked about soldiers and what they have done for us.  They then wrote cards to the soldiers to say  thank you for what they have done.  This was a great Literacy task and the children all thought hard about what they wanted to say.
For art the children drew and decorated their own poppy to go on their cards.

For their fine motor skills, the children had to weave a poppy using wool.

This is now up as a display in class.

As the weather has been lovely the children have been making mud pies for the soldiers in the Mud Kitchen this week.

The children freely chose to make a poster of a poppy field outside

In Maths they have been ordering 3 items by length and then also measuring length by joining cubes and discussing which one in the longest and then which is the shortest.

Home learning will be out Monday.  This is a whole school task so feel free to work on it together!

Please can I also ask for a £5 contribution towards cooking and tasting sessions that your child will be participating in each week.

Bonfire Nigh

 This week we have been learning about Bonfire night.  We watched a film about an elephant who taught us to stay safe when watching fireworks.
We learnt that it is important:
1. To wear our trousers over our boots so that sparks do not get into our boots.
2. To put sparklers in water when finished.
3. Adults should always light the fireworks.

Finn's picture of a firework

We read the story of Hovis the Hedgehog who talked about his home under the bonfire.  We went on a leaf hunt to make hedgehogs.  We also used maths and ordered leaves by length.

Barney's Hedgehog

Paiten Marie's Hedgehog

On Friday we learnt how to Green Screen using the Ipads

Alien Day

Please do not forget it is Alien Dress up day on Wednesday 21st October.

Making Aliens

Last week the children spent time making aliens from all your recycling  They followed a painting design and then made an alien.  The children then had to describe the alien in literacy The writing, designs and models are all up in class so feel free to view on the parent consultation evening.

In Maths the children talked about making patterns they used the computers to do this and also did this with 2D shapes.

Learning about the Moon

This week we have read a story about 7 ways to catch the moon, we have also watched clips about the moon.  The children enjoyed the story and used the information from the clips to write what they had learnt about space and the moon.
They have created their own picture of the moon using lovely sparkly embellishments.

For maths the children have been learning how to add.  We have looked at simple addition to 8, and how we use the two amounts to add together and then say how much they have altogether.

Home learning
Just a reminder that this is a collage (picture) of their trip to the farm.  If you are unsure, then there is an example on the class room window.

Phonics/Reading
Please continue to read with your child, and write in their book so we know they have read at home.  I have also highlighted some more words for the children to learn, bringing the total to 10.

Recycling
The children have been making rockets this week and have been very excited with this activity.  After a discussion with the children, they would like to continue this next week.Therefore, please could I ask you to send in some recycling as our collection is low (small or medium boxes, tubes of any kind, plastic bottles, egg cartons etc)

Playing in the Space Shuttle

Meeting the Author

My alien.  Mr Wainwright kept it.

Different ways of moving in PE

Different ways of moving in PE

Look at our rockets

This is my rocket!

Different ways of moving but under a parachute like
 an alien

Week Three

Well this was our final week of All About Me.  The children produced some amazing pictures of their favourite toy.

When outside this week the children have been building boats.  They did this by joining recycling materials and testing to see if they floated.

Charlie and Theo tested their boats and realised they did not float, so they decided to join them together for one big boat that had a wider base.  It floated!!
















We learnt to use a new computer program this week.
Also how to use a mouse.

Barney had great fun playing the game.


















When writing this week the class wrote  together.  They laid on the floor and wrote and drew pictures focusing on the sounds learnt in phonics so far.

Practising our cycling skills in the playground.

Just resting after quite a ride.

Great skills on the bike.

Team work

Working together to move around the playground.

Please can I take this opportunity to let you know the sounds we have been learning in class
s, a, t, p, i, n, m.  please help your child to learn these sounds.

Don't forget that Monday is our trip to Butterfly Lodge, children will all need wellies and a waterproof coat!!!

Please can I ask that as of Monday you try to encourage your child to come into class on their own, this will then start to promote their independence and will allow us to be ready for learning a little quicker.

Lastly, just an advanced warning that we will be having a Fancy Dress day on Wednesday 21st October.  I ask that all children come dressed up as an alien which will be linked to our topic.  Please do not feel you have to go out and spend lots, use what you have at home  ( I will be).