MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What a very busy week!
Rehearsals, two concerts and a visit from Father Christmas, not to mention making snowmen and Christmas cards and Christmas tree cakes!

When we get back to school in January we will be ploughing ahead with phonics, maths, reading, writing, and lots more. So make sure you have a good rest over the holiday and come back to school ready to start full of energy and enthusiasm!

FEELING CHRISTMASSY

We have been busy getting ready for our Christmas Concert.

Decorating our classroom (with some hidden maths!)

Can you spot all of the pattern, shape and number work?

Practising songs and dances.
Learning the story of the Nativity and counting the days to Christmas with our Advent Calendar.

Phonics c/k/e

PLEASE REMEMBER!!!

• To bring dance shoes, black shorts and white vest to school on Monday.
• Children MUST be in school by 9am MONDAY, TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY morning.
• After the performance on Wednesday, there will be a little party for children and families in the gym, you may take your children home after that if you wish.
• On THURSDAY we will be having a special festive visitor in the morning, children may come to school wearing their choice of clothes!

HOMEWORK:
Please listen to the Nativity songs at home and practise your words!
http://www.ourladys.tameside.sch.uk/year2blog/song-lyrics-for-our-christmas-nativity-a-miracle-in-town/

OH NO, I CAN"T STAND THIS!

Literacy:
We have been reading 'PEACE AT LAST'.
                                            
We know the story really well, we have acted it out and worked with picture sequencing cards to help us remember it.
Click below to hear us joining in with our favourite parts of the story.
PEACE AT LAST

We have also been planning our dream homes and building up our domestic vocabulary.

Nativity:
Singing, dancing, trying on costumes, we have been extremely busy rehearsing for our Christmas concert and can't wait to perform for you at the end of term!
Click this link to hear the songs (we have changed some of them so please refer to the words that we sent home!)
Nativity Songs

Phonics:
Last week we looked at s, a, t.

This week we looked at p, i, n.
We have also learned the high frequency words I, and, the.
We continue to practise blending and segmenting using sound buttons.
Have a look below to see how it's done!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogMY6FBrAo

Maths:
We have been looking at numbers beyond ten. We are working on recognising them and making teen numbers usin ten as a starting point. We have been exploring the numicon maths equipment to help us.

We have been having lots of fun outside in the snow!

Homework 
Please practise the songs and words for the nativity.
Log in to busythings.co,uk http://busythings.co.uk/
LOGIN- home2837

PASSWORD- green2682

Choose the age 4-5 age group and look at some of the games in the phonics phase one and phase two sections.

You can also get started with teach your monster to read.

Please remember to return your child's reading book on Mondays or Tuesday at the latest so that I have time to collect the books and read with the children before sending new books home on Fridays.

THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

This week have continued using Eric Carle's classic THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR as a springboard into exploring colour, pattern and number.

Finding the missing number in a sequence of three numbers.

We each have our own number line to use at school to help us with our maths. Our number lines are kept in our trays, so please return them to school if you find them at home!

We discovered that butterflies have symmetrical wings and we explored our own use of symmetry.

We used tissue paper to make caterpillars, counting how many circles each caterpillar has.

If you would like to do find out more about how Eric Carle illustrated the book and what the book means to him, please follow this link

ERIC CARLE

We also got busy cooking, we made playdough and added different colours and artificial flavours to match some of the food the caterpillar ate in the story. 

mmm smell the orange, strawberry and vanilla ice cream!

To see an animated version of the story, click here
THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR ANIMATION

We have also had a great time outside enjoying our snowy garden!

Lots of strength building, teamwork and fun involved in pulling your friend around on a sledge!

More teamwork coordination and laughter making a human train to slide down the hill.

This was a very busy ice factory, it had it's own rules and systems and the workers were not at all pleased to be told to stop production when the bell rang!

We have all been fascinated by the leaves, branches and berries encased in ice.

HOMEWORK

In phonics we have been practicing blending and segmenting, just like these children in England, have a look at what they've been doing!

BLENDING AND SEGMENTING

I have also sent home blending and segmenting activities in your folders, as well as new books to read.

Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Lucie

WHAT DAY IS IT TODAY?

We have been trying to learn the days of the week and learning which are school days and which are rest days- the weekend. It has been particularly tricky to learn that most of the English speaking world calls the day after Wednesday 'Thursday' and not 'crouton soup day'!

In the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar we practised the days of the week and also some great positional language when we role played the story in the gym- in, on, under, through.

a little egg lay on a leaf and the moon shone in the sky

the sun came up and a caterpillar popped out of the egg

curled up caterpillars in their coccoons 

beautiful butterflies with symmetrical wings

We have done lots of reading in class this week and we are very excited to be taking our reading books home.

In phonics we have been learning how to blend and segment to help us with our reading and writing.

In response to the very bright and beautiful illustrastions in Eric Carles book, we have been exploring how to mix different colours. Children worked carefully with primary colours red, yellow and blue to make a range of new and beautiful colours.

Homework
We have sent home homework folders, please have a look at the books inside and read them at home with your child. I have made a video explaining the homework folders and the link is in the left hand section of the blog.

HALLOWEEN

Preparing for our Halloween celebration has been great fun, but quite exhausting! By Friday afternoon we were ready to sit down in the light of our pumpkins and listen to some spooky classical music!

Have a look at some of the things we've been doing in class:

Making footprint ghosts and monsters.

Making dangly spiders- a very fiddly job!

Making hanging pumpkins- more fiddly and extra sticky work that required a lot of perseverance!

Creating spooky stories and artwork.

Being brave trying to find treasure in some gloopy, spooky slime- watch out for floating eyeballs!!

How many ghosts can you knock down in pumpkin bowling?

Making a squidgy balloon monster.

Making our own magic wands- what spell will you cast?

And alongside all the excitement we have also been continuing our good work in maths and phonics:

Some super sorting by colour.

Counting out, working with numbers up to 20.

In phonics we are exploring alliteration- finding objects that have the same sound at the beginning.

I think you'll agree that we've all earned our holiday!!

But if you do want to do a little bit of homework, you can listen to 'ROOM ON THE BROOM'

ROOM ON THE BROOM

Play a few rounds of 'Teach your monster to read'.

TEACH YOUR MONSTER TO READ

Find the alliteration and rhyming games on busy things.

http://busythings.co.uk/

MOST IMPORTANTLY have a good rest, lots of family fun and come back to school ready and raring to go!!