Weekly update15th December 2014

 

Well can you believe we have reached the end of our very first term...and what a packed one it was too!

As our Christmas preparations draw to a close, I am sure you are all gearing up at home and that the Christmas excitement is making everyone smile at home!

This week’s blog is to let you know what is happening during this week and also, we have included a few festive sites to keep everyone occupied whilst the cleaning fairies organise the housework for the big day!

Monday

Dust off those party frocks and best clothes, as Monday sees our fantastic Christmas party! The children have worked really hard all term, so now is the chance for them to let their hair down and boogie the afternoon away. The children will be allowed to come to school ALL DAY in their own clothes, complete with hair gel, glitter and perfume!

 

Santa’s elves have been very busy wrapping all the gifts for the children AND organising all the party food. The Elf’s and Pixies have been fantastic this week, making sure that all the children will have a great time – a huge thank you!

 

Friday

 

The last day of term, sees a real treat. Our Christmas Carol Service, led by Years 5/6 will be held in the hall at 9.15am.

 

The afternoon sees the Parent’s Panto. It is always a really fantastic production and a fitting end to the year. All the children, (and staff) leave the hall in festive mood, ready to start our preparations at home.

 

Festive Fun

 

Lots of the children enjoy using the websites given on the blog every week. All of the sites, links and activities on the site are used in class to support our learning, but every now and again, we include sites which are ‘just for fun’.

 

 

 

http://www.emailsanta.com/

 Write a letter to Santa and see the reply appear before your very eyes!

 

 http://www.northpole.com/

 A real favourite of mine! The disco dancing Santa is fabulous!

 

 http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/

 A very interesting site, explaining all about the customs and traditions of Christmas.

 

 http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/meaning.htm

 I loved this story! Maybe one for Christmas Eve?

 

 http://www.star28.net/snow.html?msg=they

This made me giggle! Get the penguin to write your name in the snow. What about trying this to help with the spelling of those tricky words?

 

 http://www.learn-ict.org.uk/resources/rudolph/rudolph.htm

 Rudolf is missing! Read this lovely interactive story with your child. A great way of developing those comprehension skills.

 

 http://www.funranch.com/games/tree/index.htm

 Decorate the online Christmas tree

 

 http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/snowman_v4.html

 Build your very own snowman...without getting your hands cold!

 

 http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/winter/

 Some great ideas for Christmas crafts to do at home, using all those empty boxes.

 

 http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/ Christmas crafts

 

http://www.nevada.edu/~blake/Christmas.carols.html

Why not sing through some of these traditional Christmas Carols in preparation for Friday’s service?

 

 http://www.kidzone.ws/math/christmas/index.htm

 Although these are based on American ‘grades’, some of these Christmas themed Maths worksheets are still really useful.

 

 http://christmas.iboard.co.uk/

 Lots of Christmas online activities to try. I really like the writing ideas, which use a framework and a word bank to help. Why not print some off to bring in to show?

 

On behalf of all the staff, we wish you a very happy, peaceful and holy Christmas. We hope that Santa brings you everything you ask for and that we all return safe and happy in the New Year. School starts again at 8.45am on 6th January 2015.

Merry Christmas!!!

Love from

The Key Stage One team.  XX

Weekly update 8th December 2014

Information

Hello and welcome to another week of busy activities. We would like to thank the children for their excellent production of the Christmas play “The Very Hopeless Camel!”. We are so proud of the children and now that they thoroughly enjoyed their performances. We definitely have a few budding actors and actresses among them!

 

We had our Christmas Fair on Friday which was a great success. Thank you to everyone who turned up and supported the school.

 

This week we will be assessing the children on their reading, writing, numeracy and phonics. Some assessments have already taken place and will be continuing throughout the week.

Notices

Monday 8^th December 2014 is the children’s Christmas dinner.

 

Friday 12^th December 2014 is the Advent Service in school. Details on the school newsletter)

 

Maths

This week the children will be having a numeracy test which will test all of the areas covered so far in this half term so this week we will be have a revision week to revisit some of the topics that we have covered so far this term.

 

 Below is a list of some of the topics that the children will be tested on:

 

·       Use every day language to describe 2D and 3D shapes – what the shape are called and how many sides and corners shapes have.

 

·       Odds and evens – can they identify odds and evens numbers up to 100.

 

·       Counting reliably up to 30 and above.

 

·       Reading and writing numbers up to 100.

 

·       Understanding the operation of + and – and use related vocabulary.

 

·       To know pairs to 10 and build up to pairs to 100.

 

·       To recognise coins and their values – to be able to add up amounts and find totals.

 

·       To read the time to the hour/half hour on an analogue clock.

 

·       Start to recognise multiples of 2,5 and 10.

 

 http://www.saintambrosebarlow.wigan.sch.uk/Infant_activities/daysofweek1.htm

 http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/time/seasons.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5enDRrWyXaw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPzIbbvoiMA

http://www.ictgames.com/Y1shape.html

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/online/memory.html

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_114_g_2_t_3.html

http://www.coppschool.lancsngfl.ac.uk/Classwork/Classwork/flashaids/sorting_2d_shapes.swf

http://mathematics.hellam.net/maths2000/shapes.swf

http://www.interactivestuff.org/match/maker.phtml?featured=1&id=31

https://hwb.wales.gov.uk/cms/hwbcontent/Shared%20Documents/vtc/ngfl/maths/greg_morgan_symmetry/index.htm

http://www.innovationslearning.co.uk/subjects/maths/activities/year3/symmetry/shape_game.asp

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/maths/calamity.shtml

English

In English this week we are continuing with ‘The Nativity Story.’ The children will be writing about the main events. The children will also be making their own nativity scene and retelling the story in small groups using their drama skills. This is a lovely time of year and the children will enjoy learning all about this special time.

Talk to your child about the nativity story and encourage them to think of the order of the story. What were the main events of the story?

Have a go at some fun online literacy games.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks1literacy.html

Topic

This week the children will learn about why letters were so important during the war.

We will talk about what they would miss the most about being away from home and then relate this to World War I and discuss what they think a soldier would miss about home.

Whole class discussion will be based on how the troops communicated with their friends and family – either by writing a letter or sending a postcard. Soldiers wrote lots of letters back to their friends and family, telling them about events and what was happening.

We will read three examples of actual letters written by three soldiers during the war and discuss their content. How the soldiers must have felt at the time and how the recipient must have felt reading the letters.

In pairs they will be tasked to write their own letter to a friend or family member as if they were a soldier fighting in the war.

Interesting fact – did you know that pigeons were also used during the war. About 500,000 pigeons were regularly dropped into enemy lines by parachute, and then sent back with messages.

 

 

Come and See

This week we continue with the topic of Waiting. This topic covers the theme of Advent and what we need to do to prepare for the coming of Jesus on Christmas Day.

 

Thank you for your continued support- and have a great week! Not many ‘sleeps’ now until Santa comes!!

The Key Stage 1 team.