Red - Reception
The Gigantic Carrot
The children enjoyed creating our own version of The Enormous Turnip story. We called our story The Gigantic Carrot. The children worked together to create a story map where we changed the vegetable and the characters in the story. They then enjoyed taking on the roles of the characters to act out the story and worked with their teachers to write speech bubbles, thought bubbles and parts of the story to create a class book. Well done Red Class!
Red Class Summer 1 Newsletter
We hope you have had a lovely Easter break and are ready for the Summer 1 half term where we plan to deliver an exciting, engaging and challenging curriculum.
Literacy and Maths
Literacy: In Literacy, our theme this half term is 'on the Farm' and we will be focusing on our key texts 'What a Ladybird Heard' and 'A Squash and a Squeeze' by Julia Donaldson as well as 'Yucky Worms' by Vivian French. We will be learning how to write to inform and entertain as well as writing our own recounts. In Reading, our focus author this term will be Julia Donaldson. We will be sharing a wide range of her stories and finding out more about her. Please ensure children come to school with their reading record and reading book everyday.
Phonics: In Phonics, we will be revisiting all our phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs and will be spending this half-term revisiting all the sounds so that they are imbedded in our learning, ready to move onto the next phase of our phonics in the summer 2 term.
Maths: In Maths, we will be focusing on learning our numbers to 20, finding out more and comparing 2D and 3D shapes. We will also be learning how to group and share using a range of resources.
The wider curriculum
Understanding the world: This term we will be learning about the different animals that live on a farm. We will be learning the correct names for baby farm animals and looking at their life cycles. We will also start to grow lots of our own flowers and vegetables in our outside area.
Expressive Arts and Design: Our main focus in our creative work this half term is learning how to mold and manipulate different materials to create something new. We will be using the junk modelling (cardboard boxes, yoghurt pots etc) to create our own farmyards or farm animals. We are also going to be doing a lot of observational drawings to help us to choose and use the correct colours in our drawings e.g no blue cows!
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: This half term we will be looking more in depth about the world that we live in. We will be looking at endangered animals around the world and the issues surrounding the animals (pollution/deforestation etc). We will also start to look at the importance of recycling and what we can do as an Eco school to lower our carbon footprint. The children will continue to think about friendship and what makes a good friend.
Physical development: The children will have PE with our sports coach Mr Stephenson on Wednesdays. Children should come to school wearing their PE kit on a Wednesday. Any earrings must be removed before PE for health and safety reasons.
Additional information
PE - our PE days will be on a Wednesday.
Forest School: Forest school takes place on a Friday afternoon, children can arrive at school wearing clothes appropriate for Forest school on Fridays. Please be aware that these clothes may get muddy. Please can you make sure children have a pair of wellies in school for Forest school and a change of clothes with them (including socks).
Just a reminder that only water should be in the children's water bottles. No juice or flavoured water should be brought into school for them to drink.
Dates for your diary
Friday 19th April - Islamic assembly and workshop for parents
Wednesday 15th May - Early Years athletic event - a coach will be coming in to teach children basic athletic skills in the afternoon
Monday 20th May - School trip to Reddish Vale Farm
Tuesday 21st May - E-safey parent open morning (9-10am)
Friday 24th May - close for Whitsun half term break
A trip to the church
As part of our RE topic we have been learning all about special places of worship. We went on a visit to St Mary's church. Mary and Denise showed us around the church, they showed us where the choir sings, the stained-glass windows and where babies are baptised. We talked about special celebrations that happen in churches, and we even created our own pretend wedding in the church with the children!
Red Class Spring 2 Newsletter
Literacy and Maths
Literacy: In Literacy, we will be focusing on the exciting story ‘The Great Big Enormous Turnip’ and learning how to retell the story and learning how to write speech bubbles and thought bubbles for the characters within stories. We will also be exploring the popular fairytale ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ where we will be learning to write instructions. Our final story of the half-term will be 'Eco Girl’ where we will be exploring adjectives and poetry within nature.
Phonics: In Phonics, we will be revisiting all our phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs and will be spending this half-term revisiting all the sounds so that they are imbedded in our learning, ready to move onto the next phase of our phonics in the summer term.
Maths: We are looking at numbers to 10, improving our number formation and looking at the number of bonds to 10. We will also be exploring 3D shapes and their properties.
Reading & Homework
Please try and read with your children as often as possible, as it really does make a difference. Please can you make sure reading books are kept in book bags daily to ensure reading can take place within school and books can be changed. Homework will be sent home on a Monday and we will continue to focus on our harder to read and spell words each week.
The wider curriculum
Understanding the world: This half-term we are learning all about growing. How does our food grow? What do plants need to grow? We will be making vegetable soup, planting beanstalks and conducting science experiments on plant growth. We will be looking at countries in Africa as part of our Eco Girl story.
Expressive Arts and Design: This half-term we are going to be looking at the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo who was an Italian artist renowned for his paintings of fruits and vegetables. The children will be creating their own paintings of flowers and plants and vegetable sculptures.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: This half-term we will be focussing on 'Healthy Me'. We will be talking about what food we need to eat to keep our bodies healthy and what food could cause problems for our body if we eat too much of it. We will be looking at using exercise and yoga to have a healthy outlook on life.
Physical development: The children will have PE with our sports coach Mr Stephenson on Wednesdays. Children should come to school wearing their PE kit on a Wednesday. Any earrings must be removed before PE for health and safety reasons.
Additional information
PE - our PE days will be on a Wednesday.
Forest School: Forest school takes place on a Friday afternoon, children can arrive at school wearing clothes appropriate for Forest school on Fridays. Please be aware that these clothes may get muddy. Please can you make sure children have a pair of wellies in school for Forest school and a change of clothes with them (including socks).
Just a reminder that only water should be in the children's water bottles. No juice or flavoured water should be brought into school for them to drink.
Dates for your diary
Thursday 7th March – World Book Day. Children can come to school dressed as a character from one of their favourite stories or can wear pyjamas and a dressing gown.
Thursday 7th March – Parents evening consultations taking place in school.
Thursday 14th March – Ian Bland Poetry workshops within school linked to world book day.
Friday 15th March – Red Nose Day. Children can come to school wearing something red.
Tuesday 26th March – Easter Parent and Carers morning in classrooms. 9am – 10am.
Red Class Spring 1 Newsletter
Literacy and Maths
Communication and language: This half term we are going to be looking carefully at the structure of our fairy tale stories. Each story starts with the introduction of our characters and the setting. Then there is a problem, resolution and a happy ending. Once the children can understand the fairy tale structure we will then work as a class to orally create our own fairy tale stories 2-3 times a week.
Phonics: The children will continue learning more phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs this term. They will be using their knowledge of digraphs in their reading and writing.
Literacy: The children will continue writing simple sentences and will start to use capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. We will use this skill to help us write our own character descriptions from different fairy tales.
Maths: This half-term we will be exploring our numbers to 8. We will be looking at the composition of these numbers and how we see and use them in different ways. We will also be looking at mass and capacity when making gingerbread men.
The wider curriculum
Understanding the world: Throughout this topic we will explore materials. We will talk about the materials the 3 little pigs used to build their houses and explore making our own bridges.
Expressive Arts and Design: Our main focus in our creative work this half term will be creating 3D models from junk modelling materials. We will be designing and making our own houses like the 3 little pigs.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: This half term we will continue to look at how to become effective learners by breaking down each characteristic of effective learning in the EYFS. Can we problem solve like Mr Clever? Can we challenge ourselves in our learning like Mr Adventure etc? We will also be looking at the different characters in our fairy tales and discussing what makes them good or bad characters.
Physical development: Children will continue to develop their spatial awareness and fundamental skills with Mr Stephenson. The children will be exploring different body parts and how they move, and remember and repeat actions in their dance lessons with Mrs Probert.
Additional information
PE - our PE days will be on Wednesday and Friday. We have moved our Forest School day to Friday afternoon, so on a Friday please send your child into school in their Forest School clothes.
Forest School - Our Forest School day has now changed to Friday afternoon. As the weather is getting colder, we ask that children come to Forest School in warm jumpers, trousers, (waterproof overalls - if you have any at home), a warm coat (with a hood), warm socks, hat, scarf and gloves. Wellington boots are essential for Forest School days.
Dates for your diary
Monday 8th January Children return to school.
Friday 9th February Last day of half term.
Craft morning
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us at our Christmas Craft Morning! We had a wonderful time looking at pattern making with our paper chains and talking about the shapes we needed to create our own Christmas puppets! We used our fine motor skills to help us create mosaic baubles and decorate the Christmas tree in our classroom.
We designed our own wooden snowmen, making sure they were wearing hats and scarves to keep them warm!
We finished the morning by singing some Christmas songs together. Thank you so much for joining us for our Christmas Craft Morning. We had a fabulous time and hope you did too!
Check out the photo gallery for more photos!
Red Class Autumn 2 newsletter
This half-term our topic is Celebrations! We are going to be learning all about different celebrations around the world and each week we will focus on a different celebration! We will also be taking part in the Nativity performance in December.
Literacy and Maths
Communication and language: This half-term we will be focusing on sharing our ideas and talking through ways to solve a problem. We will also be exploring how important it is to listen carefully to each other. We will be looking at what a good listener does (gives full attention, eye contact etc) and how listening to others can help us in our learning both inside and outside the classroom.
Phonics: The children have completed their phase 2 phonics sounds and will be moving into phase 3, which focusses on digraphs (two letters that make one sound). The children will be using their knowledge of digraphs in their reading and writing.
Literacy: We will be focusing on poetry for the first 3 weeks by looking at visual poems and describing words. The children will be learning how to write and recognise lists, so they can create their own letter to Father Christmas.
Maths: This half-term we will be learning about 2D shapes in our environment, the properties of 2D shapes and how to use 2D shapes to make pictures. We will continue to explore numbers to 5 by counting, writing and ordering these numbers. We will be using Numicon to help with this, to develop our number sense.
The wider curriculum
Understanding the world: Throughout this topic we will look at, discuss and celebrate the similarities and differences between celebrations in different cultures and religions. We will look at the history and stories of all the different celebrations in our topic. We will continue to look at the different seasons by exploring Autumn in our Forest School activities. We will talk a lot about animals who hibernate and how we can help.
Expressive Arts and Design: Our main focus in our creative work this half term is learning how to mold and manipulate different materials to create something new. We will be using clay to design and create our own Diwali lamps and we will also be using the junk modelling (cardboard boxes, yoghurt pots etc) to create our own firework rockets. We are going to be learning lots of songs and dances for our Christmas Nativity too!
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: We will be looking at how to become effective learners by breaking down each characteristic of learning in the EYFS development matters. Can we ask lots of questions like Mr Nosey? Can we challenge ourselves in our learning like Mr Brave?
Physical development: Children will be focussing on their spatial awareness and fundamental skills with Mr Stephenson and will be focusing on developing our core strength and upper body strength with Mrs Probert in gymnastics.
Additional information
PE - our PE days will be on Wednesday and Friday. Can children please come into school on those days in their PE kits? On Wednesday it will be our outdoor PE session with Mr Stephenson, so children will need to come in their trainers and joggers in the colder weather. On Friday it will be gymnastics, so children will need shorts and pumps.
Forest School - Our Forest School morning for this half-term will be on a Thursday. As the weather is getting colder, we ask that children come to Forest School in warm jumpers, trousers, (waterproof overalls - if you have any at home), a warm coat (with a hood), warm socks, hat, scarf and gloves. Wellington boots are essential for Forest School days. You can leave a pair of wellington boots in our outdoor area, so children can have access to them on rainy days too. We also ask that your child brings a change of clothes in case they get wet or muddy and want to change so that they are more comfortable.
Junk modelling please: If anyone has junk modelling materials at home (such as plastic bottles, bottle lids, cardboard tubes, cardboard boxes etc) Red Class would really appreciate them being brought into school for this half-term.
Dates for your diary
Monday November 13th Children’s Flu Vaccinations
Friday 17th November Children in Need children to bring £1 and wear their own clothes
Friday 1st December Height, weight and hearing checks for children in Reception
Tuesday 5th December R and KS1 nativity 9.30 am and 5pm at school
Tuesday 12th December Christmas Carol Service 2pm Year 3- 6 St Marys Church
Thursday 14th December Christmas jumper and Christmas dinner day
Tuesday 19th December Christmas craft morning whole school 9 – 10am parents, carers
welcomed into classes
Thursday 21st December end of the autumn term
Friday 22nd December Inset day (school closed to children)
Red Class Forest School
This half-term the children loved exploring our Forest School area on our school field. They have taken part in craft activities, finding animals and building dens.
Red Class Autumn 1 newsletter
Welcome to Red Class! We will be starting with an "All about me topic" which will allow pupils lots of opportunities to talk about themselves and their families. We will be encouraging children to talk about their families, their house, their religion and their heritage.
Literacy and Maths
Once the children have settled in after the first two weeks we will begin our more structured whole class lessons.
As part of our communication and language we will be asking the children to make an "All about me" box. The children will be given the opportunity to talk about their box with the other children in their class and during this time we will explore how important listening to others is. In our literacy we will be looking at rhythm and rhyme and changing the words of familiar nursery rhymes to make them into silly rhymes! We will be focusing on Phase 2 sounds in our phonics lessons. We will be doing lots of work on hearing initial sounds in words and beginning to blend sounds together in simple words. We will also be learning how to retell different stories to others.
In our maths we are going to be really exploring our number sense this half-term. Can we count to10? Can we read the numerals to 10? Can we match a quantity of objects to a numeral? Can we subitise numbers to 5? Do we know the composition of each number? Number formation is also going to be a focus, and we will be sending home some fun rhymes to help you support your child with this at home. We will also be spending some time exploring and naming different 2D shapes.
The wider curriculum
Understanding the world: We will discuss and celebrate the similarities and differences between all the different pupils in our class. We will be looking at, smelling, feeling and tasting lots of different fruits and vegetables during our Harvest festival.
Expressive Arts and Design: Our main focus in our creative work this half-term is learning how to draw simple representations of people. We will be talking about and drawing our families as well as looking closely at ourselves to paint self-portraits. We will be encouraging children to choose appropriate colours when colouring in and painting people. It would be great if you could encourage this at home too! Our role play area this half-term is a home corner.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Our main priority this half-term is ensuring that all pupils settle happily into school life. We will be playing lots of ‘getting to know you’ games to help children develop the confidence to speak about themselves and to develop new friendships. We will be introducing children to our important school rules and ensuring that they become familiar with our school routines.
Physical development: Children will begin their PE lessons with our sports coach Mr Stephenson this half-term. We will be encouraging children to develop independent dressing skills and put their PE kits on at home all by themselves.
Additional information
Our PE days will be on Wednesday and Friday. Can children please come into school on those days in their PE kits? On Wednesday it will be our outdoor PE session with Mr Stephenson, so children will need to come in their trainers and joggers in the colder weather. On Friday it will be gymnastics, so children will need shorts and pumps.
Forest School - Our Forest School afternoon for this half-term will be on a Thursday afternoon. Can children please come into school in weather appropriate clothing?
We will be starting to send home our class teddy bear from Week 2 (name to still be confirmed as it is chosen by the children) to spend a weekend at someone’s home.
As part of our "All about me" topic we will be asking the children to bring in an all about me box from home. This can contain photographs, special objects and special memories. We will send out a letter about this during the second week.
Dates for your diary
Sensory Bus visit: 14th September
Meet the teacher: TBC