We have reached the end of the penultimate week of term 4. This term has flown by, time flies when you are having fun! We would like to say a huge thank you to all who joined us this afternoon for our book look after school. We hope you enjoyed looking through your child's learning. 

Phonics

This week most groups have continued to learn set 2 sounds. We take learning these sounds at a slower pace, recapping set 1 sounds along the way to help reinforce the learning. During the writing aspect of the lesson, children will be writing words, short phrases or sentences. We use ‘magic lines’ to support children during this time. These magic lines help children to visualise their writing with finger spaces and with the placement of their writing on the page. Some children are beginning to move away from these scaffolded lines, working on remembering finger spaces and where their writing needs to be on the line, and moving on to the next line when finished.

Maths

We started this week learning about 2D shapes and using the language of sides, curved, straight and corners to compare shapes. Some shapes were rotated, for example children might see one square, then another rotated with its corner at the top. Some shapes such as triangles were shown in different forms for example right angle triangles and equilateral triangles. This lead to interesting conversations about the fact they were all triangles because they have 3 sides and 3 corners.

Later in the week, we learnt about repeating patterns. We identified AB, ABC and ABB patterns and then had to replicate them using a variety of materials. We challenged ourselves to then create our own patterns including new variations including AAB, ABBC etc. By the end of the week, we were using our skills to identify and correct mistakes in patterns.

Next week we will be predicting and measuring length, height and weight.

Topic

This week we have been learning about the Hindu festival of colour- Holi. Children enjoyed learning about the festival, its links to spring and the story behind it. The children learnt about colour mixing of the primary colours to make secondary colours as we watched the festival of colour and how powdered paint is thrown over everyone.

We learnt about the evil king Hiranyakashipu who became angry at his son Prahlada when he worshipped the God Vishnu instead of him. He tricked Prahlada into sitting on the bonfire with his sister Holika, who had a cloak for protection. However the cloak flew off Holika and protected Prahlada instead because good overcomes evil. We movements to the story which depicted the characters and their actions, and put these together to make a dance.

Finally we celebrated Holi with a bonfire (not real!) in class and threw chickpeas and popcorn onto the fire. This lead to great conversations about fire safety and how we should act around fire.

Next week we will be learning about Easter.

Important information

• Next week will be parent teacher consultations. If you have not yet booked a slot with your child’s teacher, please do so.

• Baby photos were due in Friday 17^th, if you haven't sent one to your class teacher please do so.

• Book fair started Thursday 23^rd, it will be outside of year 6 classrooms and also in the main hall during PTCs. Please visit to use your World Book Day vouchers.

• Next term our topic will be ‘Growth’.  For your child’s love to learn challenge over the holidays, we would like you and your child to plant a seed of your choice.  Please could you detail the changes that happen to the seed/plant as it grows. Also note what you need to do to the seed/plant in order to help it grow.  You could do this by taking photos or asking your child to draw a picture of the seed/plant at various stages of growth.  We ask that you return your child’s love to learn book by Wednesday 19^th April. We understand your seed may not be fully grown by then but hopefully the children will have seen some changes. They are welcome to bring in their plant to show if they wish.    

• Just a reminder children should not bring home toys into school.

• Easter will soon be here, and we will be holding our traditional Easter egg hunts and bonnet parade in school. Children in Reception, Year 1 and 2 are invited to make an Easter bonnet or hat if they would like to and bring it in to school on the final day of term (Friday 31^st March). We will hold a parade in the hall for parents to come along to at 10:00 and prizes will be awarded for the most impressive creations. 

• For children in Years 3 – 6, they are also invited to enter the Key Stage Two bonnet / hat competition. This will be judged in year groups with prizes awarded. 

• From term 5, parents will be invited in each Monday at 3pm to read with your child. This will run until 3:10pm.

• End of term is Friday 31^st March at normal time.

Many thanks for your continued support.

The EYFS team.