Thank you to all parents and carers who were able to make it to our open morning. The children loved sharing their work with you and showing you around our classrooms.  The children have settled into Term 2 brilliantly and attended two assemblies this week! They went to singing assembly on Tuesday and celebration assembly on Friday. From next week, there will be one ‘Star of the Week’ in each class. You will be invited to attend when your child is a star, so keep your eye out for a paper slip in book bags! Every child will be a star of the week at some point throughout the year.

The children have been continuing to learn about the ELLI animals. This week, we learnt about the final animal, the teamwork bee.  Busy Bee’s like to work with other people, learning from them and learning with them. The children have been working together to learn, build models and earn marbles! When the class has earned 50 marbles, they will receive a treat! They have printed some wonderful bees using their fingerprints and drawing on the wings and black stripes.

In phonics this week, the children have learnt the phonemes h, b, f and ff. They have also learnt the common exception words no, go and I. You will see these words appearing in the children’s reading books. Common exception words (also known as tricky words) are words in which the English spelling code works in an unusual or uncommon way. They are not words for which phonics ‘doesn’t work’, but they may be exceptions to spelling rules, or words which use a particular combination of letters to represent sound patterns in a rare or unique way. Please remember to read with your child each day and write in their reading record everyday. The comment should be positive but can also highlight areas you have identified your child needs some support with e.g. ‘Great reading this evening. You did some great blending but kept getting confused between b and d’. Each week, we will read these comments and also make a positive comment about your child’s reading and highlight any next steps.

In maths this week, we have been starting to think about number bonds to 5. Number bonds are 2 different numbers that add up to a certain number. In this case number bonds to 5 would be 5+0, 4+1, 3+2 and then these equations reversed, 0+5, 1+4 and 2+3. The children have been actively learning on the carpet by breaking towers of 5 cubes and comparing it with the person next to them. For example, one child’s cubes will have broken into 2 and 3 and the person next to them may have been broken into 1 and 4. Alongside this, the children have represented a number story about fireworks using mathematical graphics, meaning they can represent it in any way. They may choose to draw the fireworks, represent them using lines or dots, or write a number sentence. We are going to continue learning about number bonds next week to ensure quick recall and comprehensive understanding.