Willow
FOLLOWING ON FROM THE WELFARE EMAIL SENT PREVIOUSLY, IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN TOUCH WITH ME RECENTLY, I WOULD BE MOST GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD EMAIL ME AGAIN AS WE WANT TO ENSURE THAT ALL OF OUR FAMILIES ARE STILL WELL.
PLEASE USE THE:
willowclass@ruishton.oak.education EMAIL ADDRESS
MANY THANKS.
Sunday 5th July 2020
This week's Marvellous Monday artwork is below. We will be working on some aspects of this during this week and we will be using the superhero theme on which to base our learning.
I have added themed adding and subtracting activities under the maths tab. There are also 2 superhero activities below - a design your own superhero template and speech bubbles to complete with phrases which your superhero might say. There are also further CVC and reading activities under the English tab.
Thursday 2nd July
Many of the children have been enjoying the following clips in class. I attach them now as I think that some of you have been asked about them.
Sunday 29th June
This week we will be continuing to use last week's Marvellous Monday image and plans to continue to explore ourselves and our environment. We have painted trees and leaves for our display. This week we will be sketching trees in the school grounds and making a collage outline of the school to add to our picture. We will add an outline of each child which they have decorated themselves and they will then be writing a little about themselves. The following templates may help at home:
Phonics
I have added further CVC cut and stick sheets under the English tab.
In Maths, we will be revisiting earlier work on 2D shape. This is an area which children often find difficult as there are mathematical names and terms to remember. There is a word mat and a range of resources under the maths tab. Children are expected to know basic shape names (square, rectangle, circle and triangle) and basic maths terms (sides and corners). If they would like to learn and explore additional shapes, this is of course great (and there are examples of further shapes in the resources), but this is not an expectation.
Sunday 21st June
Having completed our work on lifecycles and the Hungry Caterpillar, we are moving on to a new theme, inspired by this week's Marvellous Monday image (see below).
Friedrich Stowasser (December 15, 1928 – February 19, 2000), better known by his pseudonym Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser, was an Austrian-born New Zealand visual artist and architect who also worked in the field of environmental protection. In addition to our art focus of trees and nature, we will therefore be looking at our immediate surroundings, the wider environment and our place in the community/wider world.
As part of our work into the environment we will be looking at the following and starting to think about what we can do to reduce, reuse and recycle at home and at school:
There are things which we can't do at school at the moment, but I attach some activities which you may like to try at home as a family:
Maths:
We will continue to practise correct number formation and to work on teens numbers and fluency in reading, writing and understanding these numbers, as they are commonly the most difficult for children to truly understand. You will find resources for this in the maths section below.
As part of our wider topic theme, we will also be looking at forms of early data collection (as part of the recycling theme).
English:
We are continuing to practise letter formation as some of this knowledge has become a little rusty. The letter formation sheets are in the handwriting section in the English section below.
We will continue to practise using the sounds which we know in reading and writing activities.
Sunday 31st May 2020
On the Oak Partnership YouTube channel, you will find a range of staff from the Oak Partnership reading stories and the weekly virtual assembly recordings. Click here.
As we return to school, many of you will continue to play and learn at home. Therefore, each week, I will share the activities which we are likely to cover in school here on our class page. This will give you an idea of the themes which I plan on covering. I will add any worksheets or templates which we will be using, although this may vary during the week depending on how much we cover in class.
On Tuesday, we will be working creatively to recreate a large version of the Matisse painting which is under the Marvellous Mondays tab. Children will also be able to create their own personal version to take home if they wish. We plan to use a mixture of resources (paint/ collage) and to make our picture as big and bright as possible.
As our theme upon return is resilience, we will be starting to look at the Dr Seuss book Oh the Places You’ll Go. There is a YouTube version to share with your child and the text can be shared in the powerpoint below if you cannot access the book directly. Initially, we will talk generally about the themes in the book, but it will also form the basis for some work on rhyming which we will start this week. I will add some rhyming activities (for you to try with your child/ for them to try by themselves) under the English tab.
To assess and consolidate work previously covered, Mrs Kamin and I will be playing games with the children using the skills already covered – i.e doubling and halving games, adding on or counting back games. There are some challenges and games under this heading in the maths section below.
It is my intention to start to incorporate a minibeast/lifecycle theme in the coming weeks. Once we are starting that in class, I will add relevant resources here.
If you have any queries, please contact me using the email address below.
Kind regards. Stay Safe
Mrs Curry 
Oh the Places You'll Go resources
Thank you key workers colouring sheets
You may also enjoy some of the following games
Blast off is a mental maths game for 5 to 8 year olds which can help you to know your two digit numbers and help with addition and subtraction skills. It covers different vocabulary such as more than, less than, count on and count back.
Symmetry Matching Symmetry matching game involving mirroring pictures, shapes and patterns along lines of symmetry.
Shape train patterns is a sequencing game where children from 3 to 8 years of age need to complete the pattern of different coloured 2D shapes. Three levels of difficulty.
The Teddy Numbers game can help you to learn numbers to 15. Learn the digits and words for the numbers and it game can help you learn to count too.
Ladybird Spots - Three different counting, matching and ordering maths games based on the numbers 1 to 10 for early years children.
Being out of routine can be very challenging for children, I am therefore attaching some reward chart templates which may be useful.
Reward charts
Willow Class photo album - send pictures which you are happy to share to Mrs Curry.
Book review templates/ formats
Phonics
Please find below a link for Phonics Play, a website to support the development of phonics. The username and passwords are as follow:
Username: march20
Password: home
16/3/2020 - The above activities can be downloaded and printed or they could be the prompt for reading/ maths discussions with your child.
They are aimed at consolidating the number bonds to 10 work which we have been doing and developing an understanding of what is being read.
Free resources and activity ideas!
The following website may be useful for parents to access at home. It outlines resources which can be used across the curriculum and may support home learning or the consolidation of activities being practised in school.
The following code should be used when access the site:
Code UKTWINKLHELPS
Week beginning 2nd March
World Book Day 2020
This year we had a new challenge - to come to school dressed as a word! There were lots of fantastic costumes and the children enjoyed looking at all of the different costumes throughout the day as well as sharing books with some of the year 5 children from Sycamore class in the afternoon.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Our focus story this half-term is Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children all felt that Goldilocks was very naughty not to have listened to her mum and to have gone into the Three Bears cottage without permission!
To help us get more involved with the story and for those children who hadn't tried porridge, Mrs Keene arranged a porridge tasting session this week. The children LOVED it as you will see from the photos!
We are starting to practise some yoga in Willow class - the rock...
Learning through exploration and play
Science Activity
We filled a balloon with bicarbonate of soda and put some vinegar in a plastic bottle. We carefully put the neck of the balloon over the neck of the bottle and then tipped the bicarbonate of soda into the vinegar. The children were very excited to see the balloon inflate! They then enjoyed using the pipettes to put vinegar into their own pot of bicarbonate of soda and watching the results.
Science activity
Sticky ice
Sticky Ice activity
As we are currently in winter, we talked about the weather and what we know about ice. The children were able to tell me alot about what they already knew about ice.
We tried an experiment with adding salt to ice cubes floating in water. When a piece of string/ wool is laid on top of the ice cubes and the string/ wool is then slowly elevated, some of the ice cubes stick to the wool/string. We talked about what the salt might be doing to the ice to make it 'sticky' (especially as the ice cubes had been very slippery when Mrs Curry tried to get them out of the tray!).
Chicks in Willow Class
We have enjoyed having the incubator in Willow class and the children have been very excited to see the eggs hatch this week. We have talked about the life cycle of a hen in science and worked together to make a word bank of topic words for the chicks which helped the children to label chick pictures. However, the best part was holding the chicks, as you will see from the pictures below!
As well as enjoying the chicks, we have been playing and learning together:
A busy first 2 weeks back!
Helicopter Stories
On Fridays, we now have a 'Helicopter' stories session. The children are all given the opportunity to make up and tell their own stories to Mrs Curry, who writes the stories in our class book.
We then act out the stories, with the story writer choosing who plays the roles in the story and how it should be acted. The children have loved the 2 sessions which we have had so far!
Active Children
Alongside the Pre-School, we are working with SASP to ensure that all of our youngest learners develop a healthy, active lifestyle as early in life as possible. To help us with this, we have asked for your input, to enable us to understand what you already do at home and what school/pre-school could offer to broaden or enhance experiences.
You should all have received a link asking you to complete a short online survey and we would be very grateful for as many responses as possible, to help us gain a fuller picture.
Activity guidelines from the Chief Medical Officer are attached below.
In school, the children are active for up to 90 minutes a day (as part of their play-times), they regularly take part in 'The Golden Mile' (a walking/ jogging route, which they complete before playtime) and they are encouraged to be as active as possible during the school day by accessing free-flow provision.
Additionally, they will undertake a range of activities away from school.
Chief Medical Officers' Physical Activity Guidelines, 2019
Further advice and guidelines to reduce sedentary behaviour and improve sleep amongst the under 5s can be found on the SASP website, the link for which is below.
Week ending 11th October
In phonics this week we have continued to practise consolidating previously taught sounds whilst introducing new sounds: /p/, /g/ and /o/.
In maths we are looking at closely at how numbers are made up. For example, we are thinking about different ways of adding two numbers to make 4 and 5. This will help the children to have a really sound foundation for future maths teaching.
The children have also enjoyed a second PE session with the sports coaches as you will see from the photos.
Week ending 4th October
Thank you to all of the parents who attended the KS1/EY harvest service. We hope that you enjoyed seeing your child taking part in their first school 'performance'. They all did brilliantly!
This week in phonics, we have learned the sounds: /t/, /i/ and /n/ and we have started to think about how we blend these sounds to make words.
We have continued to use the Numicon resources to help the children start to develop a secure understanding of number and how it is represented.
Phonics and maths
We have started to learn phonics in groups this week. So far we have learned the sounds: /m/, /a/, /s/ and /d/ and we are learning how to write them.
In maths, we are using Numicon to ensure that the children have a secure understanding of the numbers 0-10.
The children are also enjoying a range of activities to develop a range of skills, including fine motor skills for writing.
Movement to music
Welcome to a new school year!
The children are all now settling well into our class routines. They are enjoying staying for lunch and we look forward to them staying for full days from Monday 23rd September.
Please be aware that school lunches must be ordered online by a Wednesday evening for the following week. If you have any queries or problems, please speak to the staff in the school office.
I will add information about what we are doing and add clips of activities/ songs which we have enjoyed in class. For example, the children are enjoying the Dough Disco, so I attach a link below.
PRIME
To develop a lifelong love of learning and valuable life skills, we aim to support every child to develop a positive learning and life approach. As part of this, you will increasingly become aware of the characteristics of PRIME.
Nelson (our school mascot) accompanies and illustrates each strand of this.
I attach a 'poster' to identify each of the characteristics of PRIME which we will be aiming to develop in every child during their time at Ruishton school. Please see below.
PRIME
Behavioural Expectations
For your information, I now attach an outline of the behaviour expected of our children as they move through Reception class and on into Key stage 1. This should be read in conjunction with the school's behaviour policy.
As the children progress through Willow class, they will be supported and guided towards meeting the level of behaviour expected. This is a gradual and ongoing process. Please speak to Mrs Curry if you have any questions.
Behavioural Expectations
Maths Games
Have a look at the addition and subtraction section of the website. You can set the sliders to change the level of difficulty. Have a go!