Week 7

It is the end of our first half term. All the children have settled into the class and school very well. It has been wonderful to speak to you at parents evening this week. If you did not get to see me, I will arrange a time after half term.

This week was One World Week and we learnt about Cyprus. The children made the Cyprus flag and we located Cyprus on a map. Miss Gymer is  from Cyprus, she showed the children a book that her son made about Cyprus. On Tuesday, we learnt about some of the food Cypriot people like to eat and we tasted some. I was impressed at the children trying olives, pitta bread with tzatziki and halloumi. On Wednesday Zachariah’s family made us tiropita and the children and the adults enjoyed trying them. The children were very excited to make a cake called Vasilopitta; it is a cake that is often made on New Years Eve. A coin is hidden in the cake and the person who gets the slice with the coin gets good luck. Well done to Tom for getting the coin! On Thursday, Sienna, Eliana, Panayiotis and Sofia Rose from Year 6 taught the children a Cypriot dance. On Friday, Chloe’s family made us some Cypriot pastries. Then we lit a Greek incense burner which is a religious tradition. It smelt wonderful. Thank you to all the parents for the support and generosity this week.

In Maths, we learnt about the number 4 and 5. Using a 5 frame and a cherry model the children made 4 and 5 with different numbers. Using different resources, the children demonstrated their understanding of adding two numbers together to make another number. The children have been drawing and writing number sentences to show how they made 4 and 5. They also made the number 4 and 5 number block characters.

We have also been learning about Autumn this week. We have been observing the signs on autumn in our playground, looking at the changes of the colours of the leaves and how they are falling to the ground. The children have been thinking about the clothes we wear in autumn. We did printing with leaves, we used buds to carefully add paint to autumn animals, we made autumn soup with conkers and leaves and made playdough squirrels and hedgehogs.

In Religion, the children have been learning about Baptism. Father Shaun came into class and explained the meaning of Baptism.  Through role play, he showed what happens at a Baptism. Then the children all had a turn at acting. Father Shaun asked the children to look at a photo of their Baptism and find out who their godparents are. Please do this with your child.

Our sounds this week were h, b, f, ff. the children have been learning the sounds, how to form the letter and were reading and writing words with the letters they have learnt. Please practise all the sounds over the holidays. We have also been learning the following tricky words: a, I, go and no, the and into.

Have a wonderful half term
Mrs Carey and The Early Years Team