Dear Parents,

After our Science Oxford workshop last week, we have been focusing on Materials all around us this week! We have had a great week testing out different materials and exploring their properties. We tested the absorbency of nappies, by weighing them before and after adding water and discussing the changes we saw as well as the properties of nappies and why they need to be absorbent. We have been creating out own origami paper boats, testing them in the water tray and racing them, creating wind socks using different materials and testing them outside. One of the most popular activities, was finding the best biscuit for dunking! We tested 3 different types of biscuits and dunked them until they either broke or became very soft. We explored the textures and spoke about what the biscuits felt like after being dunked. We have been on a material hunt around school thinking about why certain objects are made out of that material, e.g. why is a door made out of wood? why is a pillow made out of fabric? We have made explored playdough and cloud dough, and explored ands compared the textures. We have also been practicing writing different adjectives to describe materials.

In Maths, we have continued to explore numbers to 10, focusing on 6, 7 and 8 and then reviewing these numbers. We have been representing and making these numbers ion different ways and looking at number bonds to 10, extending our knowledge of making 10 to addition within 20. We have been looking at measuring and ordering materials in choosing time and timing our different experiments, which the children have all really enjoyed and taken an interest in.

In Phonics, we have been continuing to focus on any gaps in the children’s knowledge of set 1 sounds, writing sentences, reading books depending on the Phonics group and focusing on learning more red words (words you cannot Fred Talk).

Here are some links to help your child practice their red words and blending skills.

Red Word practise Ditty 1

Word Time 1.6

In PE we have been travelling like animals across the apparatus! We have used our knowledge and skills of different jumps and incorporated them into travelling across the apparatus.

In cooking, we made mug cakes! The children all measured out their own ingredients and helped to cook their mug cake in the microwave, have a look on Learning Book for photos!

Next week, we are thinking about our feelings. We will be reading The Colour Monster and thinking about different scenarios that could happen and using the Colour Monster to identify how we might be feeling and how others might be feeling. We will be learning a new strategy each day to help us calm our mind and body. We will be finding our calm space at home and at school, sorting different emotion pictures and writing about how we are feeling and what makes us happy.

Reminders:

Daffodils: Along the boarder outside the Kites classroom windows, there are daffodils growing and we ask that you avoid standing on the boarder to wave to your child. Thank you.

Forest Camp: Please make sure your child has enough layers to keep them warm at Forest Camp. If you are not sure what is in your child’s Forest Camp bag, feel free to come into the classroom one day after school to check what they have.

PE: Please ensure your child has a PE kit, this can be black/ navy shorts/ leggings or jogging bottoms and a PE T-shirt or spare Kites t-shirt.

Odd Socks: If you have any old odd socks that you no longer need or use, we would love to have them to help us make puppets!

Challenge: Can your child think about a happy memory (you could write this on their Wow sheets) for them to share and think of a song to share which makes them feel happy or calm.

We hope you have a restful weekend and thank you for all the support you give to us and your children,

The Kites Team