Dear Parents,

This week we have been continuing our focus on Polar animals and adapted it slightly to include big brown bears too. We have enjoyed creating bear faces, acting out the story of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and we even had a visit from a Big Brown Bear who invited the children to play hide and seek- they were able to find the bears around the garden and came up with stories about how the bear arrived. We have been exploring why the bear felt so sad at the end of the story and the children came up with some great suggestions which they wrote on post-its. They made sensory story maps and changed them for their own characters and settings using different collage materials. They also made some delicious looking bear biscuits, which will be repeated for the group at forest camp next week.

In Phonics some children will be taking a red book home this week- which is a book they have been focusing on in phonics. Please do read this again with them a few times – as it is great for developing their recognition of words and fluency. You can take it in turns to read, read together, independently and in a silly voice! More information on reading these books with your child is here

If your child is still struggling to segment words (Fred Talk) and blend. Here are some practice videos to do at home. Word time 1:1      Word time 1:2

For parents who would like more reading opportunities for your child- our school library is packed full of lovely picture books and early reading books. There is also an online library of Audio books on the Libby App- which is free with a library membership. Our class also have a log in to Oxford Owl e-books and I will provide these details via email for you to access at home. So plenty more reading fun to be enjoyed!

In Maths, we have been revising pattern of number by singing rhymes and counting on our fingers and number squares. Some children have focused on the Ten town numbers and others have been making bonds to 5 and 10 using objects extending to making number sentences. We have been making up stories about our Ten Town characters to secure number bonds to 10. Next week we are looking at using number lines to help with finding one more and one less and making some more number sentences, using a number line to check.

The children loved the drama workshop we did this week- they had to pretend they were underwater creatures and hide from a shark. If you would like more information on Perform drama workshops, the children have a leaflet in the bags (with discount code); more information is on their website. For PE we enjoyed some calming yoga and did some more work on keeping a good posture on balance beams.

To add to our bear focus, one child will be bringing home a bear if they have been chosen for being a good friend. You can take this bear anywhere; he comes in a suitcase with his own tooth brush, outfit and story. Please look after him though and return the following Monday with an explanation about what you did together in his little notebook.

Next week our focus is Understanding of the World and exploring people from different cultures. As it is Chinese New Year, we will look at Buddhism and their beliefs. We will explore Chinese artefacts and focus our literacy on The Great Race (please don’t pre-read as we will be rereading multiple times using different mediums).

Challenge: Can you find out which Chinese Zodiac sign you are? Draw a picture/ write a sentence or just be prepared to share. 

Reminders:

Thank you to all the Kites parents who came to the PTA AGM this week.

Hedgehogs at Forest Camp next week.

Monday 27th          Kites weighing & measuring

Wednesday 29th       Chinese New Year – year of the snake

Tuesday 11th          Safer Internet Day

Thursday 13th         Disco

We hope you have a great weekend, see you on Monday!
The Kites Team.