Dear parents,

This week we have had a lovely week of storytelling (in aid of National Story-telling Week). We started with Jack and the Flum Flum tree which was told using a big patchwork bag full of exciting items. We have explored the skills of story-telling (eye contact, character voices, make it fun!) by reading The 3 Bill Goats Gruff in a boring way and then again in an EXCITING way. The children were able to come up with their own list of skills which we revised as the week went on. We have had some willing volunteers for acting out stories such as Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and LOTS of Helicopter stories; composed by the children and told to an adult.

Our visitors this week included: Mrs Legg, form the library, who read as Story Soup AND Mrs Salmons, who read a story about a Coyote and a mud monster- there were many actions and noises involved.  Not only that, we also had a special webinar workshop with Joseph Coelho who told us some skills about writing our own little stories.

In maths, we have been developing our problem solving and reasoning through stories. Using books such as Nine Ducks, Nine, Ten Little Penguins, Spinderella and Ten in the Bed.

In phonics, we have been going over the gaps in sound knowledge, please do keep revising the sounds and practising the words that we send home in the bookbags, it generally helps the children to feel more confident the more repetition and reviewing of the sounds that they are exposed to.

Next week: We will be assessing phonics knowledge and learning more about sentence-writing with a focus on character description (of the Troll and a Billy Goat) for the Three Billy Goats Gruff. We have some parents coming to tell some more stories and will be doing some crafting.

Challenge- As we have been doing maths problems through books this week. Please can you find a number book to read with your child. Are they able to write a number sentence as a story? Or could they tell you one for you to write down? It could be in pictures & numbers or words. E.g. There were 5 penguins in the zoo, 3 waddled off so there were only 2 left!

Reminders

Thursday 13th February: DISCO- 4:15- 5:15pm Please do accompany your child, if they are feeling nervous or if you know they don’t like crowded places.

Friday 14th February: Valentine’s Day and End of Term 3 (Half way through the year, if you can believe it).

Monday 24th February: Start of term 4

Thursday 6th March: World Book Day (details TBC)