Dear Parents,

This week we have been learning all about the environment and minibeasts! We have worked together to go on a hunt around the school for materials to use to make our giant bug hotel. We used a crate as the base and filled it with plant pots, cardboard rolls and other recycled materials and filled them with grass, leaves, flowers, soil and sand to provide a lovely home for the minibeasts. We used the clay to make minibeasts, after doing a careful design with lots of detail. We will then paint them once they have dried out. We have been on litter picks around the school to help keep our environment clean. We read the story Someone swallowed Stanley and completed some comprehension related to the book, talking about what happened, why it happened and how we can make sure animals don’t swallow plastic. We made posters to inform people around the school of how to keep our environment clean, after reading some lovely non-fiction texts about the environment. In cooking, the children created their own spider using bread and spread to make a sandwich and cutting it into a circle shape and using salted sticks to make the legs and chocolate chips for the eyes, they looked great and all very different! With Wimbledon taking place, the children practised their tennis skills in PE, they balanced tennis balls on their rackets and then had to complete an obstacle course whilst doing so.

In Maths, we have been focusing on problem solving. We have been building boats to carry marbles using different materials and thinking about how we can make it stronger to carry more marbles, we have been building different types of bridges and thinking about the supports and how we can make them suitable for a person, animal or car to cross.

Next week we are continuing with the environment, as the children have really enjoyed this. We will be focusing on writing skills, remembering finger spaces, capital letters and full stops, continuing to learn and use new vocabulary and understand why things happen and thinking of and sharing solutions. We will also be having some fun with making exploding volcanoes! We will be doing transition activities to Year 1 as well, walking around the classrooms, finding where they hang their coats and put their bags and where the toilets are etc. In Maths, we will be looking at 2D and 3D shape, learning about their properties and using tangrams.

Challenge: Can you help your child to learn the following lyrics from the song ‘I’m still standing’ for our end of year singing assembly!

You could never know what it’s like
Your blood like winter, freezes just like ice
And there’s a cold, lonely light that shines from you
You’ll wind up like the wreck you hide behind that mask you use

And did you think this fool could never win?
Well, look at me, I’m coming back again
I got a taste of love in a simple way
And if you need to know, while I’m still standing, you just fade away

Don’t you know I’m still standing better than I ever did?
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid

I’m still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life, without you on my mind

I’m still standing, yeah, yeah, yeah
I’m still standing, yeah, yeah, yeah

Don’t you know I’m still standing better than I ever did?
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid

I’m still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life, without you on my mind

I’m still standing, yeah, yeah, yeah
I’m still standing, yeah, yeah, yeah

Reminders:

INSET Day: 12th July

Kites Singing Assembly: 23rd July at 2:30pm. Gates will open at 2:15 and we will start at 2:30pm.

End of term: Wednesday 24th July at 1:15pm

Thank you for your continued support.

The Kites Team.