Welcome Back Base 1

The children have returned to school after the Christmas holidays well rested and ready to learn. They have been keen to tell me all they have been up to and it has been lovely listening to them all.

Only three days back and we have already covered so much.

In Literacy the children all wrote about their Christmas on the first day back and told me about everything Santa brought them. I was so pleased to see the reception children using their phonics to sound out words before writing, and their progress from September is amazing to see. We then moved on to our new topic for this Term 'Journeys', which is being led by our book 'Poles Apart'. We looked at the front cover of the book and the children predicted what they thought the book might be about. I was so pleased with the responses from the children — they really thought hard and had some amazing thoughts and ideas.

In maths we carried on with the Polar theme and made fraction penguins. We learnt about whole, half and quarters and made a penguin using these fractions of circles. The children were great at telling me how many halves and quarters made a whole, and we even managed to work out that we would need an eighth for the beak — so impressed! We also recapped our number bonds to 10 through Maths of the Day. The children are starting to get quicker at this now so keep practicing Base 1! The Year 1 have maths homework this week recognising odd and even numbers.

In Geography we looked at a World Map and located where we live in the UK. I was so pleased with the children for remembering which four countries made up the UK from the work we did last term. We then located The Arctic regions and ocean and Antarctica. We discussed and looked at the landscape of these polar regions and how they differed from where we live. The children went on to complete some map work.

In DT we completed our Polar Bears and we now have a wonderful display of penguins and polar bears representing The Arctic and The Antarctic.

Next week we will be continuing our Polar adventures learning about the different kinds of animals we would find in these regions and looking at the life cycle of a penguin in science. We will be looking at position and directions in maths and geography and learning about what a compass does. In Literacy we will be looking at setting descriptions and the children will be writing about the setting in out book Poles Apart.

Can I also remind those of you that haven't done so already, that PE kits need to be back in school ready for Tuesday.

See you all on Monday!
Mrs McGhie