At the end of the first Autumn term, we can reflect on how far the children have come over the past seven weeks. Both Reception and Year 1 children have formed new friendships and adapted to their new dynamics as a class together. Year 1 have all ‘stepped-up’ to their new roles and routines, showing kindness and support as they helped introduce Receptions to our school. They have also adapted to the increased expectations within lesson times, particularly within writing, Guided reading and maths.

English

Communication and language – As the children arrive each morning, they are encouraged to develop social phrases, such as ‘Good morning’ and ‘How are you?’ Asking questions and sharing their news from home with each other. They sometimes need reminding to listen to each other and talk in turn, rather than talking at the same time but this is an important, and very special, part of their day.

We have been learning and reciting nursery rhymes and learnt the story of the Little Red Hen, which we recited during the Harvest Festival in church.

Reception children have been learning a new phoneme each day, in Phonics, and have begun to blend them to read words which are now in their home-school books to practice at home. They have been practising their letter formations, with correct sitting posture and pencil grips.

Year 1 have begun to learn and apply Phase 5 phonemes in their reading and writing. They now have daily Phonic lessons with Miss Rice, and then three times per week we practise applying their new and existing knowledge during Guided Reading sessions. Our writing focus has been planning and organising our ideas to write recounts of many of the events that have taken place including our Harvest Festival, games we have played, our morning routines and lunchtime routine, as well as junk modelling. We have been using sequencing words to help order our sentences and structure our writing. They have also focused on using finger spaces consistently and the size of their letter formations.

Maths

Reception worked practically to compare size, mass and capacity using various materials and objects such as playdough, conkers and other natural materials. They have used weighing scales to help check their comparisons. By making simple patterns, they have been counting how many objects they need to make a repeating pattern and discussing shape and size.

Year 1 began to record their work more formally in maths books, which is a new skill to them. They have recorded their findings relating to sorting objects, counting objects, ordering and comparing numbers. We have practised counting forwards and backwards within 10, from any number. We have used whole-part-part models and written number sentences.

Understanding the World – Geography and Science

We continued exploring maps and local landmarks of interest. We went on a walk of our school grounds and then returned to make 3D models of what we had seen, including our school building and the trees in the woods. We compared settings in familiar stories, such as Rosie's Walk, with our school environment using the vocabulary, ‘same’, ‘similar’ and ‘different’.

Autumn has changed the look and feel of our school and the nearby woods. We used our senses to identify changes and record ‘Autumn’. We identified parts of our body used for our different senses and discussed how they are useful as we explore the world. We labelled parts of our body too.

 

Music

We continued to explore pitch and melody with our voices as we sung ‘I’ve Got a Grumpy Face’, and then listened to ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ which allowed us to use our imaginations and musical storytelling as the music got faster, slower, louder, quieter, higher and lower. 

DT

Throughout the half term, Learning Adventure time gives pupils the opportunity to self-direct their learning and practise new and existing skills. Cutting and re-modelling boxes into new and exciting creations has been popular this year! A few children began with a cardboard box, cutting and making mobile phones and remote controls which inspired other children to join in, and so we decided to have a DT Day as our Fantastic finish to the half term. We practised cutting skills and experimented with different sticking methods before planning and making models. We thought about what worked well and what we would try next time. We then used our writing time the following day to write a recount of the day.

R.E.

The children thought about things that are special to them, objects, people, community groups that they belong to. We listened to each other and discovered that lots of our interests were the same, or similar, but some were different, and that is ok! ‘Religious Education’ is learning about religions and respecting other people’s beliefs.

P.H.S.E.

Family and Relationships – Robin class have been discussing how families can be different, positive friendships and showing our feelings in different ways. World Mental Health Day was time for us to focus on wellbeing, friendships and looking after ourselves, including our environment. The whole school did some cleaning to make our school look and feel better. It was certainly a bright day with all the yellow clothes!

It has been a wonderfully busy half-term. The children have made wonderful progress and made positive friendships with each other. It's hard to believe they have only been in one class for 7 weeks!