This term:

In Literacy 

We are looking at the books:

• Farmer duck

• The little red hen

• Down on the farm

• On the farm

• Spot goes to the farm

• Who is on the farm?

• The enormous turnip

• A Squash and a squeeze

• Supertato

This term, we are continuing the Talk for writing project which is based on the story ‘Farmer Duck’ by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury. The children will learn to retell the story using actions and focus on using story language. This term, children will be using Story Mountains to write their own invented story. We will also be looking at labelling farm animals and using their senses to describe themselves.  

In Sounds-Write, the children will continue to consolidate learning to blend, segment and sound manipulate words with the VCC (e.g ant),  CVCC (e.g. pond), CCVC (e.g drum), CCVCC (e.g. shrimp) and CCCVC (e.g. strap) format. They will also be consolidating their knowledge of the 2 letter one sound phonemes such as sh, ch, th. There will be no new sounds this term, but it is key that you continue to work with your child daily to support them with their reading.

In Mathematics

This term we will consolidate our counting skills. We are going to count to larger numbers and develop a wider range of counting strategies. We will secure our knowledge of a number of facts. We are going to explore the meaning of 1 more and 1 less, up to 10. We will begin to look at the 10s frame and explore ways of making doubles. We are going to be comparing quantities and numbers, and we will continue to subitise and begin to identify when counting is necessary. Once again, we will be encouraged to use sentence stems when explaining our answers.

Look what we've been up to in Owls - 

Week 1 - 

This week in Owls, we have had a great time with our Maths and Literacy. In Maths, we focussed on our Careful Counting. The children were put into pairs and given a basket of 20 objects which we tipped out and carefully counted them back into the basket, one-by-one. We then arranged them into groups by colour and counted how many were in each colour group. The children did fantastically! In Literacy, the children have been starting to learn about the animals they might find down on the farm! We broke the story of Farmer Duck down into a story map. We made actions to go along with the pictures and worked in pairs to practice retelling the story, which was great fun! We have also been enjoying the wonderful weather in our outside area - long may it continue!

Week 2 - 

This week in Owls class we started our week by going on a welly walk to the Forest School Area. We had great fun having a story in the Tipi and getting to collect natural objects. We then used the natural objects throughout the week in Maths to help us with our counting and using the language add and subtract. In PE, we got to use the parachute, we loved running under it and seeing how long we could keep the ball in the air. In PSHE, we discussed our Paxcroft Values and how we had shown all of them in school and at home.

Week 3 -

This week in Owls class we have been using a story mountain to plan our own invented stories.  We have spoken about the structure of a story and how it has an opening, build up, problem, resolution and an ending. We have added actions and sounds to each part to help us remember. In Expressive Arts and Design we had a go at weaving on a beginners loom, we found it quite tricky at first but we all showed resilience and achieved at the end.  In Understanding the World, we have been planting flowers in the flowerbeds in our outside areas to make it look a lot brighter! We have also planted some sunflowers seeds and were excited to watch them grow.

Week 4- 

In Literacy this week we have been writing our invented stories using the Story Mountains we drew last week. I have been very impressed with the independence the children have shown when writing. Our highlight of our week was our walk to Trowbridge Library, the children showed all of the Paxcroft Values and we had many smiling faces throughout. All the children got to hear some stories, sing a song and look at the range of books the library has to offer. Some children were particularly fascinated by the non-fiction books on dinosaurs. We also enjoyed spending some more time up in the Forest school area, pretending to make campfires and toasting marshmallows as well as many daisy chains. 

Week 5- 

This week in Owls class we have been completing our Earth Day project. We hope you can come and see our work at the exhibition in the hall on Tuesday. We have been learning all about the seasons and how different weather can affect our planet. We started this project by going out on a nature hunt and created our own nature bracelets.  In PE, we were practising our throwing and catching skills with a tennis balls. In Maths, we have been learning our number bonds to 10. In Literacy, we have been continuing to write our invented stories.

Week 6 - 

This week in Owls class we have been using the Paxcroft Learner Values, positivity, independence and resilience in our Writing and Maths. In Literacy, we have been writing simple sentences to describe the picture using all the sounds we have learnt in our Sounds-Write sessions. In Maths, we have been ordering numbers to 10, some children even challenged themselves and went to 20. In Understanding the World, we have been looking at life cycles and animal offspring. We started the week by going outside and using natural resources to build miniature homes for different farm animals. We had fields for sheep, kennels for dogs, pens for pigs, etc. We hope you all have a relaxing half term.