Happy Easter

Hi there!

Let’s begin with an apology. I’m so sorry for the lateness in getting your child’s handwriting homework to you last week. With the wind and the sending of the children through the front of school I forgot to send it. I will try to do much better from now on.

Now let’s talk about last week. How amazing it was! We finally completed our sentences about frogs and the use of connectives to make our sentences longer. The tongues are now firmly stuck in their frog puppets mouths and will soon be displayed on the wall in the classroom. The work the children have been doing on frogs has been further enhanced thanks to Mrs Bolton who has acquired us some frogspawn for in our water tray. The children have really loved this and have been drawing the frogspawn and creating diagrams. Already we can see the changes happening and this weekend should see the tadpoles emerging from the protective gel. It must be said that the children are truly amazing and have really impressed us with how much they have chosen to find out of their own accord. Thanks for all your support at home.

What is this? A beanstalk? Growing in our classroom? Yes! It’s true. Last week we saw the arrival of our very own ‘Grow your own beanstalk kit’. This is like no other kit. Oh no…it is magic! We have planted our beans (baked) and have sprinkled them with magic dust. We already have a leaf. Will the beanstalk grow any higher? But of course it will. This week we hope to encourage the children to write more by having them receive a letter from the giant via the beanstalk. I wonder what will be the outcome?

In addition to this, the children will be entering a national poetry competition. In preparation for this could you talk to your child about:
Who their best friend is
What they like to watch on TV
What they consider a treat (not food)
Their pet ( and if they haven’t got one what pet they would like to have – this can be a crazy one)

Thanks.

As always, the last week of the half term is Assessment and Review Week. I will be assessing:
Number recognition
Letter sounds and name recognition
Blending of words when reading
High frequency words
Ordering of numbers
Understanding of subtraction
In addition to this we will be assessing the children on their understanding of comparative language e.g longer, shorter, taller etc for the half term to follow Easter. Please refer back to previous blogs to find websites to support he revision of these areas.

The Easter Story
We take the opportunity to spend the whole week on the celebration of Easter with the children. This week will be filled with fun activities for them whilst they understand the meaning behind the celebration of Easter. The story is told to the children sensitively and in a way which will help them to understand. Thanks to Mrs Worrall, our RE Coordinator, we have some lovely websites to support this week.
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/christianity/easter/easter.htm - this is an illustrated version of the story. You may wish to omit the part about the nails as this often upsets the children.
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Easter/Easter.aspx - find out more about the traditions surrounding Easter.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/re/b-dag/ngfl-container/re-unit2-en.html - some lovely activities on here.
http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/resourcesjigsaws.shtml -online jigsaws for the children to do.
http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/colourbookeaster.shtml - printable Easter colouring activities.
http://demo.iboard.co.uk/screens/thread_home.htm?thread_id=21# - a lovely website with lots of fantastic things to do. We will be using this in the ICT suite with the children.

Easter Bonnets
There will of course be our other fun activities. I can’t wait to see all the wonderful Easter bonnets the children will have made. We do take a photograph of them for their Year Book.

Egg Rolling Competition
Please remember that the eggs need to be hard boiled.

Sponsored Boogie Woogie
The children will be dancing non-stop to ten songs on Monday in aid of Nugent Care. Please can you make sure that your child has their sponsor form in their bags for signing after the Boogie Woogie. Many thanks as this will allow for the sponsor money to be collected in that week prior to the Easter break.

Fundraiser
Year 5 and 6 are also holding their very own fundraising event. This will be on Tuesday afternoon. There will be games and small items for sale. If your child would like to contribute then bring along 50p on Tuesday. Please remember to place it in a labelled purse or an envelope.

Science Week
On our return to school we will be holding a Science themed week on Materials. Over the holidays I would appreciate it if you could see if you have any old pieces of material, wool, foil, wood, bricks etc that will help us in our investigations.

I think that is all for now so all that is left to say is…

Have a Happy and Holy Easter

Jayne Narraway and the Foundation Stage Team xxx