Back to school

Welcome back to school today. I hope you all had a lovely half term break and the children had a well earned rest. Some of them were full of their adventures over the week including trips to the zoo and visiting friends.

Mrs Shiner was the class teacher today as I was on a course in Bristol. This morning the year 1 children began looking at fantasy stories and over the next week or so will be creating their own alien characters and writing stories about them.

The children have also been looking at the rule 'We are gentle, we don't hurt others'. We have been looking at this rule lots and will be our main focus this term. We would appreciate your support with this rule and reinforce it outside of school. We have been talking about what 'gentle' looks like in school.

NOTE: Please check your child's book bag for a letter about parents evening. Please return the slips ASAP to myself not Mrs David.

Alien Homes

An alien home by Amber.

Photos from 'The Citizen'

Just a selection of photographs taken by 'The Citizen' newspaper and available to buy if you so wish from:
http://www.dipintosales.co.uk/thisisGloucestershire/dgallery.asp?i=78&f=STARTING+SCHOOL&items=16&p=16
and...
http://www.dipintosales.co.uk/thisisGloucestershire/dgallery.asp?i=78&f=STARTING+SCHOOL&items=16&p=17

The children had their Zumba taster session this afternoon. The all seemed to really enjoy it. It would be nice to see lots of the year 1's coming to the club. It is one of my passions and hope they are excited by it as well! Check your child's book bag for their letter all about it.

REMEMBER: The children's card designs will be available for you to view after school tomorrow in Class 1.

Zumba

Tomorrow the year 1 children will be taking part in a 'Zumba for Kids' taster session at the Village Hall. After half term we will be offering a 'Zumba for Kids' after school club every Thursday. Letters will be sent out tomorrow for the children to sign up if they would like to come. A half termly cost will be involved as the session will be run by a qualified Zumba teacher.  The children are all very excited about the taster session happening tomorrow afternoon.

REMINDER: Come and see your child's beautiful card design on Wednesday after school in Class 1 and decide if you would like to order the design on a pack of cards.

Rockets and Aliens

We were very pleased with the children after Harvest Festival. The FS2 children were fantastic and sat so still and quiet throughout. Thank you all for your kind donations of food for the charity MARA.

Today we went to the village hall and continued our dance based upon space. The children were rockets blasting into space, flying around avoiding shooting stars and spinning planets!

This afternoon George's mum came in to help us continue our card designs so that they are ready in time for you to look at next Wednesday after school.









We have also been very busy making blow painting aliens. Some of us ran out of puff and others could have gone on and on!

REMINDER: Cake Sale on Friday. Remember to bring in your 20p. Please send money in a purse, as it makes finding it much easier for the children and us!

The Magic Bed and Cards

All of FS2 are now in full time. Today they began looking at the story 'The Magic Bed'. We talked about where the bed might take us such as to the woods, toy shop and out to sea. FS2 are now beginning to read simple words by sounding out letters that they have learnt so far such as 's-a-t' 't-a-p' 'a-t'

Year 1 are beginning a block of work in literacy based upon labels, lists and captions. Today they have been talking about their favourite t-shirts.

In the afternoons this week we are making our Christmas card designs ready to be sent to the printers. These will be available for you to buy cards printed with your child's design.

Reminder: Harvest Festival tomorrow so please bring in one item to donate to MARA. Something small in a packet that is easy to carry would be best.  Harvest Festival will begin at 1:30pm in the village hall. Class 1 have a lovely poem to share with you and some of their work that they have done with Mrs Shiner in RE.

Measuring and the Fire Alarm

FS2 have settled in very well. Here they are building tall towers out of bricks and trying to get dinosaurs to balance on the top.

One FS2 child decided that he was going to join in with the year 1 work in measuring. He noticed that he was 2 fish high. There was a little bit of cheating going on!!

Year 1's enjoyed writing lists today of food that a tiger might like to eat if he came to their house. There were lots of lovely ideas.

We had a fire practise today in school, some of the children found the alarm noise very load, but were very sensible and listened carefully to instructions.

This afternoon Mrs Shiner continued to practise with the year 1's for harvest festival and they have created some beautiful work to show you in harvest festival next Tuesday afternoon.

Astronaut Ice Cream and Conkers

Year 1 are revisiting 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea'. Today they sequenced pictures from the story and in a group had a go at retelling the story, trying to remember to use story language. We then retold the story but substituted the tiger for another animal. We have also started measures in maths and today looked at comparing objects of different lengths.

FS2 are looked at 'Mr Gumpy's Motor Car' this week. Today they thought about long journeys that they have taken in the car and how they entertained themselves.
In maths FS2 are practising recognising numbers 1-10 and counting 1:1. They have been enjoying using the dice and number cards to make up games.

This afternoon, year 1's had the opportunity to try real astronaut ice cream. It was chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. It was very different from normal ice cream! Ask them what they thought of it! They all decided that it was vital to pack some on their space shuttle ready for their mission!

At the end of the day we sang a song all about conkers after finding some on our Autumn walk last week.