Welcome to Term 4! A great start back! 

**When waiting in the morning please have your child stand with you! They should not be running or playing in the car park area or by the office doors.

English/Phonics: This week we have enjoyed lots of writing! We have been word building and writing sentences about some funny pictures of different animals. Remember World Book Day next week so lots of story and book fun! 

Maths: We have used playdough to make different representations of the number 9. To finish the week we learnt about a balance scale. The heavy side goes lower than the lighter side. If the items weigh the same it stays level. The children enjoyed moving like a balance scale and had fun investigating items on the scale, exploring what was heavier, lighter and the same weight! 

PE: This week we began 'ball skills'. We started by throwing and catching our fabric scarf squares. Looking at where our hands needed to be, where we needed to look and practising throwing straight up! We moved on to using bean bags and found that we needed to learn to throw with a little more power than the scarves! 

RE: This week, we introduced our Big Question for the term: “Why do Christians put a cross in an Easter garden?” We began by sharing what we already know about Easter, including traditions such as the Easter Bunny and receiving chocolate eggs. Inside our special bag, we discovered a number of objects linked to the Easter story, including a cross, an Easter story book, a donkey, and a palm leaf. These items helped us to start thinking about the meaning of Easter for Christians.

**Over the coming weeks, we will be learning about the story of Holy Week. This will include Jesus’ journey into Jerusalem, his death on the cross, and his resurrection. We will explore how Easter is both a sad and a happy time for Christians, as well as learning about different Easter traditions and how people celebrate.**

PSHE: The Seasons was our focus for this week. We shared the story Tree, by Patricia Hegarty. We enjoyed studying the lovely pictures, noticing what had changed as the seasons passed. Afterwards we thought about what colours or objects linked to each season. The children chose different colours and drew images or patterns they felt linked to each season. 

In planners: our weekly reflection linked to our reflective Windows Mirrors and Doors questions. This will link to events, worship and/or wow moments.

Wishing everyone a restful weekend! 

Phonics 

We follow the Phonic scheme Sounds Write. 

Current sounds taught: a, m, i, t, s, n, o, p, b, c, h, g, d, e, v, f, k, l, r, u, w, z, j, x, y, ff, ll, ss, zz
Words: I, the, on, is, a, for, of, to, are, was

Sound Bingo - The children choose 4 sounds from those covered. The adult holds up a sound card, the children say the sound and mark it off if they have chosen it. If they get all 4 sounds they shout out Bingo! 

Sound spotting - with the sounds displayed the children are asked to spot the sound. They either have to point it out, highlight it, trace over the letter, or write it on their whiteboards. 

Word building – using sound cards children help identify the sounds needed to build a given word, working out one sound at a time, s-a-t ‘sat.'

Dictation - adults tell the children a simple sentence, containing 'tricky words' - words that do not follow phonetically decodable patterns, and decodable words (words they can sound out). The children are encouraged to use their Phonic knowledge to write the sentence. We also practise using finger spaces, capital letters and full stops.

Sound Swap - starting with a given word, change one sound to make a new word - cat, pat, pan, tan, tin, pin etc. 

The following link has some information for parents if you would like to have a look. 

 https://sounds-write.co.uk/support-for-parents-and-carers/ 
The correct pronunciation: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8ZMfYjdN-s 
It is important not to add sounds such as m=muh s= suh t=tuh 
Take the word: ‘mat’. If you sound it out as ’muh’ + aa +tuh’ and then blend them together you get ‘muhaaatuh’ a long way off from ‘mmmaat’ and then ‘mat’.
We do not use actions or Jolly Phonics songs. 

Reading books

If you wish to keep the book longer just let us know, you do not have to change them on Monday and Thursday!  Go at your child's pace, find a time of day that suits them, if a page is enough for one session that’s fine.
*Talk about the stories or books shared, can they spot any of the sounds they know, can they tell you about what has been read, have you met any new or interesting words, talk about word meanings, ask what might happen next, ask your child to think about a different ending. 
We have a limited amount of books within our reading scheme, so your child might get given the same book more than once. This is a great opportunity to boost word recognition and fluency when reading. It will also increase confidence as it is a 'known' book and your child might remember it. 

Dates of interest 

Fri 6th March: World Book Day celebrations at Bidborough
(Sun 15th March: Mothering Sunday)
Tue 17th March: St Patrick’s Day, St Patrick's team dress up in green
Wed 18th March: Individual photos

Reminders