Dear Parents and Carers,

Puffins and Penguins were busy on Monday weeding, digging and planting in the beautiful sunshine. They were very excited about planting potatoes and were already planning how to cook them – cooking in the woods was mentioned! The children were immersed in the natural environment and were fascinated by the insects they found and took great delight in drawing and recording their findings.

It has been another exciting week in Maths. This week the children were delighted about being able to record their learning on subtraction by writing on the tables. The children were using counters, bugs, flowers and apples to subtract two single digit numbers. They have been trying to subtract by holding a number in their head and counting back, please continue this at home but maybe not by writing on the tables!

The after school clubs have got off to a great start. In multi-sports, the children have played football, rounders and archery. The children are demonstrating great teamwork and determination. In science club, they had a visit from some trainee doctors and had fun learning about the human body. They used skittles to explore colour and have many more fun experiments planned for the coming weeks.

This week, the children who had a cooked lunch were offered a new food to try each day. Puffins and Penguins have been very adventurous and have tried several new foods including butternut squash and salsa with nachos. We would like to continue this next week and try many different foods. On Monday could each child please bring in a fruit or vegetable that they may not have tried before (or think their friends may not have tried before) so we can talk about healthy choices and possibly experience new tastes. Maybe we could even make some healthy smoothies. If you have any concerns regarding allergies please talk to the class teacher.

Swimming sessions for Puffins and Penguins will commence after half term and will be held on the following dates; Friday 7^th, 14^th, 21^st June, Wednesday 26^th June, Friday 12^th, 19^th July. Mr Ord and Mrs Bastin are looking forward to supporting the children in the water. Please write any information regarding their current swimming ability in their red home school link book.

As we come closer to the end of the school year, we will be working closely with the children to complete their Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. This is a summary report of your child’s achievements across the 17 Early Learning Goals at the end of reception. Reports will be sent out in July, but in the meantime your child’s targets will be stuck into their red home school link book early next week and we would appreciate your support in helping your child to achieve these targets. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to ask us.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Home Learning Options

• Bring in a piece of fruit or a vegetable you would like to try with your friends.
• Draw pictures (or cut pictures out of magazines) of healthy and unhealthy food choices. Label the pictures and independently write a sentence.
• Try reading some of the free online books from Oxford Owl and let us know which ones you enjoy. Here is a link to help you. https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/
• Continue to practice counting backwards from 20-0
• Subtract by taking away physical objects then by holding the number in your head and counting back.
• Watch episodes from Numberblocks and Numberjacks on doubling, halving and subtraction. You should be able to find links via Google.

Dates to remember

School finishes for Half Term on Friday 24^th May and re-opens on Tuesday 4^th June.

Swimming starts on Friday 7^th June.

Many Thanks, Foundation Team