Learning Experience – Oh, I do love to be beside the seaside!

The children have enjoyed exploring the local area as part of their learning enquiry. They were looking for different features of the local environment. The children found a play park, woods, green park, beach, train track, petrol station, two churches, houses, roads, shops, and a restaurant. They recorded their findings on their clipboards and took photos. Children will build on this knowledge in Key Stage 1 where they will be able to categorise these into human and physical features.

When the children returned to school they recounted their trip and created a large scale map. They had some wonderful discussions, and some children decided to write about their trip, recalling the features they saw. We were impressed by their passion and enthusiasm, they demonstrated good knowledge of maps and the local area. They also showed great determination to complete the walk; it was quite a challenging route. Well done Puffins and Penguins.

Summer Fayre

Friday 8^th July is our Summer Fayre, we really appreciate you supporting all the school events. The children will come out of school as normal, and then you can make your way up to the school field where there will be lots of exciting activities and stalls. There will be lots of games to play including: tin can knock out, hook a duck, play your cards right, roll a coin, and a golf game. It is a fun family event, and we appreciate your support.

Numicon Pop Up Café!

Puffins and Penguins have worked hard this year to learn their school values; we are extremely proud of them. Recently, the children received a certificate for earning 10 house points (school value stickers). Today, we celebrated this with the children by opening a Numicon Café. We gave each child a 10 numicon piece (to represent the 10 house point certificate) and they were able to spend this in the numicon café. Each product had a numicon price and the children had to decide what they wanted to buy.

The menu included: drink (4 numicon), cake (3 numicon), biscuit (3 numicon), fruit (2 numicon), and raisins (1 numicon).

We had a lesson exploring all the different options of what they could buy. This focused on the composition of number 10 (the smaller numbers that make up 10). For example, they could buy a drink (4), a cake (3) and a biscuit (3), this totals 10. Or they could buy 3 cakes (9) and a pot of raisins (1), this also totals 10. The children had so much fun, and it was fantastic to hear all the mathematical language and reasoning. This was a wonderful experience. We are lucky to have a Pop Up Café.

Literacy – Bonkers about Beetroot

We have continued our learning based on ‘Bonkers about Beetroot’. This week we ‘innovated’ the story. This means that as we are now very familiar with the structure of the original story, we are starting to change elements of it so that we can create our own version of the story. In the original story, the zebra ate a beetroot and turned purple - the children changed the animal, the fruit or vegetable and the colour that the animal turned into. We had lots of great examples, such as a polar bear eating peas and turning green, and a crocodile eating a banana and turning yellow. The children had lots of fun ‘innovating’ the story and coming up with the most ‘bonkers’ and funny ideas!

The children also enjoyed eating chocolate brownie which had a special ingredient…beetroot! This surprised a lot of them, and they thought it was bonkers! Thank you Miss Rowe for the delicious brownies. Next week, we are going to be using beetroot to make special smoothies!

Art - Printing

This half term, the children have been learning that there are different forms of art. We talked about the difference between drawing, painting, and printing. We then focused on printing. The children used a variety of objects to print patterns onto paper. We talked about what printing means – to reproduce a design or pattern. We explored a variety of objects to see what pattern they would create. The children used the word ‘stamping’ and we decided that is the action of printing – you stamp or press an object onto the paper. We recapped printing that we had experienced before: hand and feet printing, wellie boot prints in the mud, and leaf printing in the woods. The children created their own pictures by printing with different objects. We were amazed by all their ideas and creativity. We have shared some examples with you. Maybe you would like to try and do some printing at home. You can be as creative as you like.

Sports Day

We are very excited to be welcoming you back to another sports day; it is always a wonderful occasion. You will have received an e-mail with further details about the running of the day.

Your child will be bringing home their PE kit this week, so it can be washed ready for Monday. Please send your child in to school wearing their full PE kit with their school jumper or cardigan. Depending on the weather, please also send in sun hats or coats. If it is hot, please make sure your child has sun cream applied in the morning (they can bring more to reapply later). They will also need their water bottle and book bag as normal.

You are invited to eat lunch with your child on the school field from 12.10pm – 12.40pm. We will bring all the children out onto the field and if they have a parent/guardian present we will send them over to you to have their lunch. If you have ordered a school lunch from our caterers, Aspens, we will bring this out with your child in a picnic bag. However, you are very welcome to bring a packed lunch for them that day. If you are not able to attend lunch on the field, please do not worry as your child will be able to sit with us (the teachers) to eat their lunch. During lunchtime your child will need to remain seated with you; please do not let your child run around the field as there will be too many people. At 12.40pm we will call the children back to us, and we will take them inside school to get ready for their afternoon races. Puffins and Penguins will be racing at 2pm. You are very welcome to stay and watch the Key Stage 1 races before Puffins and Penguins. The Pop Up Café will be open all day.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to ask. We are looking forward to a wonderful day.

Transition to Year 1

We have started having conversations with the children about the changes ahead. This is to prepare the children for being in a new classroom with a new teacher in September. The three classes in Unit 2 are Snowy Owls, Little Owls, and Tawny Owls. On Tuesday the children will find out who their new teacher will be, and you will receive an e-mail with the details.

It is an exciting time, and we have given the children many opportunities to talk about their feelings about the coming changes. To support the successful transition, all children will spend three days (Monday 18^th July – Wednesday 20^th July) in their new classes. They will be able to spend time with their new teacher and new class. This will make the first few days of September run smoothly as children will have already experienced their new class. The teachers have some wonderful activities planned for the three days. Please bring your child in to school as normal to Puffins and Penguins and collect them from the usual place at the end of the day.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be posting some stories on Seesaw which will be read by one of the teachers in Unit 2 so that the children can become more familiar with the adults.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to ask.

Beach Trip

As reward for all their hard work and achievements, we are taking the children to the beach next week. We will be walking to the beach and then having a play in the sand with our friends. We will have lunch at school and will be back for the usual pick-up time of 3.15pm.

• Tuesday 12^th July – Penguins
• Friday 15^th July – Puffins

The children will wear their school uniform as usual.

Your child will need to bring a bag (ideally a rucksack type so that their hands are free) containing:

• A sun hat.
• A bottle of drinking water.
• A small flannel or towel (to wipe their sandy feet).
• A lightweight rain jacket (just in case!).
• Optional - A small plastic spade. Please make sure this fits inside the rucksack so that you don’t accidentally knock against another person or car.

Please apply sun cream to your child before they come to school.

If you have any queries, please come and speak to us.

Poetry Recital

Puffins and Penguins have been working hard to learn three poems. We would like to invite you in to school for a special poetry recital at 2.45pm on Thursday 14^th July. Please wait outside the office, and we will open the side gate at 2.45pm for you to go to the field and sit on the seating stand. We look forward to seeing you.

Home Learning

• Enjoy the story read by Mrs Braddon
• Try printing at home using different objects. We would love to see your wonderful creations.
• Check Seesaw and your book bag for this week’s RWI books and activities. Practise reading your book at least 3 times a week.

Dates for your diary

• Friday 8^th July – Summer Fayre. Starts at 3:15pm on the school field. (Friday 15^th July – Reserve date).
• Friday 8^th July - School Reports out to parents.
• Monday 11^th July – Sports Day. (Thursday 14^th July – Reserve date).
• Tuesday 12^th July - You will receive an e-mail regarding your child’s new teacher and class for September.
• Tuesday 12^th and Friday 15^th July – Beach Trips
• Thursday 14th July - Poetry Recital
• Thursday 21^st July – final day of term.

From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague and the Foundation Stage Team