Spring 1 

Welcome back, hope everyone had a magical Christmas and a happy New Year. This term in Beavers we are learning about lots of exciting things.

In Reception we are starting our learning on Amazing Africa with particular focus on Kenya and what life is like for people who live there. We are going to be looking at similarities and differences of areas such as Mombassa and Kunya. Children will be creating some beautiful art work including looking at Maasai bead necklaces and making their own. Children are going to be learning about a range of animals that live in Kenya with particular focus on the 'Big 5'. All of there learning will lead up to a very exciting project in which they will need to work together to organise a 'Kenya Coffee Morning', in which parents/carers/grandparents are going to be invited in to look at their work and help us to fundraise money to adopt an animal from WWF to help protect the endangered animals in Kenya and worldwide.

In Year 1 and Year 2 we are starting our new topic on Brazil with focus on the Amazon Rainforest. We will be learning about life in the Amazon, what products it produces and what animals it may be home to in the 4 layers of the rainforest. We will also be looking at the weather and creating some exciting products which will help us measure rainfall and wind direction. We are going to be looking at the artist Georgia O'keeffe and her artwork on flowers, in which children will create a beautiful piece of art work using oil pastels. We are also going to be doing some flower pressing in which hopefully will create a beautiful final piece to treasure and use within our reading.

An exciting letter from Buckingham Palace. 

In Beavers we had a very exciting letter in the post, that came all the way from London. As some of you may remember that last year in Year 1 and reception children wrote some brilliant letters for the King's Coronation, in which I sent to Buckingham Palace. We are over the moon to have received a response this week from King Charles III and Camilla. 

It was so rewarding for the children to be able to have a response for their super writing last year.  Giving the children's writing a purpose helps bring their ideas to life and brings them enjoyment and enthusiasm to write. I am so proud of the brilliant writers in Beavers, well done!

End of term update for Year 1/2 

Wow! What a busy end to half term we had in Beavers. Children were busy designing, creating, writing and being rock stars.

Children in year 1 and 2 were finishing of their learning on their space topic, 'Moon Zoom', which they have all thoroughly enjoyed and what a pleasure it was to welcome all of our parents in to school for our space showcase, in which the children got to show you all of their hard work. 

In English we finished of our learning on our class story, 'Aliens love underpants', children wrote letters to the aliens, they wrote newspaper reports and created some brilliant acrostic poems all about pants, which linked to the NSPCC 'Pantasaurus' song. Children learned all about rhyming words, similes, and learnt how to use a question mark when writing letters to the aliens. Children worked hard to remember all of the key features that we needed to include in our writing. 

In Maths, children have been working hard on their addition and subtraction. Children in year 2 have been learning to add and take away up to 100 using a range of resources including number lines. The children have been working hard counting backwards and using their knowledge of timetables such as 10's to add and take away more. In year 1, we have been looking at number bonds to 10, and all of the different parts, by introducing part whole models and using a range of resources as well as number stories to introduce adding and take away. Children have been working hard on counting forwards and backwards to 20 and forming their numbers correctly. 

In Science we finished of our topic of materials and their properties. Children were able to use their senses to talk about the different properties of a range of materials and explain what they meant. Children were able to take part in scientific discussions about materials and what materials they should use to make rockets and their space buggies and explain their reasoning behind this. Children used their knowledge organiser to learn new terminology and understand the meaning of the different properties.

In Topic, children finished of their learning of significant individuals who linked with our space topic. Children learnt about the importance of Kathrine Johnson and Mae Jemison, which linked in with the theme of 'Black History Month'. Children also looked at why Valentina Tereshkova and Tim Peake were significant individuals and why they are remembered today. Children answered questions and created fact sheets all about the significant individuals and were places in order on our timeline in class. 

In Art and DT, children were busy learning new skills such as what axels and wheels are and what there purpose is. Children used key skills and decision making to work together to create space buggies. Children learnt the order of the planets including learning a very catchy song. They created posters and 3D models of the solar systems in groups. they were fantastic. 

Overall we had a brilliant term in year 1 and 2 and we learnt lots of different things, and the children had a blast celebrating the launch of TT rock stars, be sure to check out who is top of the leader board in Beavers this week. 

Grandparents Morning 02.10.23 

Wow! What a brilliant turnout we had in Beavers for our annual grandparents morning. We welcomed almost 40 grandparents, into our class on Monday.

Children had worked hard to write some sweet and sentimental messages to their Grandparents explaining why they are so special and why they would like to say thank you to them. Some children read out the messages for all of our Grandparents to hear, which was very special. Children then performed "I'm still standing", By Elton John with their beautiful singing voices and actions. 

Children and their Grandparents shared tea, coffee and cake and then played 'Roll a Grandparent' and did some super colouring and to finish off, they played some games with each other. 

We would like to thank all of our Grandparents for coming to school and hope to do this again soon, we had a blast!

Here are some photos from the great morning we had.

Wow, what an exciting couple of weeks we have had back in Beavers. We have welcomed 9 new children into our class this year and they have all settled brilliantly and made some amazing friendships. 

Year 1 and 2 Update-

We have started our new topic of 'Space' in Year 1 and 2. 

In English,children have been reading the book 'Aliens love underpants', and have been retelling the story through story maps and have created their own. 

Children also created some descriptive writing, where they designed and created their own character with inspiration from Roald Dahl day. Children had to use as many adjectives as they could to describe every part of their character, they did brilliantly. 

In Maths children have started their topics of place value, we have started using greater than and less than symbols and using them to compare numbers to 100 and comparing numbers to 10 in year 1. Children have been introduced to number lines, number tracks and tens frames in year 1. Year 2 have been working hard with partitioning numbers to 100 and also flexible partitioning to 50.

In Topic we have started to learn about astronauts and significant people who travelled to space. We have looked at what is special about an astronaut and what do they do. We have also looked at who Neil Armstrong is and why he is a significant individual. We have also looked at Valentina Tereshkova who was the first women in space and why she was significant during this time.

In Science, we are looking at everyday materials and their properties, we have linked this to our space topic and did a science experiment in which the children had to use their sense of touch to describe the properties of the materials without using their sense of sight. 

Reception Update-

We have started our new topic of 'All about me' in Reception.

In reception we have been getting to know the children very well. The children have been exploring the indoor and outdoor environments as well as getting to know each other. Children have been learning the everyday routines in our school and how to use equipment safely and sensibly. Children have been learning and singing along to some well known nursery rhymes and working well as a team to do this.  

We have talked about being kind to each other, what it means to share, what a good friend looks like, using our kind hands and feet. We also talked about helping each other and playing together inside and outside. 

Understanding the world 

The children have been learning about their feelings, their family in which they painted using a range of colours. The children have been talking about their homes and who lives with them and creating some brilliant drawings of their family. Children have also been looking at the human body and their teeth and engaging in dentistry role play. 

The children have created some brilliant autumnal artwork. Children explored the outdoor area and looked for signs of autumn and spoke about the rest of the seasons and what weather we would expect here. Children used ear buds to create fine dotted painting on the leaves using autumnal colours in which the children were confident in recognising. 

In the class we have share numerous stories and fairy tales in our reading corner with a teddy bear to cuddle, the children have used brilliant listening skills and empathy towards the stories and asked questions about the characters.

We have just started our Maths, Phonics and English lessons beginning the 25th September and the children are all working so hard and doing their best to listen and concentrate during input. 

I am so proud of how all the children have settled into their new school. What a fantastic start they have had!