Tulip, Bluebell & Daffodil Blog - Friday 4th April 2025

  Happy Friday, everybody! Wow! We find ourselves at the end of the Spring Term! Everyone has worked so hard and achieved so much already this year. We are now looking forward to our last project of the year - "Down At The Bottom Of The Garden!" Have a look at our knowledge organiser to see the areas we will be covering in the Summer Term:

Down At The Bottom Of The Garden

Just a reminder that swimming starts for Key Stage 1 after Easter and our swimming day is on Thursdays. Please ensure that you have completed and returned the swimming experience slip from the letter that went home last week. This helps the swimming teachers organise the groups ready for the first lesson. Drop us a Dojo if you need another copy of this letter. 

We would like all the children to have a relaxing Easter Holiday, so we are not sending homework books home this week but if you can keep up the reading little and often with books you have at home or at the library this will have a hugely positive effect on their progress.

Have a wonderful Easter!

Much love

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith

 

Tulip, Bluebell & Daffodil Blog - Friday 28th March 2025

 Happy Friday, everybody! We hope you enjoyed the chocolates this week - it has taken a lot of hard work to get to this finished spot - including some very tricky wrapping! We now know why Mr Wonka has Oompa Loompas to help him!

Amazingly we only have 1 week left of the Spring Term! Just a reminder that swimming starts for Key Stage 1 after Easter and our swimming day is on Thursdays. Please ensure that you have completed and returned the swimming experience slip from the letter that went home last week. This helps the swimming teachers organise the groups ready for the first lesson. Drop us a Dojo if you need another copy of this letter. 

Upcoming Events

Tuesday 1st April - Parent Consultation Evening

Wednesday 2nd April - Parent Consultation Evening

Friday 4th April - PTA Easter Egg Hunt/Wellbeing Day

Thursday 24th April - Swimming Starts!

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 48 & 49.

For Year 1's this focuses on volume. Many of the practical activities discussed around length and mass in previous blogs hold true here - look at the volume of different bottles and cans around the house to compare and order them or use an egg cup to see how many cups it takes to fill different containers. Below is a game that builds upon this idea:

Bubble Bath Game

For Year 2's this focuses on comparing measurements. This gives another opportunity to using greater than (>), less than (<) and equals (=) signs to compare amounts, ordering values and linking units of measure to length, mass and capacity. Below is a game to help read amounts on a labelled scale - start off with the simple challenges and build up to scales where not all the numbers are labelled:

Capacity Countdown

Don't forget to keep reading at home and do the next page in your comprehension homework books.

Have a great weekend!

Best wishes,

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith

Tulip, Bluebell & Daffodil Blog - Friday 21st March 2025

 Happy Friday, everybody and it has been a fun filled Red Nose Day here in Key Stage 1! We have also been evaluating our finished chocolates ready for them to be wrapped, packaged and sent home next week!

Upcoming Events

Friday 28th March - PTA Mother's Day Sale

Tuesday 1st April - Parent Consultation Evening

Wednesday 2nd April - Parent Consultation Evening

Friday 4th April - PTA Easter Egg Hunt/Wellbeing Day

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 46 & 47.

For both Year 1's and Year 2's this continues to focus on mass and ways to measure. This is a fantastic opportunity to do a spot of baking as it will involve lots of practical measuring and reading of marked scales. Take a photo of any of your wonderful efforts (or of course bring us in a slice!) we would love to see them all.

Don't forget to keep reading at home and do the next page in your comprehension homework books.

Have a great weekend!

Best wishes,

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith

Tulip, Bluebell & Daffodil Blog - Friday 14th March 2025

 Happy Friday, everybody and it has been a very chocolatey week in Key Stage 1! We made our chocolates this week and all the classes were very much like Mr Wonka's factory with many Oompa-Loompas busy working away! The chocolate is currently setting ready to be packaged next week!

Upcoming Events

Friday 21st March - Red Nose Day (see below!)

Friday 28th March - PTA Mother's Day Sale

Tuesday 1st April - Parent Consultation Evening

Wednesday 2nd April - Parent Consultation Evening

Friday 4th April - PTA Easter Egg Hunt/Wellbeing Day

Red Nose Day - Comic Relief Big 40th Birthday Bake!

This year marks 40 years of Comic Relief. Next Friday there will be a cake sale to raise money and children are asked to bring in a few cakes if possible (homemade or shop bought) to be sold during the day. 

Cakes will be sold at 50p a cake so if you would like your child to take part please bring in money for this and a box if they are buying more than one cake to bring home.

Below is a link to our Just Giving Page if you wish to donate money in this way but please note that this is separate to the cake sale - children will need to bring in money if they wish to buy a cake!

Down Hall Just Giving Page

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 44 & 45.

For Year 1's this continues to focus on mass or weight (we do not make a distinction between the two terms in Key Stage 1). Again, explore this idea practically - get a range of toys and see if you can compare them in terms of how heavy they are. Order these from lightest to heaviest, reinforcing the different language as you go.

For Year 2's this focuses on ways in which we measure. Explore how we use different units to measure different aspects of an object. Try measuring different objects using a ruler to the nearest cm, look at food and drink packaging to see the weight and volume of different objects and use a weather website to see how we measure temperature in degrees Celsius. If you record any of these ideas, pop them in your homework book - we love to see all your efforts at home!

Don't forget to keep reading at home and do the next page in your comprehension homework books.

Have a great weekend!

Best wishes,

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith

Tulip, Bluebell & Daffodil Blog - Friday 7th March 2025

 Happy Friday, everybody and it has been another busy and exciting week with all the children enjoying dressing up for World Book Day on Thursday! Look out for all the photos in this week's newsletter.

Upcoming Events

Friday 21st March - Red Nose Day (further details to come)

Friday 28th March - PTA Mother's Day Sale

Tuesday 1st April - Parent Consultation Evening

Wednesday 2nd April - Parent Consultation Evening

Friday 4th April - PTA Easter Egg Hunt/Wellbeing Day

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 42 & 43.

For Year 1's this continue to focus on length and height - this time measuring. This is a great chance to become involved in some practical measuring of different objects around the house. Use a ruler/tape measure or use some non-standard  units such as hand spans and find out how long different things are. If you record any of these measurements, please pop it into the homework book as we would love to see this too! 

For Year 2's this focuses on equivalent fractions. Understanding how 2 quarters is the same as 1 half is an important skill for the children and being able to "see" these equivalent makes it easier to understand. The below website lets you explore how different fractions relate to each other by dragging the fraction into circles and then comparing. 

Circle Fractions

Don't forget to keep reading at home and do the next page in your comprehension homework books.

Have a great weekend!

Much kindness,

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith

Tulip, Bluebell & Daffodil Blog - Friday 28th February 2025

 Happy Friday, everybody and welcome back to the second half of the Spring Term. We had a very exciting week back with our visits to Holy Trinity Church. Huge thank you to Reverend Glen for showing us around the church and a big well done to all the children who were so well behaved and asked so many questions!

Because this week we were in a slightly different routine to normal weeks with all the LSAs walking the children up to the church, your children will not be coming home today with their spelling books or new Guided Reading books. This will resume next week but they will still bring Maths and Comprehension homework books back as normal.

Upcoming Events

Thursday 6th March - World Book Day (come to school dressed as your favourite book character!)

Friday 21st March - Red Nose Day (further details to come)

Friday 28th March - PTA Mother's Day Sale

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 40 & 41.

For Year 1's this focuses on length and height. It is important to develop the correct vocabulary here; longer/shorter rather than bigger/smaller. Take the time to compare different objects around the home - choose 6 toys/items and order these in terms of their length or height.

For Year 2's this focuses on finding fractions of amounts. As usual, relate this mathematical concept back to the basic operation of division.

Doggy Division

Don't forget to keep reading at home and do the next page in your comprehension homework books.

Have a brilliant weekend!

Much love,

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith

Tulip, Bluebell & Daffodil Blog - Friday 14th February 2025

  Happy Friday, everybody! It is incredible to think that this week marks the half way point for this academic year! Wow, how time flies and how wonderfully hard everyone has worked this half term!

Visits to Holy Trinity Church

A reminder that first week back after half term will be our class trips to Holy Trinity Church in Rayleigh. We will be walking up to the church during morning sessions of the school day and will be back in time for lunch as normal. The dates for each class are as follows:

• Tuesday 25th February - Tulip Class
• Wednesday 26th February - Daffodil Class
• Thursday 27th February - Bluebell Class

There are no other changes to our normal school day for this visit. We will share with you our time at the church in the newsletter!

Half Term Homework

As mentioned earlier, the children have all worked phenomenally hard this half term and we all wish them a relaxing half term. To this end, we will not be sending any of the maths, spelling or comprehension homework books back this week. The children will bring home their reading books and Guided Reading books as normal, however.

Have an amazing half term break and we will see everyone back at school on Tuesday 25th February!

Best wishes

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith