Buttercup, Bluebell and Daffodil blog 27/2/26

Welcome back everybody!

We are continuing our project 'The Quest' this half term and will also be learning about the countries that make up the United Kingdom. We be learning about the flags that represent each country, the cities within them and the castles that you can find there. 

On Thursday next week it is World Book Day. Please see the note below from Miss Harvey about this:

World Book Day   

Thursday 5th March

This year is The National Year of Reading so we will be celebrating World Book Day for the whole day. 

Please come in wearing a costume to show your favourite book character. If you do not want to dress up, you can bring your favourite book in or a prop to give us a clue. 

Here is a competition you can take part in: https://www.worldbookday.com/competitions/win-a-set-of-both-books-in-the-nora-nightsky-series/
Email publicity@scholastic.co.uk with the header WBD NORA NIGHTSKY explaining why you want to win.

Competition closes: 15 April.

World Book Day tokens will be coming home on Friday

Homework

The Year 2 children have their spellings in their bags. 

Year 1 children have sheets to practise in preparation for the phonics screening check. They only need to complete a maximum of one half of the sheet each week so one sheet is ta least two weeks homework. Could you please encourage them to:

1. Write the word
2. Add the sound buttons (scanning for digraphs, trigraphs or split digraphs - the chidlren know what these are!)
3. Blend the word
4. Say it

These will be coming home each week. There will be a combination or real and pseudo (alien) words. The children know that an 'alien' word isn't a real one!

Maths - Year 1: CGP book pages 22-23 Number bonds to 20

Year 2: CGP book pages 30-31 Using Times Tables Facts

The children have been learning about these elements of Maths in school tis week.

Thank you for all of your support!

The Key Stage 1 Team x

Buttercup, Bluebell and Daffodil Blog Friday 13th February 2026

Happy half term everybody! 

What A busy, fun half term it has been. Our trip to Colchester Castle has really made our project come alive for the children and has enthused them to learn more about knights and castles. 

Thank you all for responding so quickly to our request for boxes and tubes to make our castles. These are now completed and should be on their way home to you soon. The children have put a lot of effort into these and should be able to tell you the names of all the different parts.

We will be continuing our project next half term up to the Easter break, when it will change on our return to school to 'At the Seaside'.

Homework

Reading: The children's Animaphonics books have been changed and so have the colour band books. Please continue to read at home regularly. It can make a huge difference to the progress that the children make.

Maths: This week the focus has been on sequencing days/months and time.

Year 1 - CGP book pages 54 and 55 please.

Year 2 - CGP book pages 54 and 55 please.

Top Marks is a great website to access games in any subject. We use it in school to warm up for or consolidate our learning in Maths. There are some very useful games on there that you may wish to complete with your child at home.

This link takes you to 'ordering and sequencing' games.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/ordering-and-sequencing

We hope you all have a fantastic half term break and look forward to seeing you on TUESDAY 24TH FEBRUARY. 

Best wishes

The Key Stage 1 Team x

Buttercup, Bluebell and Daffodil Blog Friday 23rd January 2026

Happy Friday Everybody! 

We have been very busy learning about castle defence systems this week and have begun to create our own castles. Thank you all for the box and tube donations!

Next week we will be looking at the life of a knight and how to joust. We will also be trying out jousting for ourselves during our Forest School sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. This will be slightly adapted with us using imaginary horses and pool woggles as jousts! We apologise in advance if the children come home muddy on their Forest School day.

Homework

This week the children have Maths worksheets to complete that have been given to them to put in their bags. These link directly with the learning that has taken place in school this week.

The children's new spelling sheets are also in their bags, along with their new reading books.

If you have any queries or comments about these or any other issue, please do not hesitate to come and see us.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Best wishes

The Key Stage 1 Team

Buttercup, Bluebell and Daffodil Blog Friday 16th January 2026

Happy Friday Everybody! 

We are really enjoying our new project 'The Quest'. We have been writing the story 'Jack and the Beanstalk' in our own words and learning about different types of castles. Our trip to Colchester Castle was brilliant! The children were so well-behaved and we all enjoyed our private story tour, where we dressed as pages and trained to be knights. We even got to walk along the rooftop to see the ramparts. The view was amazing!

Next week we will be looking at the photographs that were taken on the day and writing all about our visit. We will also be starting to create out own 3D castles.

Homework

This week the children have Maths worksheets to complete that have been given to them to put in their bags. These link directly with the learning that has taken place in school this week.

The children's new spelling sheets are also in their bags, along with their new reading books.

If you have any queries or comments about these or any other issue, please do not hesitate to come and see us.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Best wishes

The Key Stage 1 Team

Buttercup, Bluebell and Daffodil Blog Friday 9th January 2026

Happy New Year!

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and have had a positive start to the new year. Our new project this term is 'The Quest'. We are ready for a fun-packed term where we will be learning about different types of castles, life inside a castle and the weapons used to defend them. Our visit to Colchester Castle next week will be fun and very valuable to support our learning. We will have access to parts of the castle that are not open to the public, so we are really looking forward to our visit.

Homework

Spellings: The children have their spelling sheets in their bags. Their colour band books have been changed and they also have been given their new Animaphonics books, so you can choose which to read each evening. The Animaphonics books do not have to be read from cover to cover each night. There is quite a lot of text in them now, so only read 3 or 4 pages at a time and remember to discuss what the children have read. This really helps to develop their comprehension skills.

Maths: The Year 1 children have a penguins and polar bears, number bonds to ten sheet to complete.

The Year 2 children have a missing numbers sheet to complete. They have to look at the number line and work out which numbers are missing. 

The homework reflects the learning that has taken place in school this week, so the children should know what they are doing and be able to complete it in a short time.

Forest School

Forest School will start again for Year 1 next week. The day has not changed, so Buttercup and Bluebell Class will have their session every fortnight on a Tuesday (when Mrs O'Connor is not teaching in class). The children in Daffodil Class will have their sessions every other Wednesday BUT due to our school trip, they will not have a session next Wednesday. Please continue to wrap the children up warm (layers are best). They are thoroughly enjoying their time outside and we don't want them feeling cold and uncomfortable. 

Please don't forget that if you have any questions, comments or concerns, you can message us via Dojo or pop down and see us at the end of the day. 

Have a lovely weekend!

Love, The Key Stage 1 Team x

Buttercup, Bluebell and Daffodil Blog Friday 19th December 2025

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Wow that is a whole term gone already!

What a lovely week we have had. We hope you are feeling very festive after our Nativity performance. We are sooo proud of the children and we know you are too. They were amazing!

As promised, we have taken individual photographs of the children in their costumes and these have been sent home with them today. Below is a photograph of the children in their positions on the stage. 

We would all like to thank you for your support and for the generous gifts that we have received. It is never expected but is very much apprciated.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

With love from ,

The Key Stage 1 Team xx

Bluebell, Buttercup and Daffodil Blog 12th December 2025

 Happy Friday Everybody!

We have had a very exciting week this week and are now feeling very festive!

The Nativity performance is coming along nicely and we are really looking forward to seeing you on either:

• Wednesday 17th December at 2pm 
• Thursday 18th December at 9:30am

Today we had a very special visitor. Father Christmas came to visit with his reindeer. What a treat it was to meet him again and stroke his reindeer, although the teachers were not happy as they were ALL on the naughty list!

Dont forget - FOREST SCHOOL is taking place on Tuesday next week. Please send your child in in their forest school clothes with their wellies and waterproofs in a bag. We will be having a campfire, toasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate, so your children may come home smelling a little smokey!

There isn't any homework this week! The children have all changed their colour band books and will do this again next week but we are hanging on to their Animaphonics books until after Christmas. 

Thank you so much for all of your support with costumes and payments for the various activities at this time of the year. We very much appreciate it!

We hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Love

The Key Stage 1 Team xx