Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - Friday 20th October 2023

  Happy Friday, everybody! Wow! We have finished our first half term in Year 1/2! All the children have settled in so well and worked extremely hard in our first 7 weeks and we now want them to have a fantastic rest! Over the last 2 weeks we have been continuing our work on our "Knock Knock! Who's There?" project by looking at the different features of the houses in our surrounding area. All the children found this very interesting and it was very exciting to go outside of school!

Cauliflower Christmas Cards

All the children will have come home this week with their Christmas card design attached to the order form. If you wish, these designs can be turned into not just Christmas cards but mugs, books and wrapping paper too! If you do want to have the design realised into any of these items you need to place the order online first. All the details about how to do this are clearly set out on the form that came home. Once you have placed the order online, you must tick the box indicated and return the artwork and form back to school by Wednesday 1st November so we can send it away to be printed. If you do not wish for your child's design to be made into items then you do not need to return the artwork.

School Council Elections

Congratulations to Noah, Hanna and Layla who have been elected as School Councillors for Amethyst, Diamond and Emerald Class respectively. All the children clearly believe that you will do a great job in representing them - well done!

Massive thank you and well done to all children who also put themselves up for election - don't be too disappointed; there's always next year.

The Council will hold their first meeting after half term.

Half Term Homework

As stated at the beginning of the blog, we are very proud of all the children's efforts this half term and would like them to have a good rest. To that end we do not send homework books home during the holidays. It would be useful, however, if you keep up the reading, little and often, to ensure your child's continuing progress in this very important area. 

We hope you have a fantastic half term holiday, whatever you are doing and look forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday 30th October!

Much love

Mr Jude, Miss Smith & Mrs Yuille

Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - Friday 13th October 2023

 Happy Friday, everybody! How time flies - it seems amazing that we are about to move into our last week before half term! It has been very busy here in Key Stage 1 but we took some time to reflect this Tuesday for Mental Health Day. After a special assembly, we used the film "Inside Out" to explore the different emotions that we all have and the things that make us feel these emotions. In the afternoon all the children spent time in different classes doing some mindful activities. It was a very calm and lovely day! Here are Diamond class engaging in their painting session:

RRS Article 31: Every child has the right to relax and take part in a range of artistic activities.

School Council Elections

Next week, all classes will be electing their representative for the School Council! Any child who was not a councillor last year is eligible to stand so we have asked the children to have a good think as to whether they can be a wonderful and inspiring representative for their class.

Over the weekend, if your child is thinking about standing for election, maybe they would like to make a poster or create a short speech that might help them convey their suitability to be a Class Councillor. Be creative - what might make people vote for you?

The new School Councillors will be announced in assembly on Friday 20th October. Good luck!

East of England Sumdog Maths Contest

Calling all you amazing mathematicians!

You have been entered into the Sumdog Competition. It starts on Friday 13th October at 3:30pm and finishes at 3:30pm Thursday 19th October. Why not have a go and get your class on the school leaderboard? The winning class will get an extra playtime!

Let's show our school what great mathematicians we are!

Good luck

Mrs Hurley

Harry Potter Book Day

Thank you to everybody who attended this event! It was very busy but it was lovely to see so many people eager to be there.

We didn't have time to fit everything in so here is a link to the activities should you want to have a go at them or finish your drawings and of course for anyone else who did not attend. 

Harry Potter Day

Miss Harvey

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 14 & 15.

For Year 1's this focuses on counting in 2's, 5's and 10's. Counting on in 2's is very important for helping children to identify even numbers and as mentioned before in previous blogs, counting on in 10's really helps develop the children's understanding of place value. This will all serve as a precursor to when the children start looking at times tables more formally later in the year and as they move into Year 2. The games below focus on developing these skills:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/chinese-dragon-ordering

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/saucerSorter/

For Year 2's this focuses on partitioning numbers. Children are most used to partitioning numbers into their tens and ones (e.g. 38 = 30 + 8). However, we can partition numbers in many different ways - so if 30 + 8 = 38; 20 + 18 = 38 and 10 + 28 = 38 too. We encourage the children to look for patterns to help them find different solutions to the same answer. The link below has an app that lets the children create numbers using tens and ones equipment and then rearrange these to create different combinations of numbers that make the same amount. However, splitting the numbers into tens and ones can also be done practically by bundles of sticks or pencils to represent tens.

https://apps.mathlearningcenter.org/number-pieces/

Don't forget to keep up all your fantastic efforts with your reading at home - it will make a huge impact on your child's reading development.

If you have any issues or questions, please, please come and see us at the end of the day. Just come down the steps to see us!

Have a great weekend!

Kind regards

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille & Miss Smith

Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - Friday 6th October 2023

 Happy Friday, everybody! We have had a very exciting week in Key Stage 1 with the visit of the football freestyler Jamie Knight. Jamie did a whole school assembly with us in the morning where he showed us some tricks and spoke about his journey in becoming one of the top freestylers in the world. His message of perseverance and self belief was something the children could very much relate to. In the afternoon each class had a workshop with Jamie, trying out their own skills!

World Mental Health Day

On Tuesday 10th October, we will be celebrating World Mental Health Day at Down Hall.

The theme for 2023, set by the World Foundation of Mental Health, is "Mental health is a universal human right."

Down Hall Primary School see mental health and wellbeing as "being comfortable, healthy and/or happy."

To celebrate this very important day, we would like the children to come to school next Tuesday (10th) in non-school uniform wearing clothes that are comfortable and, if possible, linking to the colours of "Inside Out" which are: green, purple, yellow, blue and red. We hope this will encourage them to explore some of their own emotions. Throughout the day, the children will be taking part in class activities relating to World Mental Health Day. We aim to raise awareness of mental health and drive positive change for everyone's mental health.

Harry Potter Book Day

Message from Miss Harvey:

Thursday 12th October is Harry Potter book day and Miss Harvey is inviting any fellow Harry Potter fans to attend a special after school event full of Harry Potter activities to celebrate.

This will be straight after school until 4pm and all children are welcome to attend but be quick as there are only 30 spaces.

Dressing up is encouraged so please feel free to bring something to change into after school for the event.

A letter will come home with your child by owl on Monday with a reply slip.

Miss Harvey

Parent/Teacher Consultations

On Tuesday 17th October & Wednesday 18th October we will be holding our Parent/Teacher Consultations. This will be an opportunity to meet and discuss how your child has settled into their new Year group. 

Bookings can be made now via Scopay. If you are unsure of your Scopay login, please go and see the office as they will be able to issue you with your details. It is important to have these details as they will be used to book trips, dinner money and meetings throughout your child's time at Down Hall.

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 12 & 13.

For Year 1's this focuses on counting skills and comparing amounts. Developing accurate and reliable counting and then being able to say which of two or more amounts is more or less is an important aspect of the Year 1 curriculum. It is also important that the children understand that equal means the same as. There are also some games in the link below to help reinforce these ideas.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

For Year 2's this focuses on the number line and making estimates as to where numbers lie on the number line. When doing this, it is important to firstly look at the numbers that we can see already on the number line - are they going up in 2's, 5's, 10's? From here, look at which 2 numbers the arrow is in between to work out a number that is more/less than the given numbers. The game below will help reinforce the ideas presented in the homework book:

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/37/placing_numbers_on_a_number_line

Alternatively, you can draw out your own number lines, giving a starting point and an end point and asking your child to place numbers where they feel they would go between these numbers.

Don't forget to keep up all your fantastic efforts with your reading at home - it will make a huge impact on your child's reading development.

If you have any issues or questions, please, please come and see us at the end of the day. Just come down the steps to see us!

Have a super weekend!

All the best

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille & Miss Smith