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

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

 Happy Friday, everybody! It has been a very busy time in school this week but we have been exceptionally proud of how well all our children have represented our school during this time. They are truly amazing!

Visits to Holy Trinity Church

As part of our RE theme this term we have been looking at Christianity and the role of the church in the lives of Christians. To support this learning, we have arranged for each class to visit 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!

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 38 & 39.

For Year 1's this focuses on quarters. Again, it is helpful when discussing fractions to relate it closely to division. So when discussing finding quarter, relate it to the same as dividing it in 4. The game below explores how to recognise halves and quarters in shapes.

Halves and Quarters

For Year 2's this focuses on thirds and quarters. As usual, relate these mathematical concept back to the basic operations of maths - dividing by 3 or by 4. The game below explores finding quarters and three quarters by sharing.

Finding Quarters By Sharing

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

Have a great weekend!

Kind regards

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith

Tulip, Bluebell & Daffodil Blog - Friday 31st January 2025

 Happy Friday, everybody! We have had a wonderful week in Key Stage 1 - we have all enjoyed taste testing different types of chocolate and other ingredients so we can begin to make final decisions about the chocolates we will be making; it's not easy being Mr Wonka! We have also been thinking about how we learn and approach new challenges and how having a "stretchy" brain is good when we learn new things. We have made our own "stretchy hand" flowers to help us remember this as we learn and grow together.

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 36 & 37.

For Year 1's this focuses on halves. It is helpful when discussing fractions to relate it closely to division. So when discussing finding half, relate it to the same as dividing it in 2. The games below explore how to recognise halves in shapes and how you can find half of amounts by sharing.

Half Not Half Game

Find Half By Sharing

For Year 2's this focuses on doubling and halving. As usual, relate these mathematical concept back to the basic operations of maths - doubles as times by 2 and halving as divide by 2. The game below has a mode for finding half and double of different amounts to help develop a rapid recall of these facts.

Hit The Button

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

Have a super weekend!

Best Wishes

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith

Tulip, Bluebell & Daffodil Blog - Friday 24th January 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! We have all survived the wind and the rain and made it to the weekend. Progress in taste testing ingredients for our own chocolates is continuing and is all very exciting! Watch this space! 

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

Just a reminder that as part of our current project we would like to share the 2005 film of "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory" with the children. The film is classified by the BBFC as PG so we are asking for your approval to show the film to your child. If you have any concerns regarding this and you do not want your child to watch the film, please come and see us by Monday.

Reading Comprehension Homework Book

As promised, all your children brought home their reading comprehension books this week. Thank you to those who did complete a page this week but we fully understand this may not have been possible for all of you.

We just work through the book one page at a time. We will not specify which page to do each week, just complete the next page you are up to and hand in all homework books by Wednesday of each week. Please come and see us if you require further advice on this.

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 34 & 35.

For Year 1's this focuses on dividing. This is explored initially as practical sharing equally between 2 people. Begin to explore which numbers can be fairly shared and which leaver an odd one left over. This is good to help your child think about odd and even numbers. 

For Year 2's this also focuses on dividing. As mentioned before, in Year 2 we relate all division calculations back to their multiplication inverse as this is often a more efficient method of solving a calculation.

Both year groups can enhance their knowledge of division through the games below:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/mental-maths-train

https://ictgames.com/mobilePage/doggyDivision/index.html

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. 

Have an amazing weekend!

Best Wishes

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith

Tulip, Bluebell & Daffodil Blog - Friday 17th January 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! We have had a very busy time in our first full week back in Key Stage 1. We have been exploring the genre of explanation texts in English and finding out all about the history of chocolate!

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

As part of our current project we would like to share the 2005 film of "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory" with the children. We use excerpts from the film to help us look at characters in our English work and use many of the scenes to help our descriptive writing and poetry work.

The film is classified by the BBFC as PG so we are asking for your approval to show the film to your child. If you have any concerns regarding this and you do not want your child to watch the film, please come and speak to us. Below is a link to the film's trailer for an idea of the film's tone:

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

Reading Comprehension Homework Book

After a delay from the delivery company (despite being order before Christmas) the reading comprehension books have finally arrived today! Your child will be coming home with this comprehension homework book early next week. Just like with the maths homework book, we ask that you complete one page (double page where the task is spread across 2 pages) and bring the book back to school once completed.

In the blog from 15th November (scroll down to remind yourself of this blog) we spoke in depth about all the key skills involved in comprehension and how reading is more than just mechanically reading the words on the page. The activities in these homework books will help develop these skills. Again, please come and see us if you require further advice on this area.

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 32 & 33.

For Year 1's this focuses on multiplying. The first step in confidence with the times tables is practising counting on in different steps e.g. 2, 4, 6, 8 etc or 10, 20, 30. Grouping objects such as socks or gloves is a good way of showing this in practical terms. Regular practising of counting on in multiples of different numbers will also help - maybe count the steps upstairs but in 10's or 2's instead of 1's?

For Year 2's this also focuses on multiplying. Remember, practicing little and often at times tables facts will help your child gain confidence in this area. We talk about this in class as "squeezing the orange" - the more effort you put in, the more juice you get out!

Both year groups can enhance their knowledge of multiples of different amounts through the game below:

Coconut Multiples Game

The interactive number square below is really good to "paint" the multiples and explore the patterns that they make too:

Paint The Squares

If you have any issues or questions, please, please come and see us at the end of the day - we would love to see you!

Have a relaxing weekend!

Love & joy

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith

Tulip, Bluebell & Daffodil Blog - Friday 10th January 2025

 Happy Friday everybody and a very Happy New Year to you all! It has been lovely to have welcomed all the children back and we have begun work on our new project for the Spring Term - "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory" where we will be exploring all things chocolate!

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 30 & 31.

For Year 1's this focuses on adding and subtracting. The ability to switch between these different operations is very important for the children, so take particular care to look at the sign when solving these calculations to decide which approach to use!

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/addition-and-subtraction

For Year 2's this again focuses on times tables and their related facts. All that we mentioned last time holds true for this week too. Just like reading or riding a bike, practicing little and often at times tables facts will help your child gain confidence in this area.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/number-facts/number-fact-families

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. Keep using the range of questions we have discussed previously as well! All being well, comprehension homework books should be coming home next week.

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!

We hope you enjoy seeing what we have been up to this week in the newsletter. Have a super weekend!

Best wishes

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille, Mrs Holmes & Miss Smith