Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - Friday 24th May 2024

 Happy Friday, everybody! Phew - another half term done and the children have all worked extremely hard at all the learning opportunities presented to them in the last 6 weeks. It has been lovely to see everyone taking a keen interest in the work we have done as part of our "At The Seaside" project - be it finding out about our common seaside birds and animals or finding out more about geographical features of coastal locations.

After half term we will be looking more closely at how seaside holiday have changed over the last 200 years.

Essex Bioblitz 2024

Need something to do to get you out and about over the half-term holiday?  Find details of Essex Bioblitz 2024 in this week's newsletter. Join in and you can help The Essex Wildlife Trust better understand the effects of climate change in our local environment, working towards Global Goal number 13; Climate Action.

RRS:  Every child has the right to clean water, nutritious food and a clean and safe environment.

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

Have a wonderfully relaxing break!

Much love

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille & Miss Smith

Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - Friday 17th May 2024

 Happy Friday, everybody! We have been busy this week in Key Stage 1 where we are beginning to look more closely at the parts that make up a story in English and exploring the animals of the sea in science! It is becoming increasingly summery so please can you ensure that names are on school jumpers as we are getting large piles to sort through at the end of the day and without names this can be problematic!

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 54 & 55.

For both Year Groups, this is looking at the area of time.

For Year 1's this looks at days of the week and months of the year.. Being able to sequence the days of the week and the months of the year is an important area in time and underpin all the later work that we do going into Year 2. Think about the different things you do on certain days and the key events of the year and in which month they happen.

Months Game 1

Months Game 2

For Year 2's this looks at reading the time on analogue clocks. Read carefully through the page which explains this concept and be patient - time can be a very challenging area of the maths curriculum! There are lots of time games on the link below to help practice your clock reading skills:

Time Games

Reading Books

Please remember that we swap reading books every Friday so it is very important that your child has this book in school everyday but particularly Friday!

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 fantastic weekend!

Best wishes

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille & Miss Smith

Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - Friday 10th May 2024

 Happy Friday, everybody! It has been a short but very busy week this week and we have all been busy writing stories about being shipwrecked at sea! We have also been making progress in our seaside sculptures in art - look out in the next few weeks in the newsletter for photos of all our artistic endeavours! 

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 52 & 53.

For Year 1's this looks at money. The use of coins in shopping is becoming less and less common in our everyday lives but it is still part of the curriculum for the children to recognise the different coins we have and use different combinations of coins to make amounts. Dig out your change drawer and practise making amounts and counting money. There are lots of games in the link below that support the concepts of money in Key Stage 1.

For Year 2's this continue to look at money. Again, keep exploring this concept practically using real coins but also using the games featured in the link below:

Money Games

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 - we would love to see you!

Have a lovely weekend!

Best wishes

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille & Miss Smith

Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - Friday 3rd May 2024

  Happy Friday, everybody! Another week has flown by in Key Stage 1 and as Spring begins to finally decide to arrive we have been enjoying working on rockpool reports and learning all about the different animals that we can find in amongst the rocks at the seaside!

Message From Mrs Hurley

(Although this message relates to a course about maths in Key Stage 2, there may be parents who are interested for future reference).

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

KEY STAGE 2 10th, 17th & 24th May

Are you someone who feels they need some support with maths? Perhaps your own experience in school wasn’t a good one. Well fear not, we have the solution to this!

Multiply courses are free and fully funded by Essex County Council as part of their Multiply Maths programme.

Each course is 10 guided learning hours, 6 hours face-to-face in school, 4 hours of activities to try in between sessions and ongoing. The ideal group size is between 8-12 parents per session. There is a link below for you to register your interest.

Maths Course

A £10 Amazon voucher will be awarded to each parent who completes the course.

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 50 & 51.

For Year 1's this continues to focus on volume. Continue to try some of the practical activities discussed last week - 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 money. The use of coins in shopping is becoming less and less common in our everyday lives but it is still part of the curriculum for the children to recognise the different coins we have and use different combinations of coins to make amounts. Dig out your change drawer and practise making amounts and counting money or bribe incentivise your child to do jobs around the house for a set "wage." Below is a link to lots of games that support the concepts of money in Key Stage 1:

Money Games

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 - we would love to see you!

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend!

Best wishes

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille & Miss Smith

Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - Friday 26th April 2024

  Happy Friday, everybody! We are now fully in the swing of our new project "At The Seaside" where we have been learning about rockpools and the different features of the seashore. We are looking forward to finding out even more as this term progresses!

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

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 lovely weekend!

Best wishes

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille & Miss Smith

Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - Friday 19th April 2024

 Happy Friday, everybody, and welcome back to the Summer Term! We started this term with World Art Day on Monday and had an amazing day of lots of different art activities. Please be sure to check this week's newsletter to see what was going on.

New Reading Scheme

Today your child will be bringing home their new reading book from our new Anima Phonics reading scheme. These books are closely matched to our teaching of phonics and all the books are fully decodable which will help the children practise their phonics skills at home. Please read these books little and often at home during next week and record their progress in their reading diary as normal. Please do not be concerned if initially the books seem easier/harder than the books your child used to come home with as it may take a couple of weeks to fully establish the correct pitch as we introduce this new scheme to the school.

As the children will be reading these books in school as well as at home, can you ensure that the book remains in their bag every day, especially on Friday when we collect the books in and give the children their new book. 

New Spelling Scheme

Anima Phonics also provide a spelling scheme to go alongside the reading books so in order to be fully consistent, we will be moving to this scheme this week as well. Along with their new reading book, the children will bring home a spelling sheet of words to be practised throughout next week. Please use the sheet to practise on and bring it back into school with the other homework books. We will test the children on their spelling each Friday and issue them with a new set of words to work on.

Key Stage 1 Email

Just a reminder that the KS1 email account is now closed so any emails sent to this will not be seen. If you need to contact us for any purpose please either see us at the end of the day or use Class Dojo. If there is a change of collection arrangements during the day, please still contact the office.

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.

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 lovely weekend!

Best wishes

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille & Miss Smith

Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - Thursday 28th March 2024

 Happy Thursday, 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 - "At The Seaside!" Have a look at our knowledge organiser to see the areas we will be covering in the Summer Term:

At The Seaside

Key Stage 1 Email

The KS1 email account will be closed as of today and will no longer be monitored. If you need to contact us for any purpose please either see us at the end of the day or use Class Dojo. If there is a change of collection arrangements during the day, please still contact the office.

New Reading Scheme

As mentioned in our Class Dojo announcement, we have collected in everyone's reading book this week to make way for the new reading scheme we are using after Easter in EYFS and Key Stage 1. The children will have a book which they will use in Guided Reading during the first week back and then on Friday 19th April, they will be bringing this book home as their home reading book. We will also be looking to align our spellings to this new scheme too so we will give you details of this in the first blog back after Easter.

Art Day

Our first day back after the holidays, Monday 15th April, is a special Art Day! On this day, the children will be taking part in a wide range of artistic activities. All the children will not be wearing normal school uniform but some old clothes that you do not mind getting a bit messy! Key Stage 1 will still be doing PE on this day so if they wear comfy clothes that will still be suitable for PE this will be great!

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 & Miss Smith