This week we started our new topic 'Frozen Worlds' Across the term the children will be learning about some of the coldest places on earth, discovering facts about polar animals and their habitats, locating these cold places on a world map, and finding out what makes these places unique.  

We will also be delving into some wonderful stories that feature polar animals and learning to tell some winter-themed poems. 

Our story focus this week was 'Be Brave Little Penguin' all about a Penguin who to begin with was afraid of entering the icy water but with encouragement from his mother decided to make a brave leap into the water and discovered how much fun being in the water could be. The children created some wonderful drawings of the main Character PiP-PiP and they imagined what he might see under the water and where he might go if he could fly. We have been supporting the children to write words and captions to accompany their drawings to help them make progress with their phonics and writing. 

Before Christmas, we assessed all the children in Phonics. Some children have moved to a new phonics group with a different teacher according to their ability. Some children may come home with a book bag reading book as well as their Oxford Owl Reading book, so please check book bags and support your child to read to you at home and practise reading their sounds. Books will be changed each Monday. 

In Maths we have been ordering numbers and comparing amounts to 5. With the help of 'Molly The Monster' we have been identifying one more and one less from a group of objects and we enjoyed listening to the story 'Monster Wants One More' We have begun to halve numbers to 10 and recall the doubling facts to 10. 

In Topic, we learned about Penguins through the Frozen Planet Snow Babies series. Afterwards we talked about the place where the penguins live and What the penguins do to keep warm.  

In PE we we created snow dances and outside we have enjoyed going on ice hunts around our garden and finding lots of frozen items! 

Next week we will continue with our 'Frozen Worlds' Topic. We will be focusing on the brilliant book by David Walliams called 'Geronimo' We will be investigating ice and thinking about haw we can keep warm in winter. 

A polite reminder to be on time for school. It is very disruptive when children arrive after the gates have been closed. 

Have a great weekend

The Coral Reef Team.