In other news we went on an adventure with a little boy and his new penguin friend through the beautiful story 'Lost and Found 'We explored new vocabulary such as confused, accompany, dejected and misplaced. We learnt the meaning of the words and enjoyed saying them. We drew characters and pictures that built upon the story and we added text for our 'magic mark' to make something wonderful happen to our pictures! 

As artists we have been painting pictures on foil and some of the children enjoyed making prints by pressing paper on their paintings. We have also begun our Arctic Animal Newspaper Head project inspired by the incredible work of textile and graphic artist Sharon Gale and we will continue to work on these for the next couple of weeks. 

As Musicians, we continued to build confidence to sing solo parts in songs and enjoyed keeping the pulse when playing the drum. 

As Mathematicians we have been subitising amounts to 5 and talking about what we can see when looking at amounts on a 10 frame. We also have used 10 frames and counters when voting for the daily story book which has helped us to know which was the the winning book. We have focused on zero and developed a deep understanding of what zero means and had fun recognising when there were zero or not zero amounts on different pictures. 

On Thursday we had a little visitor to our classroom who arrived with a suitcase! It was a little penguin called Pip-Pip. He came with a challenge for the children to write about his favourite TV character Pingu. Pingu said that if they all completed the challenge, he would reward them with a sweet treat! On Friday afternoon the children discovered that Pip- Pip had generously left them some Penguin Chocolate bars for their hard work. The teachers were very proud of their efforts and can see what wonderful writers they are becoming. 

We have also been focusing on handwriting and ensuring the children form each letter correctly using the Read Write Inc handwriting Phrases. If your child is practising writing at home please support them to write each letter correctly. 

In our Poetry Basket session we learnt a fun poem called 'Popcorn'  Ask your child if they can recite the poem to you at home. 

In Topic, the children talked about winter and the types of clothing needed to stay warm. They learnt about some of the clothing scientists and explorers in Antarctica have to wear to protect them in the freezing climate. We talked about Hibernation and looked at which animals in the UK hibernate. 

This week was Lunar New Year. The children learnt about how this festival is celebrated and listened to a musical version of the 'Great Race' Story. We hope the children liked their Fortune Cookies! 

Next week we will be watching real-life penguins on Penguin Cams from Zoos across the world. We will be recalling and writing facts about Polar Bears and Penguins. 

We will be learning how to stay safe online with 'Smartie the Penguin' when we are using smart devices at home and thinking about sensible amounts of screen time. 

We will be learning how Penguin's feathers are waterproof and participating in a waterproof experiment. 

Coming Up...

Parent Meetings Wednesday 12th February 3.15- 6.15- a sign up sheet will be available with your child's teacher next week. 

Mother's Day Tea for all significant females Friday 28th March 1.30pm in School- please join us for coffee, tea, cake and musical entertainment.