16th January 2015
Dear Parents,
Welcome back! We have begun our new year by welcoming Mrs Grainger into our class as our new teaching assistant. She
is very excited to be working with your children and will be an asset to our class! Class 1 came back after Christmas talking
about their favourite toys, especially those that they received as Christmas presents. The children had a go at writing a list
of their favourite toys and also had lots to say about their holidays. They enjoyed sharing their Learning Journeys with each
other - thank you for taking the time to add your own comments and pictures to these.
The big excitement from this week was the fact that it snowed and we had we had enough snow outside to go and explore!
We talked lots about the feel of the snow and why it snows, and the children went outside with paint and paint sprayers to
experiment with what happens if you try to paint the snow. They had an amazing time creating their own pictures! We will
continue to make the most of any learning opportunities like this, especially if we get any more snow over the next few
weeks!
Over the last two weeks, the children have been really interested in junk modelling, and have been very busy creating lots of
different models. Several children began making cars, and this sparked off lots more interest with several more special cars,
diggers and motor bikes being independently created by the children. We have therefore decided to base our learning
around journeys and transport to begin this term. Several children have requested that we change our role play into a bus,
train or boat so will begin to think about their ideas and create a role play with lots of input from the children.
The children are particularly interested in boats and using the water tray, so we began this week by reading ‘Mr Gumpy’s
Journey’ by John Burningham. The children have loved the story (especially the part where everyone falls in the water at
the end!) and have joined in with the repeated phrases when retelling the story as a class. They also created a story tray
using props and figures (and more water!), and have been independently retelling the story, and experimenting with floating
and sinking by placing as many characters in the boat as they can before it tips! We are planning to continue with the
interest in boats by looking at different materials and experimenting with which would be the best to use to make a boat and
why, and then junk model our own boats to test out. We hopefully will also work together collaboratively in groups to
make junk model vehicles, looking at the best materials to use and how to make them move using dowels and wheels.
We have also pretended to go on an imaginary journey and we ended up in snowy Antartica! We used all of our senses to
imagine what it would be like there, and the children were very excited and really got into the whole role play and
imaginary idea. We ended up coming across the ice palace from ‘Frozen’! The children then continued this imaginary play
with their own friends, and it was great to hear the language they were using to imagine their journeys and destinations!
If your children have any books – either story books or non-fiction books - that relate to journeys or transport, they are very
welcome to bring them in to share with the class, as well as anything else that they think might be relevant! We would also
love to hear about any special journeys that the children might have made (e.g. going on a special holiday or going to visit
family or friends) so any photos or special keepsakes from the trip would be welcomed for the children to talk about.
In phonics we are now continuing to learn new sounds. Your child will be read with twice a week from now on, and e will
check their high frequency words every other week. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for continued
support of your children when practising phonics and reading at home.
Finally, thank you also for sending in your child’s ‘Wow’ vouchers. They have really enjoyed sharing their achievements at
home with the rest of the class. A new set have been attached to this letter.
Thank you again for your support, and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to come in and see us.
Mrs Sutcliffe and Mrs Grainger