We have had another very busy week.  Foxes wrote an independent non chronological report based on the Battle of Britain which included all their previous learning.   We are now starting to look at the famous novel by 

C S Lewis, ‘The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.’  Foxes have begun to write incredible descriptions about what Lucy saw as she entered the magical wonderland of Narnia.  We have included noun phrases, similes and even a splash of personification for good measure. 

Our Topic lessons took a turn this week as we asked the question – What if Germany had gained air supremacy and invaded Britain? The children debated this in groups and there were some interesting thoughts.

In maths, some year groups are continuing to grapple with the concept of a written algorithm for addition.  There has been a lot of resilience and reflection needed this week.  

The Foxes have pulled out all the stops when it comes to memory because they have blown us away during song and script practice for our nativity.  Talking of wind, we have seen a blustery end to the week but this did not deter anyone from their outdoor PE session.  It can be tricky to throw a discus when the wind wants to return it like a frisbee. 

Our homework is showing some excellent handwriting across the year groups. 

Otter class have had another brilliant week and have been working super hard practising songs for our Christmas performance. 

In our English we have been looking at ‘Lost and Found’ which tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a little boy and a penguin. We all had a go at sketching a penguin before writing some descriptive sentences to tell the reader what features penguins have. Year 1 and 2 have shared some fantastic ideas during our sentence stack lessons, and have been working really hard on their handwriting and presentation. Reception children have also been trying really hard in phonics to master ‘th’ ‘sh’ ‘ch’ and ‘ng’. 

In our Maths, we have been working on comparing and applying our addition and subtraction learning. Year 1 and 2 have been having a go at coming up with their own comparison statements and have been working collaboratively to solve these. Reception children have been focussing on mastering their numbers to 5 and have been doing lots of practical activities to support their number recognition and formation. 

In our Topic this week we have been focussing on Geography and have been looking at navigation- making links to our work on Amelia Earhart. We have been using our knowledge of the 7 continents and 5 oceans to have a go at plotting Amelia Earhart’s flight path!

With winter drawing near, we’ve started to think about what the wildlife around us might be doing to prepare for the cold weather ahead.  We learned a new word ‘hibernation’ and thought about how we can help our animal friends, particularly hedgehogs.  With the help of some brilliant books from the Norfolk library service (we now have our own library card as part of the Bookstart scheme) we discovered what materials hedgehogs use to make their cosy winter beds and foraged for moss, leaves and bendy twigs.  

To help the hungry birds, we made apple bird feeders.  It was fiddly to push the sunflower seeds into the apples but worth persevering.  

To provide more shelter and food for our animal neighbours in the years to come, we planted trees from The Woodland Trust in our wild area.  A special thank you to our parent volunteer team who shared their knowledge, tools and enthusiasm. Not forgetting the tiny creatures that are food for bigger animals, we created bug hotels reusing tin cans from the recycling bin.  We measured and cut the dried stems of our sunflower plants to make cosy spaces for bugs to rest in over winter.

The Fox class has been buzzing this week with the excitement of production fever.  The playground has become their stage as many of the cast started to learn their parts this week.  They have even made suggestive adaptations which just proves how committed they are to its success.  The corridors have echoed sounds of singing practice, for not only the play, but the upcoming carols on Horning’s Green for the lighting of the ‘C’ tree.  

The children have managed to squeeze all this in between their normal learning week in which they have continued to work on their non chronological reports.   We have focused our attention on the important task of note taking and how to turn these into sentences and then paragraphs.  This is not an easy feat but there has been some fantastic writing to celebrate. 

In topic, we have researched the effects of Operation Sea Lion and how this changed the cause of the war.  

Maths has delved into the many different strategies we can use depending on the calculation presented to us.  The children have focused on what they notice about a question.  This has led to fantastic discussions around the possible ways to solve them.  

There were lots of teddy bears and cuddly toys who joined the class on Friday for our Children in Need day.  They were dressed in costumes designed by the children and these all linked with our Battle of Britain theme.  There were pilots, evacuees and home guards to name a few.  What a packed week it has been!

Otter class had a brilliant week and we have all been working very hard! 

In our English lessons we have continued to sentence stack for our Amelia Earhart biography. The children have been really interested in learning about her life and came up with some fantastic questions when we were hot-seating during our Topic lesson earlier in the week. 

In our Maths this week we have been continuing to apply our addition and subtraction learning and Year 1 and 2 have been having a go at multi-step word problems. They even came up with some of their own, which we then worked on together to solve. 

Reception children have been working super hard with their funky fingers activities 

and have been using lots of fine motor skills including brick modelling, 

cutting, pattern tracing, and they have also been trying really hard in phonics to master ‘z’ ‘zz’ ‘y’ and ‘qu On Friday we celebrated Children in Need and had lots of cuddly teddy bears dressed as pilots join our class. The teddies costumes were super impressive, well done all! We also helped Fox class with their community cafe by having a go at making some delicious soup- Leek and potato and carrot & coriander, yum!

This week we blended World Nursery Rhyme Week with our school maths focus, enjoying counting rhymes and games.  It was a great opportunity to introduce our children to their Bookstart gift packs which include engaging books, action rhymes and ideas for activities you can do together at home to develop a love of reading.  Here we are playing Musical Bananas. We explored our wild area for natural treasures to put into counting trays.  When we talked about our collections, we used lots of maths words like ‘more’ and ‘altogether’. To celebrate Children in Need we worked together to make Pudsey Bear out of autumn leaves.  Fantastic teamwork Hedgehogs!