This week we have been learning about what life is like on the farm and Easter!
We started the week listening to the story ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’. We have learnt to name and sign different farm animals and where they live, we have learnt about different jobs a farmer has and the various farm vehicles that help a farmer to do their job! Our Talk through Stories this week was “Farmer Duck” and we have enjoyed joining in with repeated and favourite phrases!
Our learning activities this week have included; writing about what we see on the farm, colouring and writing Easter cards, creating split pin eggs with chicks inside, painting pictures of daffodils, Easter jigsaws and practising our cutting skills to cut the animals out and stick them in their correct home. We have also enjoyed creating stories with the farm small world animals and listening to lots of different stories about farm animals!

Reception have continued to access appropriate RWI groups. It has also been lovely to see so many children using their Fred Fingers to label their drawings and to write in Easter cards. 
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​In Literacy, Year 1 have continued with our SPaG starter of handwriting, speed write, writing with Fred Fingers and red words, including writing the days of the week. Within our main teaching, we learned about the prefix un-. We know this means “not” and changes a word to its opposite meaning. We have practised adding un- to words and have written sentences through Hold a Sentence and Build a Sentence activities

In Maths, Reception verbally counted to 20, identified one more than a given number, compared amounts, recalled number bonds to 5, some number bonds to 10, and double facts, and have started to explore 3D shapes. We learned to identify a cube, sphere, cylinder and cone. 

Year 1's ​have worked out the missing part of a subtraction story and equation and explained that addition and subtraction are opposites of each other. We know these are called inverse operations. 

​In Science, we found out about and described the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival. We know these are air, water and food. We know air is needed to breathe, water keeps us hydrated, and food gives us energy. 

​In RE, we have learned about the Easter story and discussed the different ways in which Christians celebrate Easter. 

This week we have continued to observe how the chicks grow and develop, and we have been brave enough to hold them — what a fabulous learning experience this has been for all our children!

On Monday we could see white feathers under where the wings were trying to develop and we could see some chicks trying to flap.

On Wednesday, ​we brought the brooder box into our classroom. We got to gently stroke the chicks and then carefully held them! We watched the chick on the carpet trying to flap its wings! The fur on the chicks was so soft!

On Thursday, we ​brought the brooder box into our classroom again today so we could hold the chicks. The chicks appeared a bit bigger than yesterday and we could see their tails forming at the back. The chicks were so calm in our hands and enjoyed waddling on our carpet!

This week our learning focused on 'What is it like under the sea?. We started the week listening to the story ‘Commotion in the Ocean’. We have learned the names of different sea creatures and the Makaton signs for; crab, dolphin, fish, seahorse, whale and shark! Our Reception children have learnt some interesting facts about sea creatures’ habitats and diet! In our Talk through Stories we have listened to and learnt favourite phrases from ‘Tiddler’ – we are amazing at joining in with the story. Our provision activities have included; painting under the sea scenes, making paper plate creatures, practising our scissor skills to make sea creatures and writing captions to match pictures!

Reception continue to access appropriate RWI groups and love to show our skills in the reading corner and writing area.  Team EO love to read in our cosy reading area!

Year 1 continue to access our appropriate RWI groups – we have been assessed this week by Miss McGinnes ready for regrouping. In Literacy, we have continued with our SPaG starter of handwriting, speed write, writing with Fred Fingers and red words. We have finished our simple past tense retell of Lost and Found and have been focusing on learning how to spell the days of the week using red rhythms and practising using these in sentences. Please practise spelling the days of the week with your child at home! 

In Maths, Reception recapped the numbers 6 to 9 using the ‘5 and a bit’ structure and revisited that 10 can be composed of 5 and 5. We explored different ways that 10 can be composed of two parts and represented this using dice frames and finger patterns. We also used structured arrangements to find missing parts of 10 and identified pairs of numbers that make 10 in unstructured arrangements. 
Here we are using double-sided counters and dice frames to explore the composition of 10 through a game of "10 sizzling sausages"!

In Maths, Year 1's represented ‘first, then, now’ stories with subtraction equations, made addition and subtraction stories and wrote matching equations. We also worked out the missing part of addition and subtraction stories and equations. 

In One Life, we spoke about how we are all different and that we are all equal.
​In History, we explored how London changed after the fire. We discussed the problems that caused the fire to spread, such as houses being built from wood, houses being close together, streets being narrow, and there being limited firefighting equipment. We also explored the changes that happened after the fire, including new rules about the shape of houses, houses being built mainly from brick, wider streets, and improved access to firefighting equipment in each parish. 
​On Wednesday, we visited the nature reserve to enjoy the spring sunshine and observe how the plants had changed since our last visit. We noticed that the daffodil flowerheads had opened!

In PE, we concluded our Games unit of learning on football. In this weeks lesson we continued to work on our dribbling skills and keeping the ball under control with small gentle touches, passing skills (we remembered to use the inside of our foot to pass and to put our foot on top of the ball to stop it) and shooting skills!

On Monday, our chick eggs arrived, and we have enjoyed visiting them daily to see how they have changed. This will be our Science enquiry this half-term, focusing on observation over time. 

On Monday we enjoyed looking at them carefully, talking about what they could see and predicting when we thought the chicks would hatch out!

On Tuesday, we observed a small white scratch on one of the eggs.

On Wednesday morning when we went to visit 2 of the eggs had little cracks and we learnt the word “pipping” and talked about how the chick uses its beak to peck out of the egg. 

By the time we went to visit on Thursday morning, 7 chicks had hatched!!

On Friday, we were so excited to discover that all ten chicks have hatched! We have 5 male and 5 female chicks. Today we have moved them from the incubator into the brooder box and the children have enjoyed watching them eating and drinking for the first time. ​

This week our learning has been based around ‘Wild Animals’. We started the week carefully listening to the story ‘Rumble in the Jungle’. We said that the wild animals wouldn’t make good pets and may be quite dangerous! On Tuesday, we listened to the story ‘Dear Zoo’ following on from this we made a class ‘Dear Zoo’ book! Each child worked hard to draw a picture of their chosen wild animal, used there Fred Fingers to write the name of the animal and what was wrong with it!
Our provision learning activities have included; using the wild animals and small world resources to make a zoo, sorting two groups of animals into their habitat (farm and jungle), painting pictures of animals from the story and creating junk modelled animals! In our funky fingers area, we have been focusing on scissor skills as we have been cutting out spiral animals and their features before sticking the features in the correct place!

​Our Talk Through Stories unit was Where the Wild Things Are. We joined in with favourite phrases and took on the role of the ‘wild things’ during freeze-frame feelings for the following situations:

• Max arrives on his private boat (terrifying/fearsome)
• Max tames you with a magic trick (shocked/stunned)
• Max gives up being king of where the wild things are (upset/despairing)

Reception​ continue to access our appropriate RWI groups. 

Our Year 1's continue to access our appropriate RWI groups. In Literacy, we have continued with our SPaG starter of handwriting, speed write, writing with Fred Fingers and red words. We have also been practising writing the day of the week. We have started our next Talk for Writing unit on the story Lost and Found. We have written sentences about the character and the setting and have tried to include the conjunction ‘and’ in our writing. We created a class story map, which we used to start our simple past tense retell on Thursday, and we will finish this on Monday. 

In Maths, Reception recapped that there are five fingers on one hand and consolidated our use of finger patterns to represent the composition of 5. We identified a missing part of 5 and recognised when a set of objects showed 5 or not 5, explaining how we knew. We also identified that 6 can be composed of 5 and 1, that 7 can be composed of 5 and 2, and represented the numbers 6–9 on our fingers using ‘5 and a bit’. 

Year 1's have added parts to find the value of the whole and wrote the equation. We found the missing addend, created subtraction stories and wrote matching equations, and represented ‘first, then, now’ stories using addition equations

In One Life, we continued learning about compassion and listened to the story We Are One.

​In Science, we learned that all animals grow and change in a pattern called a life cycle. We explored the life cycles of humans, butterflies, chickens and frogs.

In PE, we continued to develop our football skills. We warmed up  by practising our dribbling skills and then we practised shooting the ball into a goal! We know to place our weaker foot behind the ball and to strike the ball with the side of the foot. We know we have to position our weight on top of the ball and swing our arms to generate power and ensure we are looking at the target.

Our Year 1 children have been working very hard with Mrs Fitchett on a Thursday morning on their DT learning! 
So far this half-term, the children have designed a puppet linked to a traditional tale. The children have thought carefully about what the character looks like, what colour material they will need to use and what features the character will need - eyes, nose, mouth etc. 
The children have been working in small groups with Mrs Fitchett to make and join the fabrics together needed for their puppet! The children and Mrs Fitchett have discussed and trialled different techniques for joining the fabric together such as safety pins and a staples and have said that the glue is best for adding the features!

On Thursday, we celebrated World Book Day. Children and staff were invited to school dressed as a character from a story and we spent the day celebrating all things books and reading! We had some amazing outfits and children were confident talking about their character and the story.
Like on Bedtime story day, Miss Hodgson and Miss Gledhill created a reading den at the back of our class which we enjoyed snuggling up in to share our stories together. 
We had a lovely day sharing some of the stories that you brought in from home and a massive thank you to Miss Clementson who came through to share one of her favourite stories with us!

This week, we have been learning about the Arctic. We know that penguins are found in Antarctica, not the Arctic. We know that the Arctic is in the far north and that the North Pole is in the Arctic. We discussed what the weather is like in the Arctic and learned the names of different Arctic animals, such as polar bears, Arctic hares, Arctic foxes, snowy owls, reindeer, seals, walruses and huskies. Our Talk Through Stories unit was Lost and Found. We discussed how this story is set in Antarctica (the South Pole). We listened carefully to the story, joined in with favourite phrases and carried out freeze-frame feelings after taking on the role of the boy.  Below you will see our expressions for the following situations:

• ​The penguin turns up at your door. (surprised/speechless)
  
• You arrive at the South Pole. (delighted/cheerful)
  
• The penguin is nowhere to be found. (disappointed/miserable)
  

Our provision activities have included; using water colours to paint Arctic landscapes, creating igloos, writing about what we can see in the Arctic and in the funky fingers area we have been making patterns using loose parts on a snowflake! 

Reception have continued to access appropriate RWI groups. 

​Year 1 have continued to access appropriate RWI groups. In Literacy, we have continued with our SPAG starter and over the course of the week we have written our simple past tense retell of ‘Billy and the Beast’ using our story map. We have also been practising spelling the days of the week and writing these in sentences. 

In Maths, Reception visualised and described spatial arrangements of 6, practised subitising 6, made our own patterns of 6, listened to rhythmic patterns of up to five sounds and determined the quantity, recognised Numberblocks and related double patterns, and subitised double amounts shown on ten-frames. We have also learnt about AAB and ABB patterns - we looked at extending and creating these types of patterns using counters. 
Here we are using counters/objects to make patterns of 6 and our own AAB/ABB patterns:

In Maths, Year 1 have combined two parts to make a whole and written expressions, learned that addends can be represented in any order and learned that the = sign can be used to show that the whole and the sum of the parts are equal.

​In One Life, we continued to focus on compassion and know that we need to build compassion for others, starting with kindness. We discussed how we can show kindness at school and at home. 

​In History, we explored how we know about the Great Fire of London. We learned what an eyewitness is, explored historical sources, and discussed which were helpful or not helpful and why. 

​On Wednesday, we learned about spring. We learned the three spring months, discussed how we get more daylight hours, and talked about how the weather and plants change. In the afternoon, we went on a Welly Walk, where we explored the nature reserve looking for signs of spring. We saw blossom on trees, buds on branches, crocuses, daffodils beginning to open, a squirrel and a bird’s nest. We are looking forward to seeing how these change when we go back down.

In PE, we continued our Games 4 unit of learning. To warm-up we recapped and practised our dribbling skills. We know to use small touches of the ball to keep the ball close to the body, using inside of the foot. 
​We then looked at passing and stopping the ball. We learnt to use the inside of the foot to pass the ball and to look up at target that is being aimed for. We learnt to ensure the ball is firmly stopped we need to use the sole of the foot.

Again, lots of children stood out for their impressive passing and stopping skills. We may have some future footballers in the making!

Wow! It has been a busy yet amazing first week back, filled with lots of lovely independent and adult-led learning. Team EO came back with beautiful smiles on Tuesday morning, which was lovely to see, and were ready for their next learning adventure.
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We have begun our new topic, Amazing Animals. Our theme this week was Pets. We started by listening carefully to the story Tabby McTat by Julia Donaldson. We explored which animals we could own as pets, such as cats, dogs, rabbits, lizards, tortoises, horses, guinea pigs, hamsters, snakes and fish. We discussed what we need to do to care for a pet and concluded that pets need a loving home, a safe space to live, water and appropriate food. We also spoke about how certain foods can make animals poorly. 

Our learning activities have included; drawing a picture about a pet they have at home and we have been writing sentences about our pets! Children have been completing graphs to show what their friends favourite pet is out of a dog, cat, rabbit, fish and bird! In the creative area, we have been practising our careful cutting skills to cut out the body parts of animals then using split pins to join the parts together. For our funky finger activity, we have been placing stickers along the outline of a shape! 

Reception have begun accessing our new RWI groups, appropriate to their stage of development, and we are really proud of the progress the children are making on their reading journey. We are encouraging children to write simple captions and phrases when accessing provision.

Year 1 ​have continued accessing appropriate RWI groups. In Literacy, we continued with our SPAG starter of handwriting, spelling with Fred Fingers and spelling red words. Within our main teaching, we have begun our Talk for Writing unit based on the story Billy and the Beast. We have written sentences about the character and the setting and worked together to create a story map. Within our writing, we are placing a strong focus on ensuring all letters are formed correctly. 

In Maths, Reception counted things that cannot be seen (such as sounds), revisited the rules for counting, practised strategies for counting larger sets, counted larger sets by moving objects, made our own collections of larger amounts, and practised counting on from a given number. 
Here we are making a collection of 20 objects!

​In Maths, Year 1 partitioned the numbers 6 and 7, as well as 8 and 9, and identified a missing part when a whole is partitioned into two parts. In our Mastering Number sessions, we have begun looking at ‘first, then and now’ to enact simple addition and subtraction number stories. 

In One Life, we began exploring what compassion is and discussed how self-compassion supports our mental health. We know that, to show self-compassion, we need to find our inner cheerleader. 

​In Science, we looked at how animals, including humans, have offspring that grow into adults. We know that animals grow and change over time. We named animals and their offspring by identifying them in photos and learned about animals that hatch from eggs and animals that have live young. 
Here are some of our Y1's identifying adult animals and matching them to their offspring!

In PE, we began our next unit of learning 'Games 4'. Within this unit we will develop and apply key game skills to football and rugby. In football, we will learn the basic kicks and passes.

This week we practised our dribbling skills, we know that we have to do small gentle touches with our feet to keep the ball under control. We played lots of different games to practise this skill. We also completed our personal best activity 'narrow shot' where we had to shoot the ball in between a pair of cones and retrieve it as many times as we could within one minute! Lots of the Sunshines stood out for their impressive dribbling skills - keep it up Sunshines!

On Thursday, we celebrated Lunar New Year! Children were invited to school wearing red. The children learnt on Wednesday that this celebration is observed by different cultures and religions, that it does not have a fixed date but takes place in January or February each year, and that people wear red because they believe it brings good luck.
We learnt about the Chinese zodiac and know that each year, in a cycle of 12, is named after an animal. We tried some prawn crackers at snack time and they were delicious as you can see by our big smiles and thumbs up!