YEAR 1

The children had demonstrated tremendous adaptability as they embarked on their first week of the Spring Term. Happy to be back at school with their friends and motivated to learn, Year 1 have had a very busy and productive week. Having two teachers who think alike, in addition to the wonderful Ms Natalia, the children are benefitting greatly! Miss Keely is already a firm favourite with the class. Technology has also allowed us to connect with Yuwa in Japan so that he can join in with our lessons each day.

The new topic, World Travel, elicited some tremendous discussions this week and has inspired our creative Year 1 learners to launch the topic by investigating sea transport and pirates. The children have decided to transform the role-play area into a pirate galleon and have been busy discussing ideas, making plans and gathering resources; I cannot wait to see it when it is complete.

The theme of pirates led to our Talk for Writing sessions taking on the same theme with the focus story being, Sayeeda the Pirate Princess. The children enjoyed listening to the story and have made and labelled story maps and used their maps to help them to retell the story. They all did such a wonderful job! The children also illustrated their favourite part of the story and explained what made their chosen part of the story so enjoyable and memorable. They ended the week, gathering props and acting out the story; they were, of course, magnificent.

In Mathematics this week we have been focusing on subtraction from 10, 20 and 100. The children have learnt to use several strategies to solve number problems, including using a number line to count backwards, using fingers or cubes to take away a smaller number from a bigger number and even learning how to use a 100 number square to take away multiples of ten. It has been impressive to watch the children in action.

Our Science topic this term is, Animals. We began this week by finding out about nocturnal animals which led to the children asking some fascinating questions: Do bats really drink blood? (Max); why are foxes brown? (Keisuke); why do some birds like owls eat mice? (Anatoly); why do foxes have long tails? (Ulyana) and why do spiders have eight legs? (Allen). They are working hard together to find out the answers to these thought provoking questions.

We have also started a Year 1 Poetry Project in response to the theme of ‘Pirates’. Every day this week, we have been working on our class creative project in the ‘Creative Lab’. It’s been great fun. The children have really impressed me with their questions, imagination, listening and literacy skills! Stage 1 of the project involved listening to a poem called ‘Mrs. Pirate’ by Nick Sharratt and drawing what they could hear line by line, without showing anyone else. Everybody had a completely differently picture that complemented the poem and enthusiastically guessed which picture belonged to who, through a descriptive guessing game. Stage two involved imagining that they had a magic treasure chest like a pirate, after seeing a box of my favourite treasures. The children drew and wrote five of their favourite treasures, as enjoyable phonics practice. Stage 3 involved bringing in one of those favourite treasures into school and doing a ‘Show and Tell’ class discussion. I am thoroughly enjoying working with your very bright, creative and fascinating children. Thank you very much parents! (Miss Keely)

It has certainly been a very interesting week in Year 1!

YEAR 2

Dear Parents,

Welcome back! We hope your holiday was restful, peaceful, and full of hope and cheer for the New Year.

This week was busy as we settled back into school routine. Our class welcomed a new student from Ireland; the class was thrilled to meet a new friend, and the children were eager to help make her transition into our school, enjoyable. Year 2 is such a great group to be part of!

In English, guided reading started with a story on The Year of the Ox. Spelling included the 12 months of the year. Cursive writing was also introduced.

In Math, we started with addition and subtraction, as well as skip counting to help transition into Multiplication concepts and practice.

In Science, students have begun learning about various animal habitats, starting with Polar animals.