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Ladybirds' Learning - Term 1

Week beginning 18th October 2021

Parents/Carers: We are very much looking forward to you joining us this week for our Phonics Workshops. If you haven't yet signed up, don't worry but do please pop along on either Monday or Tuesday (3pm to 4pm) to find out how you can support your child at home.

Last week in school we got to grips with our knife and fork skills so that we can be as independent as possible when eating in the dining hall. Keep practising those skills at home Ladybirds! 

After sharing the story of the Little Red Hen in our story telling sessions, we enjoyed making our own bread rolls. Kneading, rolling and shaping the dough can be hard work but our efforts were certainly rewarded! How did they taste Ladybirds?

In our Maths sessions this week we tried out lots of activities that helped us to compare different objects by size, mass and capacity. We know how to use the balance pans to help us decide which of two objects is heavier and which is lighter. Look how we got on...

 

**Update Friday 15th October 2021**

Please find this week's Home Learning challenge by clicking on the 'Home Learning' from the right-hand menu.

Week beginning 11th October 2021

Last week we continued with our topic 'Why do spiders spin webs?' We discovered lots of interesting facts about these amazing arachnids. For example did you know...

Spiders have 2 body parts unlike insects which have 3 body parts.

Spiders have 8 legs and 8 eyes (although some spiders have 6 eyes).

Spiders moult. If they lose a leg they can grow a new one back when they next moult.

Baby spiders, called spiderlings, hatch out of eggs.

A wolf spider doesn't spin a web. Instead, it pounces on it's prey!

We put our spider knowledge to good use when creating our own spiders out of playdough. Can you see the two body parts, the eyes, legs, pedipalps and spinnerets?

Our maths sessions this week helped us to compare different amounts. We played lots of games to become familiar with using the words 'more', 'fewer' and 'equal' when comparing quantities.

We learned more letter sounds during our phonic sessions this week. We now know...

s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d,g,o,c,,k,ck,e,u

Have you made your Metal Mike robot yet to help you learn your sounds and tricky words at home? If not please go to the Home Learning pages to find out what to do. Practice makes perfect!

Here is how some of us have been using our phonics in our choosing time...

On Friday we all came to school in yellow as part of the Young Minds Mental Health awareness day. We completed activities throughout the day to help us focus on our feelings and emotions and discover the things we can do to help us keep our minds healthy.

We shared the story 'The Colour Monster' to help us identify the different emotions we all feel at times.

Click on the picture below to share the story at home.

We also shared the story 'Ruby's Worry' where we learned that talking about the things that are worrying or upsetting us is the best thing we can do to make our worries disappear.

Click on the picture below if you want to share the story again...

In Ladybird Class we take time every week to take part in mindfulness activities including yoga and listening to the singing bowl. These activities really help us to calm our emotions.

Today we got physical, completing a fitness workout, as exercise is great for the mind. We also tried out some 'Rainbow Breathing' after lunch.

**Don't forget to sign up for our phonics workshop. Everyone is invited!**

 

 

Week beginning 4th October 2021

**Update: 8th October**

Please find this week's Home Learning Challenge by clicking on the 'Home Learning' link on the right-hand menu.

**Please don't forget to sign up for one of our phonics workshops. Sign-up forms will be on the gate this week. Choose between Monday 18th October 3pm - 4pm or Tuesday 19th October 3pm - 4pm.**

Last week we began to explore this term's curriculum question...

"Why do spiders spin webs?" 

We learned lots of facts about spider webs such as...

* It can take about 3 hours for a spider to spin an average sized web.

* Webs are made from silk that is produced from spinnerets (found at the tip of the spider's abdomen)

* If the spider web is broken, the spider will eat the web to recoup some of the energy lost when making it.

* Not all spiders spin webs in order to catch their prey. Some spiders, like the wolf spider, like to pounce on their prey instead!

We shared the story of 'The Very Busy Spider' by Eric Carle before becoming busy ourselves.  

Phonic sounds learned so far: s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o.

Don't forget to practise your sounds and tricky words each day at home too.

We enjoyed playing the 'Pick a Picture' game on the 'Phonics Play' website. Click on the image below to play it at home. Sound out the letters then blend them together to read the word and find the picture that matches.

By being able to spot the 'rule' for sorting items we can easily tell when something doesn't belong. We can spot the 'odd one out'.

Click on the image below to try the 'Odd one out' game on the CBeebies website. Can you find all the items that don't belong?

Fabulous job Ladybirds!

**Update: Friday 1st October 2021**

This week's home learning challenge can be found by clicking on 'Home Learning' from the menu on the right-hand side.

Week beginning 27th September 2021

Last week we started full time. We certainly had a busy week! 

In our maths sessions we explored repeating patterns. Lots of us became confident in continuing a pattern given to us as well as creating our own patterns...

Last week we also began our daily phonics sessions. Each day we focused on a new letter sound (phoneme)- we began to hear the sound within different words and are becoming more confident in identifying the letter shape (grapheme). We have started to put actions to the letter sounds to help us recall the sounds more easily when we see them.

Letters completed this week: s, a, t, p, i

Although being able to match letter sounds to letter shapes is an important skill, we have been working on another vital skill necessary for reading...blending.

Blending is when we are able to identify words by hearing the individual letter sounds and putting them together. For example, by hearing the individual letter sounds 'd'   'o'   'g' we can blend these sounds together to hear the word 'dog'. It is not always an easy skill to master so we have been playing a couple of phonic games that will help us...

Our journey to reading success has definitely begun!

**Update: Friday 24th September**

Please find this week's home learning challenge by clicking on the 'Home Learning' link on the right-hand menu.

Week beginning 20th September 2021

We have really begun to settle into school life at All Souls'. Lots of us are showing independence in organising ourselves, at the beginning and end of the day, and we are becoming very familiar with the morning routines. Last week, for our group activity, we thought about our families and the things we enjoy doing together.

Here are a few of our super drawings...

 

 

On Friday we brought home our 'I can at home' book. These books are to record how we get on with our Home Learning challenges.

Parents/ Carers: The weekly challenges can be found by clicking on 'Home Learning' from the right-hand side menu.

Week beginning 13th September 2021

Last week was our first week at All Souls. It was certainly a busy week and by Friday there were a few of us who were looking a little weary! It was not surprising really, as there was a lot to take in; a new environment, new faces and new routines.

Take a look...

We even began taking part in group activities...

We also explored our feelings this week as starting school can be a little scary! We learned some Makaton signing to help us show our feelings.

If you want to try these at home why not check out the following YouTube clip from 'Singing Hands'. Just click on the picture below...

We also discussed activities that we can do when we feel angry or frustrated in class such as trying out some slow breathing or taking time out in our calm corner. We took part in a yoga session with 'Moovlee Monkey' and found that this was another great way to help calm us down. Click on the picture below to join in with Moovlee Monkey too...

What a great first week Ladybirds! I wonder just what we will get up to this week?

Week beginning 6th September 2021

Hello to all our Ladybirds! We really enjoyed getting to know you during our play afternoons last week and we hope you had fun meeting up with some new ladybird friends too.

Parents/ Carers: Check back here later this week to see how well our new ladybirds are settling in and find out just what we have been up to!