Micro habitats and mini beasts!
The marvellous Meerkats have had their first full week in class and what a busy and fun week we have had growing our brains and learning lots of new things. The children are settling really well into the new routines and the Meerkat Team are very proud of them all.
Thank you to all who were able to attend the drop-in session on Wednesday – it was lovely to meet with you. Also thank you for all the offers of help for the upcoming trip to Westonbirt Arboretum. Meerkat Class email address is: class3@westbury-inf.wilts.sch.uk
We continued exploring place value in Maths with lots of practical maths using the resources to help us understand number value and show and explain what we know. The children used the dienes to partition 2-digt numbers, tens frames to match counters to numbers in digits and words and cubes to count on and show one less.
In English the children used a comic strip to discuss The Bog Baby story with their partner. We heard lots of great vocabulary and expression being used to bring the story to life! We created a ‘conscience alley’ to think about the story and voice the character’s possible feelings and thoughts about keeping the Bog Baby. This is the first time the children have used this technique and they all enthusiastically took part putting themselves into the shoes of the character Chrissy. We have continued using picture prompts to retell the story and the children had the opportunity to perform what they had learnt to Mrs Newbury when she popped in to see us – Mrs Newbury was very impressed!
We took our science learning outside of the classroom to look at the various micro habitats around our school. The children spotted a variety of minibeasts within the microhabitats and were able to tell me why the different insects lived in the different habitats. We will be keeping an eye on our bug house by the class door to see if any mini beasts move in!
We have shared some lovely stories together this week and enjoyed a visit to the school library. One of the stories was ‘Oi Duck-billed Platypus’ by Kes Gray. Here’s the link so you can share it at home too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwFYHGYD9tw What will your child rhyme with their name? The children were all able to borrow a book to share with you at home. We will visit the library again next week so please return the library book on Tuesday so the children can choose a new one to take home. RWI books were issued on Friday please continue to listen to your child read each day. Also, please ensure that your child brings their reading journal and RWI book to school every day as we are fortunate to have additional adults come in to listen to the children read.
Just a reminder:
As the children remove their outdoor shoes when inside the school building each child is able to keep a pair of slippers in school to wear inside the building. Please ensure slippers and shoes are named as many children wear the same style and size. If your child prefers not to wear slippers, that is fine. They will still remove their outdoor shoes and wear their socks/tights.
Next week, Mrs Jeffery will be in class Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning, Thursday and Friday with Mrs Watts taking Meerkat Class on Wednesday afternoon. Ms Smith, our fantastic TA, will be with the class all week.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.
Mrs Jeffery, Mrs Watts and Ms Smith
Meerkat Class Team
