Friday 10th December

 

Hello Squirrels,

The classroom is now looking very Christmassy and the excitement levels have been taken to a whole new level. That said, there has been some super learning this week. 

The Squirrels' writer if the week goes to Teddy! Congratulations Teddy and very well done on the super instructions that you wrote for Scaredy Squirrel.

In maths, Squirrels have enjoyed practising practical measuring in cm and m this week. 

All Squirrels completed writing instructions for Scaredy Squirrel to help him escape the Ancient Oak Tree. I am particularly proud of the positive learning attitudes the children have applied when writing their instructions, showing endurance - not giving up; wisdom - applying instruction writing skills they have been learning and showing compassion for Scaredy Squirrel.

As you know, next week is the last week of the term and the last week of 2021 at school. I will be sending home updated spelling lists for you to practise over the holidays. May I suggest that rather than learning the spellings as lists, that the children start to practise using each spelling in a sentence now. When practising it is important that they are adding punctuation as they go. In class we call it 'Every Sentence Every Time' or ESET for short. Squirrels are very familiar with this term and it simply means that they MUST put a capital letter at the beginning of their sentence and a full stop at the end. They can also add more interesting punctuation such as ! ? and commas in a list, Year 3s may like to add speech marks too as a challenge.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend

Take care

Miss Swain and Daphne 

Friday 3rd December

 

Happy Friday the 3rd December to you all,

This week in Squirrel class we have been...

Writing reports as Arboriculturists for the Mayor of Milton Keynes, presenting him with their knowledge of plants and trees; how to care for plants and trees, what they need to survive and thrive. 

We are coming to the end of out Ancient Oak tree mantle. Sadly, the Mayor deemed the Ancient Oak as unsafe and has made the difficult decision to fell the tree. As sad as this is, the Arboriculturists feel proud that the Mayor recognised their expertise and knowledge on plants. 

Unfortunately, Scaredy Squirrel is still stuck at the top of the Ancient Oak and needs help to escape to safety. With this in mind, thankfully Squirrels have been practising their instruction writing skills and have suggested writing some instructions for Scaredy Squirrel to help him. 

Writer of the week goes to Henry Wootton. Well done Henry for your pride and presentation in writing and the challenges you take and apply.

On Wednesday we share a whole school Christmas crafts day which all the children enjoyed. We had Christmas music and decorations galore. 

On Thursday the whole school walked down to the village hall where Rev Dove turned on the Christmas lights. Children took pinecone decorations to place on the tree that they had made the previous day. 

Maths - The start of a new chapter:  Measurement. This week has been an introduction into units of measure, m and cms; practical measuring in the classroom and ways to record measurement. 

A huge well done to Squirrel class on their Doodle maths this week. Top of the league! Keep up the good work.. 

This week was the last Forest School session for this year. To celebrate a wonderful term we made hot chocolate and Christmas cookies in the log cabin on the wood burner.

It has been a fun week in class this week with he added festive activities. Keep warm everyone. I hope you have a wonderful weekend whatever you do

See you on Monday

Miss Swain and Daphne

Friday 26th November

 

Dear Squirrels,

Happy Friday 26th November to you all...

Here is a snapshot of some of the learning that has taken place in the Squirrel class this week:

Writing

We have been learning about instruction writing using 'How to Wash an Elephant.'

The children have been learning about:

Imperative verbs ('bossy' verbs such as: scrub, wash, make, tie, spread)

Adverbs of time (such as: firstly, finally)

Subordinate conjunctions (such as: which, so, if, although)

Adverbs of manner  (such as: slowly, quickly, quietly, cautiously etc...)

Squirrels all made jam sandwiches this week. This helped the children think about importance of adverbs of time and to apply interesting vocabulary for each step in their writing. 

Science

Working scientifically - comparative investigations

Squirrels are in the process of comparing how water is transported in plants under different conditions. Having previously identified the job of each part of the plant they are now exploring how the environment affects the transportation of water. 

Maths

Multiplication and division have been the focus in maths this half term. This week Squirrels have been looking at the inverse relationship between multiplication and division and the fact families

e.g.

5 X 3 = 15 (which is commutative)

3 X 5 = 15

therefore we know that 

15 ÷ 3 = 5

15 ÷ 5 = 3

Squirrels have requested that we have a class Christmas tree this year which is a lovely idea. If, while you are sorting any decorations you happen to come across any that are surplus to requirements and you would be happy to donate them the the Squirrel class we would very much like to make our classroom Christmassy.

Thank you adult Squirrels for your continued support

With warmest wishes,  

Miss Swain and Daphne  

 

Friday 19th November

 

Dear Squirrels,

I hope you've all had a great week. I saw my first Christmas tree this week! Rumour has it, it's only 5 weeks until Christmas...

Learning in Squirrel class this week

At the beginning of the week, following on from the research the Squirrels have been doing on plants, an investigation took place. The Squirrels were challenged to find out what plants need to grow well. Research told the children that plants need air, water, soil, nutrients and light to grow well. However, to be sure of this the children needed to prove it by investigating. 

Plants were observed under the following conditions:

No water

No roots

No soil

No warmth (placed in the freezer)

No light 

No additional plant food.

The children predicted that no plants would survive except for the plant that did not receive additional food. Much to the children's delight, their predictions were right! I think it is fair to say that the children know what is needed for a plant to grow well. 

Possessive apostrophes - Squirrels have been working away on their possessive apostrophes. They are very good with them, I must say!

Maths - As we started our new chapter on division, Squirrels have been looking at sharing an amount into equal groups and looking at how many equal groups they have made. The children have been looking at the link between division and multiplications - the commutative law. 

Bossy verbs and instruction writing has also been a theme in class this week. Squirrels used their knowledge of imperative verbs to design instructions for 'how to care for a chicken.'

Year 3 children completed their first aid training this week which they found useful. 

Finally, after a very busy week in Squirrel class, the children enjoyed a baking afternoon in the hall on Thursday afternoon with Mrs Wright. 

Have a super weekend Super Squirrels,

From Miss Swain and Daphne

. 

Friday 12th November

Dear Squirrel families, 

I hope you have all had a super week. 

What have we been learning in Squirrel class this week?

Maths 

We are coming to the end of our unit on multiplication. 

The Year 2 children have been working incredibly hard on their 2, 5 and 10 times tables. We have been using arrays to learn the commutative relationship between a multiplication sentence. For example:

2 x 4 = 8 therefore  4 x 2 (must) = 8 because multiplication is commutative.

The Year 3 children have been busy on their 3, 4, and 8 times tables. They have also been looking at arrays and the commutative relationship. They have also been recognising patterns between the 4 x table and the 8 x tables. For example:

 4 x 4 = 16 and therefore 2 x 8 = 16.

Mantle has been exciting with the poor old Ancient Oak Tree! The Mayor is still insisting it is cut down. The arboriculturists (Squirrels) and the Mayor are now in discussions, via letter, to come to a compromise.

As it stands the Mayor is investigating whether a new oak tree could be planted.  She has asked the arboriculturists to investigate what would be involved in planting, caring for and maintaining a new oak tree. The children are currently researching and learning about plants so that they will be able to report back to the Mayor. 

On Thursday the 11th November the children from Whaddon went to St Mary's Church to pay their respects with a minute's silence. They also placed some  poppies they had crafted, with thought-provoking prayers written on them.  The children also completed a piece of poppy art work for the classroom 

Squirrels, I have noticed how well some of you are doing with your Doodle maths so I have added some extras on there for you. 

We have just completed our class reading book which was 'The Proudest Blue.' A very beautiful story written by fencing Olympic medallist Ibtihaj Muhammad. 

From Miss Swain and Daphne 

Friday 5th November

 

Dear Squirrels,

It was lovely to see you all again after half term. I'm sure you have all grown in your week off!

As always, it's been a busy week settling back into our learning in the Squirrels' class. 

In Mantle of the Expert

The Mayor's mere suggestion that the 'ancient old oak tree' is no longer safe and requires cutting down has outraged the children. As a result, they decided to write a letter to the Mayor to persuade him NOT TO CUT DOWN THE TREE! The children had many valid reasons to support their argument... 

• The reduction in oxygen and the increase in carbon dioxide was of concern to some children.  
• Concerns for the inhabitants of the tree. 
• How the local villagers would feel about cutting down a tree that has been a part of their families heritage

With these concerns in mind the children took 'posh' pens to paper and wrote a persuasive letter to the Mayor.

In Maths

Having completed our chapter on place value, column addition and column subtraction we are now moving on to a new chapter which is multiplication:

• Making equal groups.
• Identifying how many are in each group.
• Drawing equal groups (can be simple dots).
• Writing repeated addition number sentences and multiplication number sentences. 

As this is a new chapter, much the work the children have been doing has been using concrete apparatus and pictorial representations.

Please continue to work on your times tables, spellings and reading at home. 

Year 2: 2, 5 and 10 times tables

Year 3: 3, 4 and 8 times tables

Please remember that doodle maths is available for you to practise the maths we have been learning in class. DoodleLearning | Personalised Online Maths & English  

Children are welcome to change their reading books in class at the end of the day. 

Each child in class is heard by a teacher every week. This term we are working on comprehension, retrieval and inference of text which you will find pointers to on your parent teacher meeting email. 

Those children that received a KS1 (Year 2) work booklet before half term please continue to work through it and feel free to bring it in to show me when you have finished. 

Guy Fawkes: I thought some of you may like to listen to the gunpowder plot story and learn about the history of bonfire night as it is Friday 5th November.

Why did The Gunpowder Plot happen? | History KS1| BBC Teach - YouTube

On Thursday this week the children celebrated Diwali, the festival of light. The children made Rangoli patterns and learnt about the story of Rama and Sita.

You can share the story together here.

Finally, I will leave you with a glowing fire to keep you warm now that the temperature has dropped. 

See you all on Monday.

Have a super weekend!

From Miss Swain and Daphne 

Friday 22nd October

                                                          Happy Half Term 

Dear Super Squirrels,

 I hope you have enjoyed this half term as much as Daphne and I have. The things I have enjoyed are: 

. Getting to know you

.Teaching you

.Listening to your stories and ideas

.Mantel - The Ancient Oak Tree and Scaredy Squirrel

.Forest School

The things Daphne has enjoyed:

.Attention from all of you

.Ear strokes.

.When you talk to her

We have had a very busy half term. You should all be incredibly proud of yourselves. I am proud of all of you!

I will be sending home updated spelling booklets on Friday. Please just focus on five spellings at a time. Master these spellings and make sure you are able to apply them in a sentence before moving on to the next five. Everyone has progressed in their spellings. Keep up the good work. Well done and keep practising! 

Keep reading... Please do share the books you have been reading at home. It would be good to have some recommendations - so if you have enjoyed reading a particular book and would like share what you enjoyed about it, please do bring it in when you have finished reading it. 

Maths facts - ongoing practise of maths facts will always help your learning. Fluency of maths facts will enable you to learn new concepts. All the maths facts are on the Squirrels class page on the school website. 

You may like to keep a diary or a scrap book of your the things you do during half term. If you do and you would like to share it to the class, please bring it with you when we return to school.

 Wishing you and your families a very happy half term. Daphne and I will look forward to seeing you all in November!

From Miss Swain and Daphne