Ducklings Newsletter 25/4/16

Monday 25th April 2016 Our News!

Welcome back after the Easter holidays!

The children have been very excited to share their holiday news with us. Thank you to those children who managed to collect items of interest and fill a talking tube. They were lovely.

As part of their transition into Year 1, the Ducklings have begun to change their routines at the start and end of the school day. They have all coped brilliantly and have shown how organised and responsible they can be. They have all earned lots of credits on their Carleton Code passports.

A big thank you to Mr Way for bringing in some tadpoles for us to observe on our investigation table. They are growing and changing by the day! Thank you also to all of the Yellow Duckling parents and family members that came to watch their assembly on Tuesday. We were so proud of them all!

In Literacy we have enjoyed reading lots of different versions of the Jack and the Beanstalk story. They have been able to spot similarities and differences. They know the story so well that they have been acting it out with puppets and masks and tried writing their own stories.

They have had fun changing the words that the giant shouts, such as “Tee ti to tum!”

In mathematics we have been exploring using the weighing scales to find objects heavier, lighter or the same weight as a handful of beans. Last week we used our investigation skills to explore different ways to make 5 or 10 using magic beans or golden coins.

We have been enjoying the lovely weather in our garden and have spent lots of time weeding, hoeing, planting seeds and beans.

Creatively the children have made their own magic beans using an ink marbling technique. They all look unique and have beautiful patterns. We plan to use these this week to inspire us to write our own magic bean stories.

STARS OF THE WEEK Austin Cole for really challenging himself with all of his learning and Maisie Howell for confidence on the stage in her dance show.

Marawan Kenawy for settling into his new class and school so well and Emily Hardwick for being a such a confident ‘star’ on the stage!

Our next news letter will be on Friday 6th May and will give details about all the fun activities we have planned for the next few weeks. Any questions please don’t hesitate to ring, email or come and see us. Staff email: Mrs Catterall m.catterall@carletongreen.lancs.sch.uk Mrs Lees s.lees@carletongreen.lancs.sch.uk

OUR LEARNING Our Gardens, Growing and Mini-beasts We will continue with our gardens and growing theme by reading ‘The Tiny Seed’ and ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ both by Eric Carle, also ‘If only…’ by Neil Griffiths, a story about a little black caterpillar. We will be exploring the life cycle of a butterfly, move like butterflies, create our own butterflies and learn a song about a caterpillar.

There will be lots of opportunities for writing, such as labelling parts of a butterfly or other mini-beasts and writing captions to go with a butterfly’s life cycle.

We shall continue to care for our seeds and begin to plant some new ones. Our new beanstalk shoots are growing so quickly, we can now start to measure the shoots and record the changes we observe. As the children’s knowledge of plants is developing, we will be walking around the school environment to look for plants and label the different parts of the plants we see, as well as hunting for different mini-beasts and finding out where they like to live and why.

In Mathematics we will be exploring what doubling is and finding out what different numbers doubled total up to. We will use spots on ladybirds and patterns on butterflies to help us. We will recap over 2D shapes and think about making symmetrical butterfly patterns. We will keep on practising our adding and subtracting by counting on and back using objects and mentally.

Using the context of petals and bees on flowers we will continue to explore how to make a particular total by adding or subtracting.

We will explore new techniques to create our own butterflies, such as weaving and ink blotting.

In PE we will continue to develop our basic skills, as well as exploring moving in different ways like lots of different mini-beasts. We will also take advantage of the nice weather and start to practise the different races for Sports’ Day.

REMINDERS Warmer Weather Please can all children bring a water bottle to school each day? Sun hats and sun cream (clearly named) may also be needed soon. Please show your child how to apply this carefully or apply a long lasting cream on them before school on days when it is needed. Thank you.

Junk Materials We are always in need of these for our work shop area!

Head Lice Please check your child’s hair regularly as there have been a lot of cases of head lice. All live lice and eggs need to be removed to prevent them spreading further. Long hair also needs to be tied back for school. Contact the school nurse, Jane Fryer, if you need any advice on treating head lice.

Writing Please send in any examples of writing that your child does (independently) at home or out and about to share and celebrate with the class. We are encouraging all children to write independently now using their phonics knowledge and their knowledge of the tricky words to help them. We would not expect their writing or spelling to be perfect, but are wanting them to be confident to ‘have a go’ themselves.

Before School Starts Please ensure that children do not go on the bikes before school starts, to help prevent accidents. Thank you.

Dates School Closed Thursday 28th April Friday 29th April – INSET Day Monday 2nd May – Bank Holiday Meeting for Parents about the Foundation Stage Profile All welcome, in the Green Ducklings Class 9-9.30am Green Duckling Class Assembly Parents, Grandparents and Carers are invited to the Green Ducklings Assembly – Tuesday 24th May 3pm, in the school hall Gardening and Mini-Beasts - Open Afternoon Friday 27th May from 2.30pm Bring your gardening gloves and help us plant our meadow and build a Bug Hotel!

School Half-Term Closure School closes Friday 27th May at 3.30pm Re-opens Monday 6th June at 8.50am

TALK HOMEWORK Talk for Numbers Get your favourite toys e.g. cars, dinosaurs or dolls. Practise doubling them. Start with 1, double 1, then 2, double 2. What is the answer each time?

Get out your dominoes. Find the doubles and count the spots.

Roll two dice. Can you roll a double? What’s the answer?

Make a symmetrical patterned butterfly Sing the number bonds song (YouTube) Sing the making 5 or making 10 song Practise writing each number to 10, then 20 correctly Get some raisins. Find different ways to make 5 or 10. For e.g. 2 raisins and 8 raisins makes 10 altogether Build towers of 5 or 10 building blocks/Lego. Use two colours and explore making 5 or 10 in different ways. For e.g. 3 yellow and 2 blue makes 5, 5 yellow and 0 blue makes 5 Add two numbers together by putting the biggest number in your head, then counting on the smaller number to find the answer Roll a dice. What number would go with it to make 10? www.ictgames.com/numeracy www.iboard.co.uk Talk for Reading and Writing Practise the new (and old) sounds and tricky words sent home Read every night Draw and label a plant or mini-beast Make a poster showing how to care for a plant Write your own version of The very Hungry Caterpillar, changing the foods www.phonicsplay.co.uk Phase 3 and 4 www.ictgames.com/literacy TALK FOR TOPIC Discuss flowers and the different parts of a flower When out and about, look for seedlings and shoots to spot Go on a ‘Butterfly Hunt’ in the garden Sketch some flowers from your garden Have you own mini-beast hunt in the garden Research about a particular mini-beast and make a little book all about it Design and draw or make a shoebox model garden Plant and care for some seeds of your own Talk about everything!

Have fun!