Three billy goats gruff

This week we continued our topic; ‘down on the farm’ and we have continued to learn the names of the different animals we find on the farm and the letter which they begin with.  We have made farm animal masks, painted our own t-shirts and created different farm animal puzzles to stick on to our display. We have also been focusing on two traditional stories; ‘the three little pigs’ and ‘the three billy goats gruff’. We have tried to create a bridge for the goats and a stick house for the three little pigs, using a range of different resources. The children also enjoyed using the blocks to create a bridge for the farm animals to cross and tried to create a house which the big bad wolf could not blow down. 

In phonics this week, Sergi, Kai, Marcel and Luke have been learning the ‘p’ sound. They have used sponges to paint a pony, finger painted a big letter ‘p’ with pink paint and then had the opportunity to create their own pictures, using their fingers as a paintbrush. The boys also had fun using feathers to create a multi-coloured peacock. The boys have also learnt the skill of collaging; using different coloured pink material to create a pig picture.

Jordi has been learning the ‘qu’ sound and has been practising making the ‘quack’ action with his hands to make this sound. He knows the two letters which make up the ‘qu’ sound and has had lots of practise writing these two letters. Jordi is beginning to tell me the different words which contain the ‘qu’ sound and has had fun creating a ‘qu’ train; reading the ‘qu’ words and using the pictures to help him. He really enjoyed British coins and has done rubbings with wax crayons to help him reveal the queens’ head on the coins. Jordi has also had fun using playdough mats, he has spelt the ‘qu’ words on the mats, using plasticine.

In maths this week, Sergi, Kai and Luke have been focusing on counting the numbers 1-10, using one to one correspondence. They have used different number cards and needed to select the correct numeral for the amount which they had counted. The boys are really improving their ability to count in English and are gaining lots of confidence with recognising and selecting numbers.  Using our topic focus of ‘down on the farm’ the boys have been using maths when collecting vegetables. Each day the boys have been given a focus number of vegetables to collect. When finding the correct amount of vegetables, we have then focused on the vocabulary of ‘more’ and ‘less’. The children have been using their fingers to show me how many there will be if there was 1 more or 1 less vegetable.

Marcel and Jordi have been doing lots of addition activities. They have been creating their own physical addition number sentences, using paper animals. The boys worked together to create selected numbers and had to take it in turns to add the correct amounts of animals to reach the target amount. The boys have also had addition questions to answer, using farm animal pictures to help them with the representation of the numbers they are adding. This week the boys have also learnt how to add without the help of pictorial representation and have been using their fingers to help them to recall their number bonds to 10.   

In reading comprehension this week Judit and Sara have been focusing on newspaper reports as a style of writing. The girls have been very motivated to read real newspaper reports and have been fascinated with the facts they have discovered. They have been working hard to research the meanings of unknown words and are becoming more motivated to understand the majority of the words which are written within the reports they are reading.

 Sara has been working hard on recognising different punctuation when reading the reports aloud. We have been practising taking a breath when reaching a full stop and Sara has begun to recognise how the meaning of the sentence can be very different if read without the use of a full stop. Within the newspaper reports, Sara has been focusing on the photographs and has enjoyed creating her own captions to explain what the photographs show, based on the information she has read in the text.

Judit has also been working hard on the skill of reading aloud. She is slowing down when reading and is trying hard to pronounce the difficult words correctly. Her fluency when reading is really improving. Within the newspaper reports, Judit has been identifying the specific layout of a newspaper report and has been able to explain the specific features which are present within a newspaper report. She has also been learning about ‘quotations’ and is now aware of the importance of including quotations to emphasise more clearly what the situation was like for the people involved.

In maths this week, Sara has been working on the concept of fractions. She now understands that fractions are a division and is able to divide and shade different fractions within a shape. Sara was extremely confident to order fractions and is working hard to add, subtract and multiply, using fractions. Sara is now finding it easier to order fractions from smallest to largest and is recognising the links between fractions and decimal numbers. Sara has found it difficult to calculate fractions of different numbers but is beginning to understand the method of dividing by the denominator and then multiplying by the numerator. We will continue to work on this skill further next week.

Judit has been working on fractions, decimals and percentages and is learning how to convert fractions and decimals into percentages. She has been extremely confident when adding whole numbers and decimals and is recognising the importance of place value when placing the decimal point in her answers. Judit now recognises that she needs to multiply her fractions to make the denominator equal one hundred and she is then extremely confident to convert the fraction into a percentage. Judit is becoming confident to order numbers when they are written as fractions, decimals and percentages and now knows that she needs to convert them to ensure that she is able to order using an equal numeric value.