Money square

This week has been an unusual week in the school, due to most of the children and teachers being struck down with a horrible sickness virus. I hope that everyone is now feeling better and feeling energised ready for the last few weeks of school.

The EYFS children (Kai, Nico, Sergi, Cloe, Ona, Ivet, Luke, Julien, Katie and Carla) have begun looking at money. Through immersive learning they have practised playing the role of shop keeper, organised and looked closely at both Spanish and English currency, created price tags by rubbing coins and practising their number recognition and formation when writing on the price tags. Kai really enjoyed separating the money and noticing the patterns of the images on each of the coins, such as the Queens head on the English coins! Sergi loved making price tags for the flowers in our 'garden centre'. He used different colours and enjoyed rubbing coins to trace their patterns. He is really improving his recognition of different numbers, as he proved when telling his customers the cost of things in the shop!  Cloe worked really hard to understand the difference between 'cheap' and 'expensive' things, as we collectively divided items such as an apple, a pencil, a camera and a phone into groups of their worth. Once she understood that the size doesn't equal to bigger worth she grasped the concept well! Ona responded fantastically to our shop role play. She clearly used the phrase, “please can I have..." correctly understanding how to structure and change the sentence, dependent on what she wanted to buy. Gabrielle was really proud of her, as this phrase is very useful and can be transferred to everyday, classroom situations, such as asking for water!

The children have also continued to learn about the growth of plants; focusing on which fruits and vegetables grow under and which grow above the ground. Ivet was very focused when painting a large piece of paper. She was keen to be involved in painting both the ground and the sky I’m te display. She then worked hard to think about whether she needed to stick the vegetables above or below the ground. Ivet thought really carefully but still  finds this concept a little tricky. We will keep discussing this and providing activities to help her understand this.

In phonics time, Nico was fantastic! We focused on the 'n' sound this week and Nico worked at such a high level, as he was able to think of other words that begin with this letter sound. He drew clear pictures of his ideas and helped his class friends to think of different words, such as: 'nature', 'nest' 'Natalie' and 'night'. 

Unfortunately, Carla, Katie and Julien weren’t in school very much at all this week, as they were feeling poorly. I hope they all feel better and are well enough to join us next week. We also hope to see Luke back next week, after his long holiday in Lithuania. We all miss you, Luke!

The KS1 children (Jordi, Arlet, Carla, Marcel, Joana, Thais and Noa) have been working on counting on 5’s. After working very hard the previous week on 2’s and 10’s, they already had a good understanding of how to count, using a sequence. Arlet, initially found the concept of counting in 5’s difficult but with the help of her give fingers and the pictures of hands, which Jo provided, she was able to count up and correctly cut out and stick the multiples of five in the correct order. Arlet then became more confident and was able to write out the sequence of numbers, with only a little support.

In our topic, the children have also continued to learn about the growth of plants. They enjoyed spending time in the garden; identifying and drawing the plants to show whether they grow above or below the ground. I was very impressed with how well Jordi recorded the vegetables and the understanding he has of where different fruits and vegetables grow. He drew them accurately, with a small part of the leaves sticking above the ground. He then independently wrote the name of each fruit  or vegetable, using his phonics sounds to help him. I am really impressed with how much his writing is improving. Well done Jordi! When creating a display for the classroom, Joana and Thais were very focused when colouring the fruits and vegetables. It  was great to see how keen Thais was to colour each vegetable the correct colour. I  was also very impressed with how much plant related vocabulary Thais has learnt. She was the first person to say the name of each fruit and vegetable vegetables and she was correct every time. It is great to see Thais speaking so confidently in English. When focusing on the different scents which flowers and plants have, it was great to see the enthusiasm Noa had to find plants. She carefully smelt each plant and thought carefully about where to stick each of the flowers, depending on how strong their scent was. I was so proud of Noa in this lesson as she was super confident to speak lots of English, as she was keen to share her ideas about the different plants.  

Unfortunately, Carla and Marcel weren’t in school very much this week as they felt too poorly. I hope they are feeling much better and are able to join us again next week.

The KS2 children (Arnau, Nil, Tatiana, Pau, Judit, Blanca, Sofia, Sara B and Sara) have been working on money, with a focus on solving money problems. Sara B and Judit worked really hard to add different amounts of money together, using a money square. It was a great opportunity for the girls to practise the column addition method and to see the confidence they had to add decimal numbers. This is definitely a skill we need to keep working on but I was really proud of the girls’ independence and concentration when completing the activity. Arnau did a great job of adding together different amounts of money as a way from him to buy different items, shown ln the list. He was very confident to use the column addition method and it was lovely to see him so confident to work out the answers and then turn to his friends to try to help them. Nil was also excellent at solving money problems. It was great to see that he had the confidence to both add together different prices and also to complete subtraction sums as a way to work out how much change he would need. Although Tatiana was only with us towards the  end of the week, I was very impressed with how well she was able to identify British coins. She then effortlessly added the different amounts together and worked out the total price. I was very impressed with your confidence, Tatiana. Pau was ill at the beginning of the week and because of this he found it more difficult to access our maths topic this week. He found the money problem solving difficult, especially when solving problems, using double operations. However, as always, I am proud of the determination Pau shows to complete and correct his work, even when finding it difficult.  Well done Pau!

For our plant topic, the children have continued to prepare their projects about Spanish plants, in preparation for our end of year presentation. I have been really impressed with Sofia and Sara’s teamwork skills when preparing the project. They initially found working together very difficult and they found it hard to compromise about their ideas. However, towards the end of the week, it was a real pleasure to watch them working together. They are now recognising the importance of listening to each other’s ideas. Due to their great teamwork, they have now produced a fantastic project, which they both feel proud of.

Blanca was only able to join us at the end of the week, due to her being ill. However, when returning, she was super keen to help us prepare for the protest we had on Thursday. She worked hard to decorate our banner and was keen to do the best job she could. I was also very proud of how well Blanca read at the protest. She was very confident and sure of what she was saying and was determined to let everyone know just how much she loves her school.

Thank you to everyone that supported us during the protest this week. It was a great atmosphere and a brilliant way to show the people of Mataró what a fantastic school we are!