Writing stories

This week we have had a busy week focusing on stories. We have been talking lots about story vocabulary, such as characters, settings and events and have been working in teams to create group and individual story ideas.

The EYFS children (Ona, Kai, Luke, Sergi, Axel, Cloe, Carla, Katie and Julien) have been working with the older children to create their stories. They have been looking at pictures of different characters and props that they then blended together to create story ideas. The children were very excited to create their stories. Sergi and Ona drew fantastic illustrations to accompany their picture. They thought carefully about all the characters that were in their story and very independently drew them within the setting which matched their story. Kai loved using the tablet to type his story. He was excellent at touching the correct letter keys and was very keen to copy me as I said the name of each letter he was touching. Luke loved creating his story. He is speaking so well now and I was very impressed by how well he explained his story, using all of the key character words and events.

The children have also been learning about the Sant Jordi/ Saint George legend, as the stories they are creating are going to be used as part of our class Sant Jordi presentation. Carla and Katie were especially enthusiastic to learn about the characters in the story. They loved watching the video of the story and were keen to shout out the names of the characters. When reviewing their understanding of the story the next day, both of the girls could remember and confidently say the names of each of the characters in the story. Julien also enjoyed learning about the Sant Jordi story. He was very motivated to colour in different Sant Jordi pictures and he could then confidently tell me the names of the characters he had coloured. He especially liked the dragon!

In maths, the EYFS children have been focusing on the square shape, colouring, cutting, drawing, tracing and creating squares outside, using things from the outside environment. Oasis was very impressed with Axel as he was very concentrated when colouring the square. He worked very hard to stay in the lines and was very keen to ensure that he had filled every part of the square. The children have also continued to revise the numbers 0-10. Oasis was very happy with how well Cloe participated when learning the numbers and she was very confident to shout out the names of the different numbers in English.

The KS1 children (Marcel, Noa, Joana, Thais, Arlet, Jordi and Carla) have also been focusing on story writing this week. They have been working with Jo and Gabrielle to create group stories, whereby each person in the circle adds the next part to the story. Jo and Gabrielle were really impressed by how interesting and creative the stories became and how hard the children worked to share their ideas in English. The teachers were particularly happy with Jordi as he was extremely keen to participate and share his story ideas. They loved to see his enthusiasm and it was great to listen to the range of things which he wanted to add to the group story.

In maths the children have been focusing on number order, addition and subtraction, with a particular focus on the teen numbers. Jo was very happy with Arlet and Marcel as they could very confidently identify the different teen numbers on a number line and say each of them correctly in English.  They both have a very good knowledge of the numbers to 20. Carla has also gained a lot of confidence with number recognition this week and she is now becoming very independent when identifying and naming the teen numbers.

The children read every week with Jo and she is very happy with the progress which Joana and Noa are making with their reading. They are trying really hard to sound out the words, using the English letter sounds and they are always keen to read the whole book to Jo. Thais has also been working very hard with her reading. She has much more confidence to recognise and read the words. Jo has also been extremely pleased with how much Thais is improving with her spelling when writing and is using her knowledge of phonics to help her sound out and write the words.

The KS2 children (Arnau, Nil, Sofia, Blanca, Judit, Sara B, Sara and Tatiana) have also been working on story writing. At the beginning of the week the children partnered up with a younger children in the class. They did a fantastic job of supporting the little ones to create their story ideas and it was wonderful to see how supportive and patient they were. I am very proud of you all. I was especially impressed with Sara B as she was working with two younger children and it was incredible to see how she changed from one child to another, asking them their ideas and them helping them to translate it to English. Sara did a fantastic job and helped both children to create different and individual stories. Judit was also fantastic when working with the little ones. I am really proud of how sensitive and patient Judit has become. She was so keen to help her partner and it was so lovely to hear how kind and encouraging she was being of his ideas. Judit showed real patience when helping her partner to type the story and it was lovely to watch them interact in such a positive way. Well done Judit, I am very proud of you!

In maths this week, the children have been learning how to use a number line to order, add and subtract numbers. They have also been focusing on using their knowledge of number order to solve written word problems. Arnau and Nil have really impressed me with how well they can recognise numbers to 100 and how well they are able to read the number words for each number. They were both very motivated to cut out, order and display the number words and numerals in our maths area. They then used the number line they had created to solve addition and subtraction number problems. I was very happy with how well the children were able to read out each of their number sentences in English and how keen they were to correct themselves when they made a mistake. I was also very impressed with Sara and Tatiana as they were extremely motivated and keen to write their own word problems for each other to solve. They loved reading out the problems, marking the answers and adding a ´teacher´ comment. It was lovely to see how they imitated me and used the same vocabulary as I use, such as fantastic and excellent. Well done girls- you were very good teachers!

Sofia has also been working very hard to add numbers. She found it very difficult to add decimal numbers together but I was impressed to see how perseverant she was when using the number line to help her add the decimal numbers together. Sofia then moved on to use the grid method and it was great to see how much more confident she was to solve the addition problems when using this method. By the end of the week she was able to independently add 4 digit decimal numbers completely independently. Blanca also worked extremely hard and was very motivated to complete all of the maths activities this week. She was extremely confident to add and subtract decimal numbers, using the grid method. Blanca then moved on to solve word problems, whereby she needed to add and subtract different amounts of money and work out the correct change. You did a great job, Blanca!

Hope you all have a great weekend. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday.