Good morning everyone.

I hope everyone has had a good rest over the weekend and wasn't it nice to see a bit of sunshine yesterday?  I hope you all managed to play outside for some of the day and enjoyed being in the sun.  Thank you for continuing to send over photos and messages showing the work you have been doing and other activities and games you've been playing too - I must say that everyone is doing a great job, especially when most mums and dads have got many other things they need to do and take care of and have no experience of how to teach, let alone teach a 4 or 5 year old, so keep up the good work everyone and make it work for your family in your own way.  I will write back to every email I get at some point.

So today is Zoom Day!!!! Oh my, I wonder what that is going to be like.  I have sent an email to all the families that are home learning which provides a couple of codes to use for today.  You basically need to download the zoom app and find the part on zoom that says join a meeting.  You will then be given the opportunity to put in the codes and eventually, (hopefully) find the rest of us.   If you can't see an email, either get in touch with me on the Class 1 email (class1@upham.hants.sch.uk) or phone the school for the link.  It will be at 11.30 for a maximum of half an hour and it will just be a chance for all the children to see each other and share some news if they want to.  Usually, most of them are desperate to share their news but who knows what it will be like via a zoom screen.  If not, us adults will have to share our news instead!  Mrs Dawson and Mrs Miller are hoping to join in too, as are the children in school. The zoom is at 11.30 - there is a live assembly too with Mr Woolley at 10 if you can fit it in.   

One more thing, I would think that quite a lot of our children would like Mr Woolley's weekly lego challenge.  You can find it on the first page of home learning below all the class icons - at the moment it is below Mr Woolley's video.  There is a video there today showing a lego cable car in action making its way down a zip wire constructed on the challenge trail at school - worth a watch.  Even if you just build what you like building from lego, send him a photo of it as he really does love his lego!  Below is a member of our class with a fantastic lego construction - I' going to say a whale, I hope I am right!  Looking forward to seeing you all at 11.30.

Letters and Sounds

Today we are going to practise recognising, reading and writing words using the digraphs we learnt last week, ch, sh, th, ng.  Do one video now and one later in the day.

10.00 Live assembly with Mr Woolley

Join Mr Woolley and many others from our school for a live assembly.  A link should have been emailed to you to join the assembly.

Letter Formation

Last week we practised writing the letters c, a, d, g.  All of these letters start in the same way by starting by making a c shape.  So lets start off by writing the last line of d, going around the dinosaur's bottom, up his neck and down to this feet, then a line of g, going round the girl's face, down her hair and give it a curl.  Remember to try writing the letters on your own after each line by writing in the three gaps - be careful to form the letters exactly as you traced them.  If you go wrong, don't worry, try again - we learn so much from our mistakes so mistakes are good.  Our new letter that we are going to write today is one that everyone thinks they can write already but most of you do it wrong!!!!  Many of us have it in one of our names.  I think it is one of the easiest letters but you need to remember start at the top of the letter with the c shape - it is the letter o.  So have a go at 2 lines of o, parents please mark the top of each o on the sheet so the children know where to start and make sure they go in the direction of a c.  Concentrate hard children!  The letter o is on page 44 of the file below.

Number Time

Today we will be thinking about the mass of things and whether something is heavier or lighter than something else.  To do the activity set, you will need a balance scale or if you don't have one and  are feeling adventurous, you could have a go at making your own with a coat hanger and pots - there's a quick video below to help if you want to head down that path.  Or you could just feel in your hands if something is heavier or lighter.  If you use the hands method, you might get better results if your child wears a blindfold to prevent them from being influenced by what they see.  As before, mathematical language is a key element of today's lesson, using the phrases "heavier than" and "lighter than".  

11.30 - 12.00 Class 1 Zoom meeting with Mrs Mason. 

Come and join in, it will be nice for everyone to see each other again and share any news they may have.  Parents will have received the links by email inviting you to join. 

Story Activities

Continuing with our theme of winter, over the next two weeks we are going to undertake different activities that really allow us to know a story really well and ultimately be confident to tell a story ourselves which in turn will help us to write our own stories when we are ready to do so.  This story is all about an animal that hibernates in winter - it is called Bat Learns to Dance - he isn't hibernating in this story!  Click on the link below and listen to the story and be ready to think about which part of the story you liked the best.

Winter Weather

We are in the very middle of  the season of winter at the moment and it has got noticeably chillier than when you started school back in September and there does seem to be quite a lot of rain.  But is it always cold and rainy in winter and where is the snow what we often think of if we think of winter?  To find out, I thought we could start keeping some weather charts for a couple of weeks to see what different weather we get in Winter.  So click on the link below and print out the seven day chart on page 1.  I have made a separate sheet of images so there is 4 of each image on the sheet to choose from.

Ingredients needed for Friday

Hello Everyone,

The ingredients you will need for baking this Friday is:

• 350g/12oz plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 125g/4½oz butter/dairy free spread
• 175g/6oz light soft brown sugar
• 1 free-range egg (please leave out if you have an allergy)
• 4 tbsp golden syrup

The recipe I am using this week can be found here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gingerbread_men_99096

 Love from

Miss Newton