Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 19th january 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

Despite the cold weather our children have been on fire in their learning and it has been great to see examples of great work, determination, and just sheer hard work across the school this week.

On Monday we were visited by our Read Write Inc consultant, who saw some amazing examples of early reading in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. The children were exemplary and the teachers did pretty well too as she left us with very positive feedback.

Thank you to Miss Goodman for leading the Maths Workshops this week for our Reception parents. We had another great turnout, so a big thank you to everybody who came along. We hope you found it useful.

Just a reminder that learning in school goes on until 3:15pm so our staff will not open doors until then and the children will still be enjoying activities such as class story times until this point. Thank you for your cooperation and patience with this.

Next week, our Year 2 children are off to visit the local church as another great way of bringing their learning to life outside of the classroom by seeing things for real rather than using pictures and artefacts in school. We hope they enjoy their visits.

While still some way off, I just wanted to share the dates for our Parent’s Evenings this term which will take place on 12th and 13th March. More information will follow soon but please save these dates in your diaries.

Have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you again on Monday.

Best regards,

Scott Roche

Principal

Nursery

We have had a busy week in Nursery. We have been learning the Nursery Rhyme ‘Jack and Jill’.

We have been learning to hear the initial sound in words.

In Maths we have been learning to recognise and order numerals.

We have been learning about Southend and talking about some of the places that we have visited in Southend. We have also been talking about our extended family and people who are special to us.

REMINDER: Outdoor learning Friday 26th January - Please ensure that your child has boots at Nursery and a pair of shoes to change into as it is very muddy in the wildlife area. Please ensure that your child is wearing warm clothes on this day.

Please ensure that your child has a spare set of clothes at Nursery. Thanks

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

This week the children have been learning about the book 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', it has been an exciting week, making lots of craftwork using different materials and media to create amazing work.

Starlight

This week in Starlight we have continued to look at the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'. The children have been able to sequence the story by completing a story map. The children have also used Fred Talk to write simple words and a sentence about the three little pigs. The children have been learning to name and use 2D shapes to make The Big Bad Wolf, we have also been comparing height and length.

The children have enjoyed 'What’s in the Bucket’, where we have looked at Night. How we get ready for bed, and they produced some lovely Night Sky art work using different textures.

Reception Year

In our final week of learning about ‘The Three Little Pigs,’ we followed our designs to build our houses for the Three Little Pigs. Which house will withstand the huffs and puffs of the Big Bad Wolf?

In Literacy we continue to use our Fred Fingers to help us spell words and sentences to describe the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.

In Maths we have been learning to order numbers to 5 and match numbers to quantities. In Geography we learnt about physical features in our school grounds. In PSHE we have been learning about belonging to a community and the different rules we follow in different situations.

In Handwriting we have been learning about the curly caterpillar letters: a and d. We have learnt the importance of starting at 1 o’clock.

How to help at home

Reading

• Continue to listen to your child read 5 times a week.
• Watch the QR codes with your child, encouraging them to join in.

Handwriting

Practise forming the letters a and d. Remembering to start and finish in the right place

Maths

• Order number 1 to 5.
• Match number to different groups of objects.

Year One

Year 1 have been continuing with their Man on the Moon topic.

We have listened to ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy and have been practising our sentence structure linked to pictures from the story.

To finish the week we wrote a list of objects of things we would take with us on a trip to the moon!

In Maths we have started learning about length and height. We have been using the terms ‘longer, taller and shorter’ to describe items. We have started to measure objects around the classroom using our hands and feet. Towards the end of the week we were learning how to measure accurately using a ruler.

We have been continuing our history lessons looking at the life of Neil Armstrong. We created a timeline of his life, focussing on the main events and sequencing them in the correct order. We have also looked at the planet Mars and the landing of the Mars Rover. We finished the week by comparing the difference between the famous events of the Moon Landing and the Mars Rover.

How to help at home

Reading

Listen to your child read their RWI Book Bag book or RWI storybook. Aim to listen to your child read 5 times a week.

Watch the following RWI Virtual Classroom videos with your child, encouraging them to join in. These links have also been sent out on Parent Pay and the corresponding QR codes are available in your classroom window.

Year Two

Year 2 have had a busy week enjoying their time in the Wildlife Area, despite the cold! The children worked with Mr Bailey and their friends to learn how to create sparks between two sticks, which was very tricky! They also learnt how to tie to sticks together with some string, again this proved a very tricky task, but as usual the children showed great determination in trying to succeed in their challenges. Well done Year 2!

In Literacy this week we have continued to immerse ourselves in Captain’s Scott great exploration to reach the South Pole, racing against time and Amundson! The children have continued to build on this historical knowledge and use it to write some fantastic recounts of the exploration in the form of a simple Newspaper Report. The children had to think about the events that happened, and make sure they wrote about them in the correct order. They used language such as First, Then, After That, Finally to help sequence their sentences. Creating their own timeline of events in History supported the children’s chronological understanding of the exploration.

Year 2 Maths has been all about learning how to read simple pictographs, collecting data and recording it to show the information they found out in a tally and create their own pictographs to represent their information. They have also learnt how to ask and answer simple questions about data.

Letters send home this week

• Year 2 - Holy Trinity Church Visit - 15.01.2024

Celebration Assembly - Aspire

This weeks value has been 'Aspire', below are highlights from around the classes.

Online Safety

Smartphone Safety Tips

According to Ofcom, 69% of under-18s use a smartphone as their main method of going online. Additionally, 49% of children use them for online gaming – putting smartphones only behind consoles (59%) as the device of choice for playing games on. Most people won’t require such statistical evidence, however, to acknowledge the huge importance of phones to young people.

Given that Santa’s recent visit is likely to have bestowed smartphones on an even greater number of young people, it’s a particularly opportune moment to ensure that children are able to use their handsets responsibly – and, above all, safely. From passcodes to parental controls, and from screen time to scams, This guide has the essential advice.