Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 12th July 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

It’s been another extremely busy week at Hamstel Infants!

Today was our last educational visit of the year, as Kingfisher and Peacock classes headed off to the beach. We hope they had a great time exploring this fantastic local environment, building sandcastles, playing games and generally having some well-earned fun.

Our Year 2s got the chance to cut some serious shapes at their leavers disco on Wednesday night. There were some serious dance moves going on and not just from the children!

A big thank you to all the Reception and Year 1 parents that came along to our curriculum meetings this week. We hope you found the meetings useful and that the information helps to alleviate any worries you may have around the learning for next year. Please rest assured that your children are more than ready for the next steps in their journeys and of course, our amazing staff will be on hand to guide them every step of the way.

Huge thanks also go to our wonderful PTA ‘Friends of Hamstel’ who organised a great summer fair yesterday with lots of fun things to see and do. There was a brilliant turnout of parents and pupils from across both schools and everybody seemed to be having a great time. A really big thank you to all of the PTA members and staff who gave up their time to make this such a success.

Next week, is of course our last week in school before the summer break.

We have our Year 2 leavers assembly dominating events with a dress rehearsal to the whole school on Monday and two performances to parents on Tuesday and Wednesday. From the sound of rehearsals, it promises to be brilliant!

The performances start at 9:00am with Otter and Hedgehog parents invited on Tuesday and Fox and Squirrel parents on Wednesday.

Then….it’s a chance for classes to enjoy some final fun times together and enjoy the countdown to summer.

Next week we also welcome you into school for our open afternoon on Monday. This will be a chance for you to come and see your child’s work and have a look around our wonderful school, maybe popping in to your child’s new classroom for September or visiting the Portico Art and DT festival which will be in the Infant and Junior halls. This event will start at 3:30pm until 4:30pm - we hope you can make it!

I’m sure it’s going to be a great last week!

And finally, as you may already be aware, there’s a big football match going on during Sunday evening featuring our 3 Lions….so let’s all send positive vibes over to Germany and hope that our men’s team can finally emulate the Lionesses and bring the Euros trophy home!!

Have a great weekend and come on England!!!

Scott Roche

Principal

Important notice – We need your help!

Please can we ask a big favour of you all over the weekend and that is to have a good search for any school books you may have at home e.g. RWI Book Bag Books, RWI storybooks, reading scheme books and library books, and return them to school next week.

Next week will be our last week of sending home books and we will be collecting all books towards the end of the week.

Many thanks.

Nursery

This week we have been reading ‘My Mum the Superhero’ we have been answering questions about the story and thinking about how our grown us are super.

In Maths we have been naming 3D shapes and learning about their properties.

We have been practising our handwriting and writing our names, it is lovely to see the children writing their names on their work.

We have been talking about the seasons and what the weather should be like in the summer!

The children who are going to Reception in September have enjoyed spending time in their new classes.

In RWInc we have been learning the sounds ‘z’ and ‘y’ please follow the links below to practice at home.

Teddy Bears Picnic- Monday 15th July

• AM Starfish-10.15-11.30
• PM Starfish and Seahorse group 1.45-3.00

Please see posters in the Nursery window for more details

Party Friday 19th July

• Please put your name on our list for what you would like to contribute.
• The children can come in party clothes and sensible shoes please.
• Please return any books and borrowed clothes to Nursery. Thank you

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

This week the children have been learning about Real Superheroes in our community, people who help us, and support. They have listened to the story “Real Superheroes” and are learning about who they are and what their jobs are. We have looked at states of matter “solid, liquid and gas” using real objects and items to symbolise the meaning. The children have been working as a group experimenting with the objects and items then group pictures and label them. The children have continued their learning about subitizing up to 10, simple additions and subtractions. They have looked at heavy and light, more or less, tall and short using objects and items to support learning. The children have continued with letter formations and cvc words, blending and writing. We have made some transport vehicles such as an ambulance, fire engine using step by step instructions and visuals. The children have enjoyed watching short clips about people who help us, in the afternoon, they had sensory play, and water play. The children have also been enjoying story time at lunch times and snack times, listening and learning with props and visuals.

Letters: All letters

Numbers: up to 10 (additions and subtractions, number formations)

Starlight

This week we have been learning about real life superheroes. We have learned about doctors and nurses; we made a stethoscope and a nurse’s hat by following instructions.

In maths we have continued to learn about 2D shapes, naming them and beginning to identify their properties. We have also been finding one more or one less than a given number, recording answers on whiteboards.

We used old boxes to make an ambulance, which the children have enjoyed playing with at break times and lunchtimes.

Reception Year

This week we have been learning about real life superheroes. We have been reading some non-fiction books to find out about people in our community who help us. In Literacy, we have been writing sentences about people who help us, remembering everything that we have learnt this year.

In Maths we have been learning that you can add numbers in any order as well as exploring the different ways you make numbers to 10.

In Science we have been thinking about states of matter and how they change, we have explored how ice changes from a solid to a liquid when it is heated.

In RE we have continued our learning about special places, this week learning about Synagogue’s.

In Outdoor Learning we have been exploring the wildlife garden looking for signs of summer to conclude our work on seasonal changes.

How to help at home

Handwriting

• Have a go at forming all the letters in the alphabet, remembering to start and finish in the correct place.

Maths

• Have a go at adding numbers together by using objects to help you.
• How many different ways can you make 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10?

Letters sent home this week

• Reception - New to Year 1 Meeting Notes - 12.07.2024
• Reception - Tapestry - 09.07.2024
• Reception - Super Hero Day - 09.07.2024

Year One

This week we have been discussing a new story called ‘Town Mouse, Country Mouse’. We looked at the front cover and came up with some predictions about what we thought the story was going to be about. We wrote some sentences about the different mice using conjunctions. In our big write session we wrote a diary entry from the perspective of either the town mouse or the country mouse.

In Maths we have been continuing with our revision sessions. We have been practising more and less, adding by counting on, subtracting using numbers to 20 and sharing and grouping.

In Science we have been continuing our work on animals. We have been learning about the difference between fish and amphibians and matching them into the correct category based on their characteristics. We also wrote some ideas about how to look after different kinds of animals properly.

How to help at home

Watch the following RWI Virtual Classroom videos:

REMINDER: Year 1 class parties: Wednesday PM

Please also bring in a labelled plastic bag for your child to bring home their books and learning from throughout the year.

Letters sent home this week

• Year 1 - New to Year 2 Meeting Notes - 12.07.2024
• Year 1 - Read Write Inc - 05.07.2024

Year Two

It's been a very busy week in Year 2 with lots of practising songs and words for the show of the year! There is certainly a buzz in the year group as the excitement grows in year 2 for next week’s end of year performances. We can’t wait to see you all there.

The children have also been busy making their pizzas from plans they created last week. They have chopped and diced their chosen toppings and made some very yummy pizzas. The classrooms have had a delicious smell wafting out of them down the corridor. The children enjoyed tasting them after to complete their evaluations.

For our Artist Study we have been learning about the artist Derek Gores and exploring and sorting materials used for creating a college. The children thought about the skills they practised and applied them to creating a final piece of a sea creature.

REMINDER:

Pirates versus Mermaids Shows next week

Celebration Assembly - Working Together

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