Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 6th October 2023

Dear Parents and Carers,

Another very busy week for us here at Hamstel Infants with fabulous learning inside, outside and even away from our school site!

Our Year 2 children headed off to Hyde Hall for a great day of outdoor exploration and they came back buzzing from their day. All of the teachers reported how much the children had learnt and how much they had enjoyed the day. They were a credit to the school and we are very proud of them all.

It was lovely to welcome our Year 1 parents in for their phonics workshop with the children. It was another fantastic event and it was so well attended by the Year 1 parents and carers. Thank you so much to everybody who came along.

On Friday, we sent a team of sporty Year 1 and 2 runners off to the cross country event at Garons. These children needed to run around a HUGE field with over 100 other children from various schools. Well done to everybody who took part, you did yourselves and the school proud.

Next week, we have our amazing Happy’s Circus arriving on Monday for performances on Monday and Tuesday evenings. This promises to be a fantastic feel good event, so if you haven’t got your tickets yet, its not too late!

Also please don’t forget to book your parent evenings appointments for Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th October as it would be a great opportunity for you to talk through your child’s progress and how they have settled this year to date.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Scott Roche

Celebration Assembly - Respect.

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

Nursery

This week in Nursery we have been sharing the story ‘I’m the Tractor Driver’ and learning about different vehicles. We have been talking about different modes of transport that we have been on.

In Maths we have been learning to find objects that are different to each other and explaining why they are different.

We have also been learning about facial features and our senses.

We enjoyed dancing and mark making to the song ‘The Locomotion’.

REMINDER: OUTDOOR LEARNING - Due to our outdoor learning day being on an INSET day we have changed it to Monday 9th October. Please bring your children in suitable clothing for the weather.

Thank you to those who have sent in a baby photo. If you haven’t could you send in a photo or share it on Tapestry please.

Letter home this week

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

This week the children have been learning about Autumn and changing colours

They have experimented with different sizes and shapes of leaves, twigs, and flowers, making textured 3D pictures. They have also been learning about different animals and the sounds they make.

The children had fun playing and experimenting with coloured rice and pasta and on Friday we had lots of fun with the parachute and sensory lights.

Starlight

We have had a lovely messy time during our Outdoor Learning with Mr Bailey when we made our own mud monsters.

The children have been learning about the beginning, middle and the ending to the story 'Bog Baby'. The children have had great fun making slime. The children have been working hard on their name writing using the correct formation.

Reception Year

This week we have been learning about the book ‘Wishing for a Dragon’.

We have been continuing to learn about different modes of transport, focusing on how modes of transport have changed over time. We have been looking at pictures of transport from the past and comparing them to what they look like now.

In Art we have been learning about the artist Bridget Riley. We have been exploring her artwork and finding out some the features of her work.

In Handwriting we have been learning about the long-legged giraffe letters ‘l and i’, we have been learning to write ‘l and i’, remembering to start at the top.

In Maths we have been learning to explore how numbers can be composed of 1s and from this begin to investigate the composition of 3 and 4. We have learnt that a whole is made up of smaller parts and therefore it is bigger than its parts.

How to help at home:

Sounds of the week:

Reading

Spend time reading stories to your child.

Encourage your child to share their school reading book with you. Encourage them to talk about the pictures using full sentences.

Handwriting

Encourage your children to write the letter l and i. Make sure they start each letter in the right place and finish in the right place.

REMINDERS: Next week the children will be making boats, could you please bring in some junk modelling materials for example plastic cartons, cardboard, cereal boxes.

Letter home this week

Year One

Year 1 have had a great time during Outdoor Learning this week. We made mud monsters and used natural materials to create their eyes, noses and hair. We have also been learning about the different seasons and spotting the signs of Autumn.

This week we continued to read the story – The Bog Baby, and we wrote our own versions of the book. In maths we have been solving addition number stories and writing our own number sentences.

REMINDER: Please label all clothes as children are misplacing things when getting changed during swimming.

Local Area Walk – Please dress appropriately

• Tuesday – Newt and Duck
• Wednesday – Heron and Dragonfly

Letters home this week

Year Two

What a fantastic week Year 2 have had visiting Hyde Hall. All the children were represented Hamstel brilliantly! The children enjoyed exploring the various gardens and woodland areas, playing games, looking for different colours in nature and building nests for birds. Time was also spent in their classroom planting seeds, making clay models of mini-beasts and making observations on the ‘dead’ table.

In Literacy we thought about our exciting day at Hyde Hall and wrote a recount of our day thinking the sequence of our events using time conjunctions such as First, Next, Then and Finally.

In Maths we have continued to develop our calculating skills and methods used to solve this and represent our methods.

Reminder:

Next week: Outdoor Learning

Wednesday: Nite Owls are visiting

Letters home this week

• Year 2 - Nite Owl - 03.10.2023