Welcome to Foxes class
We are the Year 1 and Year 2 class
Our teachers are Miss Steer and Mrs Copping
Our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Smith, Mrs Tooke and Mrs Sweeney
Our Termly Newsletter: Spring 2 Term Newsletter Foxes 2025.docx
Letter Writing
This week, we are focusing on how to write an informal letter to the Giant from our story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. We have spoken about different letter types and identified key features of a letter. We used our ‘bookmarks’ to spot a good letter from different examples we had. The children worked together to circle the key features and identified the different things needed to make the perfect informal letter. At the end of the week, we will be writing our very own to the Giant!
Please use the bookmark (linked below) at home to help write your very own informal letter!
World Book Day
Today the children (and adults!) loved dressing up as their favourite book characters and did some fun activities linking to books! We first looked at drawing our favourite characters from books or who we dressed up as and then did different activities such as designing our own book cover, creating their own book mark and lots more exciting activities! Thank you for everyone who dressed up – we loved seeing your costumes!
DT in Foxes
This term, we have been focusing on building and constructing ‘baby bears chair’ linking to our story ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. The children learnt about different techniques to joining different materials and then tested them using little bears! The children were able to explain how they made their models strong, stiff and stable and identified key features that makes a chair stable.
Maths Outside!
This week we have been working on adding on a number line. We have been working on how to break down a number sentence and use a number line to find the answer. We have broken down a number sentence like this:
2+3=5
We start at 2 on our number line, then we move up the numbers as we are adding and making the number larger, we then have to jump 3 jumps as we are adding three and then we get to 5 which is our answer.
The children have worked extremely hard on this and next week will be focusing on doing the same but this time with subtraction!
Funny sentences in Foxes
The children have been learning to add adjectives to their sentences. They constructed sentences using the principles of colourful semantics. Colourful semantics is an approach that was created by Alison Bryan and is designed to support children develop their understanding of sentence structure and expand the length of their sentences. They created a sentence using the different sections with nouns and verbs and then had to add adjectives to make their sentences even better. Great work Foxes!
RE in Foxes
The children in RE today did some acting and retold the different parables of Jesus. The children enjoyed this and enjoyed learning about the different ways Jesus helped people.
Foxes get Arty!
Foxes have been manipulating clay during art sessions with the final idea for the children to make a house tile. We have been thinking about how to make the Three Bears cottage out of clay. The children had to use different skills to manipulate and join the clay together and have had fun exploring how to make different shapes.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Today the children have loved learning and retelling the traditional tale, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. The children had an amazing time using masks and acting out the story with their friends. We will be learning to write our very own traditional tale.
One More
This week in Maths we have been focusing on place value and using a 100 square to identify the number that is one more than a given number. The children worked in pairs to do this and did extremely well – Well done Foxes!
Christmas Craft Day
We have had an amazing time celebrating with parents as the term comes to a close. We had a fantastic crafts afternoon where the children did a selection of different Christmas crafts. They all did a fantastic job and enjoyed sharing these memories with their parents. Thank you to everyone who turned up and we did have a fantastic turn out!
Healthy Eating
Today in PSHE, we have been discussing what a perfect meal should look like for a balance diet. We spoke about the five main food groups that are carbohydrates; fats and oils; proteins; fruit and vegetables and dairy. We then looked at 3 different meals and placed all the ingredients in our ‘Food Pyramid’. I have attached it here – have a look and see if your favourite meal is balanced!
Partitioning Numbers!
As we move on from 3D shapes, the children have been looking at place value and how a number is made up. We have been looking at how 43 for example is 4 tens (40) and 3 ones. We also looked how we could partition a number using the part part whole method and how we can make numbers in several different ways e.g. 23 can be made up from 2 tens (20) and 3 ones or it could be made up of 1 ten (10) and 13 ones.
Art in Foxes
Here is a sneak peak into something incredible the children have been making. They have done an incredible job starting their ‘nativity’ scene painting in RE. This topic has been amazing and has linked to RE and Art together perfectly. The children have loved making the nativity scene and cannot wait to share these at home!
3D Nets
As our shape topic in Maths comes to an end, we got stuck in again creating even more of our own 3D shapes. We used ‘nets’ and scissors to make 3D shapes. A net is a 2D shape that shows what a 3D shape would look like if it was unfolded and laid flat. The children got to make different shapes such as a cone, triangular prism, cube, cuboid and pyramids. The children have really enjoyed the shapes topic, learning all the different names and how the 3D shapes are made from 2D shapes.
Relaxation in Foxes
This term we have been thinking about health and wellbeing in PSHE. We have spoken to the children about understanding their feelings; how to achieve success; developing a growth mindset; being active and Relaxation. This week we have focused on how to protect our mental health and have learnt simple activities to relax. We have learnt different breathing exercises such as the 4-7-8 which is breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds and breathe out for 8 seconds. We have learnt to understand how relaxation affects our body and how it is important to have relaxation strategies to help us in our lives.
3D shapes!
Today we have been getting very hands on to make 3D shapes with midget gems and cocktail sticks! We explored making the 3D shapes we have been learning about. The children identified that the midget gems were the vertices and the cocktail sticks were the edges. We managed to make: cubes, cuboids, pyramids, triangular prism and even an octahedron (which was like a 3D diamond!)
Diwali Workshop
To celebrate Diwali, we had someone come in to run an Indian Dancing workshop. We celebrated the energy and diversity of Indian culture by learning some exciting Bollywood Dancing. The children were captivated by the lively rhythms and expressive movements from classic Bollywood dance. It was really fun and engaging experience for all.
PE
This week in PE we have been focusing on team work activities. We have enjoyed playing games such as ‘mirror mirror’ where we have to partner up with a friend and then match everything they do! We also played a game where we needed to use our teamwork and communication skills to pass the hoops to our friends and move it along the circle without breaking the circle. It was a nice weather day also so we managed to do this outside!
Addition
This week we have been focusing on addition and subtraction. We have been adding two single digit numbers together and finding out the total. We used the dice to roll to find the two single digit numbers we would be adding together. The children all worked together and did some excellent practical Maths and used different resources to help them find the answers such as the dinosaur or using the dots from the dice.
Science in Foxes
This term in Science we are looking at our five senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. We discussed how things can taste and discussed vocabulary around this such as sour, salty or sweet. We have also been working on our sense of smell and smelling a lot of different things! Some of the children loved the different smells however it was like trick of treat – some were not nice!
Body parts!
We have been learning about different parts of our bodies. We drew around ourselves on the playground and labelled the different body parts we have. The whole playground looked like detectives had been!
Bumblebear!
This week the children have been reading the story ‘Bumblebear’ by Nadia Shireen. The children retold the story using puppets they have made and then rewrote the story independently. Excellent work Foxes!
Seasonal Changes
We have been looking at seasonal changes in science this term. We have been exploring what Autumn looks like and how the leaves on the trees change colour. We have been noticing changed to temperature as well as daylight hours.
Outdoor Learning
The children have been exploring our outdoor learning area and investigating space and numbers using different resources outside. We have also being using tuff spots to retell different stories and creating our own characters.
Welcome to our first week in Foxes !
This week we have been counting and ordering numbers within 20 in our Maths lessons. In English we have been exploring Autumn and recording Autumn words and sentences. We have been creating Autumn inspired Art work by collecting leaves. We have enjoyed working in our reading groups and sharing stories together.
