Welcome to Class One

Tapestry News!

As we have now come to the end of the school year I will need to close your child's Tapestry account. I will be creating a pdf document that you will be able to download. This can either be kept as an electronic file or you will be able to print it out. The file will be automatically deleted after 3 weeks so please make sure that you download and save it in time. I hope that you have enjoyed using Tapestry to create a journal of your child's first year in school. I will send out a text message when I have completed all the downloads as with large journals this does take a long time. If you have any problems accessing the downloads please either ring me in school or send me an email. I will start the downloads on Monday so any observations that you record over the weekend will be included. Please do not add anymore from Monday as these will be not be stored in the files. The Class One team would like to thank you for working with us in using Tapestry to create the journals and we hope you enjoy looking through them and seeing the progress your wonderful children have made! 

Summer Term 2 week 6

We have now reached the final week of school for this academic year. Mrs Barratt and I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching your children and I hope they will have many happy memories of Class One. I have uploaded some photographs of events from before lockdown that I hope the children will enjoy looking at and remember the fun we have had. Thank you children for working so hard, being so kind and playing and laughing together each day. Have a wonderful summer and we look forward to seeing you all again in September. 

However, we still have one more week left to squeeze in some learning so there are some activities to do at home next week and over the holidays. The remaining mice will be delivered next week and for those who already have them I hope you are enjoying playing with them and completing some of the Mouse Club activities with them.

Take care, lots of love from Mrs Curtis and Mrs Barratt xxxx

        Stars of the Week!     

Our Week 6 stars are......

Samuel for our in school FS star.

Summer for our at home FS star. 

Well done children!!!

           Introducing Mouse Club! 

Mouse Club is a project devised by the National Parental Network to help staff in schools to build positive relationships with families as their child starts school. It can help parents to understand how they can help their child get ready for and settle into schools. 

However schools who are already running Mouse Club have reported how it has helped to improve emotional well being and to reduce stress.

As some of our children have been away from school since March, we are very aware that returning to school in September maybe a huge cause of anxiety and upset for them. So we have decided to run Mouse Club not only for our new starters but also for our children who will be returning to school in September as Key Stage One children. 

Our mice have now arrived in school and so over the next two weeks a member of the team will be delivering your child's Mouse Club packs to them. These will contain a message from Maurice, Class One's Mouse, a booklet of activities for you, your child and Mouse to complete and of course your child's toy mouse. 

Below I have uploaded a powerpoint presentation to explain some principles of Mouse Club and some pdf documents with further information about the project and the activity cards. 

We hope that you and your child will enjoy Mouse Club over the holidays and also when we return to school in September.

Summer Term 2 Week 6

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well and enjoying the home learning tasks. Over the next two weeks we will be delivering the children their mouse for Mouse Club, so hopefully we will be able to wave at you through the window! 

This week we are continuing with our theme of baby animals but with a focus on jungle and safari animals rather than pets and farm animals. We will also continue with rhyme and time. Thank you for the work the children have completed this week. There are lots of new photographs in our weekly gallery to show all of the wonderful activities you have been doing. 

Take care, love Mrs Curtis and Mrs Barratt

     Stars of the Week!     

Apologies for forgetting to upload the stars from week 4!

Our Week 4 stars were......

Henry for our in school FS star

Dezzia for our at home FS star and Heidi for our Y1 star

Well done children!!!

Our Week 5 stars are

Isla for our in school star and Eric for our learning at home star!

Well done children!!!

Dezzia's Wildlife Photographs

Dezzia sent us some great photographs of wildlife that she had seen near to her house. She managed to photograph some fox cubs, goslings and calves which fitted perfectly with our theme of baby animals. Thank you Dezzia (and mum).

Summer Term 2 week 5

Hi everyone! We hope you have all had lots of fun in your paddling pools or riding bikes in the beautiful sunshine this week. Although it has been so hot I'm sure there has been lots of sitting and eating ice-cream too! We have enjoyed the sunshine in school too. The children were able to rescue some toys that had been trapped in huge ice blocks by melting the ice in the sun! Have a look at the photos below! We have also had fun looking at our baby photographs and discussing how much we have all changed and the things we have learnt to do. Thank you for the baby photographs I have already received. They are part of our gallery below along with baby photos of Mrs Barratt, Mrs Oates, Mrs Colman and me! Can you work out who is who? If you haven't managed to send me a photo yet, no worries I can easily add them into the gallery when you get a chance. 

Next week we are looking at baby animals, starting with animals we might have as pets or that we may have seen on a farm. We will be practising our Makaton actions for farm animals. There is a link on our ECaT to help you practise them too. Have  a good week!

                Stars of the Week      

Lots of fabulous work this week. We learnt about the different exercise we all do to keep healthy and did lots of great sharing activities.

Oscar as our in school star! 

Ethan P as our FS learning at home star because he has been amazing in school for 2 days and also doing lots of work at home.

Heidi as our Y1 learning at home star! Well done children!   

Summer Term 2 week 4

Another week has flown by and the work just keeps coming! Well done for keeping home learning going for so long. Our weekly gallery shows lots of very happy children enjoying learning and we have had a great time in school as well. The children in school are now used to the changes and whilst maintaining our new rules are enjoying themselves. Our focus for week 4 is to look at how we change from being a little baby to a big robust child going to school. Normally we have loads of fun looking at baby photos of each other and guessing who they are. The children really enjoy this and it stimulates lots of discussion. I would love to be able to provide this for the children by uploading baby photographs onto our class page for another Class One Guess Who. If you are able to please could you email me a baby photograph of your child or for the FS parents upload one onto Tapestry and I will create the gallery next Friday. 

Finally we have included in this weeks's home learning ideas for making Father's Day cards if your child would like to make one for someone special.  Have a great week!

Summer Term 2 Week 3

Another great week of work from Class One so well done to all. We have had a lot of fun in school this week and have enjoyed the Supertato tasks! We are practising all of the phase 3 sounds everyday and the tricky words and Mrs Barratt and I have been impressed listening to the children read using Bug Club. Lots of children are doing these things at home too so keep it up! This week our focus is all about how exercise is important to keep our bodies healthy. We will be talking about our at home Sports Days and how we felt after all the exercise! Take care and have fun. xxx

                Stars of the Week      

Lots of fabulous work this week. We loved all of the super vegetables! So another difficult choice, but our stars are....

Seth as our in school star! 

Evelyn as our FS learning at home star and

Fern as our Y1 learning at home star! Well done children!                                                                                                                                                                  

Summer Term Two Week Two

Hi everyone! We hope you are well and have enjoyed the learning tasks this week. A huge well done to the children who have been into school for some days this week. We had a great time and we are getting used to the new way of playing and learning. We have talked a lot about how important it is to keep washing our hands and how we need to keep some space between us while we play. Everyone has been very grown up and careful. We watched the ebug video about how to wash our hands really well and there are some activities and other videos to watch which you may find useful. The Horrid Hands part is most relevant to our children. Please follow the link below to the Horrid Hands video. You will need to scroll down the page to find it.

       Stars of the Week      

As more children are back in school this week, Mrs O'Hara had a virtual Star Assembly this morning. It was very difficult for the teachers to choose stars because so many of you have been working so hard, but for this week we chose......

Skye as our in school star! 

Eliza as our FS learning at home star and

Freddie as our Y1 learning at home star! Well done children!!!

We have had lots of photographs, videos and messages this week showing all the wonderful work you are doing at home. Sports day at home has been very successful and Mrs Barratt and I are going to save some of your ideas and include them in our school Sports Day next year. You all looked liked you had so much fun. Lots of great work has been done for our focus book, Handa's Surprise and I am very proud of our Year One children practising their two times table at home. I hope you enjoy seeing the photographs of your friends below. Keep them coming next week- our focus book is Supertato, so I can't wait to see what you do! 

Take care everyone,

Love Mrs Curtis and Mrs Barratt

Summer Term Two

Hi everyone, we hope you are having an amazing half term in this beautiful sunshine! Ms Yelainah wanted to say hello and wish you all well. She is very sad not to be teaching you this term but I’m sure we will see her again soon. 
Mrs Barratt and I have been busy getting the classroom ready for the children who are returning to school on Tuesday. To help you to get ready Mrs Oates and her children have made some videos about what it will be like to come to school now. It will be very different from what you were used to before, but we will still have lots of fun together. There is a link below to a lovely story called While We Can't Hug which shows the children how they can keep apart from their friends but still show them how much they care. 

The work that we are uploading on the class page is what we will be covering in class so all the children will have the same ECaT topics and the activities will be the same. We will continue to communicate with you through Tapestry and the class page will be updated as it has been previously. Please continue to share all the amazing work you are completing at home and I will continue with the weekly gallery of photographs. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me by phone at school and I will return your call or email me ccurtis2@southwingfield.derbyshire.sch.uk

Take care 

Mrs Curtis and Mrs Barratt

xxxx

Summer Term Two Week One

This term our theme question for Science is 'How can I grow to be big and strong?' We have used this question as a starting point for our weekly focus book and will cover healthy eating, exercise, how we change and grow from being a baby to a child and finally we will look at some baby animals. The Year One children will also have the topic question of 'Why was Florence Nightingale special?' Mrs Barratt will be uploading some information for our Year One parents with suggested activities related to this topic. 

The Phonics, ECaT, Maths and English activities will continue to be uploaded weekly like last term. 

Happy Half Term Everyone!

Thank you so much for your hard work this week. We have really enjoyed watching your Sports Day videos and seeing the photographs you have sent us. We are so pleased that you are having such a good time learning at home. As it is half term this week, we would like you to have a good rest and enjoy the beautiful weather that I hope arrives. The Class One grown-ups are going to have a rest too and spend some time reading which we all love to do. Below are some photographs of us reading a book, but can you guess who it is behind each book?

I have also added this week's gallery of photographs so you can have a look and see the fun your friends have been having too!

Take care and enjoy the holiday.

xxxxx

Summer Term One Week 5

Another busy week for the children in Class One! Thank you for all the amazing photographs you have sent of your home learning. It makes the Class One grown-ups feel very proud of you and the amount of effort you are putting in is fantastic. Please say a huge thank you to your grown-ups at home for making learning such fun! So because everyone has been working so hard we decided that it was time for a theme week. If we had been in school we would have been having Sports Day this week. So we decided to video clips of races that you might want to try at home with your families. You have to promise not to laugh too hard! Do you promise? OK I believe you. Please watch the videos, have a good giggle at us and then see if you can do some races like these at home. 

We have uploaded a letter and the ECaT for this week will give you ideas to make your Sports Day even more special, like making medals, designing signs and making score boards. There are also Phonics activities to try and lots of reading to do. Have a great week and we can't wait to see what you get up to! 

Stay safe,

Love Class One grown-ups xx

Summer Term One Week Four

Hi everyone, we hope you have had a fun week learning at home. Thank you for all the photographs of your work, I have put lots of pictures onto our weekly gallery so your friends can see what you have been up to. All of the Class One staff enjoy seeing your photos and watching the videos you post so keep them coming!

Today is VE day and the sun is shining, so I hope you will enjoy a picnic in the garden and have made some bunting or pictures to celebrate the day. The Class One grown ups have sent me a photo with a VE day theme to share with you. Mrs Colman and Mrs Oates have been busy being creative, making wonderful VE day decorations. Mrs Barratt and I decided to dress in red, white and blue. I asked my daughters to help me, but Mrs Barratt went all out by herself! I have uploaded the answers to last weeks shadow quiz and of course lots more fun activities for you to have a go at next week.

However until Monday please enjoy the long weekend in the sunshine and take it easy. Stay safe and take care xxx

Well done Evelyn!

Mrs Barratt and I were very proud to see Evelyn in the 'Derbyshire Now' magazine. Evelyn has coloured in her own rainbow heart, sharing her 'Derbyshire Spirit'. 

VE Day Friday 8th May

On Friday we will be celebrating 75 years after VE day in 1945. This can be a difficult topic to discuss with young children so we have put together some information, photographs and activity ideas that you may wish to use. We look forward to seeing what you do. 

Summer Term One Week 3

Hi everyone! We hope you are all well and have been working hard at home. What a shame the lovely sunshine has disappeared! Let's hope it comes back next week- our seeds will need it to grow big and strong! I have revealed the answers to the pets quiz below and the new one for this week is...... 'Who does the shadow belong to?'

Can you identify the Class One grown ups from their shadows? We managed to take them quickly last weekend before the sun disappeared.

There are new Phonics, Spelling, ECaT, English and Maths tasks below to keep you busy. Mrs Barratt has taken lots of photographs from her walks with Jake the dog and she has included ideas of things for you to look out for on your walks and to talk about with your grown ups. 

Mrs McKay has made a new Bucket Time video and all the Class One grown ups want to borrow one of the items that she pulls out of the bucket this week!! I wonder if you can guess which one?

Finally thank you for all the lovely photographs of you working at home. Mrs Barratt and I love to see you looking so happy and healthy, learning at home. Keep up the hard work!

Each week I will create a gallery of photographs of work our children have completed at home. I can use photographs uploaded to Tapestry for the children in Foundation Stage. For the Year One children please email me the photographs at ccurtis2@southwingfield.derbyshire.sch.uk

Well done for all the work completed so far. The whole Class One team are very proud of you!

Summer Term One Week Two

Hi everyone, we hope you are all well and had fun with some of last weeks activities. Mrs Barratt and I have enjoyed seeing your work on Tapestry and we are very impressed with your home learning! This week our focus book is 'The Tiny Seed' by Eric Carle. There is so much work we can do from this book and it links in very well with our Growing topic. The ECaT is full of ideas to do at home and the English tasks give ideas about what you could talk about after reading the book and some writing that you could have a go at. Our Maths activities focus on doubling, counting in steps of 5 (Year One) and money. Happy learning!

Summer Term One

Hi everyone, we hope you have enjoyed the Easter Break and have been able to spend a little bit of time in the sunshine. The Class One team have been busy preparing activities for the children to complete at home. This term I will be uploading weekly Phonics, Number and English tasks as well as the weekly ECat sheet. The English tasks are directed at the Year One children but the EYFS children could also have a go at them too. We have also included the Medium Term Plan for this term, an overview letter about the topics and the Science Knowledge Organiser. This document will give you information on the Scientific vocabulary and the knowledge and understanding shared about the topic of Growing. The final document is about the Shape, Space and Measures aspects of Mathematics that we would be covering this term and lots of practical fun activities for the children to have a go at.

Finally some of our children in Class One participate in Bucket Time with Mrs McKay and Mrs Oates and they have prepared Bucket Time videos for the children to enjoy. 

We hope this keeps you busy. Stay safe and please visit our Class One page next week for more learning.

Talk for Writing

The booklets below include a story and lots of great ideas for promoting speaking and writing skills. There is a lot of work involved in each booklet but could be completed as a project. This is an additional home learning pack that has been made available to teachers that I wanted to share with you but there is no obligation to complete it if you feel your child has enough work to do. 

Happy Easter from Mrs Curtis and Mrs Barratt- we hope you like our bunny faces!!

We have been busy thinking of fun Easter crafts and activities that you can do at home with your grown ups. Below you will find the Easter ECaT, a letter from us and some Easter Egg Hunt clues that your grown ups might want to use for an exciting Easter Egg Hunt. 

We hope you enjoy the activities and have a great Easter!

The Class One grown ups have also been busy at home working with our own children. There are some activities that we have done that we would like to share with you. Mrs Colman has enjoyed making handprint butterflies. Mrs Oates has been making sparkly Easter Eggs that can open using a clothes peg. This is a great Funky Fingers activity! Mrs Barratt has looked at how we can make rainbows using kitchen roll. This is a fantastic Science activity!

I have been busy thinking of activities for this weeks ECaT. If we had been in school we would have been looking at our school pond and seeing if there was any frog spawn in it. There is usually loads! We would then learn about the life cycle of a frog observing how the tadpoles hatch from the frog spawn and develop into frogs. So this week is all about Fantastic Frogs. I hope you enjoy it!

Next Thursday I will upload ECaT with lots of Easter crafts and activities. I think Mrs Barratt also has a funny video clip to share as well! Happy learning and stay safe and well.

Early Years Foundation Stage

The early years foundation stage (EYFS) sets standards for the learning, development and care of your child from birth to 5 years old. Many children will have been educated in pre-school settings or nurseries where they will have been working within the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP). Many settings refer to this stage as Foundation Stage One and so as your child progresses into school they will complete Foundation Stage Two. 

The EYFPS is divided into seven areas of learning, three prime and four specific. The areas of learning are; Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Physical Development, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding of the World and Expressive Arts and Design. 

In Class One we teach this curriculum through play!

We operate a freeflow classroom so the children can decide for themselves if they wish to learn inside or outside. We also use the garden and orchard to support the children’s learning, especially for Understanding of the World.

Spring Term Two

It's going to be a busy term with lots of fun things to look forward to. We have a pirate day planned, a school trip to the Butterfly House, dance sessions and World Book Day is always great. We will keep our page updated with photographs of all our learning.

Please download the Medium Term Plans for this term to see what we will be covering.

Class One looked amazing on World Book Day! We loved seeing you all in your costumes and so many of you brought in the book that your character featured in. We had lots of fun reading stories, making potato characters and we even had a visit from an author!

Thank you everyone!

P.S Mrs Barratt and Mrs McKay looked fantastic too! 

Spring Term One 2020

Autumn Term Two 2019

The Year Ones started the new Science topic of Healthy Bodies. To begin with we talked about the different parts of our bodies and the children were very interested in our skeleton. We looked at our friendly school skeleton Billy Bones, and then the children solved a puzzle to put the bones in the right place to make their own dancing skeletons. They worked well as a team and some of the Foundation Stage children joined in too.

Autumn Term One 2019

Buddy Time!

On Thursday afternoon we invited our Class 5 Buddies to join us. They helped us finish off our Leaf Art. We played and shared stories too. Later we enjoyed eating bread stick and chocolate sprinkle 'wands' whilst we listened to 'Room on the Broom'. We love seeing our special friends.

Forget Marble Runs!

Class One used the guttering and stands to create a fantastic track to roll the conkers down. When they realised that it was too high to reach they pulled over the crates to stand on to make them tall enough! They decided that it would be dangerous to stack the crates and then stand on them. Quite right Class One! Great problem solving skills!

The painting for Take One Picture this year was 'An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump' by Joseph Wright. We talked about the details the children could see in the painting. They identified the bird in the 'glass jar' and we talked about how the bird would feel sad in the jar. We also discussed what breed of bird it could be and the children described and named some birds that they knew of. We decided to paint colourful birds and the Year One children painted a scene where the bird would feel happy instead of sad. 

All of the children painted either a picture or a bird and they were all fantastic! They are now on display in our classroom.