From Mrs Hall

The rhythm of the school week is now taking shape. Year 1 and 2 enjoyed their first swimming lesson of the year and Reception boys have changed into their full Forest School kit for the first time: a great achievement! They all had great fun exploring apples, apple printing, apple snakes and even apple bowling!

Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be developing our home learning programme.  Depending on their year group, the boys will receive various home learning activities, including their daily reading books.

Please can we ask that all boys' kit is clearly named and contains all they need for their activities. Also, considering the changeable weather over the past few days, please can all boys have a school jumper and coat with them. 

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Pilgrims' Shell Awards

• Year 2 – to Year 2- Aaron for making excellent choices throughout the week.
• Year 1 - to Ben for his honesty and kindness to say sorry straight away. Well done, Ben! 
• Year R - to Felix for being a kind and caring member of our class who is honest and can be relied upon.

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Save the Dates!

A reminder of upcoming events next week and other dates for your diaries for this term. Please keep a look-out for further details.

Monday 25 September	Year 2 trip to Tudor House, Southampton
Thursday 28 September	Year 1 and Year 2 Swimming
Friday 29 September	Pilgrims' Play session for Pre-Schoolers - please encourage your friends to come along. Grandparents' tea party, 1430-1530
Thursday 5 October	School service for Harvest Festival
Friday 6 October	Pre-Prep Parents' Coffee morning (after drop off) outside the Pre-Prep
Monday 16 October	Pre-Prep Parents' Evening, 1700-2000
Tuesday 17 October	Pre-Prep Celebration Assembly 1500-1530

 

 

 

 

 

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Notices

Menus for next week are available here on My School Portal. 

Reminder: no food is to be brought into the school and/or given to boys at any time, especially at sign-out.

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From the PPA

Year 2

In Maths, this week, Year 2 has been looking at how we can represent numbers in different ways: writing of number names, with the spelling of eight proving difficult for most, place value charts and part-whole models.

The boys have enjoyed working on their character studies from Little Red Reading Hood. First with a sketch of the favourite character and then writing noun phrases to describe them: 'Very, very, dangerous', 'A superhero', 'Loves reading', 'Wears a red cloak and holds a book.'

Next week the boys will be creating a story based on their own favourite traditional tale. If your son would like to bring his favourite traditional tale book to school, please do, but please remember to name it.
Mrs Kent 

Year 1

Maths – Counting 

This week, the boys have been practising their counting in earnest. We have been counting forward and even backwards to thirty and maybe beyond. We have counted out objects from a bigger group and tried to be accurate by moving the objects or adding them to a jar as we count. We have rolled dice and counted the result to then make the corresponding amount of dots using a pom-pom in paint. We have used different concrete mathematical resources in the classroom to show the amount counted. It has been a busy counting week. At home, you and your son can carry on his counting practice. Keep some dice on your kitchen table: start with one or two, and you may progress to more. Each time you sit down for a meal, your son can roll the dice and count the amount. This will also help with his subitising, which is the ability to look at a small number of objects and instantly recognise how many there are without counting. White Rose Maths have a brilliant app called 1-Minute Maths which is freely downloadable and is another great method for practising this skill. 1-minute maths app | White Rose Maths (whiteroseeducation.com) 

We have also tried being astronauts on the International Space Station and working on activities whilst wearing cumbersome gloves. And, found interesting and cosy spots for afternoon reading.  

Messages… 

If your son attends Multi-Sports Commoner on Tuesday with Mr Buck, the boys will be coming home in their PE kit with their school uniform in their PE bag. Please can all boys ensure that they return on Wednesday morning with their PE bag as they will require their kit again for Forest School on Wednesday. It will come home for washing at the end of the week.  

Mrs Ford

Year R

The boys have had a super week, with a variety of activities added to their daily routines.  

The highlight for me this week has been how hard the boys have worked on making mice to go with our story 'Hickory Dickory Dock' by Keith Baker. First, the boys created their mouse using a paper plate, attaching collage materials and making sure they included all the correct parts.  Miss Whitmore helped a little, and there was lots of great conversation going on alongside the creations. This included chatting about rhyming words, which has also been a big focus for us.

In our classroom each boy has their own 'proud cloud' picture frame where they can choose to display something they have made or achieved at school that they are proud of.  Have a look at the brilliant mice each boy has made, each one individual.

Following the Hickory Dickory Dock theme, the boys then used their cutting and sticking skills to create mice from paper shapes.  Very good perseverance was shown as some shapes were very tricky to cut out.  We have displayed these in the Pre-Prep library for you to enjoy.

Well done, boys!  What a busy and creative week we have had.

A few messages for this week:

*A phonics pack should have come home with your son today. Please check book bags.
*An invitation for Grandparents to a tea party next Friday should also be in book bags today.
*As part of our Art and Craft activities, please can you provide your son with an old, named large shirt that he can wear at school over his uniform.

Many thanks for all of your support; any questions do please ask.
Mrs Huntley

 

Forest School

The weather was a little challenging this week, but that doesn’t stop us, we just adapt and make sure we are suitably dressed! Both Year R and Year 1 had fun with the fallen apples.

After collecting a box of apples, the boys in Year R enjoyed making an apple snake that snaked its way along the ground. The boys also studied the inside of an apple and had a closer look at it using magnifying glasses. The boys then had a go at trying to print with the apples, playing apple games and even creating some other apple animals!

Some of the Year 1 boys used the apples to make some amusing apple aliens. The boys also learned how to make an apple boat, and we finished off with an apple boat race which was very exciting!

 

In our Year 2 session we chatted about the concept of camouflaging and the art of blending in with the natural environment. The boys chose an area they wanted to use, and had a go at trying to make their hands blend in with the surroundings. Needless to say, there was quite a bit of mud involved! Can you guess who it is who blended-in well with their surroundings?
Mrs Walker