Cygnus - Reflect and Review

Dear Reception families

This week we learned that the planets revolve around the sun and were helped by a catchy song: The Planet Song - 8 Planets of the Solar System Song for Kids | KidsLearningTube

We talked about the phases of the moon and what the stars are.

The children tried orbiting around the ‘sun’ (one of the class volunteered to be the sun) and found it quite tricky!

In art this week we explored another use of wax crayon in the form of wax resist painting.

The children enjoyed experimenting with different colours and designs. Maths this week has focused on composition. What does it look like when you have more than five? How can you represent those numbers? We used the rhyme ‘five little aliens in a flying saucer’ to explore patterns of numbers within ten. This work helps the children learn their number bonds to ten, build their subitising skills and see patterns within numbers. On Friday we also explored capacity and mass.

In Music, we continued learning the song 'Little brother dance with me' from the Hansel and Gretel Opera.

This week our Drawing Club book was ‘Space Tortoise’. The book, while Space themed, also tackles the concepts of loneliness and friendship. In Big3 and Me this week we talked about caring about making up; fixing a friendship when things have gone wrong. The children learned the British sign language signs for disliked, heard and peaceful. We had stories from the Big3 and Me animals about each of the feelings and we matched an ‘inside weather’ sign to each feeling. We talked about how we could approach fixing a friendship that had gone wrong. The class suggested some useful ideas, including saying sorry. The Big 3 and Me challenge this week was to try and make up after a fall-out or problem.

Parent Forum

We're looking forward to welcoming parents for our Parent Forum this Tuesday at 6pm. We'll be talking about our Approach to Behaviour, Staff Growth and the HSA. We look forward to seeing you then.

Parking and Travelling to School

We'd like to remind parents to consider the impact of their parking at pick up and drop off. Concerns have been raised at the dangerous behaviour that some drivers have shown; parking on pavements without space to pass, blocking driveways and parking or stopping on the yellow zig-zags, all of which are not allowed. Additionally, we would ask parents with children on bikes to walk them down to the bottom of the driveway before mounting, we've seen a number of near misses with cars turning on the residents road.

Jon Waldock

Assistant Headteacher

North Hinksey CE Primary School

Next week at a glance

Our Big 3 and Me focus will be on self awareness skills: knowing myself

Monday	Library book day. Please return your book so we can issue a new one.
Tuesday
Wednesday	PE. Children should come to school in PE clothes with suitable footwear for running on the playground or school field (ideally trainers).
Thursday	Cygnus class visit to St Lawrence church in the morning.
Friday

Dates for your diary:

5th February - Cygnus class visit to St. Lawrence church

10th February - Safer Internet Day

13th February - HSA Mufti Day and last day of term 3

23rd February - Start of Term 4

25th February - Parents Evening

5th March - World Book Day

11th March - Parents Evening

12th March - HSA Cake Sale

26th March - Easter Service at SS Peter and Paul's Church 10am start leaving school 9:15am

27th March - End of Term 1pm

Notices:

It’s not too late to bring a toilet roll and a yogurt pot (or similar small container) to school. We need them for 2 projects. We have only received 2 so far and could really do with more by Tuesday at the latest. Thank you!

If your child is going home with someone else, please make sure you email the school office to advise us of the change: office@nhps.org.uk

Please can all children bring a book bag daily to allow us to send written work and books home when needed? Small rucksacks are too small to accommodate A4 paper and library books.

Please make sure the children have a waterproof coat every day. We have outdoor play as often as possible and we need to be ready for changes in the weather. Please also bring a hat, scarf and gloves for the colder weather.

Children also need a pair of indoor shoes/plimsoles to change into to come into the classroom and a spare set of clothes, including pants and socks, for any accidents.

Best wishes

The Reception Team