As i mentioned to many of you during parents evening, after half term we will have more of a structured routine. We will be focusing more on our number and letter formation, have a few more Maths and Literacy lessons within the week, and have daily dedicated times for both phonics and handwriting......if you could please continue to support your child with their reading and phonics (sound sheets/orange books), this will help them even more.

Next half term our topic is; 'People who help us'. We are hoping to have visits from the Paramedics and Police, and we have a confirmed date for a visit from the Fireman. There will be more information on this nearer the time.

As you may have seen from the letter, Thursday 3rd November we have our Maths curriculum afternoon from 2:30pm until 3:30 pm where parents, grandparents etc will have the chance to work alongside the children on some fun maths activities and learn a bit more about the methods and strategies we use within our maths.

Well done to everyone in Hughes class......you have completed 7 whole weeks at school!
I am proud of each and everyone of the children and how far they have come in these few short weeks!.

They have all gained confidence, are improving with their phonics and maths every day, have formed some lovely friendships and have grown into polite, kind and helpful children.

I must say thank you to yourselves, parents, siblings, grandparents etc for your continuing support of your children's learning and education.....it really is much appreciated and makes all the difference.

It was lovely to meet so many of you during parents evening, and sharing with you just how far the children have come since their first few days in Reception!.

We had out first fire practice this afternoon.......and Miss Rushbrooke has said how SUPER impressed she was with ALL of us. There were no tears, no screaming, no shouting and no running about.
We all sensibly got up and listened to the adults who told us to walk quickly but calmly out of the door, Once we were outside in the playground, we lined up VERY sensibly and quietly.
Mrs Ross was also very impressed with us and the rest of the school.

Once we were back inside, Miss Rushbrooke had a quick chat to us about why we have fire alarm practices and made us give ourselves a pat on the back for doing so well.

This week in our cooking, we combined two areas which we have been learning about. Ourselves, and shapes. We were each given a round water biscuit and a square cream cracker and had to decorate them with different foods to create our faces.
We used grated cheese or carrot for our hair, grapes or tomatoes for our eyes and nose and slices of cucumber for our mouths. Some of them really did look a bit like our own faces, and they ALL looked rather scrummy!
A big Thank you to Ellie's Mum and Corinne's Mum for coming in to help us cook!

This afternoon we had some good fun during our maths lesson. Mrs and Miss Rushbrooke had put some chairs out in the maths area, which were set out as bus seats. First off all we practised the numbers we have been learning, and then we all had a turn at being 'passengers' getting on and off the bus - we even had a bus driver! 
We used our fingers to count on each time a passenger got on the bus, and then put out fingers down each time a passenger got off the bus! It was lots of fun, in fact we don't know who had more fun pretending to be on the bus, us or Mrs Rushbrooke!

We would like to say a very big THANK YOU! to Emma's Mum, Mrs O'Brien, who very kindly ordered Hughes class some brand new spray bottles and bought them into school today. Miss Rushbrooke has some activity ideas she will be implementing with the bottles very soon. So again, Thank you very much Mrs O'Brien!

We are doing really well with our phonics, and now know many of our sounds. This week, Miss Rushbrooke introduced us to 'Obb' and 'Bob'. 
Obb and Bob have been helping us with our 'real' and 'silly' words. We are given flashcards with a word on and sound talk it out (say the sound each letter makes). We then blend the sounds together to make the word, and decide if it is a 'real' or 'silly' word. We then put the flashcard in either Obb or Bob accordingly. 

As we were unable to play in our outside area today, Miss Rushbrooke took us onto the big playground to burn off some of our energy!
Miss Rushbrooke took a ball out with us, and we had some great fun playing some ball games and having a go at trying to throw the ball into the basketball net. Some of us also had a go at the hop-scotch, exploring the new area and just having a good run about!

As part of our 'About Ourselves' topic for this term, we have been looking at the story of Elmer, and how he is special. We talked about how Elmer is special because he is many different colours, unlike his friends who are all a gloomy grey colour.
We also talked about how that although we have some things the same, such as two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth, we are all different, and all special in unique ways.

We were each given a star with the words 'I am special because'....written on it. We then had to think of a reason why we were special, and have a go at sounding out some of the words and writing them down.
We were also each given an Elmer to colour and decorate how we wished.
Miss Rushbrooke has hung our special Elmers all up in the classroom, and we think they look GREAT!

Miss Rushbrooke would like some spray bottles for an outdoor activity she is planning (must be able to fill them). Would you kindly be able to donate any you may have and no longer need, or know of somewhere where Miss Rushbrooke can purchase some fairly cheaply?

Many thanks!