Our topic for this half term is ‘All About Me’. We began this week finding out about the animals the whole school has adopted to support children in learning effectively. The six animals were given alliterative names and chosen by the children in school. See of your child can remember who they are. We have been emphasising evidence of children who are adopting these characteristics of effective learning during play and rewarded them with merit stickers. Please help us to reinforce these characteristics by talking about them at home. In Literacy this week the children used their robotic skills to listen to words being sound talked by Metal Mike the robot. We are learning to hear and say the initial sound in words and some children are even beginning to sound talk the words themselves. Each child has been given a photocopy of the actions to accompany the letter sounds we have covered so far. Please practise these together over half term. In Maths this week, the class helped Inspector Gadget to solve a number problem in the classroom. They arrived at school to find the numbers on the washing line had been tampered with. All the numbers were muddled up! We talked about using our brains to help us think and our memory to help us activate our prior knowledge and recite the numbers in order. They also tried hard to adopt some characteristics of effective learning e.g. being like Marvin the motivated mouse and Izzie the independent iguana in their approach to the problem. Perhaps you could play some number games at home over half term e.g. hide and seek or number bingo to support the children in recognising numbers. Our topic for this half term is ‘All About Me’. This week has focussed on Characteristics of Effective Learning WB 17/10/16 The children took part in a drama and movement activity at the beginning of the week to help a scientist build a robot. Each child adopted the role of the robot to imagine how they might help the scientist. We practised some stiff robotic movements before powering down for the night. The next day the scientist pulled out a shiny silver object and played the music. The children showed us how they thought the robots would react to hearing music for the first time and moved freely and creatively to the techno music. Remember to ask your child to show you their robot dance at home! Each child has been given a sheet of ‘learning at home’ labels. Please use these labels to note down any ‘wow’ moments at home. It is always so rewarding to find out that children are extending their learning at home and repeating activities that have taken place at school and you can use the class letters for ideas of what to include. If you need any more labels- please ask  After half term our topic will focus on ‘Around the World’. We will be talking about festivals that take place here in the UK and those in other countries. We also plan to begin our Forest Friday Woodland adventures. More information to follow. Remember we will be lining up on the playground with the rest of the school each morning. We hope you all have a wonderful half term and look forward to hearing all your news when we start back.