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Ash Class 2022-2023

Welcome to the Ash Class page. We are a busy class of Reception, year 1 and year 2 children. Here you will find regular updates about our adventures! Miss Bleakley is our Class teacher and is supported by Mrs Hartness and Mrs Taylor.

Summer Term

Week Commencing 3rd July 2023

What a busy week in Ash Class! The children have been designing and making their own kites. They have thought carefully about what makes a successful kite and have adapted their original designs if needed. They decorated them by adding a tail and built a strong frame for their sail. The children have also been designing and making clay tiles as part of an art project this term. They look fab and it's been great to see the children develop their clay skills. We also enjoyed watching a performance of Cinderella Rockerfella on Tuesday! They were great! Reception have enjoyed lots of opportunities to practise some of their EYFS skills in our continuous provision this week. They've enjoyed being outside exploring the sand, water and construction activities. Ash Class also enjoyed a transition session on Tuesday afternoon when year 2 visited Oak class and Reception and year 1 welcomed the new Reception children from Puddleducks with Miss Gibson. It's been wonderful to witness such a smooth transition for our new Reception pupils and I know Miss Gibson is looking forward to welcoming them again next Tuesday. 

Week Commencing 19th June 2023

Ash Class have enjoyed exploring a new poetry book called 'Out and About' by Shirley Hughes. This book is full of poems about being outside. The children have discussed some of the poems and illustrations and have gathered key vocabulary from their own experiences outside! In maths, year 1 and 2 have revisited using a ruler to measure in CM. Year 2 have been drawing shapes to the correct measurements and we've also been solving problems using estimation. We had a slight change to PE this week as Mrs David was poorly. However, we loved practising for sports day with sessions led by Riley who has been with us for work experience this week! In Forest school we tackled some weeding in the wild garden and sensory garden! It's a tough job! Phew...what a busy week!

Week commencing 12th June 2023

This week in Ash Class we've enjoyed designing our kites in DT and planning our kite adverts in English. The children have worked really hard to record rhetorical questions, adjectives and powerful slogans! In maths we have been recapping telling the time. Year 1 and 2 have recapped reading the time and solving some time problems! Reception have been learning to find one more and one less that numbers to 20. They have also been exploring 2D shapes and describing their properties. In PE we have enjoyed team games and athletics. We've been practising throwing skills ready for sports day and have also been practising our sprinting! We had a lovely forest school session with Mrs Tickle this week too where we explored what happens when rubbish makes its way into the ocean. The children had a lovely time using water and different plastics. 

Week Commencing 5th June 2023

What a fab start to Summer Term 2! Ash Class have been busy working on an English, RE and Art project this week. They reflected on some big RE questions such as 'why is Jesus important for Christians?' and 'what makes Islam special?' The children also responded to religious paintings and stained glass window and create their own art designs. These were then transferred onto umbrellas to create a new art installation. This week in English we have been learning about adverts as we build up to making our own adverts about the kites we are going to make in DT. We started our new DT projects by exploring what a kite is and the parts that they are made up from. In maths we have been consolidating some learning about number and place value to 100 and Reception have been working really hard on finding missing numbers using what they already know about numbers to 20. We had a brilliant athletics session with Mrs David from Hunts SSP on Wednesday and can't wait for her session again next week. The children worked really hard! We also had another lovely forest school session with Mrs Tickle on Friday afternoon! What a busy week!

Week Commencing 8th May 2023

The children have been working really hard this week and have enjoyed learning more about plants in Science. They planted a bean seed so that over the next couple of weeks they can watch it grow. They came up with some really interest questions about plants too such as 'Will it grow quicker if I talk to it?' I can't wait to find out the results! We've been working hard to edit and improve our writing this week too with Reception focusing on writing sentences they can read back to themselves with a big focus on letter formation, finger spaces and remember not to use capital letters in the middle of words. They have been writing sentences about plants and the King's Coronation this week. Year 1 and 2 have been working hard to edit some writing from last week and have explored using a dictionary to check spellings. We've been consolidating some of our maths knowledge this week too. Year 1 and 2 have been recapping fractions, addition and subtraction. In PE the children have enjoyed developing their ball skills and we've been really pleased with their progress and teamwork! 

Week Commencing 17th April 2023

This week in Ash Class we have enjoyed getting stuck into our new topic 'Ingenious Inventions.' I'm excited to see the children's knowledge of inventions and inventors grow over the term! We started by recording what we already knew and it was lovely to see some of the children use their prior learning from science and humanities homework projects in this session. We also considered carefully what an inventor is and why they are significant. The children sequenced some famous inventors and reflected on how their inventions have impacted society. In Science this week we started a new unit all about plants. Again, the children started the session drawing on prior knowledge and recorded what they already knew. We enjoyed a PSHE lesson about how we can keep healthy, including brushing our teeth, eating a balanced diet and keeping active. In art we have started to explore how artists create texture in their artwork. The children explored different ways of creating texture using a variety of different mediums. PE involved developing our ball skills and rolling a ball between targets. We enjoyed another fab forest school session on Friday afternoon after a busy week! 

Spring Term

Week Commencing 13th and 20th March 2023

Phew! What a busy couple of weeks in Ash class! We enjoyed celebrating British Science Week with lots of activities around the theme of connections. The children investigated how the size of a vehicle's wheels affects the distance it can travel, before taking part in an online workshop called 'How are tractors connected to space?' It was fab! Ask them to find out more!
We also enjoyed visits from lots of lovely and inspiring scientists/ engineers who talked about renewable energy, connections in biology and physics and even found out about connections within aircraft and flights. A huge thank you to Dr Farman, Mr Smith, Mrs Garland and Mr Stephens!! 

In Ash Class we also explored connections in nature and the seasons as part of our science learning about weather and seasons. We then used our working scientifically skills to find out more about fingerprints and even build super strong bridges using paper! It was wonderful to see the children's determination to build the strongest bridge!! 
This week we have continued our English unit about adverts and have been producing some persuasive writing. In Maths we are learning about mass. Reception have been using the balance scales to compare the mass of objects, year 1 have been measuring objects using non-standard measure and year 2 have been reading scales to measure objects in grams and kilograms. 

We enjoyed another super PE lesson in which we have been developing team game strategies and a lovely forest school session where we just missed a torrential downpour!! 

Week Commencing 6th March 2023

I'm really proud of how hard the children have worked this week. They have showed determination, resilience and a super positive attitude throughout assessment week. In addition, they have started a new English unit in which they are debating if children should be allowed to stay up late. They have also been practising measuring using the skills they learnt last week. In PE they have been using team games to develop teamwork and communication skills and it was great to see the progress they have made. Lots of Ash Class have also been enjoying gymnastics club with Mrs Griffiths! In DT we have been designing and have started making a secret project so watch this space! Years 1 and 2 in particular have been learning about using apostrophes for contractions and have been practising spelling rules for year 1 and 2. Reception have been practising reading their word wall words and are making some lovely progress!! What a busy busy week!!

Weeks commencing 20th/27th February 2023

What a busy couple of weeks in Ash Class. The children have finished and edited their final quest stories and they are fantastic! It was lovely to share them with parents at parents evening last week. In Maths we have been learning to compare lengths and measure in cm and m. The children have become experts at using a ruler! We've been enjoying team games in PE and have enjoyed playing giant hungry hippos! In the lead up to World Book Day we have been designing and making books about castles with moving parts. The children worked hard to decide on a lever or slider and carefully planned their book before finishing their masterpieces! The children enjoyed sharing them with parents at our bedtime story event. In forest school the children have been learning about micro-bugs and have been using magnifying glasses and even an underwater microscope to spot the micro-bugs on our school grounds! Year 2 in particular have been working hard during booster sessions with Mrs Passan and have been really focusing on addition and subtraction or 2 digit numbers, finding fractions of amounts and answering questions about a text. Reception have been working really hard on their writing over the last couple of weeks. They have focused on using finger spaces, forming their letters correctly and sequencing words to form sentences. We are really proud of them! I'm been very impressed with the work ethic of year 1 too this term and was pleased to see them tackle some super maths challenges independently! Well done! 

Week Commencing 6th February 2023

As always we have had a busy week in Ash Class. The children have enjoyed learning about people who would have lived in castles and the different jobs they might have done. They were great at exploring some artefacts and considering what they might have been used for. In Maths we have been learning to divide by making equal groups. Reception have also been exploring the concept of equal groups. In English the children have continued their unit about quest stories and are able to identify some of the features of quest stories and discuss characters, plot and setting. To finish this term's DT project, the children made their own musical instruments. It was great to see them think carefully about how they were going to ensure their instrument made a sound and how to join the pieces together. Reception and Year 1 had their final Balanceability session with Mrs David from Hunts SSP on Wednesday and we have been really impressed at the progress they have made! We have continued with our gymnastics sessions in PE and have been practising our balance and movement skills. We enjoyed a lovely forest school session with Mrs Tickle on Friday where we spent time watching and learning about birds. It's been a great week! 

Weeks commencing 23rd and 30th January 2023

What a lovely couple of weeks we've had in Ash Class! In English we have been reading Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. The children have been exploring the features of quest stories, learning about conjugating verbs into the past tense and past progressive tense and have been considering the problems and solutions the characters in the story faced. Reception have enjoyed taking part in discussions about the story and have been busy developing their writing skills over the last couple of weeks. They are continuing to learn phase 3 phonics sounds and have most of the sounds taught so far in their phonics packs so you can practise with them at home. They have been identifying sounds within words and have practised segmenting to spell. They have been encouraged to write within the continuous provision with opportunities to write on the wall, make shopping lists and write stories! In Maths we have been learning to multiply and divide. The children have been creating arrays to help them solve one step multiplication problems and they have been sharing into equal groups to solve one step division problems. They are beginning to see the links between multiplication and division. Reception have been learning about making equal groups and have been sorting equal and unequal groups. All year groups have been learning about odd and even numbers as part of our Mastering Number program. Our humanities topic this term is Castles. We have been finding out about who would live in a Norman castle and what kinds of jobs they would have. The children were learning about the hierarchy and who would have been seen as the most important. They had great fun and shared some lovely ideas about some artefacts and what they might have been used for. Turns out one of them was a musical instrument, one was used for measuring medicine and one was a bowl for catching fat while cooking over a fire! The children enjoyed a lovely Charanga music session in which they learnt to sing a new rock song after practising finding the beat and warming their voices up. In Science the children have been learning about materials. They carried out an experiment to find out the answer to a big science question- are all metals magnetic? They designed their own experiment and chose how to record their findings. I was really proud of the scientific vocabulary they used! Reception sorted objects into those that were made of metal and those that were not. They discussed the properties of metal together as a group. The children have now handed in their history projects and we are very excited to share them at our 'Walk Through Time' event next Friday. 

Week Commencing 16th January 2023

We've loved starting our DT project this week in which we will be designing and making our own musical instruments! This week we explored real musical instruments, learning the names of the different parts and exploring how they make a sound. In forest school the children were exploring the differences between the shade and being in the sunshine. They discovered that it's colder in the shade and that it's darker. They also discovered that ice melted quicker in the sunshine than in the shade! In art, the children have been learning about two artists- William Morris and Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi. They explored printing using primary colours and found out what happened when they overprinted. The children also created some lovely artist studies in their art books! Reception have been working really hard this week. In maths they have been practising subitising (recognising dots on a dice quickly) and have been finding the matching pieces of numicon. They then used the numicon to add two single digit numbers together and recorded this as a number sentence using + and =. Well done Reception! Reception have continued learning new phonics sound and have been really practising using them to write words and sentences. They have been labeling diagrams and writing simple sentences! Year 2 have recapped addition and subtraction and really focused on selecting a good method to solve problems. In SPAG we've been learning about suffixes and how they can change the meaning of words. Alongside this we revisited verbs and nouns. They learnt how to jump in tens and ones on a number line to add quickly. In PE this week we started our gymnastics unit. This week we explored rolling, starting with pencil and teddy bear rolls and moving on to forward rolls! 

Weeks Commencing 2nd and 9th January 2023

What a great start to the term. We enjoyed creative week on the first 3 days back at school and used the time to explore our new topic- Castles! We have learnt so much already about the first castles and Kings and Queens who might have lived in them. We used artefacts such as the Bayeux Tapestry to find out about the Battle of Hastings and had a debate to share who the best person to be King after the battle would be! It was great to hear the children's ideas! We also created some beautiful sunset artwork this week for an upcoming art competition. The children had free choice over the resources they used and what they included in their artwork. The finished work is lovely! We got stuck into maths and English this week as we start have started learning about money and exploring stories with quests! The children have been sequencing events in 'Lost and Found' by Oliver Jeffers and have been thinking carefully about what the characters might be thinking and feeling throughout the story. Towards the end of the week we continued our maths unit in which we are learning about money and the children also wrote some lovely recounts about their trip to Grafham.

We had a great day at Grafham Water Centre on Wednesday and took part in bouldering, low ropes and archery. The children showed great teamwork, resilience and independence and we're very proud of them! 

Autumn Term

Week Commencing 12th December 2022

What a busy week in Ash Class. The children were amazing in their Christmas Nativity performance- Born in a Barn. We're so proud of them for giving our KPA families a wonderful performance with lovely singing and loud voices! We've enjoyed lots of Christmas themes activities this week while also working hard in English and Maths! 

Week Commencing 5th December 2022

What a busy week of rehearsals we've had in Ash Class! We are very excited for you to come and watch it! We've also been busy practising and performing poetry this week. We learnt a poem called 'Spaghetti! Spaghetti!' and performed it to the rest of the class. In Maths we've been subtracting. Year 1 have really focused on subtracting by taking objects away or crossing them out on their pictorial representations. Reception have been practising recognising and writing numbers. Please continue to practise at home! In DT this week, the children have been designing Christmas cards, using the specification they made last week. They look amazing! In art, we created abstract portraits and are looking forward to finishing them next week! 

Weeks Commencing 21st and 28th November 2022

We've had a brilliant couple of weeks in Ash Class. The children have blown me away with their determination and effort throughout assessment week. They have worked so hard and I'm really really proud of them! We have also continued our English unit on letters and postcards. We have been reading Meerkat Mail and this week the children have been writing their own postcards. Reception have been brilliant and used their phonics knowledge to write their own postcards too! The children have enjoyed dance sessions with Mrs David from Hunts SSP. Their dances have been inspired by penguins and polar bears. We had a visit from Genr8 today who spoke about advent. This led to a discussion about special celebrations in other religions too. It was great to listen to the children's experiences. We have also been busy rehearsing our nativity play. The children are so funny and have been working hard to learn their lines. We can't wait for you to see it!

Weeks Commencing 7th and 14th November 2022

What a busy couple of weeks in Ash Class! In Maths we have been using number bonds within 10 to add and subtract, have been making links between number bonds eg if you know 8+2=10 then you also know 80+20=100. Reception have been continuing to develop their understanding of numbers and how they are made of other numbers eg 7 is made of 2 and 5. I've been really impressed with their number work over the last 2 weeks! In English we have started a new unit exploring letters and postcards. We have read The Day the Crayons Quit and Meerkat Mail and used them to explore features of letters, using conjunctions and writing our own letters. As part of an exciting writing task the children wrote letters to a teacher to ask for changes or a school trip! They are amazing! To finish of our DT unit the children made their own fruit salad based on their specification. I was particularly impressed with their reflections afterwards about how they would improve them if they made them again. We've had some super forest school sessions over the last 2 weeks, including exploring pumpkins, which was so messy!! Today the children created a Pudsey face using leaves which was awesome! We have also been learning about Remembrance- Reception children created their own poppy paintings which are proudly displayed in the classroom. In art, the children have been creating collages using natural objects. They created hedgehogs, owls and many other creates inspired by nature. In PE we have started our dance unit and explored the different ways that penguins move- great fun! 

Week Commencing 17th October 2022

In English this week the children have been creating new characters based on the characters in Anthony Browne's books. They role played some discussions between their new characters and then wrote a dialogue between them. Year 2 have learnt to use speech marks. In our exciting writing session this week the children wrote a diary entry from the point of view of Little Red Riding Hood. It's great to see them applying the new skills they have been learning to their independent writing. Reception have been learning new sounds in phonics and are beginning to blend sounds to read simple words. They have been working really hard on their letter formation and have been using lots of 'busy finger' activities to practise their fine motor control. Year 1 have continued recapping phase 3 sounds and have been practising reading real and non-sense words.

In Maths this week we have been counting in 3s and using this skill to solve maths problems. I've been really pleased with the children's ability to explain how they know the answers as well as solving maths problems quickly. Reception have continued developing their understanding of shapes and have been exploring shapes in the continuous provision. 

In DT the children have been designing their fruit salads ready to make in our new DT session. They have used their knowledge of fruit, using tools and improving the taste to create their own design specification. In PE this week the children have been practising their agility and coordination while playing some team games! It's been a busy week and a pleasure to talk to parents about their children at parents evening. Thank you for attending. 

Happy half term!

Week Commencing 10th October 2022

We've had another fab week in Ash class! We are fully engrossed in our English unit about books by Anthony Browne! We have been making our way through a big selection of his books, identifying key themes and using them to inspire our own writing! This week we have been using expanded noun phrases to describe and have been describing images from 'What If...?' Reception have really enjoyed talking about the characters and setting. It's been great to listen to their contributions to class discussions. In maths we have continued developing number and place value skills, including finding one more and one less and using symbols to compare numbers. Year 2 have also recapped counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. We are loving our DT unit at the moment. The children have been exploring how to present a fruit salad. Following lots of fruit tasting, the children have been exploring how to get the most amount of fruit out of a selection of fruit in preparation for making their own fruit salads. In PE the children have continued to develop balance, agility and coordination using a range of apparatus. We have been moving forward with our phonics sounds. Reception have learnt lots of new sounds this week, including o, c, k and ck. They have been developing their fine motor control and practising forming the sounds they have learnt correctly. We had a good time taking part in our school Harvest Festival this week too! What a busy week!

Week Commencing 3rd October 2022

This week in English we have continued using books by Anthony Browne as a vehicle for our learning. We have been learning to write expanded noun phrases to describe and Reception have enjoyed exploring the pictures in more detail. In exciting writing this week we were writing letters to the Gorilla in one of Anthony Browne's books. In Maths we have been comparing numbers and groups of objects. Year 1 have been learning to use greater than and less than symbols while year 2 have deepened their understanding of comparing amounts. Our science unit this term is animals, humans and habitats. We have been learning about things that are alive, dead or have never been alive. We sorted items on the school playground! In PE we have continued our balancing sessions and this week took part in a carousel of balancing activities. We loved forest school this week where we looked for signs of Autumn! We gathered lots of Autumn leaves and had a leaf battle!! What a super busy week in Ash Class!!

Week Commencing 26th September 2022

What a busy week in Ash Class. Reception have been learning new phonics sounds and now know s,a,t,p,i,n! They have been exploring words that begin with these sounds as well as beginning to blend and segment sounds orally. Year 1 have continued recapping phase 3 sounds and are making me very proud! Year 1 and year 2 have been learning new spelling rules this week and practised them in class before bringing their spellings home to learn. In English we are exploring books by Anthony Browne. The children have been amazing as spotting hidden things within his pictures. They have been discussing similarities and differences between some of his books and even wrote and edited their own book review! In Maths this week Reception have been focusing on recognising numbers 0-10 along with touch counting accurately. We have been practising within our continuous provision and any extra practise at home would be great! Some children have also been ordering numbers 0-10 and matching numbers to amounts. In PE the children have continued to develop their balance as part of our balance, agility and coordination unit. In DT the children have been exploring different fruit as part of our unit in which the children will make fruit salad. This week they explored the taste, smell and texture of different fruits. I was really proud of the children for trying something new! We enjoyed visiting the school library again this week to change our books and am amazed at how many facts the children have learnt from their library books! The children enjoyed another lovely forest school session with Mrs Tickle where they used nature to colour and decorate a butterfly! Keep up the super work Ash Class! 

Weeks Commencing 5th and 12th September 2022

We had a really great start to the term as we welcomed our new Reception pupils into Ash Class. They blew me away with their confidence and have had a brilliant start. We have been holding lots of circle times in which we have discussed class rules that help us stay safe and have fun! We also kicked off the term with creative week and used a book called 'The Barnabus Project' as the vehicle for our learning. We explored the deeper meaning of the text and designed our own 'failed projects'. The children thought carefully about how they could include features of animals they know about. The children then designed some super 'wanted' posters along with detailed sketches of their characters. Now that we are quite settled, the children have been recapping key SPAG skills as well as developing their number and place value knowledge. In Science the children have started thinking about what they already know about animals, humans and habitats and created a KWHL grid.