We have been discussing what gratitude looks like with the children recently. We frequently share something we are grateful for (friends, warm weather, our parents helping us get to school etc) during the roll. We have also been writing thank-you letters for our wonderful parent helpers . Gratitude is a key tool for resilience in our children. Why not discuss things you are grateful for around the dinner table at home?

From the staff team....thanks a million to all our parent helpers, especially the Friday gingerbread bakers, Ali, Nicola (Archie), Oliver's Mum, Cam (Ashlyn) and of course Nicole (Layla), Kate and Tanya who have spent hours laminating resources and putting books away. Your help is very very appreciated!! The kids love working with you.
  



We Get There Together

The children have been working on listening and working with their peers in line with our school value,  'We get there together.'
One activity we use to develop listening is 'talking buddies'. Children sit facing their buddy, and discuss a question starter given by the teacher e.g. What is your favourite place to go?
What superhero you would like to be?  What does respect mean? They practise listening to and responding to their peer, and then sharing their own thoughts.

Reading
As ever we are loving our books!  We are also using picture books as stimulus to help us in our own writing. We read the picture books , 'My Brilliant Dad,' and 'My Mum,' and then described our own family members, and favourite places. We are practising the key writing skills of:
* Saying our sentence
* Saying and hearing letter sounds and having a go at writing new words
* Using our knowing words (high frequency words)
* Re-reading our work as we go
* Adding fullstops and checking we have capitals at the start
* Adding 'wow' words to make our writing interesting
e.g. 'Inflatable world is totally awesome'
What can you do at home?
* Have a special notebook for your child to record the 'wow' words they read in picture books.
* Encourage your child to write and make cards for others
* Have a range of writing materials available e.g. pens, felts, pencils etc
* Offer fine motor tasks such as putting clothes pegs in a line; threading; building and dough work




Developing independence in our students

We encourage all our children to put their own belongings away in the morning on arrival at school. There are 3 things that we would like the children to do independently.
1. Put their backpack on the hook.
2.Take their fruit out for morning fruit break.
3.Put their reading folder away in the labelled reading container.

If the children become independent in these tasks it will help them as a learner and transfer into other learning areas at school. Our students will become confident in their ability to manage their belongings, themselves and ultimately their learning.
A key example of this would be the child who independently turns the pages in their reading book and points to the words in the text themselves.


Reminder
There are a few bugs going through the school at the moment. We are reminding children to wash their hands after going to the toilet and before eating. Please ensure that your child knows how to do this.

A novel way of learning some sight words! Can anyone better this? These two had lots of fun inventing this new game.

Thank you !!!!
Thank you Amy McDaid  so much for the many hours you spent making the beautiful painting smocks for Koru children. You certainly modelled the Beckenham Kete of We love Challenge and We Make a Difference.The children love these and I'm sure the Parents will too.They thought the different colours were very cool and were very excited.At long last paint free uniforms hopefully.A dream come true.




We can learn a lot through playing and talking with our friends.

This group of children tested their developing measurement skills during Discovery Time when a one car garage needed to be extended to accommodate three cars! The children learned from each other as they discussed how to make sure that all three cars were going to fit.



Reminders
Book your Learning Conference online now. Refer to the school newsletter for further details.