Squirrels
Welcome to Squirrels!
Communication and Language support:
This year in Havant we have the highest number of children 'at risk' of a communication and language delay EVER. Due to this we thought it would be useful for you to know where you can go for support and how. The staff at Fairfield will always be on hand to answer questions and can support you as much as we can but there is also a lot of help, guidance, tips and resources for free online. These websites are full of information! If you have any concerns please please do come and speak to us, as the earlier we can give support, the better.
http://wordsforlife.org.uk/
https://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/resources/resources/resources-for-parents/through-the-eyes-of-a-child.aspx
https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2015/03/4Children_ParentsGuide_2015_WEB.pdf
http://talkingpoint.org.uk/
Farm Visit 6.6.18:
We had such an amazing time with the farm animals and we learnt so much about each of them. We managed to meet every animal. There was a pig who was called George, George also has a sister called Peppa! The children listened so well and all joined in with the stroking of the animals. They all understood that their hand should not go by their mouths when they are touching animals until they have washed their hand otherwise they might get poorly.
There were two donkeys visiting us today. One called Ruby who is 4 and one called Max who is 5. The children loved it as we have a 5 year old called Max in squirrels! We were worried we might muddle them up! We learnt that Donkeys have a long hair in the winter to keep them warm but now that it is hot they loose their long hair. Loosing their hair can make them itchy so they like to roll around a lot on the floor to scratch themselves which makes them all muddy and dusty. The children each had a turn at stroking Max and hitting his side to get all the dust out.
We learnt that all ducks have webbed feet which is what helps them to be such great swimmers. Each child got to stroke the duck and see how it felt compared to the donkey.
We got the chance to name the goats. Farmer Ian asked Holly to name one boy goat so she picked Tom and Oliver was asked to pick the other name so he chose Oliver! The goats were extra cheeky because they kept chewing on Farmer Ian's top! We learnt that a young goat is called a Kid, that a mummy goat is a Nanny and a daddy goat is a Billy. Our Billy loved that! Well done to each child for being brave and with the animals.
School Council
Today the children had to vote for our first class councillors. We explained that our councilors needed to; think of good ideas, be able to talk with lots of grown ups and older children, always make good choices and be responsible. I asked the children to volunteer if they were interested and then each child had the chance to vote for one girl and one boy using multi link. Well done to everyone for really thinking about their choices. The class have selected Grace Ridgeway and Max Bentley as our new class councillors.
A Big Thank You to The Recycled Assets Company, Portsmouth:
Thank you so much to the Recycled Assets Company (TRACo) for their wonderful donations to help us improve our classroom environments. The children have loved exploring and using our new resources and it has definitely created more exciting experiences for them all.
Thank you again it is greatly appreciated by all of our children!
Havant Library Visits
This half-term we have been visiting Havant library to find out all about the library service. We learnt that we can all get our own library card and borrow up to 30 books for free. We also found out that we can borrow audio books and dvds from the library. We had fun looking at some of the fiction and non-fiction books and completing a treasure hunt around the library. Well done to all the children who cam on their good listening and keeping themselves safe on the roads and pavements. We would like to say a massive thank you to Karen from Havant library and to all the parents who came with us on our trips. I look forward to taking the rest of Squirrel class next week!
Maths Menu Summer 1
Welcome back after the Easter break!
16/4/18 We had a bit of a surprise today in Year R. Mr Lymath spotted something funny during the holidays, luckily it was captured on camera. A dinosaur has been in the wing! The dinosaur left a book and a letter for the children. We read the book and letter. The children wrote about the dinosaur and asked him questions.
We wish you all a Happy Easter. The children are bringing home an Easter Diary to complete over the holidays. We look forward to hearing holidays news and sharing the diaries. Thank you for your continued support. The Year R Team
28.3.18
Easter Bonnet Competition
We are so impressed with all the lovely entries to the Easter Bonnet competition! We hope you had a lovely last day at school and have an amazing Easter break! We can't wait to see all your lovely adventures on Tapestry and hear about it when you're back.
Firefighters visit 26.3.18
Today we met the Fire Fighters from Havant. It was third time lucky for us. They were originally visiting us on the snow day and then last Tuesday but were called to an emergency as they were pulling in to the school playground. So, we were delighted we got to meet them today. Sadly they were called away to an emergency before the children had a turn to complete all 3 activities with the Fire Fighters. We were amazed at how quickly the Fire Fighters left to get to the emergency. Andy left in such a hurry that he forgot his shoes; he was wearing his uniform boots as he had been showing the children the protective clothing when the call came in! We learnt about the protective clothing Fire Fighters wear, smoke alarms at home and how to call the Fire Fighters. We were also lucky enough to have a turn with the hose and see how powerful the water was! We had such a lovely time.
23.3.18
Sport Relief 2018
To celebrate Sport Relief we participated in lots of sporting activities. We got to play; penalty shoot outs, hockey, tennis, egg and spoon races and an obstacle course. The children really engaged with the activities and had a great morning. Thank you to all of you for your donations and for helping us to celebrate Sport Relief!
22nd March
Easter Assembly
Today in assembly we learnt about the Easter Story and why we have chocolate eggs at Easter. We sang our Easter song and signed some of the actions. We then watched the video of children signing along to "A Thousand Years" that was released for World Down Syndrome Day. Ask your child to show you how to say "I love you" in Makaton. What other Makaton signs can they remember?
22nd March 2018
Police Visit!
Debbie and Sarah talked to us about what we need to do in an emergency. We practised saying “999” so we should all remember the number to call if we need help in an emergency. They also suggested that we learn our addresses so we know where to sen them too. Next we marched like police officers out onto the playground where the Police Van was waiting for us! Debbie and Sarah talked to us about some of the equipment they use when they are working. We looked at high visibility jackets, protective clothing, helmets, riot shields and the items Police Officers carry on their belts. Some of us even tried on a belt-we decided they were very heavy! We had a try at squeezing all of Squirrel Class into the back of the Police van but we couldn’t fit them all in! Next Miss Francis, Mrs Hooper and Miss Matthews had handcuffs put on them and were put in the back of the van! The children learnt lots and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. A massive massive thanks to both Sarah and Debbie for organising such a memorable experience for the children.
19th March 2018. The children came back from Assembly and the Evil Pea had been in the Year R Wing! The Evil Pea had stuck tape all over our things and even stuck a chair onto the table! The children wrote wanted posters and stuck them around the school. The children will be making their own Super Veggies! Please can children bring in one vegetable each by Monday 26th March. The sooner the better as we will start making them this week. I hope your child tell you all about our exciting day!
16th March 2018. Karl the First Aider came to school. The children learnt about calling 999. We had a long talk about where we live. Some children were not sure where they live so we have asked the children to find out! The children learnt about the recovery position. We hope they can tell you about it! Thank you to Karl from Fasset Training.
14th March 2018. Gunner the Guide Dog and Tiny came to visit! Tiny told us all about Gunner's role as a Guide Dog. We learnt about how Gunner keeps Tiny safe at home and out and about. Ask your child about Gunner!
Spring 2 Creative Learning Journey. People who help us
Maths Menu Spring 2
Today we learnt about Shrove Tuesday why it is celebrated and how it is celebrated around the world! The children then discussed what their favourite pancake topping was plus tasting different pancakes. Yummy!
The children had a wonderful day going back in time to 1897 and pretending to be Victorian school children to celebrate the schools birthday. They did so well at following the rules and we still had so much fun! See what your child can tell you about the day and what they have learnt about Victorian schools.
Maths Menu Spring 1
8th January 2018. We had a visitor today in the playground! We hope the children will tell you all about it. The children did some wonderful writing about the bear. We came back in to class and talked about the bear, we thought about what we already know about bears and what we want to find out!
Creative Learning Journey. Spring 1, Walk in the woods.
Christmas Home Learning
We would love to hear about all the wonderful things you do over the Christmas holidays. Please can you draw, write or stick photos, pictures or tickets in your Christmas diary. We look forward to sharing these with you in class in January.
Have a lovely Christmas Holiday!
Christmas Party
20.12.17
We have had a super day at school today. We had lots of fun choosing and wrapping presents for our families at the Christmas shop this morning. After lunch we had a super Christmas party. We played party games and then a very special visitor arrived! Father Christmas brought us some lovely presents for the classroom - we got some microphones for our talking den, some magnetic building shapes and a monkey balancing game. Thank you Father Christmas! Once Santa had left we enjoyed our party food in our classes. Thank you for all your generous donations of food.
Mrs Cullen's Leaving Assembly 30th November
We sadly said goodbye to Mrs Cullen this week. We would like to say thank you for everything Mrs Cullen has done for us at school this year. We are all going to miss her lots. Mrs Cullen brought us some super leaving presents - a new farm and some pretend cakes and biscuits for our role-play area. Thank you!
Assembly 16/11/17. This week’s Year R Assembly was about Anti-Bullying Week. We talked about what bullying is and how to tell the difference between a falling out and bullying. The children then thought of different ways to be a good friend.
Maths Menu Home Learning. Please complete as many of these activities as you can to support your child's maths development. We would love to see photos or write ups on Tapestry :-)
9th November
Remembrance Assembly
In assembly today we learnt about why we wear poppies in November. We practised sitting silently to show our respect for all the brave men and women who have fought in wars to keep us safe and we thought about things things we are thankful for.
07/11/17
Our topic this half term is Rhythm and Rhyme. We will be sharing a variety of rhyming stories.
In phonics and reading we will be working on blending sounds to read words. In maths we will be learning about repeating patterns, ordering by size, accurate counting and number recognition. Maths Menus will be coming out this week. We really enjoyed seeing the children’s maths menu activities on Tapestry.
Rainbow Fish Assembly
In assembly we were thinking about friendship. We acted out the Rainbow Fish story and thought about how Rainbow Fish felt when nobody wanted to play with him and how his friends felt when Rainbow Fish wouldn't share his scales. We talked about how we can be good friends and look after each other.
20th October 2017
To celebrate our first half term at Fairfield Infant School we had a party! We danced, played musical statues and musical bumps before we stopped for a party snack. Well done to all the children, you have settled in really well.
19th October 2017
We learnt about Diwali, the 'festival of light' in Year R assembly.
Diwali Assembly
These are the number formation rhymes we use in school to help your child recognise and write their numbers. We will send these home next week :-)
Maths Workshop 12th October 2017
12th October
Miss Francis led our Assembly. We shared the story 'Pumpkin Soup', the animals learnt to work as a team. We always end our Assembly with a song. We sang 'Together' as we were working as a team. We sign some of the actions in the song. Ask your child to show you the actions.
Friday 6th October.
Reverend David Morgan led our Harvest Assembly.
We thought carefully about the things we are thankful for, including, television, pizza and school work!
Thank you all for your generous food donations. We will be taking them to the Food Bank.
Story Telling at the Library! More details on the pictures. Tickets need to be booked. No upfront cost-you pay what you think the show is worth after the show.
Maths Menu Home Learning. Please complete as many of these activities as you can to support your child's maths development. We would love to see photos or write ups on Tapestry :-)
Parents Reading and Writing Workshop Presentation
Today we went to our first assembly in the hall. We looked carefully at the pictures on the board and tried hard to link the pictures in our minds. All the photos were about New Beginnings. Mrs Hall talked to us about Spinning Spider, we were spinning spiders when we made links!
Our first daily mile! The children will be running 4 laps of the playground each day as part of their right to be healthy. They all did so well!
What a wonderful first full week we have had together!
Well done to all the children and grown ups too! We have been busy reading a book about Bugs starting school and we have been thinking about the similarities and differences between their school and ours. We went down to the meadow for the first time and listened carefully for the Bug School bell! The children spotted the apple tree laden with apples, Mrs Duffy picked some apples for us and we shared them together back in Year R.
We are running a reading and writing workshop on Thursday the 28th of September and would love to see you all there
Tapestry is now up and running. If you have any problems logging in or getting started on Tapestry please come and see us.
Quick reminders:
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Year R P.E days are on Mondays and Tuesdays. If your child wears earrings please remove them for these days.
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Please label all items of clothing. The children are now changing for P.E so naming trousers and T.shirts is really helpful.
Thank you very much.
Miss Francis and Mrs Hooper
We are grateful for the support you are giving your child with their phonics learning at home. Below is a short video demonstrating the Pure Sounds we teach.
We are currently teaching Letters and Sound Phase 1 in phonics. This phase is all about getting children ready to read. We focus on listening to and discriminating sounds, remembering sounds and talking about sounds. We make and copy rhythms using our bodies and instruments, we sing rhyming songs and play rhyming games, and we practise orally blending and segmenting the sounds in words. Here is a link to the Phonics Play website where you will find some great games to help support your child learning these skills.
What a wonderful summer it has been! I have been very busy spending time with my family and friends I hope you all have too. I am now sorting out Squirrel's classroom ready to welcome you all! Can't wait to meet you all at the home visits. If you have any questions and queries please contact the school office. See you soon!
We have had a very lovely week having RNLI and now the Police in to visit us! We have loved hearing about how they help people like us and what we should do if we need them. I wonder if your child can tell you one thing they have learned from our visitors?
This week we had a lovely visitor from RNLI. The children loved learning about how to keep themselves and others around them safe. Each child got the opportunity to stand up and be involved in the presentation in lots of different ways. Why not ask your child what they learnt?
We hope the children have been impressing you at home with their new phonic knowledge. Reading everyday (just for a few minutes) will build their confidence to apply their phonic knowledge. If you would like support with reading at home with your child please see a member of the team.
Thank you for all the costumes that have already been sent in for ‘Wriggly Nativity’.
The Year R Team
On Monday we had a message from Mr Lymath asking us to go down to the meadow and help him. Once we were down there we spotted a witch's hat and broomstick that had crash landed into the ground! The children have been writing and drawing about why the witch might have been in our meadow and how we can help her. This has been taken from our Room on the Broom story that we have been learning about this week. Why not ask your child to tell you all about it?
I hope you're having a lovely half term. I can't wait to hear about everything you have been doing. I have been very busy preparing the classroom ready for next half term and now I'm off to see my family and friends back in London. I would just like to say a big thank you and well done to you all for the hard work you have put in this half term. It's nice to think back to our very first day of school when we might not have known anyone, but now have so many new friends to play and learn with. I'm glad we all enjoyed our party on Thursday, it was well deserved! Now enjoy the rest of your time off and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday.
What an amazing couple of weeks we have had! Well done to all of Squirrels class for settling in so well. It has been so lovely seeing all the new friendships forming. This week we had our practise fire alarm drills and we were all a bit nervous but we did fantastically well when it came down to it.
Have fabulous weekends, I can’t wait to hear all about them on Monday!
What a busy week we have had!
We hope you have all received an email about Tapestry (some have gone to the junk folder). If you have not, or are not able to log in please catch a member of staff. Tapestry is new to Fairfield this year so please bear with us.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Miss Francis and Mrs Hooper
Year R have been busy painting the fence and improving the outside classroom ready for September!
