‘The word advent means ‘expectation’ What advent can do for us is create a sense of hope.’
Louie Giglio
Another crazy week! The children have been so resilient, there has been a lot of sickness for the children and adults this week, but they have continued working hard and blown us all away with their nativity rehearsals. We haven’t managed a practise with all the children yet but they have listened to any instructions, they all know their lines and taken it in their stride. We are incredibly proud of them and know that no matter what happens next week they will be amazing and we are so proud of them.
We have been thinking about what advent means, it is a special time that we use to prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas. We looked at different Nativty Crib scenes around the world and created our own in the classroom. We made our own Advent Spiral using playdough and we have been thinking about our advent promises. The children have taken their own photos too!
Conversation Starter:
What does Advent mean and how can you be a symbol of hope this advent?
What have we been learning this week:
It has been a busy week of practising, I have continued starring in a few roles too! They have been amazing and I am really excited for you to see them next week. Just a reminder our performance will be recorded on Tuesday when we perform our Nativity to the school.
Don’t forget to get your tickets you can buy them straight from the office.
Thank you for those who have filled in the forms, I do understand that for many of you it can be difficult to take time off work, but Grandparents and other family member are always welcome to come and share your children’s learning.
If you haven’t please could you fill in the form below. If you have any questions please email me.
Phonics: Sound mats have gone home or are going home. Please can you make sure they are in your child’s folder so we can tick the sounds your child knows and let you know which sounds to practise at home. I have made RWI QR codes for you to watch the videos at home. They are in your child’s book bag and I have attached them below.
Reading Books: please can you sign to let us know you have read together at home. These books will be changed every Monday, please can you ensure reading folders are in bags every day so books can be changed and we can listen to your child read in school.
Maths: This week we have continued to find out ‘how many’ objects there are and matching numerals to different amount. I needed the children’s help because I keep making mistakes when counting objects. Sometimes I miscount or count out too many, forgetting to stop at the right amount. Luckily the children can spot my mistakes and help me fix it.
Thursday Morning with Miss Lavelle: Miss Lavelle brought Danny the dinosaur in to meet the children, they had a lovely morning.
Understanding the World: We loved looking at our pictures and Identifying toys from now and then. We discovered that a long time ago toys were made out of wood or metal and they didn’t have batteries. We enjoyed watching toy adverts from the past and we found out that there are still some toys we use now such as bikes and dolls.
Art with Mrs Mathers: The children enjoyed making a nativity scene.
Optional Homework Challenges:
It is wonderful that the children are so excited about their learning and to see how keen they are to continue this outside of school. We welcome any opportunity to share these learning experiences with you at home, which is why we have created ‘optional challenges’ across each year group which can be explored over this Autumn 2 half term.
These challenges link to the wider area of our curriculum, there are some activities to help with retrival and some with topics that are coming up.
Below you will find the optional challenges linking to the topics and areas of learning that we will be exploring this half term. These fun challenges are designed to cover a range of skills without being stressful or time consuming for you at home. You are welcome to complete them in any order you wish and it would be lovely to see pictures or examples of things that the children have enjoyed at home.
As always, thank you for your continued support.
Let’s Celebrate:
Lunchtime awards:
Our lunch time certificates are awarded by the lunch time team to those children who they see being wonderful role models and using marvelous manors:
Well done to our Role Model Noah and Rupert H for his Marvellous Manners.
Thank you both for being such wonderful role models and for remembering those acts of kindness everyday!
Well done to our certificate awardees: a ‘Sadie Spider’ for her hard work in phonics. A ‘Bobby Bee’ for Arthur, we will celebrate in class when you are back in school. We love your enthusiasm with your learning and trying new activities.
Whole School Virtues - Intentional and Prophetic:
Thank you for being intentional with the nativity especially as you have been ill you have remembered your lines and learnt a dance.
Henry the Dog: Henry is going home with this person for being my stage manager, you have ensure everyone is in the right place and done this with such kindness thank you.
Important Information and Upcoming Events
As part of our Star Charter, we will be raising money for a charity close to our hearts, if there a charity that has a special meaning to you please let me know.
On Wednesday 11th December we will be visiting the residents at Clarence House with Nusery to give them a christmas card and perform a few of our Nativity songs. We will be going in two groups one in the morning leaving at 9:15 and the second session leaving school at 1:30.
We really encourage parental engagement so it would be wonderful if we could have some adult helpers. If you are free and would love to join us please can you send me an email and let me know which session you can help us with. Please note mobile phones can not be used around the children or to take photos of the children. There will be school iPads and photos will be uploaded to the blog.
Show and Tell:
Please look below to see which day your child can share their show and tell news. We love to celebrate each child’s achievements in class. So we use show and tell as an opportunity to share things that they are proud of, or to share something that is important to them. Great show and tell examples are: sharing photos, bringing in certificates or medals, a souvenir from a trip out or something that they have made at home.
Important Reminders:
Nativity Follow that star
Our nativity performances will be on Wednesday 4th December at 9:30 and Thursday 5th December 9:30.
Please check all uniform is labelled so we can make sure everyone takes the right uniform home.
After our performances I will give the children a biscuit treat to enjoy in class, please let me know if you would prefer your child not to have a biscuit.
Travelling Nativity: each day a child will take home our travelling nativity, you will receive a text if you child is taking the nativity home. There is a book inside where you can add photos or draw pictures and then return it the next day. You can email any photos to me and I can share them with the class.
Christmas Cards: to help look after the environment if you would like to give Christmas cards, please could you give one to the class, we will display these cards in our classroom.
Polite reminder that we are a Nut free school. Please can you bring in healthy snacks please refer to the poster for suitable snacks, we always have fruit avalible too.
PE
Our PE days are Tuesday (outside) and Wednesday (inside). On these days, children can come to school in their PE uniform and will remain in this for the day. We kindly ask that velcro trainers (white, black or navy) are worn as this allows the children to be indepoendent when taking their shoes off and putting them back on. Polite reminder that for health and safety reasons, no jewellery is to be worn on PE days. We kindly ask that this is removed at home before coming into school.Art T-shirt
Please can you bring in an art T-shirt, if you haven’t already, these help us keep uniforms as clean as possible.Jumpers: please can you check that your child has brought the right jumper or PE jacket home, they can easily get mixed up when bags are being packed, there are a few missing in class, thank you.
if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at:
d.drummond@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk
Thank you for all of your support
Have a lovely weekend
Miss Drummond, Mrs Summersall, Mrs Kroll and Miss Forster