Penhallow Class Blog: 2.2.2024.

We have enjoyed a fabulous, busy week in Penhallow, so much to shout about!
In our penultimate week of Spring 1, we are squeezing in as much as possible to cover our Great Fire of London topic, answering the enquiry question; What Happened in London a Long Time Ago?

We were so lucky to welcome the lovely ladies from our kitchen catering team on Wednesday afternoon. We made our own bread rolls, just like they did in the bakery on Pudding Lane in 1666.

We have been designing and beginning to make our own moving fire engines. The children loved using the saw to make their chassis with moving axle. This week, we will make the body of our fire engines and decorate.

In music, we have continued to learn our song about London in 1666. The children thoroughly enjoyed singing this to the rest of the school in our Friday assembly.

Well done to our people of the week this week, Kai and Lowen. They have shown excellent examples of our school values this week.

Keep up with your daily reading and practicing your KIRFs regularly.

We hope you enjoy a lovely weekend!

Mrs Taylor, Mrs G, Miss Colton and Mrs C.

I hope that the children have enjoyed telling you all about our morning with the Looe Fire Service today. We had lots of fun when they visited us at school and learned lots about fire safety.

Jack Blackmore and his officers were brilliant at showing us how the equipment worked and we were also lucky enough to be able to sit in the fire engine and aim the very powerful hose at a target. 

A great morning of learning had by all!

It has been another wonderful week of learning in Penhallow class where we have made the most of the beautiful dry, crisp weather. We took every opportunity we could to head outside and explore the frost and ice discussing the changes that were happening in our school garden because of the seasons. We incorporated this into a dance lesson on Friday by using the count of 8 to spin like falling leaves across the field! A wonderful way to finish a fun week!

Our enquiry question: What happened in London a long time ago? is in full swing! The children are loving all things Great Fire of London and I have attached a few photos below. This week we learned about the past and that the Great Fire of London happened a long time ago. We looked at timelines and learned about centuries. We used chalk to create a fabulous picture in art and in music we are beginning to learn a new song about London in 1666.

In English, we have been enjoying looking at a book that is a little different to most; 'Journey' is the most beautiful wordless book. We are using the book to spark our imaginations with WOW vocabulary we could use to tell the story ourselves. I have been so impressed with what both the Reception children and Year 1 have come up with so far! The journey will continue next week where we discuss, should the girl venture into the castle to continue her adventure? What will she come across?  

In maths, we are exploring numbers to 20, considering one more and one less, representing the teen numbers in lots of different ways. All children enjoyed having a go at 99 club this week where lots of children were able to achieve their '11 club' the first of the challenges. This focusses on adding within 10 and number bonds. Remember that there are plenty of games on the TwinklGo! code to practice these. Well done to Kai, in Reception, who received his 11 badge. Also, well done to Darragh, Jemima, Tommy, Ida and Alfie too. 

Our 'People of the Week' this week are Evie D, Finn and Dexter who have all showed examples of the school values this week! Well done!

It was lovely to see so many at the Celebration Assembly this week. Well done to Evie and Hector, our 'Writers of the Week' and Ada and Rosie, our 'Readers of the Week.' It is lovely to see the class showing such a love for reading at school. Please continue this at home by reading with your child every day, please put a note in their reading diary to tell us how they got on. This feedback is really helpful so we can work with them on anything they are finding tricky. Please remember that book bags should be bought into school every day. This is important as it enables us to change reading books regularly, send work or communications home and importantly, every Friday, we try to get to the school's wonderful library where the children are able to pick a book of their choice to look after and enjoy for the week. Also on a Friday, the Twinkl read together books are sent home (these are the paper ones). Please ensure these are read at some point over the weekend as they consolidate the sounds and tricky words we have been learning in the week, these are then changed to the new one on a Friday.

I will be inviting you in soon for a short workshop on how we approach reading and particularly phonics in the school. I will send these details out very soon.

On Monday, we are very excited that we hope to have a visit from the local Fire Service. The children will enjoy a morning full of activities where we hope to see a variety of vehicles that are used by the fire service today.

Enjoy a lovely weekend!

Mrs Taylor, Mrs G, Miss Colton and Mrs C.
 

Welcome to a New Year of Amazing New Learning!

It was wonderful to welcome the children back to a new year of learning and as soon as they ran onto the playground the excitement of 2024 began!

We have zoomed into our new topic with the enquiry question: What Happened In London A Long Time Ago? The children are very excited to learn about what happened in our country's capital and why it is important to learn about something important that happened 358 years ago.

In maths, Reception are subitising whilst the Year 1s learn about the number 10 and beyond, venturing into the teens. This term we will be learning facts within 20.

In PE we have enjoyed being cars, learning some foundation game skills and today we have enjoyed dancing like the summer rain and spinning like snowflakes! Please remember that our PE days are Wednesdays and Fridays. Children should have their PE kit in school every day.

We had a fantastic music lesson with Mrs Butlin where we explored pitch. Ask your child to say hello to Daddy, Mummy or Baby bear! They will show you how their voice can change pitch. "Hello Daddy Bear!"

Well done to Finn, Brody, April, Theo and Sonny who achieved their 11 badge in 99 club today. Remembering our number bonds to 10 will really help us with this and our maths KIRFs for this half term are attached to this blog.

Alongside our KIRFs, attached to this blog, is the Knowledge web which outlines the areas we will cover in our wider curriculum lessons this half term.

Well done to our 'People of the Week'
Last week was Tommy for showing an amazing attitude to learning on return to school. This week, Iylah, Rosie and Evie D were picked by adults for showing brilliant examples of the school values. 

Enjoy a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday for another fantastic week of learning!

Mrs Taylor, Mrs G, Mrs Colton and Mrs C.

15.12.2023

We have enjoyed another festive filled week in Penhallow where we started the week with a fabulous Christmas assembly Reverend Richard. We were able to 'wow' him with our knowledge of the Christmas story, we really enjoyed learning more about how Christians celebrate Christmas.

The highlight of our week was of course our Nativity performance, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. The children all did a fantastic job and I was so proud of them for putting in their best efforts. It was a very Wriggly Nativity!

To continue with our topic, What Can We Celebrate? we looked at the history of Christmas, learning that a lot of our traditions come from Victorian times as well as investigating how Christmas is celebrated around the world.

We look forward to enjoying two more days at school next week before breaking up for the Christmas Holidays! On Tuesday, we will celebrate the end of term with a Christmas Party Day, please send children in, in their party clothes (warm enough for the playground too) and also a plate/packet of party food would be most welcome!

I will be sure to update the TwinklGO! with more great books and games for the children to enjoy over the holidays!

Well done to Finn and Iylah for being our 'People of the Week' this week for guiding our Nativity perfectly with their brilliantly, confident narration in our class performance.

We hope you enjoy a lovely weekend!
Mrs Taylor, Mrs G, Miss Colton and Miss Hodge.

The Christmas fun has begun with full sparkle in Penhallow this week. We have enjoyed lots of creative, Christmas, crafting fun!

We continue with our amazing phonics learning and we are putting this into practice in our English lessons where we are writing a 'missing' part from the Stickman story. The children have come up with fantastic ideas of what happens to Stickman when he drifts off to sea. I look forward to seeing what adventures he gets up to!

In maths, we are at the end of our addition and subtraction topic and we will move onto looking at 2D shapes next week before the Christmas break.

We enjoyed a fantastic day on Tuesday where the children moved around the school in groups creating marvellous Christmas crafts in the school Art Day. On Thursday, the children enjoyed picking a gift in the gift room and on Friday it was lovely to see the children enjoying the Christmas Fayre.

We have been very busy getting ready for our Nativity which is on Wednesday at 11am and 2pm. We are so excited to perform to you! We have the dress rehearsal on Monday, where we perform to the rest of the school. Please ensure your child's outfit is in school ready for this performance. If your child has a speaking part, please ensure that they practice this over the weekend.

Well done to the following children for getting certificates this week:
Readers of the Week, Alfie and Felix. 
Writers of the Week, Martha and Jemima.

Penhallow's People of the week were Rosie and Ida this week for their enthusiasm shown in the Nativity rehearsals.

We hope you enjoy a lovely weekend!

Mrs Taylor, Mrs G and Miss Colton. (Miss Colton is our new Teaching Assistant and has had a fantastic first week with us in Penhallow!)

What a Week!

We have had a lot of fun in Penhallow this week! The snow fitted perfectly with our learning about the seasons and what we can expect in winter! The outdoor classroom looked beautiful covered in snow and we were still able to explore the ice and snow that was left when we returned safely on Friday.

We had a visit from the library van on Friday, it was lovely to send two passionate readers to the van to pick some new books for the school! We loved the illustrations on the side of the van!

Our Nativity practice is going well and the children are doing brilliantly at remembering their lines, positions and a lot of new songs! "We are so excited!"

Well done to Amelia for getting her 11 club badge in 99 club this week. We have begun looking into subtraction in maths and the Year 1s are doing a fantastic job in their 'first, then, now' stories. Keep practicing your number bonds to become more confident with our addition and subtraction topic. We will move onto looking at 2-D shapes before the Christmas Holidays!

Well done to our 'People of the Week' this week. Theo was picked for his enthusiasm to learn in the classroom, he makes us laugh and smile every day! Casey was picked by Mrs G for being 'great' at everything! Well done!

We added dribbling to our ball skills this week and enjoyed playing a game of playground style table football. 

The children were excited to join the older children in their classrooms to help decorate this year's lanterns. We hope you have a lot of fun if you are able to join in with the festivities in Polperro on Saturday night.

Remember as Christmas creeps up, the weeks are filled with festive fun! Tuesday is the School Art Day where the glitter will be well and truly out! On Thursday, be sure to wear your Christmas jumper (with school uniform) for the gift room day. Friday is the day of the Christmas Fair.

We hope you enjoy a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.

Mrs Taylor and Mrs G.