Parrots Class

Class News Autumn Term 2023

15.9.2023

Dear Parents and Carers,

I cannot believe we are already at the end of our second week back! How time flies! We’ve had a busy fortnight in Parrots class with settling in and getting into the swing of things. The children have loved seeing their friends after the six week break and are taking the changes fully in their stride. Our new year 1s have been amazing! They’re getting stuck into KS1 and we couldn’t be prouder.  

During our first fortnight together, the children have made portraits of themselves to decorate the classroom using their drawing and colouring skills, as well as experimenting with cross-hatching using sketching pencils and even charcoal willow sticks in our first ‘Art of the Aborigines’ lesson. We also enjoyed a cooking lesson last week as part of our Summer Reading Challenge linked to the text ‘The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me’ and made some fruit roll-up sweets using strawberries and honey, which the children enjoyed. 

Last week we kick started our Geography lessons by going on an animal safari to Kenya. The children were able to name and locate the continent of Africa and some were able to locate Kenya independently as well; fantastic! We found out that it is a hot country with mountain ranges as well as dry, flat plains. They thoroughly enjoyed singing our song all about the continents. Here’s a link if you would like to join in with them at home! Seven Continents Song - YouTube. This year Parrots class will have their P.E sessions on Thursday afternoons and will be focusing on Athletics with Miss Klausner. In Maths P.E lessons they will continue to hone their ball skills.

We’ve also enjoyed starting our History topic this week - Toys: Past and Present. We will be busy looking back over toys from the past 100 years or so. Thank you to anybody who has kindly lent us some old toys to use - we really appreciate it! These helpful donations contribute to magic moments for the children, really hooks their imagination and enhances our learning. 

Every week in Parrots class we nominate a child for our class ‘Top of the Tree’ award. This will be given for children who are always trying their best, being kind, helpful and in general an all-round fabulous member of the class! The child will be awarded a special named certificate to keep and will be able to look after one of our resident parrots, Mini Pickle to look after over the weekend. Last week’s ‘Top of the Tree’ was Lucas and this week is Sara for being resilient and more positive this week and being brave. 

Our handwriting hero this week is Noah for working hard on improving his letter formation and size and our heroine is Nova for clear neat handwriting during her Read Write Inc lessons. Well done for all your efforts over this first fortnight - keep it up! 

Well done to everybody who has made such a great start to reading this year by logging on to the Boomreader app and logging all the books you have already read. Big shout out to Theodore for consistently logging and reading several books recently! 

Messages: 

• Homework this week will be English/phonics set on Google Classroom or a paper copy

• It is also expected that the children complete daily reading (either with their library book or Read Write Inc books) and spend time on TTRockstars/Numbots at home. This is especially important to build up fluency and support their learning. 

• Just a polite reminder to keep book bag keyrings to 1 or 2 as it can be tricky to fit things into the children’s drawers otherwise. 

• Art/DT shirts: thank you to those who have sent children in with an old oversized t-shirt/shirt to go over their uniform during our more creative messy lessons. If you haven’t already, please send in on Monday ready for our Art lesson. 

• Summer reading challenge: final call for summer reading challenge homework sheets so we can collate children’s house point totals. Thank you so much! 

Finally, I hope you all have a very restful weekend. See you Monday!

Miss Westrope and Mrs Sworka xx

 29.9.2023

Dear parents and carers,

It has been another fantastic two weeks at Lark Rise Academy in Parrots Class and the children have done extremely well coping with all their new routines and the expectations of Key Stage 1; well done everyone! The children are making us proud with their hard work and effort across all lessons and areas of their learning, as well as getting to grips with the structure of the school day. 

In Art this half term, we are looking at Art of the Aborigines and children have been super busy learning different techniques found in aboriginal Australian artworks, such as cross-hatching and X-ray sketching. This week we were lucky enough to get stuck into some new art resources with the use of Indian ink. Children proudly donned their art shirts and aprons and practised aboriginal symbols they learnt in the lesson input. Their patience, concentration and attention to detail was so lovely to see! 

In Music this term, we are learning a song called ‘Hands, Feet, Heart’ - a song that celebrates South African Music. This week we compared ‘Hands, Feet, Heart’ to the song to ‘The Click Song’ sung by Miriam Makeba and began to learn how to play it on the glockenspiel using three notes. The children also enjoyed playing some games linked to finding the pulse of a song and moving like an animal to the beat. In our music assemblies over the last couple of weeks, the children have enjoyed listening to music by Stevie Wonder as our ‘Musical Hero of the Half term.’ After finding out that he was blind and how this heightened his sense of hearing, the children began learning about an important musical term- ‘Timbre’ which is the sound quality of different instruments/ noises. For example, a violin will have a very different timbre to a trumpet. To help the children with this we played a little game whereby the children had to guess the instrument based on its sound and then describe it. Finally, we started to learn ‘I just called to say I love you’ so if you love a singsong at home why not try this one with your child to support their learning at home too! 

In Geography, we have continued our learning all about Africa with a focus on Kenya and had the most fun going on our very own safari. We sang a song, made our own binoculars and explored the savannah (our school grounds) for signs of African animals. In History we’ve enjoyed exploring old fashioned toys from the past, playing traditional games like hopscotch and even making our very own thaumatrope! We’re so excited for our first school trip next week as part of our History topic with a special workshop about toys too. 

Over the last two weeks our Top of the Tree has been awarded to Karlok for having an amazing attitude to learning and setting a great example to his peers. Our Handwriting hero is Theo P (Year 1) and Ilaria T.

Finally, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with your families and we will see you Monday ready for our exciting trip to Wardown Park Museum. Thank you so much for all of your support and cooperation with our first outing this year- we are ever so grateful! 

Lots of love,

Miss Westrope, Mrs Braithwaite and Mrs Sworka xx

Messages: 

-Homework this week will be either English or Phonics based. You will either be given a paper copy in your child’s book bag or it will be found on your child’s Google Classroom (logged in with their own school login). 

-We have a number of unnamed jumpers and cardigans which cannot be returned to their rightful owners. Please ensure all of your child’s clothing and personal items are labelled clearly.

 13.10.2023

Dear parents and carers,

It has been another fantastic two weeks at Lark Rise Academy in Parrots Class and the children have done extremely well coping with all their new routines and the expectations of Key Stage 1; well done everyone! The children are making us proud with their hard work and effort across all lessons and areas of their learning, as well as getting to grips with the structure of the school day. 

In Art this half term, we are looking at Art of the Aborigines and children have been super busy learning different techniques found in aboriginal Australian artworks, such as cross-hatching and X-ray sketching. This week we were lucky enough to get stuck into some new art resources with the use of Indian ink. Children proudly donned their art shirts and aprons and practised aboriginal symbols they learnt in the lesson input. Their patience, concentration and attention to detail was so lovely to see! 

We’re rounding up our History learning after our trip to Wardown Park looking at old toys. The children have enjoyed exploring the different toys from different decades as well as the origin of the teddy bear. We have looked at the differences between the original teddy bears and our stuffed animals today. We’ve looked at toys in chronological order and placed them on a timeline for historical context too. A little survey has been added to Google Classroom for children to ask older relatives (e.g. their grandparents) ready for next week! Please send answers in by Tuesday so we can share in classes.

In Music this term, we are learning a song called ‘Hands, Feet, Heart’ - a song that celebrates South African Music. This week we compared ‘Hands, Feet, Heart’ to the song to ‘The Click Song’ sung by Miriam Makeba and began to learn how to play it on the glockenspiel using three notes. The children also enjoyed playing some games linked to finding the pulse of a song and moving like an animal to the beat. In our music assemblies over the last couple of weeks, the children have enjoyed listening to music by Stevie Wonder as our ‘Musical Hero of the Half term.’ After finding out that he was blind and how this heightened his sense of hearing, the children began learning about an important musical term- ‘Timbre’ which is the sound quality of different instruments/ noises. For example, a violin will have a very different timbre to a trumpet. To help the children with this we played a little game whereby the children had to guess the instrument based on its sound and then describe it. Finally, we started to learn ‘I just called to say I love you’ so if you love a singsong at home why not try this one with your child to support their learning at home too! 

In Geography, we have continued our learning all about Africa with a focus on Kenya and had the most fun going on our very own safari. We sang a song, made our own binoculars and explored the savannah (our school grounds) for signs of African animals. In History we’ve enjoyed exploring old fashioned toys from the past, playing traditional games like hopscotch and even making our very own thaumatrope! We’re so excited for our first school trip next week as part of our History topic with a special workshop about toys too. 

Our Top of the Tree has been awarded Theo P (Year 2) Well done for demonstrating such positive attitudes to your learning.

Finally, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with your families and we will see you Monday ready for our exciting trip to Wardown Park Museum. Thank you so much for all of your support and cooperation with our first outing this year- we are ever so grateful! 

Lots of love,

Miss Westrope, Mrs Braithwaite and Mrs Sworka xx

Messages: 

-Please can children bring in a toy- either old or new- next week in a labelled bag for History. We will be using these on Thursday to make our 'toy museum'.

-Homework this week will be either English or Phonics based. You will either be given a paper copy in your child’s book bag or it will be found on your child’s Google Classroom (logged in with their own school login). 

-We have a number of unnamed jumpers and cardigans which cannot be returned to their rightful owners. Please ensure all of your child’s clothing and personal items are labelled clearly.

 3.11.2023

Dear parents and carers,

Welcome back! I hope you all had a fabulous half term holiday break and managed to get some rest. The children have come back this week ready and raring to go and especially excited about Halloween and Bonfire Night all happening this week. What a busy half term we have planned for you all in the run up to Christmas. We can’t wait to get stuck into all of our new topics!  

We’re delighted to see the positive start the children have already made this week on their return to school, even with the dreary weather we’ve been having. They have adjusted well to their new Read Write Inc and Writing groups and are getting engrossed in their speed sounds and writing centred around our exciting History topic this half term… In History, we have begun one of our absolute favourite topics: ‘The Great Fire of London.’ It always engages the children who find it fascinating. We began by sharing a brilliant book by Emma Adams and explored what happened on the night of 2nd of September 1666. See if your child can tell you where and how the fire began? 

This half term our Science topic is going to begin looking at Seasonal Changes and then move into Everyday Materials. This week we began our Science learning with an investigation into seasonal changes to the leaves on the trees. We looked on our school grounds and observed what has happened to the different trees around our school field. Children could explain that in Autumn the leaves from certain trees change colour and as the winter months roll in they will lose their leaves as a way to protect themselves from the harsh weather.  

Last half term the children were able to gather all the knowledge that they learned on the country of Kenya in the continent of Africa. They made video fact files acting like the experts that they are, I was so impressed with how well they were able to recall their learning of the Savannah, the wet and dry seasons as well as how hot it would be to visit the country! A highlight was learning and talking about all of the animals that can be found there! For our learning this term we are going to expand our knowledge of the equator and discover which countries are close to the equator, looking at Ecuador and how it is different from and similar to the UK. We had the opportunity to recap our knowledge on continents and listened to the continent song which is something that everyone has enjoyed!  

In Design Technology this half term we will be looking at puppets and working on our sewing skills in our textiles focused lessons to eventually create a glove puppet. We will be investigating different types of puppets and designing a product for a specific purpose and user. We are excited to get this started! 

PSHE for last term was about the importance of understanding our feelings and making sure to know what makes a good friendship. All the children really demonstrated what it means to be a good friend, keep up the good work! For this term we are discussing what makes us unique and what it means to be a kind friend who ensures that everyone is treated fairly. This is something I know the children will thrive at, understanding how important it is to know our similarities and differences, celebrating how unique we all are.  

This week our Top of the Tree has been awarded to Blake . Well done for demonstrating such positive attitudes to your learning. Our Handwriting hero is Karlok and the handwriting heroine is Winter.

Love from, Miss Westrope, Mrs Braithwaite and Mrs Sworka xx

Messages: 

-Homework this week will be either English or Phonics based. You will either be given a paper copy in your child’s book bag or it will be found on your child’s Google Classroom (logged in with their own school login). 

- We will be needing empty tissue boxes for Religious Education (R.E) this half term (one per child) and cereal boxes for History (one per child also) so if you could please send in any donations it would be greatly appreciated. 

-As part of our activities for Maths Week (13-20th November), we are inviting children to come in dressed as a rockstar on Monday 20th November. Costumes can be as simple as a pair of jeans and a coloured t-shirt. Children will then be performing a rocking times table song in our whole-school assembly. 

 17.11.2023

 Dear parents and carers,

Over the last two weeks, we have been busy celebrating many important events at Lark Rise Academy including Children in Need today. Thank you for all your efforts to support us in raising awareness and money for such an important cause. We loved wearing our silly socks on Monday for Odd Socks Day too as part of Anti-Bullying Week. We have also been raising awareness for anti-bullying week  in school starting  with an assembly led by the lovely Mrs. Lang on Monday.

During the assembly, she read a story called ‘Peggy the Always Sorry Pigeon’ which the children really enjoyed. It was a great way to start conversations around standing up for yourself and others and I would highly recommend sharing at home if you can get your hands on a copy (especially if you like a giggle). In addition to this, the children loved coming into school in their odd socks on Monday as a symbol of our acceptance of everyone being unique in their own way and also being ready to accept each other’s differences. This has led to some more amazing discussions  with the children in school who have shown such kindness towards each other. Although this is an important topic ongoing through the year, it’s always nice to highlight it with the children and make sure they are always comfortable to talk to a safe person about their feelings or if anything is troubling them at school. 

Now onto some more exciting news as this half term  preparations are already underway for our Key Stage One Christmas play! This year we are going to be performing ‘Baaarmy in Bethlehem.’ As usual our Year 1s  will be our Choir with some brand new Christmas songs to sing. Year 2s all get a speaking role/ dance  if they would like to. Hopefully your child has come home with a slip to tell you what their part will be this year and ideas around costumes or props. Please let us know if you need any help with this.

In Science we have been looking at seasonal changes, examining the different changes that occur on trees in the autumn and winter months. We began this with an investigation and then used our knowledge to explore the different types of trees on our school grounds. Then we were able to compare deciduous and evergreen trees. See if your children can explain the difference to you. This week we have moved onto our Everyday Materials learning with our first lesson focusing on exploring a variety of different materials, including fabric, wood, plastic, metal and glass. 

We’ve begun our Design Technology learning around Puppets with an investigation lesson researching and exploring different types of puppets, including marionettes, rod puppets and hand puppets. The children then drew their favourite puppet and labelled the features. This week we began looking at and practising some stitch types. This was tricky for our little fingers but we challenged ourselves and enjoyed the process. We have had an exciting assembly this week to launch our first Design Technology Hero of the half term for this year in the form of Lego founder and creator Ole Kirk Christiansen. We learnt about his inspiring start to designing the earliest version of Lego (which in Danish is an abbreviation of the two Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well”) and how his legacy has carried on into the development of our modern Lego bricks today. Mrs Shilvock and Miss Westrope have challenged the children to create something exciting out of Lego bricks if they have them and to send us photos of their creations! 

In Geography we have been learning all about the capital city of Quito and comparing it to our capital city of London. It is certainly a lot warmer in Ecuador than it is in the UK! We had the opportunity to research and find out some interesting facts about Ecuador, especially about all the interesting animals that live in the Galapagos Islands. 

In Religious Education we are learning about what Christmas means to Christians and have had wonderful conversations about what Christmas can mean to different people, exploring what celebrations everyone celebrates within their own families. We have been learning about what makes us special and unique in PSHE and this week we could apply our knowledge to what makes people special to us. It was wonderful to hear all about the people in our lives that really inspire us and make us feel safe and loved. It is wonderful to know that all of the children have such fantastic role models to look up to in their lives!

This week our Top of the Tree has been awarded to Hadassa . Well done for demonstrating such positive attitudes to your learning, especially in Maths and History this week. 

Love from, Miss Westrope, Mrs Braithwaite and Mrs Sworka xx

Messages: 

-Homework this week will be either English or Phonics based. You will either be given a paper copy in your child’s book bag or it will be found on your child’s Google Classroom (logged in with their own school login). 

- We will be needing cereal boxes for History (one per child also) for next week please so if you could please send in any donations ASAP it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you to those who have donated already. 

- Don’t forget we are inviting children to come in dressed as a rockstar on Monday 20th November as part of our Maths week celebrations. Costumes can be as simple as a pair of jeans and a coloured t-shirt. Children will then be performing a rocking times table rolling numbers song in our whole-school assembly.

 1.12.2023

Dear parents and carers,

Over the last two weeks, we have been busy with all sorts of activities and learning! We’ve also been excitedly rehearsing and preparing for our upcoming nativity performance. We’re learning the songs and our lines and are eager to show you all what we’ve been learning together. We were so happy to see so many of you at our book look last week. The children loved showing you around our classrooms and getting to show off their hard work from their first term of this academic year. I’m sure you’ll all agree we’ve had some great learning opportunities, lovely magic moments and have already shown great improvement with our handwriting and presentation.

Our Geography has been interesting these past two weeks; we’ve been busy looking at different climates above and below the equator and the animals found in hot or cold places. We sorted pictures of animals into a table of ‘hot climates’ and ‘cold climates’. This week we identified human and physical features from aerial photographs. 

We’re still loving our History learning on the Great Fire of London. We’ve been exploring the houses from 1666 in Pudding Lane and looking into why the fire spread so quickly and stayed alight for so long. We talked about the different materials houses were made out of back in the 1600s and what happened after the fire and how the Lord Mayor and the King made changes to building laws to prevent the fire from reoccurring, such as making new houses in London from brick and stone, not from wood or thatched roofs, as well as ensuring they were more spaced out and not overcrowded along the streets. We can’t wait to finish our box houses and then set alight our very own mini Pudding Lane! 

In DT we’ve been busy with our Puppets topic, making paper finger puppets to explore joining and decorating techniques, as well as designing our glove puppet. Next week we will be using felt fabric to sew together two pieces of fabric and decorate using our chosen animal and our chosen applique features. Watch this space! We can’t wait to show you all our final outcomes. Computing lessons have taught us the important lesson of being precise with our instructions! We instructed the teacher to make a jam sandwich and had to make sure to tell them exactly how to make it because they kept putting jam on with their fingers - you need a knife to spread! They also cut the bread wrong - it needs to be cut into equal triangles or rectangles! We then wrote our own instructions, being sure to talk about exactly what needs to happen in order to have a successful algorithm! Our next steps are to present making a jam sandwich, using our instructions and presenting like a TV chef!

In our PSHCE learning we have been discussing what makes something fair and unfair! We have had some wonderful discussions about times that felt unfair to us and what we could do to resolve the situation. We are able to see how the school rules are fair and how we all need to work collaboratively and cooperate with one another in line with this half term school value. We have also been brilliant at discussing kindness and what it looks like to be kind to one another. As a key stage we are amazing at showing those around us acts of kindness, using our words to make others feel good about themselves, something that we will continue to do!

In Science our learning has continued with Everyday Materials, looking closely at different materials and objects made from them, such as wood, metal, plastic, glass and paper. We went on a little hunt around the classroom to collect different items and then recorded what they were each made from as well as other items made from the same material, i.e. a pencil and the scissor block are both made from wood. This week we looked at recycling and carried out an investigation with the following enquiry question: Which materials can be recycled?

Love from, Miss Westrope, Mrs Braithwaite and Mrs Sworka xx

Messages: 

- A reminder to send children in with their required costume (a slip has been provided recently) if you haven’t done so already. Thank you! 

-Homework this week will be either English or Phonics based and set in the usual way.

- Year 2 children must have their script with them in school each day in the run up to our performance to ensure we can rehearse together. Please help your child to learn their lines ready for our upcoming show. Thank you for your support with this.