Pages

Monday 31 October 2016

Welcome back!

We hope you've had a restful and relaxing half term break. Today, we asked the children to do some writing about their holiday.  They are working very hard to write their neatest and try to spell tricky words all on their own.

Our next unit is all about dinosaurs!  This is a very exciting topic for our students and we welcome any books or resources you would like to share with our class so that we can learn as much as possible about these amazing creatures.

In other news, we are looking for mums or dads to volunteer to help us cook in our EYFS/KS1 kitchen this term!  Do you have a favourite recipe you would like to share with us?  Would you like to teach us about safety and following instructions in the kitchen?  Do you just want to help us experiment with ingredients and make a mess?!  Email Miss Ashley at amoyles@charter.ac.th and let me know when you are free!
Working in the kitchen is an easy, fun, and great way to teach children about weight, capacity, measuring, materials, safety, following a sets of instructions, and flexibility when things don't turn out the way you hoped!  This is a great opportunity to showcase your skills and help us learn new ones!  Image result for minion baker


Monday 17 October 2016


As we come to the end of Term 1, we are reviewing all we know about Houses and Homes. We are now beginning to predict and organize our learning through scientific observation. 
To determine what materials would be best suited to build a home, we decided to do a waterproofing experiment!  We tested various materials for their waterproofing ability and then recorded our results.











Hi parents!

Thank you so much for coming to the parent teacher conferences last week.  It was so lovely getting to speak with you and get to know more about you.

The most popular question was about....spelling!

Spelling is a tricky subject.  Not only does it require memorization, it often doesn't follow the phonics rules that we teach the children when they are learning to connect letters to sounds as they learn to read.
What to do?  Make spelling fun!

There are literally thousands of incredible, time-saving ideas on Pinterest, which I have used in our classroom and the children are therefore familiar with.

Here is a great printable idea I have used in our classroom:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/160088961732542033/

Another easy and highly effective idea is to write or print out alphabet flashcards (one letter per card, several copies of vowels), and have your child spell their words using the flashcards.  You could even use different colours or pictures to make it more exciting.
A simple search for "Printable Alphabet Flashcards" on Pinterest revealed hundreds of great ideas:
Printable Alphabet Flashcards on Pinterest


Magnetic letters, chalk, markers, alphabet beads, magazine cutouts, wooden blocks, Scrabble tiles, Ipad apps, etc. are all great ways to provide new spelling practice for your child at home.


I will continue to add more ideas and resources on this blog...so keep checking!


Monday 10 October 2016

Building a Castle!

Year 1 learned all about castles last week!  We now that castles were built a long time ago to be very strong against enemies of the King and Queen.
We learned that castles have many parts, including parapets, moats, towers, the Keep, the Great Hall, as well as many rooms with workers including knights, jesters, cooks, maids, and others.
We built our own castles using a variety of 3D shapes and tape.  Our teachers didn't help us at all! Below you will see photos of our finished creations (more to come) and videos of us explaining what we built and why.  If your child does not have a video link next to their photo, feel free to email me so I can send you the video directly.  Blogger will not let me post large videos!  Thanks.