Hello and welcome to Willow Class 
Willow Class is made up of Recepetion and Year One children. The class teacher is Mrs Murgatroyd and the class teaching assistant is Mrs Lapworth; Mrs Milner also teaches the children on a Thursday morning.
We are extremely excited to begin a new school year, we have lots of fun learning planned for the year ahead.
Our topic this half term is ‘Into the woods’ 
Phonics – The Reception children will be focusing on inital sounds and early Phase 2 Phonics and will be building up their recognition of graphemes, whilst learning to segment and blend them for reading. The Year One children will begin by mainly focusing on Phase 3 Phonics. Phonics really does help the children with their reading and writing and if you would like to practise phonics at home with your child, here are some websites where you can find lots of fun games and free resouces:
. https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
. https://www.phonicsbloom.com/
. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=phonics
In Literacy, the children will be focusing on texts relating to our topic, such as:
. Little Red Riding Hood
. We’re going on a bear hunt
. Aliens Love Underpants
The Reception children will begin with focusing on letter recongition and formation and will take part in lots of exercises that will help with this. They will also be writing CVC words.
The Year One children will be focusing on using their phonetic knowlegde to write simple sentences. We will be focusing heavily on sentence structure, as well as using adjectives in our writing.
In Maths, the Reception children will focus on recognising and understanding the value of numbers to 10. The Year One chilrdren will be focusing on the place value of numbers to 20 and using these in addition and subtraction equations.
In Geography, we will be using world maps to locate our country and comparing the climate with other countries. We will be packing a suitcase of clothes to take to different countries around the world.
In History, we will be focusing on timelines, specificially focusing on how clothes have changed over the years and placing clothing styles/trends on a timeline.
In Science, we will be conducting an experiment to find out which materials are waterproof/not waterproof and the children will use their findings to design a jacket to keep the Alien dry.
In Computing, we will be focusing on Online Safety and will be introducing the children to the Purple Mash software where they will create their very own Avatar. The children will learn the importance of password security and will also learn how to save and retrieve their work.
In Music, we will be focusing on rythm, pulse, listening and recall.
In P.E, we will be focusing on the children’s fundamental movement skills.
Continuous Provision – We love to learn through play and the Reception children will be exploring much of their learning through our provision areas. The Year One children will also be using our provision areas to enhance their learning and rehearse their skills and will be completing weekly challenges in each area.
P.E Days –
Reception children and Year 1 children have their P.E lesson on a Monday and should come to school dressed in their P.E kit. Please refer to the ‘Parent Handbook’ for information relating to P.E kit and any other uniform queries.
Book bags – Book bags should be brought to school each day. Please remember to sign your child’s reading journal if they have finished their book and then it can be changed for them.
Homework – We always encourage regular reading at home and always say ‘little and often’ is best. The Year One children will recieve spellings to practise each week in preparation for a fun quiz the following week. Spellings will be uploaded onto Google Classroom for the children to access at home; their log-in information can be found on the inside cover of their reading journal. Additional homework to support learning will also be given as necessary via Google Classroom.
Working online –
Remember that if you are completing any searches online to use ‘children’, ‘child’ or ‘kids’ in your search to ensure any adult or unsuitable content is filtered out.
Don’t forget…
Always remember what KS says: If you have ‘yukky feelings’, then Say NO, Walk Away and Tell a Trusted Adult. The same rules apply online as in real life. Ask an adult if you are unsure about ANYTHING online. Make good, sensible choices and ask for help if something goes wrong
‘Let everything you do be done in love’
We very much look forward to the half term ahead!