1RS have made a great start to Year 1! We have been reading Roald Dahl’s version of Little Red Riding Hood and have had lots of fun acting out the story using puppets. We changed the villain to a different animal and are writing a new version of the story in our English lessons. In maths, we have been counting forwards and backwards which has helped us find one more and one less than a given number. We have been investigating new and old toys in History and noticed similarities and differences between toys from the past and present.  ​

​This term Year 1 have been focusing on the life cycle of a bean plant. At the beginning of the term we planted some beans and have been recording the growth of our beans as a class. This week, we began measuring our beans where our tallest bean plant has grown to be a staggering 30cm tall! Additionally, we have carefully examined the complex network of the roots that have entangled themselves around the cotton wool and have discussed and completed a range of activities to understand what plants need to help them grow big and strong. Year 1 have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the life cycle of a bean plant where they have expressed their excitement through discussions and various activities. 

Year One enjoyed their trip to Southend this week. Once we arrived in Southend, we walked to the pier and got onto the train. This was very exciting and we could see all the different features of the seaside that we had been learning about last half term. We even spotted the RNLI boat which we were lucky enough to learn all about from one of their volunteers. We had a discussion about the pier and the features of the seaside whether they were physical or man-made. Then we had some time to get creative by designing our very own beach huts while looking at some on the pier. After lunch we had an ice-cream! By the time we got back to school, we were all exhausted but we had a brilliant day and everyone represented the school well. The teachers are all extremely proud of Year One! ​

We learnt all about the Hindu festival of Holi recently and also reflected back on some of our activities this year related to other religions. For example, we prepared for the Christmas Production back in the autumn term, learning lines and practising to make sure the songs were sung with clarity and volume. Our production told the story of the baby Jesus and the special events that happened around the time of his birth. The production plays an important role in our learning. The new skills that we were learning and developing helped us to support our application for the Arts Award.
Still focused on the traditions of Christmas, we spent time discussing advent and what this means to Christians. We  discussed the meaning of the four different candles of advent and wrote our own advent promise before attending at the advent assembly.

Reception also thoroughly enjoyed the creativity and fun around at Christmas time and reported, "What an exciting time to be at school! In this run on to Christmas we have had so much fun getting into the Christmas spirit. We have created some beautiful Christmas cards for our families as well as a range of crafts to help develop our fine motor and creative skills. All of the children have spoken about what they are looking forward to at Christmas time"
Paul said, “I’m looking forward to having yummy food”
Callum smiled, “I will get lots of presents”
Isabella glowed, “My house looks nice with lots of colours”

When we arrived in our classrooms on Tuesday morning something extremely exciting had happened.   Something bright and sparkly had appeared on our carpet.  We examined it closely, being very careful when we touched it so it did not break.  We were all very excited to discover that it was a star!  We examined the star closely, using our senses to explore it.  We then created a word bank of different adjectives to describe the star including radiant, beautiful and shiny.  Next, we looked at using this language to create our own star acrostic poems.  We even began to look at similes in our poems to make them really exciting for the reader. We began by writing an acrostic poem as a class, using all the fantastic language that we had created in our word bank.  After that, we wrote our own star acrostic poems, using exciting adjectives and similes.  Some of us will be reading out our poems at the Nativity performance.  ​

Children in EYFS, Year 1,Year 2 and Year 3 will be performing in their Chriostmas Production on Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th December. There will be a 9.30am and 1.45pm performance on each day. Check below to see the times each group will be performing.
 
​The performance times are:
 
​Tuesday 12th:                    EYFS/Yr 1  9:30am
                                               Yr 2/Yr 3  1:45pm
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Wednesday 13th:                Yr 2/Yr 3   9:30am
                                           EYFS/Yr 1   1:45pm 
 
We estimate that the performances will last for up to 60 minutes. For the afternoon performance, we aim to have the children changed and ready for collection by 3.00pm for EYFS/KS1 and 3.10pm for KS2. Parents/carers who have watched the performance and will be collecting their children should exit through the main community doors, walk round to the playground and wait for the children to be dismissed.
 
Complete the form below to book a seat on the production. Please read and follow the instructions carefully to ensure you book for the correct event.
 
​Each family may have two seats for each of their child’s performance. When you register you will receive a confirmation email. If you register for more than two seats or the names of the persons registered are not known to us as parents/carers, the booking will be removed. If there are special circumstances that require more than two seats i.e. parents have new partners, please email office.etp@stcleres.coop and a member of the office team will contact you to discuss your requirements. You must bring either a print out of the email you receive or show the email on your phone when you attend for the performance. There is a maximum number of one hundred and sixty seats per performance, once we reach this capacity it will not be possible for you to register for the performance.

We have had a fantastic start to Year One, settling in well and enjoying our new routine. This week in literacy we have looked at lots of different poems about toys.  We looked at a special type of poem called an acrostic poem. We developed a bank of vocabulary which we could use in our poems and developed different skills throughout the week before writing our own acrostic poem on Friday. We all produced a really high quality of poems and all tried really hard. Well done 1CS!
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We have chosen as a class some poems to share with you.
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​Hello everybody! It has been a very busy month! In 1EG we have been very busy creating our Pumpkin Soup balloons! We used a variety of different resources such as paint, glue, tissue paper, paper and markers to make remarkable paper mache sculptures. We will be able to show them to you soon!
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In Maths, we have been learning about money. We used British coins to “buy” things and give change. This week we are going to practise multiplication.

Well done to Laila, Kelly, Toby, Freddie, Billy, Krrish, Aimee, Jorja, Shannia and Jacob for doing their homework getting a lot of points in Mathletics! Keep up the good work!