Giant footprints!!

Today we found some giant footprints in our classroom! There was also a letter for us from a giant! He asked us if we could find some things that were bigger than his footprints. We talked about how we could compare the length of two things and how to do it accurately. We split into teams and discussed how we could record our answers, for example, by drawing pictures or writing on our clipboards.

We worked really well in our teams and went around the classroom finding things bigger than the giant's footprints. We found lots of things including the dolls' house, a chair, a table, a tray, a mirror and the reading tent.

Great measuring and teamwork from everyone, well done!

Exploring the garden

This morning we went to explore the school garden. We saw different flowers including sunflowers and looked at what's in the pond! We saw an apple tree and apples that had fallen to the ground and talked about what vegetables we could grow in the garden.

Soon we will be visiting the garden centre to buy some things so we can grow some food of our own. Watch this space..!

Welcome to the new school year!

Today our terrific new Early Years children had their first day at school. For most of them, this was their first day ever at Great Gaddesden and we are so proud of how wonderfully they settled in!

Here are a few pictures of some of the things we have enjoyed playing and learning today.

Our learning this week

This week we are going to be learning about...

• subtraction
• nature in our local area

We will be learning...

• different vocabulary involved in subtraction, e.g minus, subtract, take away, less than
• to say one less or ten less than a number
• to solve subtraction calculations using objects
• to solve subtraction calculations by counting back from a number in our heads
• to develop rapid recall of simple subtraction facts e.g 2 - 1 or 4 - 2
• to solve problems involving subtraction
• to subtract multiples of ten from a number
• to solve subtraction calculations using 2 digit numbers
• how to stay safe when exploring our local area
• what plants grow in our local area
• what animals might live in our local area
• how to represent our local area through photography, art, music and writing

You can help me at home by...

• exploring subtraction with me through play, for example, if you have five potatoes on your plate and you eat two, how many are left?
• playing games with me that involve counting back, or singing songs where the number decreases (10 green bottles, 5 currant buns etc)
• playing games to develop my mental maths - see http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button and http://www.ictgames.com/funkymum.html
• exploring the area close to my house and talking about what plants or animals might be nearby
• talking to me about what I saw and experienced on our bluebell walk

Reminders: Children will need adequate footwear for the bluebell walk on Wednesday (ideally wellies or trainers) as it may be muddy. A waterproof coat is also advisable.

Our learning this week

This week we are going to be learning about...

• addition
• exciting vocabulary in stories

We will be learning...

• to find the total number of objects in two groups by counting all of them
• to solve addition calculations using objects
• to solve addition calculations by counting on from a number in our heads
• to develop rapid recall of simple addition facts e.g 2 + 2 or 3 + 1
• to solve problems involving addition
• to partition 2 and 3 digit numbers
• to solve addition calculations by partitioning
• to listen and respond to a range of stories
• to predict what might happen next in a story
• how to use exciting and interesting vocabulary to make stories more exciting
• how to recognise and create similies, e.g "as hot as the sun" or "as big as an elephant."

You can help me at home by...

• exploring addition with me through play, for example, if I have two cars and you have three, how many do we have altogether?
• playing games with me that involve counting on, for example, a board game where we have to move on a given number of spaces
• playing games to develop my mental maths - see http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button and http://www.ictgames.com/funkymum.html
• reading stories with me, asking me questions about the events, characters and setting
• asking me to make predictions about what might happen next in stories we read
• talking about descriptive words in stories and what they mean, explaining any words I don't know
• encouraging me to use new words I have learnt from books when I am talking or writing

Our fantastic trip!

Yesterday we went on a fantastic trip to Buckinghamshire Railway Centre to support our learning on transport. Our guide, Peter, was brilliant. He not only kept us safe and entertained all day, but taught us a lot about trains. Even the adults learnt lots of things they hadn't known before!


We got to see a lot of trains and learnt how steam trains run. We rode on a full sized steam train and also had an exciting ride on a miniature train. We explored artefacts from the past including an old model train set and saw a post office train and learnt how the letters used to be sorted on the train.


Not only did we have a brilliant day, but the children's behaviour was excellent. They also asked very thoughtful questions and showed excellent recall of the information they had learnt. Holly and Dexter were also awarded special train driver hats for their super questioning and answering!

World Book Day!

Today we had lots of fun dressing up for World Book Day and sharing our love of reading. In our class we had Fantastic Mr Fox, an oompah-loompah and Jack with a beanstalk to name a few!

We enjoyed buddy reading, where an older child reads and shares books with a younger child. As always, the older children did a fantastic job with the younger ones showing not only great reading skills but a lot of understanding and patience.


This year was also our first 'book swap' - children were invited to bring in a book they no longer wanted or perhaps had a duplicate of and could swap it for a book someone else had brought in. Nursery and Reception joined Year 1 and 2 and everyone got to take home a new book to read.


Tomorrow we are going to be developing our writing as we talk more about the characters we came dressed as and think of some good words to describe them!