So here it is...Merry Christmas!!!

Well can you believe we have reached the end of our very first term...and what a packed one it was too!


As our Christmas preparations draw to a close, I am sure you are all gearing up at home and that the Christmas excitement is almost too much. The countdown in our house is now almost on an hourly basis too, (at the time of writing, it is 12 sleeps, 6 hours, 1 minute and 37 seconds!)


A Christmas countdown clock is available for you to check up during the week ahead!


This week’s blog is to let you know what is happening during this week and also, we have included a few festive sites to keep everyone occupied whilst the cleaning fairies organise the housework for the big day!


Monday


Dust off those party frocks and best clothes, as Monday sees our fantastic Christmas party! The children have worked really hard all term, so now is the chance for them to let their hair down and boogie the afternoon away. The children will be allowed to come to school ALL DAY in their own clothes, complete with hair gel, glitter and perfume!


Santa’s elves have been very busy wrapping all the gifts for the children AND organising all the party food. A huge thank you to all the elves behind the scenes who have been bagging and wrapping for the last few weeks – you can put your feet up now!!

Christingle Service
This year’s Christingle service takes place up at St. Joseph’s Church on Tuesday 16th December at 7.00pm. Although it is quite late, it would be lovely if there could be some Angels, Kings and Shepherds there, complete with their Christingle kits. We have these on sale in school for 50p.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we shall be putting the finishing touches to the lovely Christmas decorations that the children are making. We will make sure that they are sturdy enough to last for at least 30 years, so you can hang them on the tree all the way to your child’s adulthood!


Friday


The last day of term, sees a real treat. Our Christmas Carol Service, led by Years 5/6 will be held up at St. Joseph’s Church at 10am. We ask that the children arrive in school as normal, for registration. We shall then be walking all the children up to Church for the service, which should last around an hour. Please ensure that the children are wearing a very warm coat, gloves, hat and scarf for that day, as the weather is extremely cold.


The children will obviously not be able to buy toast on that day, so it would be helpful if they could bring a small snack for after the service, which they will be able to eat in the Loretto Centre at Church before their return.


We really do need lots of parental support to accompany the children up to St. Joseph’s, so please let any member of the team know by Tuesday of you are able to help out. Many thanks to the people who have already volunteered!

The afternoon sees the Parent’s Panto. It is always a really fantastic production and a fitting end to the year. All the children, (and staff) leave the hall in festive mood, ready to start our preparations at home.

Photographs


The children’s photographs were distributed last week. Please do let us know if you haven’t received them and we will do our best to sort them out for you.

Reading books

We are thrilled with the progress that the children have made in their reading this term, so in order to keep the momentum going over the holidays, I have sent two books home. It would be really helpful if you were also able to find just a few minutes each day to practice your child’s high frequency words, both reading and spelling. These words are the ‘glue’ that hold together all the texts that your child will ever read and so are vital in their reading development.

Also, as a plea, could I ask that ALL reading books which your child has at home, are returned on the first day back in January. The stocks in the library are somewhat depleted at the moment, and so we will have an AMNESTY when we return. Many thanks for your support with this.


Festive Fun


We have had such good feedback from these websites which were put on last week’s blog, that I have included them again! Maybe you could get your child to print of the letter to Santa on Christmas Eve and leave it under the tree on Christmas Eve!

Nativity stories

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/re/b-dag/ngfl-container/re-unit1-en.html


http://www.topmarks.co.uk/christianity/nativity/index.htm


http://www.refuel.org.uk/curric/infant_topics/christmas/christmas.html


http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/christmas/nativity/nativity.html


http://www.snaithprimary.eril.net/nativity.htm


http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/xmas/word/cross2.gif

Just for fun!

http://www.emailsanta.com/ write a letter to Santa and see the reply appear before your very eyes!


http://www.northpole.com/ a real favourite of mine! The disco dancing Santa is fabulous!


http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/ a very interesting site, explaining all about the customs and traditions of Christmas.


http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/meaning.htm I loved this story! Maybe one for Christmas Eve?


http://www.star28.net/snow.html?msg=they this made me giggle! Get the penguin to write your name in the snow. What about trying this to help with the spelling of those tricky words?


http://www.learn-ict.org.uk/resources/rudolph/rudolph.htm Rudolf is missing! Read this lovely interactive story with your child. A great way of developing those comprehension skills.


http://www.funranch.com/games/tree/index.htm decorate the online Christmas tree


http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/snowman_v4.html build your very own snowman...without getting your hands cold!


http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/winter/ some great ideas for Christmas crafts to doat home, using all those empty boxes.


http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/ Christmas crafts


http://www.nevada.edu/~blake/Christmas.carols.html why not sing through some of these traditional Christmas Carols in preparation for Friday’s service?


http://www.ylw.mmtr.or.jp/~johnkoji/hymn/xmas/index.html christmas carols to sing along to.

http://www.btinternet.com/~edward.caution/ oh this is just fabulous! Karaoke anyone?? Just scroll down for the Christmas songs. Go on – I’ll bet you can’t resist just singing along!

http://woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/teacher/christmas.html lots of different activities for you to try at home


http://christmas.iboard.co.uk/ lots of Christmas online activities to try. I really like the writing ideas, which use a framework and a wordbank to help. Why not print some off to bring in to show?


On behalf of all the staff, we wish you a very happy, peaceful and holy Christmas. We hope that Santa brings you everything you ask for and that we all return safe and happy in the new year.


Merry Christmas!

How many more sleeps??

Weren’t they fabulous? I am sure you were all as proud as we were of the children last week when they performed ‘A Christmas Tail’. I hope they all managed to catch up on their sleep over the weekend and are ready and raring to go on the last two week stretch before the holidays.

This week, we will be finishing off our writing assessments and you will be informed of your child’s targets to help them move forward in their learning before the Christmas break. You will also receive updated targets for your child’s reading and numeracy in their diaries. We have been really pleased at the amount of progress they have made this term and can’t wait to see where the new year will take us!So, what have we got planned for this week?

Christmas lunch

On Monday, we don our party hats and best singing voices (if we have any left!) and have our Christmas lunch. If you have asked that your child has lunch on Monday, they won’t need a packed lunch. Please also remember that there will be no toast served on Monday, so the children will need to bring their own snack.

Christmas Party

The children’s party takes place next week, but there are still a number of children who need to bring in their £2.50 contribution. If you haven’t already done so, we would be grateful if it could be sent into school by MONDAY, so that we are able to arrange the party bags. Santa’s elves are working really hard at the moment, so the more time they have the better!! Many thanks!

Literacy

We will be focussing on the children’s writing skills this week and they will be writing their very own versions of the ‘Greatest story ever told’ – the Nativity. We had a great time using our drama skills last week, retelling the story using our nativity masks! Using their knowledge of the sequence of the story and their ability to write using some adventurous vocabulary, we should see some fantastic pieces of writing.

Have a look back at the sites from last week, in order to help the children sequence the story.We will be encouraging them to use our ‘mantra’ for writing of Think it – Say it – Write it. Now that we have had the excitement of our production, we are sure that the children will rise to this challenge.

By the end of the week, the children:

Must be able to write a simple sentence to explain each stage of the Christmas story

Should be able to use a range of interesting words when describing the setting, characters and events in the story; be able to join sentences with simple words like ‘and’ or ‘but’

Could use a range of story language and descriptive phrases to entertain the reader; be able to use conjunctions like ‘because’, ‘so’ and ‘when’ to join ideas in sentences.

Phonics

We shall be reviewing the letter sounds and patterns that we have been working on this half term. It would be really helpful if you were able to spend just 5 minutes each day during the holidays, going through these with your child. You will receive an update of the sounds your child needs to work on in their diaries this week.

http://www.ictgames.com/cluster.html spelling game based on the initial sounds they can hear

http://www.ictgames.com/hybrid.html it took me a while to figure out how to play this game! To select a word in the wordsearch, click on the first and the last letter of the word you wish to highlight, and the cow will ‘MOO’ if you are correct! A great way to investigate spelling patterns.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/longvow/snap/snap.shtml click SNAP when the sounds match the word written on the right hand side

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/longvow/spelling/spelling.shtml drag and drop the correct spelling pattern into the gaps before the time runs out.

Numeracy

The children completed their termly numeracy assessments last week and they were fabulous! We were amazed at the way the children were able to apply what they had learned to problem solving. We are using the last two weeks before the Christmas break, to reinforce a few areas that the children found challenging.

This week we will be looking at Doubling and Halving numbers up to 10. The work on partitioning, will really help with this.

By the end of the week, the children:

Must recognise doubling as the addition of two equal amounts

Should know doubles of numbers up to at least 10 and the corresponding halves

Could begin to derive doubles of multiples of 2 up to 20 and the corresponding halves

Beware, some of these websites are quite challenging, so you may have to sit with your child while completing these activities:

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/resources/gordon/Hit%20the%20button%20v9.swf one of my favourite sites. Click on the doubles/halves button and select the doubles on the left hand side to begin

http://www.ictgames.com/bridgedoubles.html select the doubles from the circles to complete building the bridge

http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/games/game1.htm move the sheep into the correct paddocl to double the quantity

http://www.freewebtown.com/weddell/mw/doubling/doubling%202%20digit.swf if you fancy a real challenge, see of you can work out how to double any two digit number

http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/maths/num%20machine/double.html type in the number you want to double and see if you can calculate the answer before the machine!

http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/maths/num%20machine/halver.html exactly the same as the previous site, but this is the halving version.

Carol Service

It is our annual Carol Service on Friday 19th December, led by Years 5/6. This year, it will take place up at St. Joseph’s Church at 10am. The children will arrive at school as usual at 8.45am and will walk up to church for the service. Please ensure that any permission slips are returned as soon as possible, as we will be unable to take children out of school without them.As I am sure you will appreciate, we will need lots of volunteers to help walk our children up, so please do let any member of the team know if you will be able to help us with this. It is sure to be a lovely occasion, where we can all take time out from the hectic preparations and reflect on the real meaning of Christmas.

Request

Could we please ask that if you have changed any contact details, particularly Mobile numbers, please remember to inform school, so that our records may be updated.

Festive Fun

Lots of the children comment on how they have ‘been on the games on the blog’ when we read through the blog on Monday. All of the sites, links and activities on the site are used in class to support our learning, but every now and again, we include sites which are ‘just for fun’.

http://www.emailsanta.com/ write a letter to Santa and see the reply appear before your very eyes!

http://www.northpole.com/ a real favourite of mine! The disco dancing Santa is fabulous!

http://www.northpole.com/PersonalizedStories/ this is lovely and the children will love printing these off! Just enter a couple of pieces of information and your child will appear as a character in their very own story!

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/ a very interesting site, explaining all about the customs and traditions of Christmas.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/meaning.htm I loved this story! Maybe one for Christmas Eve?

http://www.star28.net/snow.html?msg=they this made me giggle! Get the penguin to write your name in the snow. What about trying this to help with the spelling of those tricky words?

http://www.learn-ict.org.uk/resources/rudolph/rudolph.htm Rudolf is missing! Read this lovely interactive story with your child. A great way of developing those comprehension skills.

http://www.funranch.com/games/tree/index.htm decorate the online Christmas tree

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/snowman_v4.html build your very own snowman...without getting your hands cold!

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/winter/ some great ideas for Christmas crafts to doat home, using all those empty boxes.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/ Christmas crafts

http://www.nevada.edu/~blake/Christmas.carols.html why not sing through some of these traditional Christmas Carols in preparation for our carol service?

http://www.kidzone.ws/math/christmas/index.htm although these are based on American ‘grades’, some of these Christmas themed Maths worksheets are still really useful.

http://christmas.iboard.co.uk/ lots of Christmas online activities to try. I really like the writing ideas, which use a framework and a wordbank to help. Why not print some off to bring in to show?

Many thanks once again to all who supported the Christmas productions and the mums and dads who came to help behind the scenes for all our performances, but particularly on a very wet and windy Wednesday evening! You were fantastic!

Have a great week!

Year 1 team xx