Norton Infant School

We have been so impressed with the beautiful work that has been done at home. We have had fieldwork with families, crafting and researching. Keep bringing it in and sharing with your crew – it’s great to keep learning from each other.

Mrs Parsons xx

Today is World Mental Health Day, in class five we spent sometime listening to some videos about mental health and we talked about what we do in crew everyday to support our mental health. We then decided to take ten minutes away from lessons for our own mental health – we went outside and appreciated what is around us.

We looked at clouds, listened to wind and the birds and even caught some bubbles.

It was a beautiful way to start the afternoon – we have pledged to do it more often 💚

We had a brilliant time on our field work visit to Austerfield Study Centre. After an exciting bus ride we arrived ready to start a day of outdoor adventures.

Our first activity was sharing the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Afterwards we headed into the woods to create some woodland porridge. We collected leaves, sand, mud, stones and sticks and then added water to create our own recipes. Yum!

Next, we tried creating some transient art using natural resources to make Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear faces.

Then we went on a scavenger hunt finding pictures of objects from the story and played a chasing game where we took it in turns to play the three bears.

After an active morning in the fresh air it was time for lunch followed by playing on the trim trail with Class 1.

It was fantastic to see so many parents at the workshops on phonics yesterday. We hope you found the session informative and a useful insight into how we teach children to read in school.

All parents of children in Reception and Year 1 have been sent an email today containing the information shared at the workshop. The powerpoint presentation gives more information about what phonics is, how we teach phonics lessons in school and the Year 1 phonics screening check. It also shares helpful tips to support parents in reading with their child at home. 

The presentation contains this link https://parents.fft.org.uk/ to the FFT Success for All Parent Portal. Here you will find further helpful information, videos demonstrating how to pronounce all phonemes and be able to access the Shared Reader e-library of books that children use in their phonics lessons every day. The school’s passcode to enter the portal is vyd5iy. 

We also included in the email some helpful handouts that support answering some frequently asked questions by parents. We hope you will find the sound cards, alphabet strip and list of alliterative and formation phrases useful at home.

If you have any other questions or queries, please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s teacher.

Thank you for your continued support,

Mrs Kendrew-Jones

In case study one of our current expedition we have been reading the story Dogger by Shirley Hughes. As Dogger was first published in 1977 the children have been discussing the similarities and differences between the pictures in the book and our modern day world. We have particularly enjoyed playing with some of the old toys you see in the story including dolls, yoyos, flip books, cup and balls and spinning tops. It was great fun!

Last week the children in Reception were getting better at controlling a ball. They worked with a partner and as a class crew to pass, roll and kick the ball between them. It was great fun in the sun!

The children in class 4 love books and read regularly at home. As a reward, they enjoyed their treat:hot chocolate, biscuits and some extra golden time. Well done everybody.