Rejoice: the Lord is nigh." As Christmas draws near, the Church emphasizes the joy which should be in our hearts over all that the birth of our Savior means for us. The great joy of Christians is to see the day drawing nigh when the Lord will come again in His glory to lead them into His kingdom. The oft-repeated Veni ("Come") of Advent is an echo not only of the prophets but also of the conclusion of the Apocalypse of St. John: "Come, Lord Jesus," the last words of the New Testament.
This Sunday is known as Gaudete Sunday. The term Gaudete refers to the first word of the Entrance Antiphon, "Rejoice". Rose vestments are worn to emphasize our joy that Christmas is near, and we also light the rose candle on our Advent wreath.
English - we have continued on with our RWI lessons. During these sessions we all focus on phonics, reading, spelling and sentence development. We have also been working on our pre-cursive handwriting in which we focus on how to write our letters, starting on the line. We are continuing to work hard on our common exception words, reading them in class every day! Mrs Veasey and I have been carrying out RWI assessments this week and we are really pleased with the progress all the children have made this term.
Maths - this week we have continued to work on parts and wholes as our introduction to addition and subtraction. This week we have worked on using our tens frames to help us with number bonds to ten. We have used our ten frames to help us work out the missing part and which two numbers add togther to make a whole of ten.
RE - this half term is all about Mary. We have continued to prepare ourselves to meet Jesus at Christmas buy learning about the Advent wreath and the meaning behind it.
Science - our topic this half term is all about animals. This week we have focused on what animals eat and classifying them into animals that would make suitable pets and those that would not.
Geography - our focus for this half term is all about the world around us, with a focus on continents. We continued this week with looking at the seven continents of the world…this week our focus was on South America and the country of Brazil. We looked at how big the country is and at the Amazon rain forest and river.
ICT - this have term it is all about algorithms - we have started by looking at algorithms as simply a set of instructions. This week the children have considered the steps that they would need to take a complete a picture.
Art - this week the children have continued with their sewing of a sea creature - they are looking good!
Many congratulations to this week’s winners…
Golden Award - Antonia for being a little ray of sunshine who brightens our day with her beautiful smile and positive attitude towards all aspects of learning - what a super star.
Writing Award - Freddie for persevering with his independent writing when it has proved a bit tricky. I am impressed with the effort you are making Freddie - it is paying off!
Maths Award - Eris-Rose for super ten frame work this week to support the learning of number bonds to ten.
PE will be on Monday and Friday so please send the children into class in the PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.
Water bottles - This will come home each night to be cleaned and re-filled. Please only use the school bottles and ensure your child brings theirs each day.
I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Mrs Veasey and Miss Sanderson and is also when the children will have Music with Miss Hope
Homework Expectations - please see the Homework page for what I expect the children to do at home…..don’t worry, it’s mainly just reading!! Year 1 News letterYear 1 Homework Expectations - Autumn — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School (squarespace.com)
PHONICS Support - take a look at Oxford Owl for information about how you can help your child at home with their phonics and reading. This is is a great site in general but the page linked has a super little video showing how the sounds should be pronounced. See how many sounds your child knows! How can I support my child with phonics? - Oxford Owl for Home
CHRISTMAS CARDS - although it is lovely to want to send a card to everyone in the class, it is not necassary. The children often leave them in school and they end up in the bin, it also takes up SO much time giving them out. Instead can we ask that if you wish to send a card then just send in ONE for the whole class and a £1 donation to CAFOD. We feel this is a much better use of your hard-earned money and will help us support Catholic charities around the world. (Please don’t feel you have to send a card at all) Many thanks.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Wednesday 14th December- Year 1 and 2 Nativity 9.30am and 2pm - two tickets per performance per child.
Tuesday 20th December - Christmas Own Clothes Day - donations payable through ParentPay
At Our Lady's we like to support our parents/carers in Online Safety matters.
Keeping children and young people safe online is one of the biggest challenges facing society today and it is all of our responsibility to ensure that children are educated to make positive, informed choices when they are online.
With Christmas nearly here and perhaps with presents including new technology or related games being received, we thought we’d share some helpful advice in setting up appropriate parental controls. Parental controls can help to protect your child from seeing something that they shouldn’t – although it is important to emphasise that no system is effective all of the time so it is important to engage with your child and talk to them about their online life regularly.
We hope you find this Newsletter informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.
Advent Liturgies
Throughout Advent we would like to invite all children and families to join us in the school hall for a short Advent liturgy led by Father Frank.
This will be held every Tuesday morning at 8:20am and will begin from Tuesday 29th November, continuing until Tuesday 20th December 2022.
We do hope you can join us for this opportunity to gather as a faith community to reflect on the true value and meaning of Advent.
We are delighted to be able to share with you the Good News Gospel readings for families. Please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. https://www.paperturn-view.com/uk/wednesday-word/faithfulness?pid=MTA101634&v=74.6
Nativity Update! Work on the nativity is going well! We have our first practice with Year 2 this week and all is going well. The children now know what part they are playing - EACH child will get their moment on the stage so you will be able to see them clearly and they will all get their moment to shine. Please remember we are supporting Year 2 so all the speaking parts are taking by them - we are dancing and singing. Please keep up the hard work on practicing the songs - many thanks. We are looking forward to welcoming you on Wednesday 14th December to see all our hard work.
If your child is a STAR or an ANGEL and has a pair of sparkly, white/pink/silver/gold, ballet style party shoes at home and could send them in for WEDNESDAY 14th we would be very grateful. They will just look a bit prettier that their school shoes under their costume! Many thanks.
And finally…..have a lovely, joy-filled weekend. Mrs Hollinghurst, Mrs Veasey and Miss Sanderson.
