This week has all been about remembrance, reflection and gratitude. Year 1 have listened very carefully to the reasons why we stop and remember and have responded thoughtfully and with a great deal of love and care for the sacrifices of others. I am very proud of how they have taken all this information on board.

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 have also been learning how to spelling because suing the rhyme….big elephants can always understand small elephants. As well as that we are focusing on the tricky words of ’said and ‘you’ - how to recognise them, read them and spell them.

Maths - this week we have started to work on parts and wholes as our introduction to addition and subtraction. We have been using counters to support our work as well as part part whole diagrams. We have also started to think about how the part part whole diagram can be written with figures and how they match our counters. (The whole is the number of counters you start with, and the aprts are the groups that they are split up into.)

RE - this half term is all about Mary. We have started by beginning to learn the hail Mary prayer, along with thinking about the meeting between Mary and the Angel Gabriel.

Science - our topic this half term is all about animals. We have been observing animals carefully and looking at their features, such as feather, beaks or paws. This week was all about mammals and birds.

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 and then focusing in on Europe and France in particular.

ICT - this have term it is all about algorithms - we have started by looking at algorithms as simply a set of instructions.

Design - this half erm is all bout sewing! This week some of the children started sewing their sea creatures, whilst the rest of the children made a stain glass window turtle. A new group will sew their animals nest week, so by Christmas everyone has sewn a sea creature. As these take a look at time and children need adult support, Mrs Veasey can only sew with one group at once!!

Golden Award - Davern for showing super behaviour for learning in RWI this week, showing a readiness to listen and learn. Lovely manners Davern.

Writing Award - Amelia for super writing about Mary on how she felt when the Angel Gabriel gave her the news that she was going to have a baby.

Maths Award - Philip for super counting this week and number recognition work with Miss Murray.

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** - all the children were given a new school bottle this week. 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. Lost water bottles can be replaced at the school office, but I am afraid you will have to pay for those. Year 1 have white tops.
I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Mrs Veasey and Mrs Connolly and is also when the children will have Music with Mrs Watson
**Party Invitations** - I am afraid that Mrs Veasey and I will **not** be able to give out party invitations in class. **Please do not send your child into class** with them for them to give out - it creates upset and fuss about something that takes place outside of school.Thank-you for your understanding with this matter.
**Key Rings** - please do not put key rings onto your child’s school bag, it create fuss in class and then upset if they are lost.
**School bag** - please continue to use the red book bag that your child was given in Reception, we don’t not have the room to store large bags. Many thanks for your help with this matter.
**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!! Yr1 Homework — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School (squarespace.com)

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.

This month’s online safety guide gives helpful advice about…

microtransactions – those in-app or in-game purchases which can tempt young users into regular online spending.

We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

Catholic Life of our school..

The following resources are a great way of keeping you all informed of our current liturgy themes and of the weekly Gospel scripture, with some activities that the children can complete at home. We hope you find these resources useful and that they help you to support prayer and worship in your own homes.

https://www.paperturn-view.com/uk/wednesday-word/faithfulness?pid=MTA101634&v=74.6

http://www.tentenresources.co.uk/prayers-for-home/parent-newsletter/

Friday 17th November is Children in Need Day. To mark this day in school we would like to invite children to come to school in their own clothes that day, Pudsey ears and all, for a donation of £1 to Children in Need charities. Please note that Year 1 will have PE that days, so will need to wear suitable footwear for PE. Many thanks.