Sunday 1st December marks the beginning of Advent…..

…After a tumultuous year, there is comfort to be found when we pause to read, pray, and reflect over the course of the Advent season in which believers eagerly anticipate the celebration of Christ’s birth.

The first Sunday of Advent gives us the opportunity to center our thoughts on hope. It's a beautiful chance to remember the hope God offers to our lost and dying world, and that He's given us through Jesus.

As we prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus’ arrival as a gift to all humanity; let’s stir up in our hearts and homes a sense of anticipation. Over this Advent, we pray that hope would rise up in our spirits in a tangible and life-giving way.

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. 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 continued 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 our ten frames to show how a number can be represented and the different ways we can make a number. We call these facts Number Bonds. We have investigated how to form number bonds and worked in a systematical way to record all the number bonds for a set number - ie 8. We keep reminding ourselves that the numbers we add together are called PARTS and the total is called the WHOLE.

RE - this half term is all about Mary. This week we have stated to talk about the birth of Jesus and the journey that Mary and Joseph had to take. We have also make Advent Promises for our class Advent Calendar. Each child has made a star with a promise on the back and each day we will all try to live out that promise as we journey towards Christ’s birth. I hope you can see your child living out these promises!!

Science - our topic this half term is all about animals. This week we have been thinking about what animals look like and observing their characteristics. The children have all described the features of an animal.

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 Oceania and Australia in particular this week.

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

Design - this week the children continued with their sewing work…which is looking amazing!

PLEASE NOTE THAT SOME LESSONS MAY BE A LITTLE DISRUPTED OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS AS WE PREPARE FOR OUR NATIVITY!!

Many congratulations to this week’s winners….

Golden Award - Henry for super learning in Geography and for sharing his knowledge with others.

Writing Award - . Alix for developing a beautiful pre-cursive handwriting style. Your books are a delight to read.

Maths Award - .Sophia for super number bond work this week, showing the same whole number in multiply ways.

General pieces of information

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.
Trainers - if your children is wearing trainers with laces for PE they must be able to tie them by themselves. This is a health and safety issue - please ensure your child can tie their laces before sending them in lace-up trainers.
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 orange tops.
I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Mrs Debowska and Mrs McCooey and is also when the children will have Music with Mrs Watson.
Party Invitations - I am afraid that Mrs Debowska 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 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!! HOMEWORK EXPECTATIONS - YEAR 1 — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary

This year we are introducing the Travelling Nativity to the families in Year 1 at Our Lady’s! Families will be invited to host Mary, Joseph and the donkey for an evening and night each and then pass them on to another family. Please see the letter you were sent last week for more details OR find it here. This will start on Monday 2nd December and continue on until the end of term.

Travelling Nativity Letter

Friday 29th November - KS1 movie night 4.30-6.15 in the school hall. Tickets available via parent pay at £2.50. Children to come in PJs and they can bring a teddy or blanket/pillow. Snack and drink included.

Friday 6th December - Christmas Fair. 3.30-5.30. More details to follow on this.

Tuesday 10th December - Year 1 and 2 Nativity! There will be two performances at 9.30am and 2pm. (Keep an eye out for any slight time changes.) Each child has been sent home TONIGHT with two tickets for each performance. These are free but we have to limit numbers as it is for two classes and we can only physically fit so many people safely in the hall at once. Many thanks for your understanding.

Work has started on this year’s nativity! If you, or your child, are keen to listen to the songs and do a bit of extra practice then please follow the link below to Year 2’s homework page where Mr Whetnall has added all the songs! Hopefully the children will also have brought home a song sheet this weekend. We would really appreciate any help…..and sorry for the fact that you will wake up humming these songs!! Many thanks. Yr2 Homework — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School

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/wednesday-word/advent?pid=MTA101634&v=156.3

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