This Sunday marks the second week of Advent. We light the candle this Sunday to represent Preparation & Peace. We believe that both are fitting for this Sunday as we draw closer to the time we celebrate Christ’s birth. The wise men in the bible knew the scripture and took the necessary efforts to prepare and set out on their journey to worship the newborn King. The angels informed Mary and Joseph well ahead of time so they could prepare for what lied ahead of them. Today we must take the time to prepare our hearts our minds to lose sight of Christ

At Christmas, we celebrate the first coming of Christ. It was this newborn baby lying in a manger that came to this world as a lamb. Although he is the King of Kings he walked this earth, breathed the air and lived as we do now. Everywhere he went he brought peace to those who sought Him for those who rejected him they found no peace. We are now waiting for the second coming of Christ when He returns as the lion and will bring the first and final peace this world has ever known to all the nations. Be like the wise men and prepare your hearts and seek Him now..

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 continued to work on parts and wholes as our introduction to addition and subtraction. We have continued to use 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. Our number bonds to ten are our main focus of learning at the moment as we try to learn these facts and commit them to memory. If we know these facts by heart AND can apply them, it saves us time with our other learning. These are facts you can practice at home.

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. This week we have focused on Mary and how she must have felt when they arrived in Bethlehem and their was no room at the inn.

Science - our topic this half term is all about animals. This week we have been thinking about animals that we may keep as pets and wild animals that would not make good pets - and the reasons why!

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 North America and the USA in particular this week.

Design - this week the children continued with their sewing work with Mrs Debowska.

NATIVITY - our practices are going well! This has taken a bit of our time up this week and will be our main focus next week - in order to put on a nativity, we have to postpone other work. PLEASE continue to practice the song words at home! Many thanks.

Many congratulations to this week’s winners….

Golden Award - Erin for always showing respect to the people around her and being a good role model, with super behaviour for learning, to all those in Year 1!

Writing Award - Maya for working SO hard on her pre-cursive handwriting and writing so beautifully about Mary this week in RE.

Maths Award - Esmae for super number bond work this week - and explaining WHY there can be multiple answers to the same question.

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

Thank-you so much to the families who have welcomed the Nativity already - beautiful photos (see end of blog), along with lovely pictures and writing from the children. I have been delighted with how well it has been received and the children are all so excited at the end of the day to see ‘if it is going to be them’!!

10.12.24 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 will be sent 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.

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.

Year 1 and 2 Nativity Songs 2024 — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School

Please be aware that Year 1’s role in the nativity is support Year 2 with singing, dancing and acting. Year 1 do not have any lines to learn, other that the song words. Every child is on stage at some point. Year 1 will get their chance to lead next year.

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.

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

https://www.paperturn-view.com/wednesday-word/preparation?pid=MTA101634&v=157.3