Welcome to Willow Class

 

  Classteachers: Miss J. Dandy/Mrs. L. Dhanak

2025-26

 

Welcome to Willow

Week Beginning 2.2.26

 

 

This week, the children were very excited to find a mysterious picture in the classroom:

We used the sentence stems 'I wonder...' and 'Could it be...' to share our thoughts.  These musings then led to our key vocabulary for this week:

• ancient (even older than Mrs. Bensilum!)
• navigate (to find your way)
• aqueous (watery/water based)

We have then been using our new words to explore an unfamiliar setting, using the story 'We're Sailing Down the Nile':

The children have compared the River Thames to the River Nile and have been learning that places can have similarities and differences.  

In Maths, the children have been looking at numbers above 5 and identifying one more or less than a number to 8.  As you can imagine, there has been lots of hilarity finding what comes after 6...!

Whenever you notice your child looking at someone when they speak to them, or turning their body to face who they are talking to...or even asking a question such as 'Do you agree?' or 'What do you think?', do praise them for this, as these are just a few of our first oracy targets.  We are very excited to develop this oracy framework across the school, starting with our Birch and Willow superstars!

 

Subitising - Why It Is Important

A video which clearly explains the concept we are instilling in Maths at school.  The KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts) your child has brought home are also included in this page's attachments and run beautifully alongside the message you will hear in the video.  

Support for Phonics at home

Please CLICK HERE for videos showing the sounds we teach in Autumn and Spring terms.  There are also really handy guides to accompany what the children will be learning in school and might be useful for when the children bring home decodable reading books.