Beach Party Reminder!

Monday 18th July – Beach Party for Fireflies & Grasshoppers

Due to the hot forecast we have moved our beach party to the morning as it will be a little cooler.

* Come to school in a summer outfit – shorts/t-shirt/dress (No flip flops please)

* Please send your child to school with sun cream applied, a water bottle and a sunhat/cap.

* Don’t forget your £3 for an ice cream, in the afternoon.

Many thanks,

Mrs Morris & Mrs Fox

Summer Holiday Activities

Our sports partnership has recently shared this information on activities available over the summer holidays.

 

Here is also some additional information from Shropshire Council on a wider range of activities available across Shropshire: HAF SUMMER 2022 – What’s On – including some information on some free places on holiday activities (Who Can Access the Free HAF Programme).

September Reception Intake -Visits to School

As part of the induction process, the new reception children have been invited into school for the last 6 weeks of term. This helps them to familiarize themselves with the school and the staff they will be working with, in preparation for when they start school in September.

 

Postcards

Before we broke up for half term, Fireflies had been learning how to write a postcard about  a seaside holiday,

To really bring their learning to life, the children were asked to send a postcard to the class, during the half term break.

The children really enjoyed sharing their postcards. They were all so excited to receive them! It sounds like they all had a lovely time.

Dental Hygiene

This morning Fireflies and Grasshoppers were treated to a special assembly all about looking after their teeth. They also met Derek the Dragon who showed them how to clean their teeth properly.

Termly Information

This term our topic is ‘On the Beach.’ Please visit the Fireflies’ information page, (on the school website) to find out what we shall be learning this term.

Many thanks

N Fox

 

Sunflowers

In art, Fireflies have been learning about continuous line drawings. They have applied their newly learnt skills, to replicate the famous sunflowers paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

The children also experimented with different ways of adding texture to paint. They added salt, flour and oats to the paint to give different textures. The children then applied the different textures of paint to their artwork.

The results were fantastic!

Reception Children Vision Screening

The School Vision Screening Team are visiting the school on Wednesday 6th April to carry out vision screening for Reception children. Please see the attached letter giving more information.

This is carried out on an OPT OUT basis. Therefore, if you are happy for your child to take part you do not need to take any further action. If you do not want your child to have their vision screened please complete and return the form to the School Office by Friday.

letter OPT OUT Reception Class vision screening

Running Challenge – Spring Term

Here’s an update on each class’s running challenges for this term.

Fireflies

Fireflies are attempting to run the distance from Ditton Priors to Shrewsbury (the birthplace of Charles Darwin) – 22.3 miles – as many times as they can.

Grasshoppers

Grasshoppers are attempting to run the distance of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (in Australia) – 1,149 metres – as many times as they can.

 

Dragonflies

Dragonflies are attempting to run the length of the Shropshire border – 497km.

 

Scorpions

Scorpions are attempting to run the distance from Nordland (in Norway) to Lindisfarne (the first known Viking raid of a monastery in England) and back – ~2,000 miles.

 

 

 

Scorpions & Fireflies – Shared Reading

Every Thursday, Scorpions and Fireflies spend some time together sharing some reading. Here are some pictures of their first session of this half term from yesterday:

 

 

 

Remote Learning Friday 18th February 2022

Good morning Fireflies,

Mrs Morris has sent some work for you to complete today. Please see the work set out below. There is separate work for Reception and Year 1’s.

Please send any completed work to fireflies@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk.

Have a lovely day. I hope the high winds do not cause you too much disruption.

Stay safe,

N.Fox

Reception Children:

Year 1’s:

 

 

Links to resources:

au-n-541-whats-the-position-cut-and-paste-activity-sheet

t-e-1628009108-bugs-big-trip-positional-language-read-and-draw-activity_ver_1

t-l-096-positional-language-word-cards-_ver_2

Charles Darwin Morning

Fireflies have had a fun filled morning learning all about Charles Darwin.

They learnt about Charles Darwin’s early life, and his 5 year journey on HMS Beagle, around the Galápagos Islands. They then became explorers; discovering some of the different species of animals that Charles Darwin collected during his voyage. This is a great starting point for our history work.

 

Well-done Assembly – 21.01.22

Good Afternoon.

 

Here are this week’s well-done certificates.

 

Well-done Certificates

Fireflies:

 

Grasshoppers:

 

Dragonflies:

 

Scorpions:

 

Numbots and TTRS Certificates

Numbots and TTRS certificates will be given out in class again, but… here are…

 

This week’s top three pupils (for completed levels on Numbots):

3.) Ari C (Dragonflies)

2.) Sam R (Grasshoppers)

1.) Teddy Y (Grasshoppers)

 

and…

 

This week’s top three pupils (for correctly answered questions on TTRS):

3.) Joshua W (Dragonflies)

2.) Finley P (Dragonflies)

1.) Hugo M (Scorpions)

 

School Prayer

We will finish today’s assembly with an opportunity for a quiet moment of reflection with our school prayer.

 

Dear God,

Thank you for our wonderful school.
Help us to be good learners.
Help us to look after each other.
Help us to be respectful and kind, and to make everyone welcome.
May our school be a happy, safe place – where learning is fun,
where we all work together to be the best we can be.

Amen

Charles Darwin Workshop

We are excited to say that we have organised a Charles Darwin Workshop for Fireflies on Wednesday 2nd February. Please find attached a letter with further information.

Many thanks,

N.Fox

Charles Darwin Workshop

 

Healthy Eating

Fireflies have been learning about healthy eating and the importance of a balanced diet.

The children have learnt all about different types of healthy food. They also enjoyed tasting a range of different fruits and vegetables.

 

Reception- Phonics- How to Pronounce Pure Sounds

Good evening,

I have attached a video to support parents when reading with their child at home. The video demonstrates how we teach children to say the ‘pure’ sounds in school. I hope you find it useful.

Kind regards,

N.Fox

Year 1: Phonics Practice

The Year 1s in Fireflies and Grasshoppers have been working hard with their phonics this half term and have learnt all the following phonemes:

/ea/ /oe/ /au/ /ew/ /ay/ /ie/ /ou/  /ey/ /wh/ /ph

We have set some practice assignments up on Spelling Shed for them and it would be really helpful if they could practice at least one game daily – as little and often practice is the best way to ensure new information gets stored in the long term memory.

All children should have their Spelling Shed log-ins to access the games.

We will also be setting spelling lists for the tricky (common exception) words – and with these words, children can earn certificates with the points that they amass!  Each point they earn goes towards their “Shed Score” – and this is the total of scores for the past rolling 7-day period.

All children start as an egg and can work their way up to a Royal Bee!

Parent Workshop – Help Your Child with Phonics and Early Reading

We are holding a parent workshop aimed to help parents of infant children with understanding and supporting their child with their learning or phonics and early reading.  It is going to be held on Microsoft Teams on Thursday 21st October at 1:30pm.

We will share the link to the meeting via email on the morning of the workshop and all you need to do if you wish to access the session is click the link.  The workshop will provide useful information on how you can support your child with their phonics learning as well as with useful strategies for supporting early reading skills.

Fireflies PE- Change of Day

Please note that Fireflies will only need to come into school in their PE kit on a Wednesday and Friday. Please come into school in uniform on a Monday.

Waterbottles and Waterproof Coats

We have had a number of accidents with open top waterbottles so can we please remind parents to ensure children bring a non-drip waterbottle to school.

Waterbottles are often kept on class tables, and when an open top bottle gets knocked – the water floods the tables and can damage children’s work.

Can we also please remind parents to send their child with a warm waterproof coat EVERY day  – as we will get children outside at breaktimes as much as possible – even in wet weather, as they need the ‘downtime’ and fresh air.

Fireflies Class Information

Welcome to Fireflies!

We hope you all had a lovely Summer break and are feeling refreshed and looking forward to starting school.

This term our topic is Sensational Structures. To find out about the learning that will be taking place this term, please visit the Fireflies information page ( just click on Classes>Fireflies>Information.) You will also find lots of useful links on the page that will help you to support your child’s learning at home.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me on

Fireflies@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk.

We are really looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your break!

 

 

 

 

 

 

African Day

As an end of term treat, Class 1 have had an African themed day which has linked in with our topic work about Africa.

The children have enjoyed creating their own African sunset picture, making beaded bracelets and binoculars, African dancing, drumming and going on their own Safari in search of African animals.

Writing to the New September Intake

This week the children have been writing to the children at Little Explorers who will be starting school in September. They have told them all about school life. The children have been extremely motivated in their writing. They were very excited to think that all their friends at pre-school would read their letters.