St Martin de Porres Catholic Primary School
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Dear Parents/Carers,
 
I hope you are well, we are writing to invite you to a literacy workshop for Year 1 and Reception. We have introduced new books from the Read Write Inc program, together with an online platform, which will highly benefit the progress of your child’s phonics and reading.
Therefore, we would like to invite you to attend this meeting after school to give you some more information regarding the new books and the online library so that you can get the full benefit of this program. 
The meeting will take place on Tuesday 22nd March at 3.30pm in the hall. We invite all Year 1 and Reception parents to attend so that you can understand the Read Write Inc reading scheme and ask any questions that you may have.
 
We look forward to seeing you at the meeting. Please fill in the little RSVP form below to let us know if you can come.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Year 1 and Reception Teachers
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Click on the picture to the left to access ReadWriteInc. ​Ruth Miskin's Phonics lessons at home.

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Homework for this week
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Your teachers have prepared a set of documents to help you with your learning at home during the class closure. Click on any light blue writing to see them appear in full:

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​On Monday 14th June, in the morning, a very special guest came to school to visit Reception…
Look at the photos!

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In other news we have pets! Reception are the proud owners of 5 caterpillars. Please meet: Boris, Matt, Kier, Priti and Dominic.
The children will be able to watch the caterpillars eat, grow, form their chrysalis and emerge as a butterfly.  

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In Guided Reading and our Literacy sessions, we have been reading the
Eric Carle book ‘The Tiny Seed’. This not only teaches the children about the lifecycle of a plant but also about the changing seasons. The children have re-told the story and discussed key vocabulary from the book.  
Then the children had a go at writing their own version of it.

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​In reception we have been learning about the lifecycles of a frog and a butterfly through the book "A Tadpole's Promise".
We also continued to develop our vocabulary linked to these topics and we re-told the story in our writing. Have a look at our work.

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In reception we have been learning all about the lifecycles of different animals. We learnt about the lifecycle of a butterfly through the story of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

In week 1, we read the story, investigated the vocabulary, sequenced the story and acted it out. In week 2, we re-told the story using the language from the book and our own words and had a go at writing sentences linked to the story. Check out our work!

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Homework for Spring 1 & 2 school closure
Your teachers have shared with you daily sets of documents to help you with your learning at home during the school closure in January, February and the beginning of March. If you need to go back to them, they are still available for you here.

In our art lessons, we have been learning about the Dutch Cubist painter Piet Mondrian 1872-1944. We have been painting, printing, learning about shape, pattern and primary colours.​ Look at our beautiful work:
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Homework for this week

​Your teachers have prepared a set of documents to help you with your learning at home during the school closure. Click on any light blue writing to see them appear in full:

We have been working hard in mathematics. Counting, sorting, singing, matching, exploring and practising number formation up to 10. Look at us:

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Reception have been learning about the Christmas Story.  Look at the photos:


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In class we have been learning about our five senses. This week we focussed on our senses of hearing and touch.  We started by listening to and playing a range of musical instruments. We investigated a range of objects and talked about how they felt. We came up with some excellent adjectives to describe the objects: warm, smooth, fluffy, cold, hairy, spikey, soft, squishy, slimy, silky, stretchy, cuddly and hard.

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In class we have been learning about our five senses. This week we focussed on our sense of smell and taste. We tasted a range of food and the children were all very brave sucking the lemon. It goes without saying we all preferred the chocolate! We asked the children to describe how the different foods tasted. They came up with some great vocabulary: sour, bitter, spicy, sweet, salty, bubbly, fizzy and hot to name a few.

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​Ms Llewellyn's Reception Parents consultations are taking place this week. They are face-to-face 1/2hr meetings within Covid19 regulations.

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To book your time-slot, please log onto your sQuid account, go to 'Bookings', choose a slot on 'Parents' consultation', check that it is still available ("availability: 1") and put it into your basket. This booking is free of charge. If you're having any difficulty booking your slot, don't hesitate to call or email us at the office.


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​This week, poor Stick Man was frozen in our water tray. The children tried all sorts of ways to free him. Please see the pictures below:


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We have been celebrating Autumn in all its glory. We used all our senses to investigate a range of Autumn objects and then used them to create Autumn in a bottle.


Message from Ms Llewellyn - Friday 18th September:
Reception upcoming events and timetable
​
Dear Parents, 
  
I am writing to let you know about some upcoming events and some timetable information:
  • You can drop off your child in the morning at any time between 8.30 and 8.55am at Gate 5 (double gate on the corner of Oakland and Forest road). 
If your Reception child has an older sibling in our school, you will pick them up together at 3pm at Gate at the same gate as you have picked them up for the past 3 weeks. 
If your child is the only one at our school, you will pick him/her up at 3.15pm at Gate 4 on Oakland Road (the gate the children came in over the last two weeks). 
  • P.E will take place on a Tuesday afternoon in Reception starting the week beginning 21.9.2020. Please make sure the children have their P.E. kit in school. Unlike every other class who are coming to school in PE kits, Reception will need to change for PE because getting dressed, managing buttons etc is part of our curriculum. With 30 children wearing identical uniform getting changed in a small space, clothes may end up temporarily lost. Therefore all items need to be labelled with your child’s name.  
  • We will be running a phonics workshop for all parents to attend on Tuesday 20th October at 5pm. At the moment we are hoping that this will take place in school, however if that is not possible it will be done online. Attendance at these workshops is imperative. Please inform me if you are unable to make this workshop. 
  • We will be starting phonics teaching in class week beginning 2.11.2020. Phonics homework will be posted on BGfL. This will detail the sounds that the children have been learning, please take the time to look at the work with your child, recap on the sounds and complete any activities. 
  • Please could you email a family photo to the school enquiry email address in preparation for an activity next week. 
  • Please can you ensure your child has a water bottle in school every day. 
  • A study plan for the Autumn term and a weekly timetable will be emailed out to you at the end of next week. 
  • Now the two week induction period is over, from Monday 21st September we will expect the children to come in, put their coat and bag away and sit on their carpet space ready for learning. Please speak to your children re: the expectations so they are fully prepared. 
  • We will be hoping to speak to all parents in the upcoming weeks to discuss our initial assessments. Please look out for any communications from school in order to make these appointments. 
  • After-school (until 4.30pm or 5.30pm) and Breakfast Club (from 8am) are available for Reception children. Please book your sessions in advance on sQuid. For any help or query about sQuid, please call the office or email Mrs Symons (reply to this email). 
Finally, may we take this opportunity to say how well the children have settled into school life at St Martin’s. We are looking forward to a very successful year. If you have any questions about the contents of this letter please don't hesitate to contact Mrs Brewer or myself.  
  
Thank you for your continued support at this difficult time. 
 
Mrs Brewer and Ms Llewellyn ​

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PE
Click on these for Miss Haydon's home PE for this week: Wow Active Cards


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After reading the book Handa's Hen, the children acted out the story to music. Check out their dance moves:

We made our own globes:
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​And we built the Taj Mahal!

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Our language focus this half-term is understanding things that go together are not always the same. Check out some of the activities we have been doing to support this:

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On Wednesday 6th November in the morning and later in the afternoon, parents of Reception children were invited by Ms Llewellyn to attend their first Phonics Workshop. Thank you very much to all the parents who came!

Here is a copy of the slideshow Ms Llewellyn presented that day: Phonics


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We have now learnt 10 new sounds. Here are some pictures of us using our knowledge of these sounds to build and read words. 

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Name writing
In October, we have been practising building and writing our names.


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On Monday 24th June, Reception children went to Hatton Country World for their end-of-year class trip.
Hatton Adventure World is a fun day out for all the family, whether you’re looking for indoor or outdoor fun, we’ve got something for everyone.  Based in the heart of Warwickshire, our adventure world is a great day out for the under fives, right through to young teens. It is located in Hatton, Warwickshire.
To know more about the place, you can visit: https://hattonworld.com/

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On Friday 12th June in the morning, Reception children had their first class assemblies where they told us everything they have done and learned of over their first year of school. They were amazing!
​Many thanks to all the parents who came to support them.

Poppy and Tabitha went to Bournville Book Fest where they met Lydia Monks, illustrator of Frog Hops Off! and What the Ladybird Heard.
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Here are Ms Llewellyn's recommendations for the reading challenge:
Alphabet of Alphabets by Mike Jolley & Allan Sanders
Oi Cat! by Kes Gray & Jim Field
The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright & Jim Field
The Ugly Five by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

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Look at our achievements!

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​Congratulations to Poppy, who ran on Sunday 14th October in the Mini Great Birmingham Run (3 - 8 years old) to raise money for Birmingham Children's hospital.

There were 147 youngsters who took part in this fabulous event in 2018 raising a fantastic £1,200 so far for the charity.


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Reception children recently read the book Oliver's fruit salad by Vivian French and Alison Bartlett.
On Wednesday 12th June, they made their own fruit salad. They were very sensible using the sharp knives!


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​The children have been creating a herb garden in our outdoor area and the photos show them planting. 


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On Wednesday 10th April, Reception children were left clues by the Easter Bunny and they went on a hunt...
​It was so exciting!


On Wednesday 27th February in the sunny afternoon, some children from Reception sat for a while in our prayer garden with Miss McArdle for a calm time of collective worship.

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On Wednesday 13th February, we celebrated the Chinese New Year by trying Chinese food. Not an easy task to eat with chopsticks!


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Check out our ball skills!


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Phonics
This week in Reception, the children have been doing lots of activities linked to their focus sounds m, a, s, t, d, eg sorting objects by their initial sound, word building and mark making in the sand.

Click here to help your child practise their handwriting .
Please practise reading these words at home with your child. Please encourage your child to 'Fred talk' and then blend the word. Happy Reading!
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On Wednesday 14th November 2018, we a big party in the classroom
​for Fred the Frog's birthday.

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