This week we have started to learn about Taking Away! Here are some of the boys taking part in a selection of subtraction activities.

A “Jump Back” game.

Only carriages with the correct answers can be stuck onto the train!

The Bus Game – Start with a full bus, roll a dice and take some people away.

Using dice to make a take away sum.

Playing “The Bug Game”. Put some bugs on a leaf and then take some away.

Completing subtraction sums on the computer.

Using cubes to calculate the answers.

Any extra practical “Taking Away” you can do at home would be great. You  might like to have a look at these websites

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=TakeAway

http://www.ictgames.com/bottleTakeAway/index.html

Also, to link in with our topic on Transport and Travelling you might like to use the following Purple mash links over the next few weeks

• Home-Phases-5-7 – Old and New Transport
• Paint Projects – Transport
• Mathematics – 2Count- Pictograms (You could ask friends and family to help you make a Favourite Transport pictogram).

I hope you all had an enjoyable and restful Half Term holiday!

This Half Term our topic is about “Travelling and Transport”. We have spent this week discussing different methods of transport, our favourite ways of travelling and how we can use our bodies to travel in different ways.

On Friday the boys will bring home a tick sheet. We will be asking them to take the tick sheet out with them on a journey over the weekend and tick off the different things they see. We will then use the tick sheet for our class writing task so please bring it back on Monday. Thank you!

Just a couple of other notices

• Please sign up for a Parents’ Eve Appointment. The appointment sheet is in the cloakroom and the appointments will take place on Tuesday 11th March in the Theatre.
• Next Thursday (6th March) is World Book Day. Please can the boys come to school as a “courageous character”!
• We are collecting old printer cartridges and used batteries for a recycling project run by the senior school. The collection will only take place for 2 weeks and the collection boxes are in the foyer of the Pre Prep building near Mrs Laws office.

Many thanks!

Just a few things to think about over Half Term

• A Homework Sheet will be in the book bags today. It will list some activities to practise over the holiday.
• March 6th is World Book Day. The theme is “Courage” and we will be dressing up as a courageous character from a book (Fiction or Non Fiction).
• After Half Term we would like the Star Boy to bring in his favourite book to show instead of a toy. If the book is quite short we will try and read them daily in class.
• Have a look at Purple Mash (see last blog post for more information)

Have a lovely Half Term!

You are now able to log in to Purple Mash at home! Purple Mash is a suite of  ICT activities we use with the boys at school.

The website is

http://www.purplemash.co.uk/sch/lochinver

and I will put the log in details in your Reading Record books today.

There are so many activities on Purple Mash, please can I encourage you not to do all of them at once! Instead, I will highlight a few activities in the blog that will reinforce what we have been doing at school. That way the boys will enjoy showing you what they have done without activities linked to future topics becoming familiar to them.

The areas you could look at over half term are

• Under the “Creative Tools” section you could look at “2 sequence” or “2 go”, both of which which the boys have been using in their computer lessons with  Miss Thomas this term.
• Under “Creative Tools” they could draw a picture using “2 paint”.
• Under the “Themes” section there is a “weather” section which would be excellent revision of our topic this term.

Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any problems.

I hope you enjoy Purple Mash!

Something to think about over half term…

On Thursday 6th March we will be celebrating World Book Day. The theme throughout Lochinver will be “courage”. Therefore, we will be asking all the boys to dress up as someone or something that represents courage! It might be a person from a fiction story, a historical figure, a colour or even a profession!

I can’t wait to see all the ideas on the 6th!

Last week we focused on rainy weather. The boys enjoyed a sewing activity where they used blue thread on white binca to look like rain drops. They are on display in the classroom if you wold like to come and have a look!

This week we have been thinking about the sunshine. As we were blessed with a sunny day yesterday we went outside to look at our shadows. We discussed how shadows were made and used the Smartboard in the classroom to make more shadows.

You might like to continue to observe shadows at home. You could discuss the following; Do shadows get bigger / smaller? Can they move? Are shadows ever colourful? Can you see designs or patterns on shadows?

We also watched some shadow puppetry on the internet. You might want to have a look on You Tube for some more examples of this.

If anyone would like to have a go at making some play dough for the reception boys to play with we would be really grateful! We have some shop bought dough to tide us over but its not the same as home made!

Making dough with your boys is a great maths activity as you can discuss the quantities and weights of the ingredients. It’s also lots of fun!

Here are a few recipes for dough if you fancy having a go

http://mummysmiles.com/art-craft/how-to-make-homemade-microwave-playdough-so-easy/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/presenters/makes/presenters-modellingdough/

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/50/play-dough.aspx

There is no need to sign up on the rota, any time is fine. If you want to take photos of your son making the dough you could email them to me and I would be happy to include them in his Learning Journal.

Many thanks!