Benhall Infant and Pre-School Parent Portal - 3rd February 2023

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Friday Letter -3rd February 2023

Dear Parents,

We have all enjoyed another busy week at school this week. Miss Bilton and I have had a fabulous time bobbing in and out of all our classes as part of our monitoring visits this week. What a joy to experience food preparation in the DT area, science investigations in the lab, maths and history in year 2 and maths and phonics in reception. This afternoon I was drawn into an investigation involving shoe sizes in yellow class and you know how much I love shoes! It was wonderful to hear all the discussion about accurate measuring and the predictions the children were making - real learning through enquiry.

Have a restful weekend everyone.

Love from Miss Morris and team xx

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Pre School News

In Pre-School this week our theme has been ‘Physical,’ this ranges from the children using fine and gross motor movements developing their skills using a variety of activities to support this area. The children have a small indoor obstacle course to explore, we have participated in wake and shake to ‘Crazy Frog’ music, worked in small groups to develop our ball skills. The children have used Squiggle to music, making small and large movements on paper, which supports in helping children develop their motor skills for drawing and writing. They have enjoyed manipulating playdough and using scissors, and also taken part in dough gym to music. Our focus story has been ‘We're Going on a Bear Hunt,’ the children have listened and retold the story acting out the actions - tip toe etc. On Tuesday and Friday we used the hall, starting off with a warm up and then enjoying ring/team games. Outdoors, we have been balancing, using bats and balls, playing with car and ramps, having lots of hula hooping fun and exploring our climbing frame with its different aspects of how to climb up and descend. This week we have A HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Evinya and Hartley in gold family. Next week we continue to work on our physical development! Have a lovely weekend.

The Pre-School Team.

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Year Group In Focus - Reception

It has been a 'Mathtastic' week in Reception this week, exploring addition in many ways. We have been looking at the part, part whole method, adding using dominoes, pictures and marks, playing games that need lots of adding, squirting answers to addition number sentences outside with giant water guns and lots of fabulous problem-solving with addition. What a lot of mathemagicians we have in Reception. In Little Wandle we have continued to learn new digraphs, trigraphs and tricky words and put our knowledge to the test in Reading Practice sessions, sentence writing, story writing, fact writing and in messages to our friends. In Week 7 we will be assessing the children on their segmenting and blending skills and tricky word recognition. This will show us if there are any gaps in their learning that we need to address and ensure the books they are reading are pitched correctly. We hope you are all still enjoying the Dream Reads - it's so fantastic to see so many of you changing the books each day to enjoy at home. Thank you, Mrs Aitken and the Reception Team x

School Council

Last week we were unable to complete the litter pick but this week we finally did it. The children were so sensible and school is looking even better than usual. School Council would like to remind everybody who comes on site to put litter in the bin, recycle when you can and if you see litter then please pop it in a bin provided on school grounds and don’t forget to then wash your hands.

Well done School Council for being super role models. Our meeting with Miss Morris is scheduled for next week.

Super School Council also ended Friday with a cake and drink and a catch-up about the week with Miss Bilton.

School Lottery - please consider signing up to our weekly lottery draw. Guarantee one person from Benhall will win a small prize each week and entry to the larger £25k too. https://www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/lottery/school/benhall-infant-and-pre-school?fbclid=IwAR0rUMXuSJkEwlSv70blK4UUdKENqdBxoF-bk_MQ1-nfMgxgef-7zEQpwQs

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* PTA Fundraising update**

Last year our mission was to fundraise for outdoor learning equipment. We had worked towards buying an outdoor classroom , this sadly turns out to not be possible to have at Benhall due to not having the grounds to accommodate it.

So instead we have chosen to spend the money on paying for fixing of the a Timber trail play area & a whole school session with 'Oakey Bear sculptures' building a mini tree pod. We will be funding the addition of new picnic benches for use at playtime and during learning outside.

We have also just agreed to pay for the following:

Science Dome visit
Drumming workshop
Subsidising year 2 end of year treat

We also hope to give another large donation towards the end of the year which will be decided at our AGM in July 2023 .

Thank you to everyone for the hard work and support. We couldn't do it without each and everyone of you . ⭐️

Lunchtimes

We are still in need of accessories for when we are unable to have our dressing up out. Tiaras, crowns, blow up mics and different hats/helmets are always welcome. Please give to the main office. Thank you. 😊

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Purple Learning Focus

This week out focus has been Respectful. This is one of our school rules and we have been modelling and discussing respect in our classrooms, on the playground, during assemblies and when in our special learning areas such as The Lab and The Kitchen.

Our purple learning display is just outside the hall and it changes frequently. Lots of children’s work is displayed when they have shown skills within their learning, such as perseverance and effort. As well as this we have comments from the children and staff when they have shown purple learning skills. The display also shows things that School Council have done as purple learners. As you will see from the photo it really is a celebration of all 😊

Purple Learners of the Week

Leola
Ben
Edward
Henry J
Ewan
Florrie
Mrs Lloyd

Well done everyone, we are all really proud of you.

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We would like to wish members of our Benhall Family who have celebrated their birthday a really happy birthday. Happy birthday to:

Alex N
Leola
Rhys
Charlie B
Miss Morris
Mrs Warburton

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Class Routines

PE Kit

What a great start to wearing school PE kit on PE days – thank you parents for your help with this.

PE Kit reminder:

Navy blue shorts or tracksuit bottoms
Plain white or purple T-shirt
Navy blue hoody or sweatshirt
Trainers

If your child has joined an after school sports club they can wear their school PE Kit on club days too (no football strips).

Orange Class
PE Days - Monday and Wednesday
Forest School Days Starts 27/9/22 - every other Tuesday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - Bring in on Wednesday go home on Friday
Sound Books - Back in on Wednesday
PPA Day and Cover - Weds am by Miss Everett

Yellow Class
PE Days - Monday and Wednesday
Forest School Days Starts 27/9/22 - every other Tuesday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - Bring in on Wednesday go home on Friday
Sound Books - Back in on Wednesday
PPA Day and Cover - Weds am by Miss Bilton

Green Class
PE Days - Wednesday and Thursday
Forest School Days - Starting on 29th September then every other Thursday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - Friday
PPA Day and Cover - Weds pm by Miss Bilton and Mrs Smurthwaite

Blue Class
PE Days - Wednesday and Thursday
Forest School Days - Starting on 29th September then every other Thursday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - Friday
PPA Day and Cover - Weds pm by Miss Bilton and Mrs Smurthwaite

Indigo Class
PE Days - Monday and Friday
Forest School Days - Starting on 28th September then every other Wednesday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - Friday
Homework - Thursday (Tapestry)
PPA Day and Cover - Tues by Mrs Aitken

Violet Class
PE Days - Monday and Friday
Forest School Days - Starting on 28th September then every other Wednesday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - Thursday
Homework - Thursday (Tapestry)
PPA Day and Cover - Tues am by Miss Morris