The children were beaming from ear to ear and enjoyed the whole experience of visiting the pool. Their swimming teachers, Karen and Jane, were very impressed with how confident all the children were in the water and are looking forward to working with them to further develop their swimming skills.

This week we have been following our theme of getting to know each other and celebrating being unique. During our literacy lessons we have been developing the children's confidence to share their thoughts and ideas and listen to one another. We encouraged the children to talk about their families, homes, their friends and the things they love to do. We compared these and noticed if they were different or the same as each other. The children then set about recording this by drawing their ideas using a large piece of paper laid out on the carpet. The children worked all together to represent each of the topics we had spoken about and they loved that they were able to take their shoes off for the activity! Mrs Goodwin and I annotated their drawings with the children's comments, encouraging them to explain further. After we had finished, the children loved looking at their own and each other's drawings. 

We read the story, Incredible You, by Rhys Brisenden and Nathan Reed, which explains to the children that they all have special talents and are each unique. We had a discussion about all the things the children are amazing at and we had some fantastic responses from drawing aliens, playing football and even knitting! The children then drew pictures of themselves doing these special things in their literacy books and had a little go at writing about it. 

In maths, we have been counting carefully, sequencing numbers to 10 or even to 20. We have been linking numbers to 10 with our Numicon resource, which helps children to start comparing numbers. Using our large number tiles, we made a class number line on the carpet and matched the correct Numicon tile to the number. We then played a game where the children closed their eyes and a number vanished! The children worked hard to not only identify which number was missing but to explain how they knew this. For example, 7 is missing and I know this because it comes after 6.

Later, each child was challenged to build a number line to 20 and encouraged to notice the pattern in the teen numbers. For example, 14 has a 4 in it, 16 has a 6 in it. This will support their ability to identify and sequence their teen numbers. 

The children have been encouraged to use the creative area in the classroom this week and to explore making models using the junk-modelling materials. As we have been thinking about ourselves, building their homes was suggested as a possible idea. We had some great houses created using boxes and cardboard, but also some Minecraft characters, a marble run and puppets! The children have also been confident to access the painting area independently as well as all the other areas of the classroom. Clubs also started this week and the children have all very much enjoyed their ballet, tap and modern dance and Spanish lessons. 

We welcomed the children who are new to Russell House during our Pre-Prep assembly and celebrated birthdays and our superstars of the week. It was lovely to see all the Pre-Prep children together and give our new starters a warm welcome.

It has been a great first full week in Form 1 and the children have settled extremely well.