Please find below the poster explaining our 'Extreme Reading Competition'. I am really looking forward to seeing the unusual and exciting places that the children find to read! Please feel free to email me any photographs to the class email address: foxes@willington.derbyshire.sch.uk 

In Phonics, we have continued learning new aspects of Phase 5 (alternative ways to spell sounds that the children are already familiar with). Please find below a document showing some of the words we have been reading in class together (I have also provided a paper copy when their reading book was changed). Reading the new phonics at home will help build both your child's confidence and phonics knowledge.

Please find below the spellings that will be tested on Friday 27th January, which all contain the digraphs 'ur' and 'ir'. Practising these at home will obviously help your child to feel more confident during the spelling test. I will send home a printed list of spellings with your child on a Friday in their home spelling book and they will be available on the class page below, as well as being set on Spelling Shed. House points will be awarded based on your child's performance (both academic and personal achievements).

Our Treasured Text this week has been The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright. This story has a lovely message about confidence, self-esteem and being brave, as we follow the tale of a shy mouse who sets out to find his roar! We had lovely discussions about this book as a class and the Fantastic Foxes thought it was hilarious that the lion was scared of the mouse!

We have started our new English writing unit, based on If Sharks Disappeared by Lily Williams. This is a wonderful book that explains how every creature is important and how a change, such as sharks disappearing, would have a huge impact on the ocean. We have also been discussing about how looking after our planet is important - the Fantastic Foxes were very quick to tell me that we should not drop litter and recycle if possible. They are so responsible!

In Maths we have started our new unit on Place Value within 20. The Fantastic Foxes were brilliant at identifying if a number is ten, or not ten, and we have been thinking in more depth about what the numbers 11-19 look like and how they can be represented. We will continue this next week. To support this, you could practice counting forwards and backwards from 0-20 and looking at how these numbers are written in numerals. Perhaps your Fantastic Fox could count out different quantities of objects, or count items when they are out and about (blue cars etc).

As always, feel free to email me photographs of anything that your Fantastic Fox has been up to - it is always nice to be able to discuss it with them in school.

In Science, we have been monitoring the weather this week - which has been brilliant to do while there has been snow, 'proper' winter weather for us to discuss! We have looked at common weather symbols, wind direction, temperature and rainfall. We will visit the weather in this way in spring and summer and see what the Fantastic Foxes notice about the weather in different seasons.