Dear Delphinus Delights!

We have had another lovely week in Delphinus Class! The children have been working incredibly hard and showing such wonderful enthusiasm across all areas of their learning. It has been lovely to see their confidence continuing to grow, particularly when sharing their ideas, working together and having a go at new challenges. We have had lots of smiles, laughter and exciting learning moments throughout the week, and we are so proud of all their hard work!

Maths

This week, we continued exploring Addition and Subtraction, focusing on adding more, solving addition problems and finding missing parts of numbers. The children have been using lots of practical resources, including cubes, counters and part-whole models, to help them understand how numbers can be combined and separated.

Towards the end of the week, we began exploring subtraction and how we can find out how many are left when we take part of a number away.

In Mastering Number, we have been investigating doubles and discovering how even numbers can be made using two equal parts. The children have enjoyed using practical resources to build doubles and spot patterns!

Our Maths homework books are due back on Monday. Thank you for continuing to support your children with these at home!

English – Drawing Club

Our Drawing Club story this week was Rumpelstiltskin, and what a magical adventure it has been! The children have loved exploring this mysterious fairy tale and using their wonderful imaginations to bring the story to life.

We were also incredibly lucky to have a real spinning wheel kindly lent to us for the week! It was such a special opportunity for the children to see a spinning wheel up close and discover how it works, bringing an important part of our story to life. The children were fascinated and had lots of wonderful questions!

We have been designing our own Rumpelstiltskin characters, imagining the room filled with straw waiting to be turned into gold and creating magical spinning wheels. We even had a go at inventing our very own magical characters!

Our Word Bathe vocabulary this week included mysterious, peculiar, desperate, boastful, furious and gleaming. As always, we have been practising using these exciting words in our speaking and writing, alongside remembering our capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

Wider Curriculum – RE

This week, we have been exploring Christianity and the Creation Story in RE.

We were very lucky to welcome Menna into Delphinus Class, who led a beautiful Godly Play session exploring the Creation Story. The session created a calm, sacred and special space for the children to listen, reflect and share their thoughts about the story. It was such a lovely experience and gave the children an opportunity to explore the story in a thoughtful and meaningful way.

Following the session, the children were given a variety of creative activities and resources to explore the idea of creation for themselves. They absolutely loved using their imaginations to create their own representations of the world, and it was wonderful to see how engaged and thoughtful they were throughout!

We have also been learning about what Christians believe about God and how Christians believe God created the world. We discussed all the wonderful things in nature and thought about how we can look after our planet. The children shared some lovely ideas about how we can all play our part in caring for the world around us.

A Special Visit from The Story Museum!

On Thursday, we welcomed The Story Museum into Delphinus Class for a very special day! The children spent the entire day immersed in the wonderful world of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, enjoying a lovely change from our usual classroom routine. It was such a fantastic opportunity to celebrate storytelling, imagination and creativity, and the children thoroughly enjoyed having James with us. What a wonderful way to bring stories to life! Do ask your child to tell you the story of the Musicians of Breman!

Phonics & Reading

The children have continued working hard in their phonics groups, practising their sounds, reading words and developing their fluency and confidence.

Please continue to make sure your child's phonics reading book is in their book bag each day. This really helps us with collecting and changing books throughout the week. Thank you for your continued support!

PE

In PE, we are developing our hockey skills still, focusing on control, coordination and working together as a team. The children are also practising their listening skills and learning how to move safely while using their hockey sticks.

Harvest Service

We are excited for our annual Harvest Service! All families are warmly welcome to join us at St Peter and St Paul's Church on Thursday 22nd October at 10:00am.

We would be very grateful for any parents or grandparents who are able to volunteer to walk down to the church with us—we will be leaving school at 9:15am. Please email your child's phase inbox if you are able to help.

Children are invited to bring an in-date, dry good as an act of service to be donated to the Oxford Food Hub (such as pasta, tinned goods, or cereal). Please note that children will need to be able to carry their donation themselves, as they will not be taking backpacks to the church.

We are all very excited to share everything we have been practising in church, and we hope to see lots of you there to celebrate with us! It will be a lovely way to finish our final week before half-term.

Parents' Evening

It was so lovely to welcome so many of you to Parents' Evening this week! I really enjoyed having the opportunity to chat with you and share just how amazingly your children are doing in school. It was also wonderful to see how engaged and enthusiastic you all are about supporting your children's learning at home. Your support really does make such a difference! I'm looking forward to meeting with more of you at our second Parents' Evening next week and continuing these lovely conversations.

Next Week

Maths – Addition and Subtraction

Next week, we will continue our Addition and Subtraction learning, exploring fact families and different ways of taking away. We will be using practical resources, pictures and number lines to help us understand subtraction and explain our mathematical thinking.

English – Drawing Club & Curious Quest

Our Drawing Club is changing! We are meeting new characters in our writing adventures as we take the next exciting step in our writing journey! We are beginning to introduce Curious Quest, created by Greg Bottrill! This builds on everything the children have enjoyed about Drawing Club, while encouraging them to become more confident and independent writers. The children will be introduced to a whole new world of wonderful characters, including Professor Klunk, Noodle, Titch and Brain, who will inspire exciting quests and imaginative writing adventures. We can't wait to begin this new chapter with Delphinus Class!

Wider Curriculum – Milo's Money

Next week, we will be exploring Milo's Money, helping the children begin to develop their understanding of money through practical activities and discussions.

Reminders

• Monday: Maths homework books due back.
• Tuesday and Wednesday: PE.
• Wednesday 21st October: Parents' Evening – a few appointment spaces still available!
• Thursday 22nd October: Harvest Service.
• Thursday 22nd October: Forest School.
• Friday 23rd October: INSET Day – school closed to pupils.

          26th - 30th October - Half term

• Monday 2nd November - INSET Day - school closed ot children
• Tuesday 3rd November - Term 2 starts
• Saturday 7th November - Open Morning
• Friday 13th November  - flu vaccinations in school
• Friday 18th December -  term 2 ends at 1pm

 

Thank you for another wonderful week in Delphinus Class! We hope you all have a lovely, restful weekend and look forward to our final week before half-term!

The Delphinus Team