Welcome to our Infant class.

Meet the team

     

Miss Pickering - Infant Teacher 

In the Infant class, we have Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. We work on a two year rolling curriculum for Year 1 and Year 2 and have a separate curriculum for Reception.

Our PE day is Monday and Wednesday.

Phonics and Reading

In Infants, we follow the Pearson Bug Club phonics and reading scheme. They begin with wordless books before we begin Phase 2, which introduces the different phonemes.

In Year 1, we continue with the Bug Club phonics scheme, working through Phase 5 and Phase 6 phonemes looking at alternate pronunciation and spelling of words.

In Year 2, we revisit Phase 5 and 6 to further consolidate our phonetic knowledge.

Children will be allocated a book to read at home based on their phonics knowledge and will progress through the levels as their knowledge increases.

Autumn 2 2024

Week beginning 4th November 

it has been a very creative week in the infants this week.  Thank you to all the parents who have been in school for the Lancashire adult learning craft morning.  We also did lots of crafts in class.  In English we have been writing leaflets on leaves. Maths this week has focused on adding and subtracting near multiples of 10 for year 2, adding using bonds for year 1 and comparing and forming numbers to 6 for reception.  We have also been introduced to Guy Fawkes and in RE we have discussed ‘Good News’. 

Week beginning 28th October

This we has been a very autumnal week!  We have been looking at the book leaf man in our English and have made our own leaf characters.  We have also been studying seasons in science, looking at the different weather connected with each and designing our own weather symbols. In RE we have looked at people of Jesus as part of GOd’s big story with a focus on Noah’s Ark.

 

Autumn 1 2024

14th October

What a wonderful end to the half term we have had on our woodlands adventure day.  We have been in to the woods - den building, developing our memory skills, doing team building activities and having fun.  We even got to toast marshmallows!  In class we have completed our puppets and evaluated them.  They are all so unique - which is your favourite?  We have also been making Sukkots - Reception made one in the library and Year 1 and 2 made pictures - I am sure they will be on your wall at home

Week beginning 7th October 

 

Week beginning 30th September

Reception have been trying very hard with their phonics this week, we are moving from making letters with play dough and shaving foam to writing them on whiteboards and even in our books!  We have been continuing with making our puppets and finding it tricky to thread needles but we have shown perseverance and rose to the challenge.  In English we have been listening to the poem If I had a kangaroo and have begun to write our own animal poetry. 

Week beginning 24th September

This week we have been using all our senses to identify objects without using our sight.  We then made senses paper bag puppets.  In computing we have learnt how to open programs using our passwords to login to the correct website and navigate the site to complete an activity.  In English we have been writing our own animal stories.

Week beginning 16th September

This week we have been practising our DT skills with threading and sewing activities.  Some of Year 1 and 2 managed to sew on their first button.  Well done.  We have also been learning how to cross the road with the help of Lancashire patrol crossing service.  We walked down to Gorell close and crossed the road sensibly.  In science we have been learning the names of some of the bones in our body - we made pasta skeletons and learnt a skeleton dance too!

Week beginning 9th September

It’s been a really busy week in the infants this week. We have been learning about ‘The Fall’ in RE and the children have made snakes for our display. The reception have also made snake puppets and years 1 and 2 have been designing their puppets in DT. We have also been lucky to have Mr Sansom come in for whole afternoon of gymnastics! We have been studying landmarks of Sydney and thinking about what we would see and hear there.  In science we have had Mrs Oates, a baby nurse, come in to teach us about how we look after small babies’ bodies and the equipment they use. 

Week beginning 2nd September.

We have had a fab and busy start to the new academic year. The new reception children have fitted in perfectly and there has been lots of fun and learning. We have investigated puppets in DT, learnt more parts of the body in science, understood the importance of keeping passwords safe in computers and learnt about the story of creation and how our food comes from all over the world with a harvest focus.  In maths we have all been studying numbers, counting and ordering. English has introduced us to the character of Willaby Wallaby and we have been asking questions to find out who he is. Reception have been enjoying our improved outdoor area (with money from Friends of Newchurch) and telling us all about themselves with their ‘All about me’ bags.

 

Summer 2

Week beginning 15th July

This week we have been studying Mary Seacole and in our Art lesson we carefully looked at her details to paint her in watercolour.  We were also lucky to have a pizza making day, we designed our pizzas, chose our toppings and then took them home to share with our families - yum!  We also had a sneak peak at our topic in September - Australia and used printing with cotton buds to make aboriginal art patterns on boomerangs.

Week beginning 8th July

This week we prepared beautiful rushes for our annual rush bearing service.  Our new Reception children joined us for an afternoon and we shared the book the Koala who could - we then made our own koalas from torn newspaper.  We continued with our Art, printing with leaves and we had a sunny day for our sports day too!

Week beginning 1st July

We have had a lovely time meeting the new reception children this week and introducing them to our revamped outdoor provision area.  They fitted in just perfectly.  At the beginning of the week we had a go at  printing with plasticine and made some excellent effects!  The Nelson librarian also came in to tell us all about the super things that are going on at the library over the summer.  In science, we compared the results of our experiments with plants and discovered what plants need to grow - look at our fabulous science display with our best work!

Week beginning 24th June

This week we have been printing by taking rubbings, we then collaged our work - they look fab!  We have studied plants and decided how we can tell they are healthy.

Week beginning 17th June

This week we have had green fingers! We have compared lots of different seeds and planted our own.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed that they will grow! We also dissected bulbs to see what they are made up of inside. Our English this week focussed on non-fiction writing - we compared several different books and then decided if they were fiction or non-fiction and observed how we could tell.

Week beginning 10th June

This week we were lucky to have a local farmer come in to tell us all about his job - we asked some brilliant questions.  We started our art topic of printing by using our hands and feet to print with and then turned this into artwork by overlaying the outlines of flowers.  We also started our history by investigating famous people from the past and gaining an understanding of what being famous means.  The children made a timeline of Miss Pickering’s life and although everyone here knows her - we realised that she definitely isn’t famous!  We then studied the life of Florence NIghtingale and decided that she was/is famous.  We also compared differences of what life was like in Jesus’ time.

Summer 1.

Week beginning 20th May

Week beginning 13th May

This week the children have been exploring properties of materials. We couldn’t work out if it is a solid or a liquid!  Look at the pictures - can you decide?  We were also lucky enough to have Father Paul join us this week with the Lectern bible.  Wow is it heavy! Thank you for sharing your favourite story of Jonah and the Whale with us.  

Week beginning 6th May

This week the children have been engineers.  They have designed and started making their car bodies and chassis.  Keep you eyes peeled for the next Lamborghini design in the next week when we complete them and test their speed!    

Week beginning 29th April 

The infants have been scientists this week, investigating a range of materials, their properties and their uses.  We started by looking at materials that float and sink before going on to find out which of the materials are waterproof and non-waterproof, in order to make a ladybird’s home water proof. 

Week beginning 22nd April 

This week has been a real hive of activities...we have discussed climate change for Earth day and designed posters to raise awareness.  We have welcomed the start of spring and the drier weather, enjoying our outdoor activities.  We have looked at the world’s oceans and learnt a song to remember their names and their size order (Year 2s raced to put them in order). We have learnt about the Qu’ran as the Muslim special book and Mrs Yasmin shared her prayer mat, Qur’an and favourite Qu’ran story with us - the Hijra....and we made moving pictures to help us remember it. Phew, busy busy!

Week beginning 15th April

What a rubbish start back to the summer term!!  The infants have had loads of fun learning all about the three Rs Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.  We made pictures in art by recycling rubbish, that showed how we need to save our planet by reducing litter, and we made compost from our old snack, food and garden waste too in old plastic bottles.  In science, We discussed the different materials in our rubbish and the benefits and negatives of using each material. In RE we have been talking about the bible and how it is a very special book. We have brought in bibles from home and shared our favourite bible stories. 

Spring 2.

Week beginning 25th March

This week our maths has focussed on gaps in learning identified in assessment week. Year 1 and 2 have been looking at place value using base 10 and using this to help them add 2 digit numbers that bridge 10. Reception have been looking at measuring and comparing heights and lengths. As scientists we went charming worms, identifying their habitats.  We have also been busy getting ready for Easter, making lots of easter crafts, and ending the week with our lovely church service. 

Week beginning 18th March

This week has been assessment week but never the less we have found time to have fun and look after our visitors...the chicks. Sadly, one of our chicks died, we said prayers and discussed the cycle of life.  The children then made their own pocket books on the lifecycle of a chicken. Our name the chick competition was a great success too, with lots of fabulous entries. (Well done to the 4 winners).  We have continued our expressionism theme in art, developing our ideas and making our Easter cross art work.  Maths this week has been focusing on really trying to embed addition. Looking at place value of number and using base 10 to help us.

Week beginning 11th March

This week the infants have been expressing themselves through their own art work which was inspired by still life; they have discovered more about the symbols of Easter and how food is used as a symbol, and we have designed chicken habitats perfect for our new visitors...the chicks.  We have also been busy learning the traditional tale of The Little Red Hen in preparation to write our own traditional tales.

Week beginning 4th March.

what a great week we’ve had...the week started by exploring artwork of Cezanne and Van Gogh and trying to imitate their colours and brush strokes. Then we had a mysterious picnic basket appear, it must have been from the main character of our new English traditional tale, ‘The Little Red Hen’. Then we ventured in to the woods to investigate our local woodland habitat (we were even lucky enough to spot a deer). Wednesday, we had grandparents and parents visit us to share their old toys with us. We were able to compare them with our own modern toys. We’ve spent time learning how to use thesauruses and built an adjective vocabulary bank for the animals in our tale. Lastly, but by no means least, we have been using our computer paint package to make repeating patterns in the style of Macintosh (you may see some of these appearing on special cards over the weekend).

Wonderful writing from year 1 and year 2. 

Year 1 and 2 have been authors writing their own books based on Willy the Wizard. Enjoy the extracts below.

Week beginning 25th February

this week we have enjoyed a week of RE role play, exploring habitats, using computers, counting in 2s and lots more. We loved acting out the Easter story and deciding which parts we thought were the most important. Science research was so interesting, with habitat posters that the children confidently presented to the class. Computers has been very creative using a paint package to explore both Impressionism and pointillism. Eyfs have also been very busy exploring the habitats of mini beasts and counting in 2s. 

Week beginning the 19th February

What a busy first week back we have had.  First we started with some expressive art, studying artists Marcela Zacarias and Charlie French and we learnt all about primary colours and colour mixing.  Then we have looked at different animal habitats in science, Reception made a goat’s habitat in a box! In our RE this week we have been looking at Easter symbols.  We put the symbols on paper eggs, some were so good they went on our display. In maths we have been studying 3D shape and we made a variety of shapes from their nets. Look out for shapes around your home :)

Spring 1

Week beginning 5th February

A busy week for the end of the half term...we have made magic wands to help us gain the confidence to help us find our voice for children’s mental health week; played a performance on tuned percussion instruments; had lots of hands-on-maths and welcomed in both the fire service and pc Alan to discuss staying safe. 

Week beginning 15th January

It has been another busy week in Infants. We have made the most of the snow, made Supertatos, investigated materials in Science and enjoyed being together as a whole school on Wednesday. The children have also enjoyed learning how to write Instructions and acting these out to help them with their writing.

Week beginning 8th January

What a fantastic first week back we have had. This week, we have celebrated Epiphany, been super heroes, designed desserts in DT and learnt about the ingredients needed to be a good friend. The children have absolutely loved being chefs and learning about whisks and one of the many ways custard can be made!

Fun with Foods

This week in DT the children created fruit puddings. 

The Wriggly Nativity 

Christingle and Crafts