Introducing the KIRFs Café...

What are KIRFs?

KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts) are pieces of mathematical knowledge that we want the children to learn off-by-heart or be able to work out very quickly (within 3 seconds).

They are designed to support the development of the mental skills that underpin mathematics. They are particularly useful when calculating, be it adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing.  They will include facts such as number bonds, counting on, back, times tables, equivalence of units of measure, and square numbers.

Each year group is allocated key facts to focus on throughout the year, in line with age related expectations. These should be practised for rapid recall.

Check out the website and class blogs for the newest KIRFs each Half Term.

We look forward to welcoming you to the KIRFs Cafe on Wednesday 17^th April at 3.10pm in Finnygook.

Wonderful Tregantle

What a hard-working week we’ve had! Our Year 1 children have been writing the class version of the story Christopher Nibble. We have changed the character to Fluffy Nibble and the place to ‘Carrotville!’ They have worked so hard to increase their stamina for writing. In maths the children have a new tuft tray with a weekly maths challenge. This week they have been showing their knowledge of doubling and halving. The EYFS children have been exploring in the garden this week. The BFA have kindly bought us some new resources for our mud kitchen which we have enjoyed using. We have seen some wonderful writing this week; all of the hard work in phonics is paying off as we can see from the wonderful ‘have a go’ writing! We all enjoyed another music lesson from the specialist music teacher Mrs Butlin this week. We worked on creating rhythms and identifying loud and soft, fast and slow music.

Summer Term

What lovely weather we’ve had this week to welcome the children back to school for the summer term! It has been wonderful to spend time outside in our fantastic school grounds. We have thrown ourselves into Tregantle’s new topic ‘What is life like on the farm?’ The children have been learning about the different types of farms including arable, livestock and dairy. The children were very interested to find out how farmers work so hard to produce food for us. In our science learning we found out about seeds and how they grow. We have even planted our own potatoes! As part of our learning on life cycles we have welcomed five caterpillars into our class! We will be observing them carefully over the coming weeks as they grow and change into butterflies. The EYFS children have started learning the text ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ whilst the Year 1 children are learning ‘Christopher Nibbles.’ On Wednesday Trgantle class had a music lesson from a visiting specialist music teacher. They learnt some great body percussion and kept to the beat of several pieces of music. We were lucky to take part in an alternative sports day on Thursday. The weather was perfect and the children absolutely loved trying some new games like ‘island attack’ and archery. Please see attached the curriculum overview for the summer term for more details of our areas of learning.

End of Term!

What a busy end to a super spring term! We really focused our efforts on finishing our polar bears to complete our ‘what do we know about ice and snow?’ topic. With the mod rock models dry, the children carefully painted them and used marker pen to add the details of the bears' faces and claws. They have turned out brilliantly and Tregantle team are delighted that we have been asked to display them at the front of the school!

All the rain has been perfect for our science learning on weather. We have been able to measure the rain collected every day in our rain gauges and were amazed with how much we collected! By the end of the week we had 6cm!

The EYFS children have been really focused in maths and have been using a part, whole model to show how numbers can me represented. They used the numicon to shows their ideas. We have welcomed some of our nursery friends this week who will be joining Tregantle Class after the holidays. Everyone has been very welcoming and showed great kindness in helping them to settle in.

We wish you a very happy and restful Easter break, from Tregantle team!

Heading into spring!

This week Tregantle Class have been exploring the signs of spring that we have been noticing in our environment. We finally had some dry days at school and even a little bit of sun shine at times! Our EYFS children have been learning the rhyme 'Mary had a little lamb' and finding out about the baby animals which are born in spring. They had a go at using their scissor skills to make their own 'little lambs' to go with the rhyme. 

Science Week

What an exciting week we’ve had taking part in Brunel’s science week. We started the week with an experiment involving skittles. We added water to a circle of skittles and watched carefully as the dye ran off the sweets to make a rainbow of colours. On Tuesday we took part in a live science event which focused on insects. We learnt all about the different parts of an insect’s body and how they grow and change. On Wednesday we planeted beans in a freezer bag with a wet paper towel. We can already see some tiny shoots creeping out of the bean seeds. On Thursday it was a trip to the library to take part in a science workshop. We explored moving robots, microscopes and even looked at how electricity works. The children have been so curious and questioning about the world around them. What a brilliant week!

A week of celebrations!

What a busy week we’ve had! On Tuesday we celebrated St Piran’s day. We all joined together for a rousing rendition of the Trelawny Shout and then learned more about the story of St Piran himself. We all enjoyed the pasty and cream tea lunch!

On Thursday we celebrated World Book Day in style. We listened to lots of stories throughout the day and even took part in a live author event run by the author and illustrator Helen Stevens. The children listened to her read a new story that has not even been published yet and learned about the role of an illustrator. There was a character hunt around the school with the teachers impressing us all with their ‘acting in character.’ The costumes around the school were fantastic!

On Friday we launched our Brunel science week with a live on-line science session all about bugs! We learnt about centipedes shedding their skin and eating it and the life cycle of a beetle. We are really looking forward to continuing with more exciting activities for science week next week!

Perfect Polar Bear Pictures!

What a pleasure it's been to see Tregantle's sketching technique develop so quickly this week! We have been studying polar bears as part of our 'What do we know about ice and snow' topic and by the end of the week the children were using a range of different drawing techniques to draw some very impressive polar bears! We are looking forward to using these sketches to create 3D models of polar bears using modroc next week.

It's been a week of wonderful writing! The year 1 children have used their story map to write the story 'Poles Apart' and what a fantastic job they've done. Our Headteacher Mrs Cooper was so impressed with the writing that she gave out four headteachers award stickers!
Our EYFS children have made their own story maps for their story 'Faster, Faster.' They have been telling the story so well all week using brilliant expression and actions.

We've also been very busy in maths. The Year 1 children are now experts and partitioning numbers to 50 into tens and ones. EYFS children are all confident in ordering numbers to 10. Great work Tregantle! 

A week of rain and tornado (in science)!

Tregantle class has been all about the weather this week! We've had lots of rainy days  - but this certainly hasn't held us back! Our year 1 children carried out two experiments to help us understand more about the weather. Firstly, we made a 'tornado in a jar.' This consisted of water, washing up liquid, food colouring, a tightly screwed on lid and rapid circular movements! The results were impressive and showed us exactly how a tornado works. Next it was time to make a rain cloud. We did this with a jar of water and shaving foam on the top. We them poured in a little food colouring and watched carefully as it burst from the 'cloud' showing how rain happens. 
Continuing with our learning about cold places, Tregantle have begun to learn a new journey story called 'Poles Apart.' It's all about some penguins who get lost and end up in the North Pole! A friendly polar bear helps them find their way home via several other countries! We are really looking forward to writing our own journey stories over the next few weeks.
The EYFS children have been enjoying some early signs of spring. Our bank in front of the school is covered with beautiful daffodils which we have been using as inspiration for painting and modelling. We have also seen some fantastic writing throughout the week. The children are becoming really independent in their writing and have be writing for a whole range of different purposes.   

Number Day

We have enjoyed celebrating the NSPCC national number day at the end of the week. The year 1 children completed a 'counting in 2s ' challenge which ended with a wonderful picture. The EYFS children created some beautiful patterns to make their own flower on a stick. Along with our additional number challenges this week, the year 1 children have now become experts at using a number line to both add and subtract. The EYFS children can make the totals of 6, 7 and 8 by using 2 different numbers. What amazing mathematicians we have!
As part of our science unit, 'changing seasons,' we managed to make a cloud in a glass. The children leant about water vapour and changing temperatures when they used ice and hot water to make their clouds.
In EYFS the children have been enjoying the story 'Whatever Next' for their 'talk through stories' sessions. This week they made their own aliens from the story by printing with bubble wrap and folding long strips of paper. They look fantastic in our classroom!