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Starfish Class Weekly News

Friday 12th December 2025

We were so proud of the children for performing in our Christmas concert with confidence and enthusiasm. All their hard work paid off. Thank you for supporting us on the day and we hope you enjoyed the concert as much as we did!

Merry Christmas from the Starfish Team!

Phonics this week: words with s at the end eg, cats, dogs, lids

Tricky words: we, me, be

Friday 5th December 2025 

This week we have had lots of busy elves working in 'Santa's workshop', making important phone calls and writing lists. In our Maths work we have been thinking about making number bonds to 5, working with a partner to share our ideas. We are all excited to perform our Christmas concert to Year 1 and Year 2 on Friday and are looking forward to performing to our families next Monday.

New phonemes this week: digraphs sh, ch, nk, ng

Tricky words: she, he, of, go

Friday 28th November 2025 

Wow what a busy week! There has been so much chopping, peeling and cooking of vegetables in order to create our delicious soup. The highlight of the week was tasting our soup and sharing it with our families. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

New phonemes this week: z, qu, ch

Tricky words: go, no, to, into  

Friday 21st November 2025 

Our work this week has been all things vegetables. We completed a vegetable taste test and have been making observational paintings of vegetables in readiness for making vegetable soup next week. In Maths, we have been thinking about '1 more' and making up our own 'first, then, next' addition stories. In phonics we have been learning the tricky words: and, has, his, her and our new phonemes are v, w, x , y. 

Friday 14th November 2025

This week in our maths work we have been learning about 2D shapes. We enjoyed going on a shape hunt to spot 2D shapes in the environment. We have also been learning about why we wear poppies at this time of year. We joined the rest of the school for  Remembrance Day and showed our respect by taking part in a two-minute silence.

Phonics this week: ff, ll, ss, j

Tricky words: as, full, put, pull

Friday 7th November 2025

We have had a busy start to the new term. We have been learning about why we have Bonfire Night and how to be safe around fireworks. We created some collaborative firework art using all sorts of printing tools and wrote words to  describe the sounds fireworks make. We also learnt about Diwali, the Hindu festival of light and enjoyed making our own Rangoli patterns. Maths has been all about naming and exploring 3D shapes. We also had a visit from the Dental team who told us all about keeping our teeth healthy.

In phonics this week we have been revisiting previous phonemes and doing lots of blending. 

Friday 24th October 2025

Starfish class enjoyed the lovely sunny weather on our  autumnal visit to the Library Gardens. They completed an autumn treasure hunt and then created a piece of transient art using natural materials. The children showed they were 'Ready, respectful and safe' throughout our visit. A big thank you to our enthusiastic parent helpers. 

This weeks phonemes are : f, l, b, h with 'tricky words' I, the, is

Have a super half-term break!

Friday 17th October 2025

This week we have started thinking about Autumn in preparation for our  seasonal walk in the Library Gardens. We have created hedgehog collages and have been reading autumn themed stories. As usual, there has been lots of imaginative and collaborative  play during our free-flow sessions.

This weeks phonemes have been: ck, e, u, r  along with the 'tricky' words: I,  is

Friday 10th October 2025

As part of this weeks Geography work we have been thinking about simple routes and maps. We went on a walk around the school building and grounds. On our return we worked together to make a 3D map of our route and key places we visited. We have been working co-operatively during 'free-flow' and have painted some amazing self-portraits. 

This weeks phonemes are: g, o, c, k

Friday 3rd October 2025

This week in Starfish we have been thinking about body parts, in particular, how we use our hands and feet. We read 'Hands are not for hitting' and thought about all the kind things our hands can be used for. We have also been painting self-portraits and creating frames for them. In maths, we have been counting and subitising with numbers to four. We have had fun exploring  the playground resources during free-flow. 

Our new phonemes this week are: i, n, m, d 

Friday 26th September 2025

This week in Starfish class we have been learning that we are all special and unique. We read the story of Elmer the colourful elephant and learnt about the importance of celebrating difference. We worked together to create a collaborative Elmer and then had a go writing about him.  A super busy first full week at school!

The phonemes we have covered this week are : s a t p

Friday 19th September 2025

Starfish class have had fun at school getting to know each other and exploring the classroom. They have enjoyed learning our lunchtime routines and meeting up with friends from Coral and Seahorse. They have loved learning some British Sign Language signs to support our school rules.

Friday 18th July 2025

As Starfish class reach the end of Reception they have been reflecting on all that they have achieved this year. Friendships have been made, independence has grown, respect and perseverance have been shown and many memories made. The children are excited and ready for new challenges in Year One in September. The Starfish Team is so proud of the confident learners they have become.

We would like to thank all the Starfish families for their support and wish you all a lovely, relaxing Summer holiday!

Friday 11th July 2025

Starfish class have been as busy as ever this week. We've enjoyed the sunny weather and have been working collaboratively with friends on all kinds of construction projects. We have been writing subtraction number sentences in maths and sorting odds and evens. 

Friday 4th July 2025

We thought we would share some photographs of our clay minibeasts which we are really proud of. We have all written an adventure story with our minibeast as the main character. We have also been practising writing number sentences and sorting odd and even numbers.

Friday 27th June 2025

Starfish class have had an exciting few weeks learning all about minibeasts. There was much excitement minibeast hunting in the school garden. We have been painting symmetrical butterflies and singing insect themed songs. We were thrilled when nine of our ten  class caterpillars turned into butterflies over the long weekend. We had fun releasing them and we even sang to them to wish them good luck!

Friday 13th June 2025

Our class caterpillars are growing and changing each day and we are keeping a careful watch over their progress. Our specialist gymnastics sessions began with us being taught to make a range of shapes with our bodies. In Maths, we have been working with 2D shapes, creating and decomposing shapes. 

Friday 6th June 2025

We began the week with an exciting delivery - ten tiny caterpillars for us to look after over the next few weeks. We followed this by starting our mini history theme called 'Same but different'. We had fun investigating how we listen to music has changed, as well as how telephones and toys have changed.  

Friday 23rd May 2025

What a fantastic sports morning we had this week. We could not be prouder of the children's behaviour and enthusiasm. They certainly embodied our ASPIRE values. Well done Starfish class - you were amazing!

Friday 16th May 2025

We have been making the most of the sunny weather this week enjoying lots of outdoor, physical and gross motor activities. We have also been developing our fine motor skills in our Friday sessions in the ICT suite. Well done to the children who worked together as part of a litter picking team, collecting almost a bag of rubbish in the playground! 

Friday 9th May 2025

Special VE Day picnic lunch celebrations followed by ice lollies in the sunshine!

Friday 2nd May 2025

This week our newly appointed Friendship Ambassadors have been busy in the playground helping anyone who seems sad, lonely or just in need of a friendly chat. In our Science work on 'Forces', we have been investigating which objects float or sink.  We enjoyed testing out our predictions and carefully recording our observations. 

Friday 25th April 2025

The new term began with a 'learning to learn' day where the children all took part in their first 'Drawing Club'. This new activity aims to develop creativity, introduce new vocabulary and build confidence when writing. The children also enjoyed creating their own mixed media sea creatures to accompany our pirate themed text.

Friday 4th April 2025

This week we enjoyed visiting Leigh Wesley church to find out more about Easter and how it is celebrated. Thank you to Jane at the church for her warm welcome and interactive talk, we learnt a lot!

Friday 28th March 2025

Starfish class had great fun on our visit to the local area. At the beach, we played an under the sea action game and worked in groups to build fantastic sandcastle creations. We then visited the Library Gardens to observe and sketch spring flowers. We were so impressed by the children's behaviour throughout our visit, they certainly showed our ASPIRE values. A big thank you to all of our enthusiastic volunteer helpers, we couldn't do it without you!

Friday 21st March 2025

Another busy week in Starfish! We've been continuing our traditional tales activities based on Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks. This has involved role-play, re-telling the story with puppets and themed writing. In Maths, we have enjoyed learning about number bonds to 10. As usual, we had lots of free-flow fun but with the added bonus of sunny weather!

Friday 14th March 2025

Oh what fun we had on World Book Day!

The children looked amazing in their fantastic costumes. They loved sharing favourite books, reading with Reading Buddies from Year 3 and celebrating the importance of reading.

Friday 7th March 2025

This week we started our Traditional tales topic by reading The Gingerbread Man. We enjoyed re-telling the story, painting the characters and writing speech bubbles for the fox. We had great fun challenging ourselves to get the Gingerbread Man across the river without getting wet. We worked collaboratively and came up with some really creative ideas. We celebrated Shrove Tuesday by flipping pancakes in free-flow and enjoying pancakes for snack.

Friday 28th February 2025

As part of our Geography work, we have been thinking about homes around the world and similarities and differences with our own homes. We have also been comparing weights in Maths, developing our balancing skills in our PE and exploring the outdoor resources during free-flow. A busy start to the new term!

Friday 14th February 2025

We have continued our Chinese themed activities this week by creating a colourful, multi-media Chinese dragon head, using instruments to create Chinese music and creating a Chinese snake collage. The highlight of our week was a Chinese food tasting in the Starfish restaurant. Everyone showed enthusiasm and perseverance when taking part in our chopstick challenge.

Friday 7th February 2025

We have been keeping a look out for birds visiting the bird feeders we made last week. We are pleased to say that we have seen lots of seagulls and magpies pecking at them. We have also begun learning about how people celebrate Chinese New Year. There has been lots of activity in the class Chinese take-away and we enjoyed having a go at painting Chinese symbols. Finally, we had two really busy free-flow mornings and the children reminded us just how much fun you can have in a box!

Friday 31st January 2025

We have enjoyed investigating ice this week. We carried out an investigation to find out where ice would melt the fastest. We placed ice cubes in the classroom, outside, in the fridge and on top of a warm radiator. We thought scientifically and each predicted what would happen. We also made pine cone birdfeeders to help feed the birds around our school during the cold weather.

Friday 24th January 2025

Continuing with our winter themed activities, we began the week by taking part in a 'Now Press Play' experience. We carefully followed instructions to act out an imaginative winter themed story. We also completed our winter art work by combining cold colours and wintery paper to create our collages.

Friday 17th January 2025

We made an amazing discovery on our wintery walk around the school grounds. We found a letter from Olaf the snowman, asking us to help him get home to Arendelle as he was lost in Leigh-on-sea. We began by working in groups to make a 3D map of his route home. This included travelling across bridges and zip-lines, avoiding sticky swamps and going through tunnels in mountains! Next week we plan to write him a letter with instructions to help on his journey.

Friday 10th January 2025

Happy New Year!

The new term began will an exciting 'learning to learn day' across the school. In EYFS, our focus was on learning to play and work as a team as well as thinking about why it's important to have a positive attitude and a growth mindset, where we persevere and keep on trying. Later in the week we had a history enquiry, learning about why people wear hats, who wears a crown and what happens at a coronation. We had fun dressing up as a monarch, creating crowns and writing about what we would do if we were king or queen for a day. 

Friday 13th December 2024

Starfish have really enjoyed the build-up to our Christmas concert, learning songs and actions and making their animal hats for the performance. On the big day they took to the stage and loved performing to their families. A big thank you to everyone who attended our concerts. We hope you really enjoyed it too!

Friday 6th December 2024

This week in maths we have been learning about how to divide a group into two using the part-whole model. There have been lots of busy elves in our Christmas workshop too.  We have also been creating decorations to make our room look festive and enjoyed inviting Year One and Two classes to our concert 'dress rehearsal' on Friday. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday for the real thing!

Friday 29th November 2024

This week we finally got to make our vegetable soup. After lots of peeling, chopping and stirring we ended up with delicious soup and bread for our snack on Wednesday. We also really enjoyed sharing our soup with our families after school.

Friday 22nd November 2024

It's been vegetables galore in Starfish class this week. We started with a vegetable taste test and decided that carrots and cucumber were really popular. We looked closely at different vegetables and then carefully made observational paintings of them. Finally, we wrote lists of vegetables we would thought would make a delicious soup. In Maths we made 'first, then and now' stories and thought about adding 'one more' to a group of objects.

Friday 15th November 2024

This week we have been learning all about the properties of 2D shapes and using them in a number of ways. We completed a shape walk looking for 2D shapes in the environment and rangoli patterns and shape pictures using 2D shapes. On Monday we also joined with the rest of the school for the remembrance service in the playground, we made poppies to help us remember and think about those involved in conflict.

Friday 8th November 2024

This week has been all about fireworks! We used a range of printing tools to create a piece of collaborative artwork. We added words that reminded us of the sounds fireworks make. We also learnt the rhyme, "Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot!" and found out  a little about Guy Fawkes and what he tried to do. We have also been finding out about the Diwali, the Hindu festival of Light along with learning about 3D shapes and their properties.

Friday 25th October 2024

This week went on an adventure in the Library Gardens, looking for signs of autumn. We completed an autumn treasure hunt and searched for a hidden hedgehog. We also worked in groups to create a piece of transient art, using natural materials we discovered around us. Lots of fun was had despite the drizzle!

A huge thank you to all the lovely adults who supported us on our walk. 

Friday 18th October 2024

This week we have been learning thinking about the importance of having kind hands and feet when playing and working with others. We have also learnt about the achievements of the famous British athlete Dame Kelly Holmes, as part of Black History month. We enjoyed creating hedgehog collages and writing words to describe hedgehogs in preparation for next's weeks visit to the Library Gardens.

Friday 11th October 2024

This week we have enjoyed working together to label parts of the body as part of our Science activities. In our Geography work, we have been exploring the school grounds and identifying key features such as the school garden, the swimming pool and even Mr Hautlers' office. Later we used Google Maps to help us create a 3D 'birds eye view' map of our school. We also made the most of the sunny weather during free-flow.

Friday 4th October 2024

This week we have continued to think about how we are all similar but different. We have begun to paint self-portraits by looking at ourselves carefully in a mirror. We have also been learning the sounds s, a , t, p, i, n, m and d and have been matching initial sounds to objects. We have enjoyed playing collaboratively and getting to know each other during snack-time.

Friday 27th September 2024

This week we have enjoyed being at school full time, getting to know our classmates and exploring a range of fine and gross motor activities. We have also been celebrating difference by reading the story of Elmer and discovering that each of us is special and 'unique'. We made a collaborative Elmer collage and then wrote words to describe Elmer. 

Friday 20th September 2024

Starfish class have had a great start to their time at Leigh North Street. They have been busy getting to know new friends, exploring the classroom resources and have enjoyed staying at school for lunch. It's been lovely to see so many happy, smiling faces as they come into class. Well done Starfish class!