Even though World Book Day was snowed off at school yesterday, some Y1,2 and Y3,4 children enjoyed sharing their favourite books today. For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been pairing children up to read for pleasure. It has been really successful. It encourages the Y3,4 children to develop their fluency and intonation, while the Y1,2 children have support with their decoding and understanding.
This week’s spelling for Year 1 are words that we’ve noticed children often spell incorrectly – missing the i, using an o instead of a or using a single l.
Year 1
Year 2 have been learning about how the or phoneme (sound) is made using the ar grapheme (letters) when ar is preceded by a w.
Year 2
This week’s homework is Creative.
I can find, show and tell number stories.
You could find number stories around your house or outside. Draw a picture or take a photograph of the number story, writing the related number sentences to accompany it. There are some examples below.
I have 2 cats. Each cat has 4 legs.
My fence has 13 slats in each panel. There are 4 panels.
I made 12 cupcakes. I ate 3 of them.
We’ve been working really hard counting in multiples of 2, 5 and 10. This is an important first step in learning all our multiplication and division facts (the expectation is for all facts up to 12 x 12 to be known by the end of Year 4).
Help your child at home by looking for arrays, equal groups of things, counting in different ways, reciting times tables facts or using one of the BBC Supermovers multiplication dance songs.
We use concrete examples, pictorial representations and abstract calculations. Some examples can be seen below.
As part of our focus on manners, we’ve been trying to use the ‘vampire method’. I cover my mouth (when I cough, sneeze or yawn) was our Living and Learning statement last week so we looked at why this method can help to prevent germs spreading. By coughing or sneezing into our elbow, germs are not spread into the air or on our hands which may contaminate other things. The germs dry out and die quicker on fabric than on hands or hard surfaces.
This week we explored the statement I can say something good about myself. We talked in pairs about what we were good at, said what we were good at and drew a picture too.
Use the lists from before the break to write your spellings in bubble writing.
Year 1
Year 2
This week’s whole school homework is Talk Time.
Wild and free or safe and caged?
All classes in school enjoyed some judo this week. Reception and Key Stage 1 were introduced to judo by Glynn from Sportif Judo and were thoroughly active for the full session – foot grabbing, pushing, pinning and bulldozing each other!
The Key Stage 2 classes also experienced a second session, building on skills from last month. They improved and developed their pinning, rolling and throwing techniques. If you’d like to continue judo, fliers were sent in book bags.
A huge well done to the first group of children who achieved their bronze wristbands as part of the 30:30 challenge. As well as improving our fitness levels, this also has an impact on self-esteem and self-image (our Living and Learning focus this half term). It’s been proven that children who are physically active throughout the day are happier and more confident. So, aiming for 60 active minutes is great for physical and mental health.
Their photos are on our podium display just inside school.
They will now progress on to the silver challenge. If you didn’t complete the bronze challenge, it’s not too late. Spare copies of the recording sheets can be collected from the office. To help achieve the 30 active minutes at home you could check out the new site that the BBC have launched, called Super Movers, that combines learning and exercise.
We’re continuing with our Life Forces big topic. We re-ignited our interest in the topic by arranging a visit from Askham Bryan Wildlife and Conservation Park today. We took part in two workshops. One focused on habitats where we learnt why animals choose certain habitats and how they adapt to their habitats. The second workshop looked at animal skulls and teeth. We learnt about how different teeth tear, rip, grind and chew. The most exciting part was meeting the animals though! We looked closely at a giant hissing cockroach, White’s tree frog, a bearded dragon, a tortoise, a Madagascan tenrec and a python. We were given the opportunity to touch the animals (except the tree frog – they’re too sensitive). This also allowed us to talk about how to be gentle and respectful towards animals.
Help your child at home by talking about animals and habitats you may visit: parks, woodlands, rivers, seaside…
