KS1 Dictation for writing
All the children have made a great start to their writing journeys this year. We have been really pleased with their enthusiasm.
In Key Stage One, we use dictation as a tool to help children with their writing. During dictation, the teachers will either have sentences already in mind or they will discuss and decide on a sentence with the children. Dictation allows children to watch as an adult models using different writing skills effectively. Together we practise letter formation, spacing between words, spelling, where and when to use punctuation such as capital letters and full stops. Teachers also model how to listen to sounds in words and write the corresponding letters.
Here are some examples of our dictated sentences:
Help at home: You could think of some simple sentences to write with your child at home. These could be about anything at all from writing about what you did at the weekend or a sentence about a film or a program you have watched on the telly.
Ask them about the process and how they do it school. I’m sure they’d be happy to share with you how skilful they are at counting the words in the sentence and using their Phoneme Fingers to listen for sounds in words. You could also include some tricky words or some of your child’s spelling words.
Living and learning : manners
We highlighted manners in our Living and Learning lessons last week (but the message will continue all year).
Small words can make a big difference.
We also talked about greeting other people and also how powerful smiling at other people can be.
Help at home by modelling good manners.
English – reading and writing
We have been reading several versions of Little Red Riding Hood in the first few weeks of September. Most of the children have heard the story before and we enjoyed comparing different versions. Bethan Woollvin has written several ‘twisted tales’ and we enjoyed her version – Little Red.
We decided Little Red is a fearless, brave and clever character in this story. We had to use our inference skills because the story does not directly tell us this.
We have also used these books to give us ideas to write sentences, discuss new words and read with prosody (expression).
What big teeth you have grandma!
Help at home by reading stories out loud to your child and showing a love of reading.
KS1 Maths-Numbots time!
All children in Year 1 have been given an account and login for Numbots. This is an interactive tool that school heavily invests in for your child. It is an engaging platform to help your child learn the foundations of maths.
Numbots is all about every child achieving the ‘triple win’ of understanding, recall and fluency in mental addition and subtraction, so that they move from counting to calculating.-Numbots Innovators.
We have seen the amazing impact that Numbots can have on a child’s knowledge and confidence in Maths. Numbots is part of the weekly homework for Year 1 children. Please can we ask that you make this tool a part of your weekly family routine. Once children have logged on a few times, they’re hooked and really enjoy ‘playing’!
We have class leader boards that tell us the amount of time, amount of correct answers etc for each child. In our weekly celebration assembly we reveal the weekly winners and give certificates. Who will it be next week?
(For Your Information: Once children have completed the Numbots levels they can then move on to TTRockstars which is based on multiplication and division.)
If you are experiencing an difficulties with logging on, please chat to your child’s teacher.
Help at home: Help your child log on to their Numbots account. Guide them to navigate the devise being used and let them impress you!
Living and Learning : 8Rs for learning
Last week’s Living and Learning statement is ‘I use the 8 Rs to help me learn.’
In KS1 we have been discussing each of the 8 Rs and how they are important in supporting our learning. They are:
- being ready
- being responsive
- being reflective
- being resourceful
- remembering
- risk-taking
- being resilient
- being responsible
Being ready is one of our school rules. We are learning our new routines really well and getting better and better at being ready.
1A Class Reward
In 1A we have a class motto: ‘We’re not collecting warnings, we’re collecting marbles!’ For the past 3 weeks children have been putting marbles into a jar for excellent behaviour, good manners, superb work, listening to instructions, lining up beautifully…the list goes on. In short, our marble jar was filled to the top and because of this we had a class treat. The adventure playground in KS2 was a well deserved reward for everyone in 1A.
Living and Learning : school rules
We have been talking about our school rules since we came back to school. They are useful rules for life too and help make our school a happy and healthy place to learn.
Help at home by talking about why we have rules.
Week 3 in 2C
The children are settling into Year 2 fantastically. It has been brilliant to see how quickly the children have adapted and settled into their new routines.
Here’s an overview of what we have been up to this week!
Reading
In Reading lessons we have been looking at the book ‘Little Red’ by Bethan Woolvin. This is a story inspired by Little Red Riding Hood but it has a twist at the end. We have been reading different versions of Little Red Riding Hood and have been comparing, discussing similarities and differences.
Our Poem of the week this week has been ‘Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf’ by Roald Dahl. On the first day, we listened to the poet read the poem via audio. The next day we focussed on rhyming words and discussed what a rhyming word is. The following day, we started to look at the meaning of some tricky vocabulary in the poem and on Thursday we showed off our fluency and prosody. This poem will be sent home alongside homework Friday 20th.
Maths
We are continuing to learn about place value in Maths this half term. This week we have been learning about what each number represents within a two-digit number. For example in the number 24, the 2 represents two tens and the 4 represents 4 ones. See some of our learning below.
Science
In Science this week, the children have been learning about birds. This half term we will be learning all about different types of animals. Last week we learnt about mammals.
We know that all birds have a beak, wings, feathers and lay eggs. But all birds are not the same. Some birds cannot fly and only some birds can swim. During the lesson we went onto our school playground to see if we could spot any common birds. We saw several pigeons and 3 Kites!
History
During Topic lessons this week, the children have been learning all about houses in the past and why the fire spread so quickly back in 1666. We learnt that the fire spread quickly because the houses were made of wood and they were very close together. We also discussed that the ‘Great’ fire refers to the fire being big, spreading quickly and lasting 4 days. It was a significant historical event that happened a long time ago.
Here’s some other photographs showing what we have been up to this week!
Science- What are mammals?
KS1 are looking at animals. What do they need to survive?
Fresh air – Rupert
Food and water – Libby
A safe house (shelter) – Fletcher
We enjoyed learning that mammals are a type of animal that have fur/hair and have live young. The children completed a sorting activity to decide if different animals were mammals or not.
Help at home: As you read animal books, can you find any mammals?
PE – Castles and Cannonballs in 1,2B
We really enjoyed our first PE lesson on Friday. We are learning a new game – Castles and Cannonballs. We enjoyed building castles using all sorts of equipment and then throwing balls at them to knock them down. We are going to change and adapt the game over this half term; adding different rules, using different equipment and using different parts of our body.
