Year 1 – Phonics
Last week, the year 1 children completed their phonics screen assessment. This is where the children are asked to read a variety of real and fake words in order to check their phonic knowledge.
We know that we are nearing the end of the last half term, however we want to continue to highlight the importance of regularly reading both to and with your child at home. We feel strongly that this regular reading practise should continue to be a high priority at home both throughout this half term and over the summer holidays. We would like the children to start year 2 being fluent readers of books at their phonic level.
If you are unsure of their ebook login please ask your child’s teacher.
Help at home: read with your child and to your child regularly every week.
Maths – partitioning
During the last few weeks, we have been looking at partitioning two digit numbers.
The year one children have been looking at partitioning numbers greater than 50 into tens and ones, representing this in a variety of ways.
The year two children have been parttioning numbers in other ways.
Help at home: Choose a two digit number and support your child with partitioning it.
Design Technology – stability and strength
We have be learning about freestanding objects and how they are made stable and strong.
We found that shapes with a wide, flat base and a low height were the most stable. We also found that a cylinder was the strongest shape.
Help at home by having a go at these tests and looking and what shapes are used to make strong, stable objects in your home.
Living and Learning – everybody needs to be cared for!
This week in KS1 we have been looking at how everyone needs to be cared for. Everyone has the right to be cared for and in school, we all make sure we care for one another.
The session started off with a discussion about the life cycle of a human and the biological differences between male and female. We know that just like other mammals, it is the woman that carries the baby and produces young offspring. Throughout a person’s life, their needs change and therefore so does the type of care they need.
We know that different people need different types of care. For example, babies need more care from adults because they are not yet independent whereas adults are much more likely to be able to care for themselves and know their basic needs.
We also talked about the different types of needs we might have:
- playing
- loving
- medical
- listening
- physical
- emotional
- social
We finished our session by discussing how we can care for members of our classes. We used the sentence stem ‘I care for _____ by ______.’ The children came up with some wonderful responses.
‘I care for xxxxx by asking if they want to play with me at playtime and letting them join in.’
Wake Up Shake Up!
We have been enjoying the sunshine in Early Years and KS1 over the past two weeks. It has been great to dance along to our favourite songs together every morning on the playground! We have been dancing to ‘Green, Green Grass’ by George Ezra recently, one of our favourites! Why not ask your child to show you their moves and learn some of our special WUSU dances?
Living and Learning
‘I know how to respect the similarities and differences of people.’
In Living and Learning sessions this week, KS1 have been discussing the similarities and differences between themselves and others around them.
We talked about some differences between boys and girls and spoke in detail about a how a lot of these differences are actually opinion rather than fact. For example that only boys can play football and that only girls can wear makeup.
One child in 2C said, ‘Girls and boys have different histories because in the past, boys had more rights.’
The children were very respectful towards one another, listened politely and shared their own ideas with care.
Maths – telling the time
This week in Year 2 we have been learning how to tell the time. We have really focussed on how to recognise: o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to the hour. We have practised looking at clocks often, showing times in intervals of 15 minutes. We know that the ‘long’ hand shows the minutes and the ‘short’ hand shows the hour.
We know that:
‘When the minute hand is pointing to the 12 it is o’clock.’
‘When the minute hand is pointing to the 6 it is half past.’
‘When the minute hand is pointing to the 3 it is quarter past.’
‘When the minute hand is pointing to the 9 it is quartet to.‘
The children have shown lots of enthusiasm about learning the time! Help at home: by talking about time often at home. E.g. ‘It is 8 o’clock, it is now bedtime.’
Why not also try using a teaching clock at home so that your child can practise the time? Teaching Clock (topmarks.co.uk)
Zog theatre trip – Year 2
Year 2 had a fantastic day at The Carriageworks theatre today watching a performance of Zog, the classic story by Julia Donaldson. We have used the story to work on our reading fluency, reading with prosody and also writing. It has also shaped discussions about resilience – keeping on trying even when things are tough.
Zog theatre trip – Year 1
Year 1 had a fantastic day at The Carriageworks theatre today watching a performance of Zog, the classic story by Julia Donaldson. We have used the story to work on our reading fluency, reading with prosody and also writing. It has also shaped discussions about resilience – keeping on trying even when things are tough.
