Term 5 Live and Let Live

Welcome back to Term 5. We are looking forward to a busy term albeit a short one! This term our topic has a Science focus looking at animals. Our big question will centre on how animals are the same or different. We will be using Science skills to observe and research and will be able to use the school environment to carry out some investigating of wildlife. We are very excited to have our own class caterpillars to observe as they grow into butterflies that we will be able to set free.

In English we will be looking at a non-fiction explanation texts linked to our topic theme, explaining the life cycles of animals. 

This term our Year 2 children will undertake their SATs in Reading, Maths and Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling. These will take place over the course of the month of May. For more information about these please look through the KS1 SATS Presentation on the website. If you do have further questions then talk to your child's teacher.

We look forward to a productive and successful term.

Term 4 - People of the Past

Welcome back to term 4. We hope you had a restful half term and are looking forward to a new term with Spring upon us and exciting new learning to embrace.

This term our topic is called 'People of the Past'. The topic enables us to explore people who have become famous in history for different reasons.  These people have made a lasting impact, in some way, on our lives, our culture and our knowledge of historical events. We will engage in their stories and learn about them in a variety of ways over the term. Take a look at the Knowledge Organiser and as the term progresses encourage your child to talk about their learning and understanding of these key people. You might also want to talk about famous people from the past that you have heard of and find out where they fit on the timeline and why they were important. The topic will also develop art skills and particularly focus on the portrait work of Picasso. You could develop drawing skills encouraging your child to practise drawing features of faces or try their self- portrait.

To spark interest in the topic you could visit:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zf49q6f 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05srbk1

In English we will write formal letters to some famous people to find out more about them. You could encourage your child to write letters to people they know. Talk about how these letters might be different to writing to the people they don't know. We will write recounts of the lives of different people we have studied.

Our PE days remain unchanged. We will continue to have PE on Wednesdays and Fridays. Please ensure your child is sent in with suitable footwear and the team colour or plain coloured t-shirt, warm trousers or shorts and a suitable jacket or jumper. We ask that you check these are clearly named.

Please can we remind you to ensure any items belonging to your child are clearly named to ensure lost items are easily relocated back to your child should they get lost. There are a number of items that have sadly ended up in lost property as they have been unclaimed in their class and haven't been named.

This term, on March 3rd, we of course celebrate 25 years of World Book Day. KS1 are visiting Moonrakers Bookshop during this afternoon and, as stated in the newsletter, if you are able to support with walking we would be very grateful for your offer. Please let your class teacher know if you can assist.

We are looking forward to a visit from Florence Nightingale and you should have already received some information relating to this workshop at the end of last term. If you have any questions regarding the workshop please ask your class teacher.

We look forward to sharing your child's progress during this term and as always should you wish to contact us please let the office know if it is an appointment you would like to make or of course for short enquiries catch us in the morning or end of the day.

With best wishes for a happy and successful term ahead.

Key Stage One

Term 3

We enjoyed testing our sense of touch on a sensory walk developing words to describe the different textures.

We tested hearing making our own telephone wires with paper cups. Would the vibrations travel better with long or short string, tight or loose or with different types of materials?

We enjoyed starting our new topic with a sensory quiz. We had to guess sounds, close up photographs of objects, the feel of objects hidden in a bag and smells on Mrs Payne’s socks!

A very warm welcome back to Term 3. We wish you a very Happy New Year and hope that you had a wonderful Christmas with some time to relax with your families.

This term our topic theme is called, 'Super Humans'. We will be finding out about the human body and particularly the parts of the body that link to the senses. We will develop and use our Science skills whilst carrying out some simple investigations. Here are some links to sites that have some interesting facts and simple investigations you might want to try at home:

https://superbrainybeans.com/science/human-body/year-1-2/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/science-ks1-the-human-body/zf8jqp3

https://www.science-sparks.com/learn-about-your-body/

In English we will be starting the term looking at poetry and the use of sound and rhyme as a theme. We will also look at traditional tales with a particular focus on Little Red Riding Hood.You might want to share some traditional tales at home and talk about the characters and themes and what similarities and differences there are.

Our PE days remain on Wednesdays and Fridays. We will be doing gymnastics and developing our games skills with invasion games.

Our homework, including spellings and Maths activity, will be uploaded on Showbie. Please ensure your child is able to practise these words regularly as they are important to the development of writing skills. Should you have any queries or need support with Showbie, please let us know. As always we are looking forward to celebrating your child's reading achievements, it has been rewarding to already hand out the first few 100 read certificates and prizes! Please ensure you log reading on our Go Read app. It is very important we are able to track your child's progress with reading and keep a record of what they have read. Should you need any help or advice with this please see your child's teacher to discuss and support you with this.

We look forward to a successful term ahead. Should you have any queries, as always, please contact the office to arrange a longer appointment or catch us at drop off or pick up times. 

With best wishes 

Key Stage One Team.

Term 2 -Let's Celebrate

A warm welcome back to Term 2 we hope you had a restful and enjoyable break.

As always it promises to be an exciting and busy term. Our topic theme is called, 'Let's Celebrate'. The theme will look at how and why we celebrate and make links with celebrations form different cultures and how they are similar and different. The theme will have History links by looking at celebrations linked to the past. There will also be an Art focus during the term looking at pattern and shape. Towards the latter part of the term we will be developing our Design and Technology skills designing decorations for a Christmas party. We are grateful to those of you who have already contributed some special and memorable family celebrations via Showbie for the children's personal timelines. If you haven't done so, please add these during the first week so that each child has a memory to add during our upcoming timeline lesson. These occasions could be weddings, special birthdays, special holidays, Christenings, births or any notable date personal to your family. You could spend time talking with your child about these dates and helping them to understand how long ago these took place.

Our PE days will remain the same. The children will be continuing to practise skills in Games and be exploring a 'Disco' dance theme.

It has been great to see how many children have been using the Phoenix Maths games to support their quick Maths skills with number bonds. Don't forget to colour in the 'perseverance' letters at the back each time you play a game and to return to us to award the special stickers. You should also have received your Mathletics login so hopefully you have already been able to access the site and complete some activities. We look forward to celebrating the successes as you collect points.

Please can we ask that you continue to log reads on the Go Read app. It is so important that the children practise fluency in their reading. We encourage children to read their Read Write Inc book three times to allow for this confidence in reading to develop. We are able to track the number of reads which of course help us to reward the children with the rainbow reading certificates and awards. We would also encourage you to use other reading material to enhance the reading experience for the children. Please log these too as it all counts towards their number of reads.

As always should you need to contact us for us for any appointment we encourage you to do so via the school office, or of course for quick queries to catch us at drop off or pick up times.

We look forward to a happy and successful term working together.

With best wishes

Key Stage One Team.

Term 1 2021 - Treasure Island

Welcome back to a new school year. We hope you have had an enjoyable Summer break.

Our topic this term is, 'Treasure Island'. The main subject focus will be Geography with the children working on their knowledge of the world. The children will also explore healthy foods and consider why a pirate's diet was unhealthy. Please take time to read through and share the Knowledge Organiser with your child. At home you might want to talk about, and show, places you have visited with your child and find these on a map. You might discuss whether these places are near the coast or inland or if they are towns or villages. When sharing meals you could encourage the children to link these to the food groups as shown on the Knowledge Organiser.

Our PE days will be Wednesdays and Fridays. Robins children will need to ensure their PE kits are in school during term time as they will be practising getting changed and looking after their belongings. Kingfishers and Puffins children will continue to wear PE kit to school on those days. Please ensure all items of school clothing are clearly named so that we can quickly return them to the rightful owner should they become lost.

The children will be set homework via our Showbie platform. Homework will be set on Friday and we ask that is completed on Showbie by the following Wednesday. Homework will comprise of spellings to include the common exception words for year 1 and 2, as well as the other National Curriculum spelling requirements for those year groups. The children will also have a Maths activity to complete. There will be further information about this in due course as we appreciate many of you will be new to Showbie.

We are currently assessing the children in preparation for our Read, Write Inc programme. The assessments will inform us which reading book is most appropriate for your child to bring home to practise their reading skills. The GoRead app is used for recording your child's reading journey. It is simple to use and keeps a record of the books the children have read and the number of reads, as well as highlighting any challenging words they have encountered. We look forward to celebrating their achievements with our Rainbow Reading Challenge awards throughout the year. 

We look forward to sharing further information with you during 'Meet the Teacher' on Thursday 9th September. This will provide an opportunity to ask any questions you might have.

As always should you have any queries or concerns, for a longer appointment please contact the office where an appointment can be made to see the teacher. If it is a quick query we are always happy to see you at drop off or pick up.

We are looking forward to working with you to ensure a happy and successful year.

Kind regards

Key Stage One Team

Knowledge Organiser

We used objects to press patterns and draw into clay to create a pirate coin. We will paint our coins gold for doubloons or silver for pieces of eight.

Year 2 have been making 3D shapes and describing them using faces, edges and vertices.

Year 1 have loved naming 2D shapes and creating pictures from different shapes. 

We enjoyed experimenting and making patterns with objects in play dough. We will use our discoveries to help us to design a pirate coin with a pattern which we will make out of clay. 

We have learnt all the names of the 7 continents.