9 years ago
Posted on 13th Oct 2017 by Admin

Learning to read and write in Early Years – Nursery and Class 1

Children’s spoken language supports reading and writing

Children need lots of opportunities to talk with others as they develop and practise their speaking and listening skills. This helps to build their confidence and improves their ability to communicate with other people.

In order to make a good start in reading and writing, children need an adult to talk to and listen to them.

Everyday activities such as preparing meals, tidying up, putting shopping away and getting ready to go out offer you the chance to talk to your child, explaining what you are doing. They hear the way language is put together into sentences for a purpose.

Books are a rich source of new words for your child – words you would not use in everyday conversations appear in books. Children need to have a wide range of vocabulary to understand the meaning of books – so read aloud and share books as often as you can. They will enjoy it and it will be useful to them when they come across these words in their own reading later on.

Ways you can support your children at home:

Reading: Read every day to your child.

Make sure your child sees you reading.
Read to your child. Show you like the book. Bring stories to life by using loud/soft/scary voices.

Use puppets / toys/props to retell stories.
Spread books around your house for your child to read.
Let your child choose what they would like to read – books, comics, catalogues, look at signs and logos when you are out and about, food labels in the kitchen or when shopping
Read favourite books over and over again. Enjoy!

Writing: Make sure your child sees you writing.
Compose an email together inviting a friend over to tea.
Make words together using magnetic letters.
Make up a story together about one of their toys. You write for them, repeating the sentences as you write. When complete they can draw pictures to go with it.
Buy stickers of a favourite film or TV programme – and make a book about it.

Set up a place where your child can experiment with mark making both outside and inside using gloop, paint, pens, stamps, and stencils onto a variety of surfaces such as paper, cardboard and material.
Collect a variety of pencils and pens, and keep them handy for your child.
Create a special writing bag to keep little writing tools in for travelling in the car or visiting places. Change the contents regularly.

Provide your child with a variety of opportunities to practise handwriting. Eg, writing birthday cards, notes, lists, letters, diaries.

9 years ago
Posted on 13th Oct 2017 by Admin

Read, Write Inc – ‘f’ and ‘e’

Yesterday the children looked at the stretchy sound f – ffff. They practised saying and recognising the sound and looked at objects and pictures beginning with ‘f’.

The children then had a go at forming the letter ‘f’. When writing the letter we say ‘Down the stem and draw the leaves.’

Today the children looked at the bouncy soun ‘e’. e-e-e-e. They practised saying and recognising the letter and sound. The children looked at pictures and objects that begin with ‘e’.

To write the letter we say – ‘Lift off the top and scoop out the egg.’

9 years ago
Posted on 13th Oct 2017 by Admin

Spellings to be tested on Friday 20th October

YELLOW

RED

BLUE

PURPLE

ORANGE

GREEN

beat

heat

meat

mean

bean

clean

leap

cheap

please

thought

weight

straight

enough

neighbour

caught

naughty

frighten

faught

daughter

medal

metal

pedal

petal

sandal

signal

medical

hospital

special

usual

lives

thieves

scarves

knives

loaves

leaves

sheaves

shelves

thrives

drives

washing

swat

swallow

wand

swap

swat

swan

swamp

first

firm

thirst

birth

swirl

curl

hurl

curse

curtain

curve

9 years ago
Posted on 13th Oct 2017 by Admin

Class 3 Weekly Update

English: We have begun some work on Traditional Tales this week. The children have read a story called ‘Use your Imagination’ and then worked in small groups to create a possible ending for it. They then told their ending to the rest of the class using expression and sound effects. We have also spent some time researching different fairytales and finding out which characters are often the heroes and which are often the villains. We then did some descriptive writing relating to this.

Maths: The children have continued working on addition and subtraction. Year 2 children have been adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers and tens and Year 3 children have been adding and subtracting 3 digit numbers and tens and hundreds. They have used apparatus, images and mental working to do this.

Science: The children did an investigation this week to find out about waterproof materials. They then recorded their findings as a diagram.

History: The children have been learning about the history of space exploration this week and have created a timeline showing what they found out.

RE: We have learned about the festival of Ramadan this week and the children used their ICT skills to create a poster.

Homework: Please note that children have not been set any homework this week but will be given some next Friday to complete over half term.

9 years ago
Posted on 13th Oct 2017 by Admin

Class 3 Spellings – to be tested on Friday 20th October

Some of the Year 2 children have spellings with ‘ge’ and ‘dge’. They have been learning that words with a long vowel sound are spelt with ‘ge’ and words with a short vowel sound are spelt with ‘dge’. It would be helpful to remind them of this when they are practising their spellings.

Year 3 children have got homophones for their spellings this week. It is important that the children know which spelling to use for which meaning, therefore it may help to encourage your child to put their spellings into sentences when practising them.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to pop in and ask.

13.10.17 actual

9 years ago
Posted on 12th Oct 2017 by Admin

Autumn walk

9 years ago
Posted on 11th Oct 2017 by Admin

Year 3 Visit from the Fire Service

The Year 3 children had a visit from the Fire Service this morning to learn all about fire safety. They even had the chance to go on the fire engine!

9 years ago
Posted on 10th Oct 2017 by Admin

The Twins Have Arrived!

As you may have already heard, we are pleased to announce the arrival of Miss Moran’s long-awaited twin boys! We are sure you will join us in sending Olivia and Gareth huge congratulations on the birth of Alfie and Arthur.

9 years ago
Posted on 10th Oct 2017 by Admin

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On Monday, we started to look at the relationships between characters in Charlotte’s Web. This involved searching for evidence in the book which helps us to build a picture of how Charlotte, Wilber and Fern feel about each other. We gathered evidence in groups and recorded quotes from the book. Today, we explored features of poetry. We looked at several poems and found examples of poetic features, such as alliteration, personification, similes and repetition. The children will move on to planning and writing their own poems based on friendships.

In Maths we had another lesson carrying out a mental arithmetic exercise. The children had 25 minutes to answer questions and we then worked through the answers altogether, paying close attention to how we arrived at our answers and the different methods used.

I have found another fun game that I think will help improve times tables skills – click here to play!

Today, some children spent time revising written subtraction methods and also applying their skills to problems solving exercises. Some children completed an activity where they had to record costs of items from a garden centre and total up the costs using the column addition method.

In PE today, we used different parts of our bodies to mark out numbers and letters. For example, we used our elbows, knees, hips and feet to mark out the letters in our names on the floor. This was done to music and the children had to create a really smooth sequence to demonstrate to others.

French involved revising the vocabulary for items in the classroom. The children were set the task of creating signs for different objects such as pens, books, paper etc. The children are making good progress in their pronunciation of vocabulary.

This afternoon, we continued our art work from last week. The children added watercolour paints to their sketches of the barn from Charlotte’s Web. We made sure we thought hard about techniques such as adding a small amount of water to the paper before adding colour and using light strokes.

The class have been reading Chapters 7, 8 and 9 of Charlotte’s Web so far this week. It is lovely to see so many children keen to read on in the story and to find out more about the story each week.

Well done Class 4 – you have all worked very hard.

See you next week,

Mrs Conde

9 years ago
Posted on 10th Oct 2017 by Admin

Read, Write Inc – ‘b’

Today the children looked at the letter ‘b’. They practised saying this bouncy sound. They looked at pictures and objects of things beginning with ‘b’ – ball, bat, bag and boot.

To write the letter we say ‘Down the laces, to the heal and over the toe.’