Term 2 Newsletter

Welcome Back

Welcome back to Term 2. This is always a very busy but very fun term.  It has been lovely to catch up with you all at our parents’ meetings to share all the learning we have been doing and just how proud I am of the children.  Below I have outlined some of the things that will be happening/ things that we will be learning over the coming term.

Our Learning This Term

This term we have started learning about different festivals and celebrations that occur at this time of year including  Diwali and Guy Fawkes night. We will also be learning about the story of Christmas and practising for our Christmas performance.

In Maths we will be continuing to develop our subitising skills including:

➢ subitise within 5, perceptually and conceptually, depending on the arrangements. Cardinality, ordinality and Counting

➢ continue to develop their counting skills

➢ explore the cardinality of 5, linking this to dice patterns and 5 fingers on 1 hand ➢ begin to count beyond 5

 ➢ begin to recognise numerals, relating these to quantities they can subitise and count.

Composition

 ➢ explore the concept of ‘wholes’ and ‘parts’ by looking at a range of objects that are composed of parts, some of which can be taken apart and some of which cannot

➢ explore the composition of numbers within 5.  

In English, we are continuing with Drawing Club. This is an idea from Greg Bottrill and involves the children drawing something every day, linked to our class text for that week.

“When children draw, something very magical takes place: they are creating a representation of the outer world but through the lens of their inner world. In the act of drawing, imagination becomes real” – Greg Bottrill

 

Over time, we progress to add labels to our pictures, and then captions and finally, we build up to writing sentences. We plan a question to inspire each drawing club session linked to our class story (e.g. What else could Stickman be used for?) and the children are free to use their imagination. There is no right or wrong in drawing club!

 

Phonics and Reading

This term we continue to learn our sounds. Please continue to practise the sound cards that are sent home each week. I will also be adding in some tricky (red) word cards for the children to practise as well. Below is a link to the FFT parent portal where you can read any of the previous shared readers we have sent home. Please do not read ahead as this will have an impact on our lessons in school. Repetition is great for building confidence so please make use of these.

Parent Portal website:   https://parents.fft.org.uk/

Password: u3g5ph  

 

Show and Tell

Each week I will choose someone for show and tell. I will send a note home in advance. Please can the children bring in something special to talk about on this day. Often a photo or an achievement is more powerful than a favourite toy.

 

Junk Modelling

We are continuing to enjoy our junk modelling station. Please continue to send in cereal boxes, tubes and bottle lids etc. Thank you.       

 

Term 1 Newsletter

Welcome to Owls class

Welcome to you all. I hope the children have enjoyed their first few days at school. The children have settled really well and I am looking forward to the exciting term ahead. Below I have outlined some of the things that will be happening/ things that we will be learning over the coming term. Our learning also follows the children’s interests and after the home visits I definitely have some more ideas of things we will be learning about throughout the year!

Owls Class Team

Teachers:

Mrs West (Monday – Wednesday AM) and Mrs Mayhew-Sanders (HLTA) (Thursday and Friday AM)

Mrs Milverton (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday PM)

Mrs Moore (HLTA) (Wednesday PM)

Teaching Assistants: (Across EYFS and KS1)

Mrs Mayhew Sanders and Mrs Grafton

Our Learning this Term: During the first few weeks of school, we will be focussing on supporting the children with their transition to school. We will be exploring the environment, learning our new routines and supporting them to develop positive relationships with each other and the staff who will be supporting them on their journey.

Physical Development:

• Learning how to stay safe and healthy at school
• Developing our gross and fine motor skills by taking part in daily activities in order to build muscle strength in preparation for writing.

Communication and Language:

• Talking about ourselves and why we are special.
• Using talk to organise our play and engaging in story time, rhymes and songs.

Literacy: We will be listening to and talking about a range of stories such as ‘The Colour Monster Starts School’ and ‘All are Welcome’ by Alexandra Penfold. We will be starting our phonics learning (more information below) and exploring lots of mark making opportunities.

Expressive Arts and Design: We will be exploring mark making with crayons, pens and chalk and investigating the marks and patterns made by different textures. 

Maths: Maths and Me – we will be exploring measuring and counting activities linked in with being 4 or 5. We will then begin our teaching and learning using the Mastery in Maths programme.

Understanding the World: We will be thinking about the role of the people in our school including the teachers, the cook etc. We will be talking about who is in our family and be able to describe the people who are familiar to us. We will be thinking about ourselves and how we have changed over time.

Baseline Assessment: During these first few weeks I will be completing some baseline assessments to get a clear picture of the children as they enter St Andrew’s.  These assessments will be completed as part of the compulsory National Baseline Assessments set out by the DFE and will be used to help inform planning in our first term.

Outdoor Learning: Every week we will be going outside for some of our learning activities around the school site. If children are yet to bring in their own pair of welly boots please bring in a pair of boots that can stay in school.

Book Bags: Please make sure that book bags come to school with your child every day. This ensures your child’s reading book is in school every day, so we can read with them as much as possible and change their books. Their phonics cards will also be put in the reading wallet provided.    

Water Bottles: Please ensure that a named water bottle is brought into school every day. These will be stored in the classroom and sent home at the end of each day. Only fill with water, No squash, juice or fizzy drinks please.

Milk and Fruit: Until they are 5 all children who want it will be offered a carton of milk each day. Once children turn 5 they no longer qualify for free milk.

All children are offered a snack mid- morning in the form of a piece of fresh fruit.

 PE: PE days will be on a Monday and Tuesday beginning when the children are full-time.  Children can come to school wearing their PE kit on these days. PE Kit consists of:

 Plain black shorts/leggings/joggers; a plain white t-shirt or blue t-shirt with or without the school logo; a black plain sweat top or school sweat top or school fleece; daps or trainers (trainers are preferable as most PE activities will be outdoors).

Phonics and Reading: This term we will begin to introduce the children to the new phonics program from Fisher Family Trust, a complete Systematic Synthetic phonics programme validated by the Dfe. To begin with we will introduce children to 3-4 new sounds (phonemes) a week. Once children have been taught the first set of sounds they will begin to bring home reading books that include the sounds that they have learnt in school.  They will also bring home a laminated copy of the sound so they can practise recognising and writing the sound at home.

Junk Modelling: Please can you help to stock up our junk modelling area! Please could you collect some recycling to bring into school at any time to top up our junk modelling box – tubes, cereal boxes, bottle tops etc.

Family Photos: Please could you send in a few photos of your family/pets etc. I am hoping to make a photo album of pictures for children to look at. It is a great conversation starter. I can photocopy photos you send in or if you can email them to me then I am happy to print them out.

In the next few weeks we will also be looking at how we have changed. If you have a baby or toddler photo – please could you also send this in (it will be returned). Alternatively, please send an email with the photo attached for my attention.