Friday 6th December 2024

Maths 

This week the children have been learning their 2D shapes (circle, triangle, square, rectangle) and 3D shapes (sphere, pyramid, cube, cuboid). These shapes can be seen everywhere in everyday life! To practice memorising their shapes, they can try to identify the 3D shapes of household objects such as a football, a Rubik's cube or a book. They can also try to identify 2D objects when watching TV, keeping in mind that 2D objects are flat.

Reading 

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs. 

Science

The children have completed their Science 'Celebrations' topic in school this week. We have looked at how food can be used in different celebrations for both eating and as symbols for something else. We have learned about the symbolic meaning of a Christingle. Watch this video to remind yourself of the different parts, and perhaps have a go at creating one for yourself!

Nativity

The children have all been given their lines for our Christmas Nativity performance. Please practise these until they are confident saying them off-by-heart. Last week, they were also given a letter about their costumes. Please read this and return it to school asap. Thank-you!

Friday 29th November 2024

Phonics/English 

This week we are sending home a phonics workbook. Each week we will list the pages to be completed by the children. This week the children will need to complete pages 32, 33, and 34. These are the skills they have been learning this week.

Maths 

This week the children have been doing subtraction sentences using numbers to twenty. To practise this, make two piles of cards, one with the numbers 1–7 and the other with the numbers 17–19. Take a card from each of the piles and write an equation subtracting the smaller number from the greater number. Can you solve the calculation? Make sure your digits are formed correctly and are the right way around (eg. if the answer is 10, it is not written as 01). Shuffle the cards and repeat the activity.

Reading 

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs. 

Nativity

The children have all been given their lines for our Christmas Nativity performance. Please practise these until they are confident saying them off-by-heart.

Friday 22nd November 2024

Phonics/English 

This week we are sending home a phonics workbook. Each week we will list the pages to be completed by the children. This week the children will need to complete pages 26, 27, 30 and 31. These are the skills they have been learning this week.

Maths 

This week the children can practise addition within 20, in particular, adding values to 10. Roll a die to generate a value and add this to 10. Can your child write this calculation as a number sentence? Eg. 10 + 3 = 13

Reading 

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs. 

Nativity

The children have all been given their lines for our Christmas Nativity performance. Please practise these until they are confident saying them off-by-heart.

Friday 15th November 2024

Phonics/English 

This week we are sending home a phonics workbook. Each week we will list the pages to be completed by the children. This week the children will need to complete pages 24, 25, 39 and 40.  These are the skills they have been learning this week.

Maths 

This week the children have been working on comparing and ordering numbers to 20.

Using post-it notes or pieces of paper, help your child to write out numbers 1 to 20.  Gather them into a pile and then ask your child set them out in order from smallest to greatest.  Place a counter on one of the numbers.  Ask your child to say what is one more than the number the counter is on (e.g. “15 is one more than 14”).  Repeat this with one less (e.g. “19 is one less than 20”).

You could try it with A4 sheets of paper with the numbers set out on the floor and your child could act as the counter by physically moving themselves up and down the number line as they say ‘one more’ or ‘one less’ than a given number.,

Reading 

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs.

Science

Over the next two weeks, the children are being encouraged to make their own musical instrument at home and bring it in for our Science lesson on sound. This could be something as simple as a margarine tub with beads in it (a shaker), or a large chocolate tub decorated to be used as a drum. Use your imagination and feel free to decorate the instruments to make them bright and colourful! Please bring it in before Wednesday 20th November.

Friday 8th November 2024

Phonics/English 

This week we are sending home a phonics workbook. Each week we will list the pages to be completed by the children. This week the children will need to complete pages 17, 18, 19 and 20. These are the skills they have been learning this week.

Maths 

This week the children have re-capped previous learning of writing addition number sentences and representing them in a part-part-whole model. To do more of this at home, perhaps roll a die to generate two values. Write these as the two parts in a part-part-whole model and then work out what the whole (total value) is. Now write a number sentence to show this information.

Reading 

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs. 

Science

Over the next two weeks, the children are being encouraged to make their own musical instrument at home and bring it in for our Science lesson on sound. This could be something as simple as a margarine tub with beads in it (a shaker), or a large chocolate tub decorated to be used as a drum. Use your imagination and feel free to decorate the instruments to make them bright and colourful! Please bring it in before Wednesday 20th November.

Instruments children have made in previous years...

Friday 25th October 2024 

Phonics/English  

Your child has their own phonics workbook, which is just for home. Each week we will list the pages to be completed by the children. This week the children will need to complete pages 11 and 12. These are the skills they have been learning this week. 

Your child might enjoy checking their knowledge of the Harder to Read and Spell Words they have already learned in Phase 2, Phase 3 and Phase 4 here:

https://epicphonics.com/games/play/free-penalty-shootout-tricky-words-game 

Reading  

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs. 

Maths  

This week the children have been learning about positional language using ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th / first, second, third, fourth, fifth).   

On post-it notes or pieces of paper, support your child to write the numerals 1 to 5.   

Next, explain that when we talk about a position – for example, children queuing up in a line – we say that the child in position 1 (the front of the line) is 1st; the child in position 2 is 2nd; position 3 is 3rd, and so on.   Use the image below when discussing this.  Now, help your child to change their numeral into an ordinal number by adding ‘st’  ‘nd’  ‘rd’   ‘th’  (you could also write each as a word too if your child wants). 

Finally, ask your child to get 5 of their toys and to line them up in a queue with a clear starting point for first position (e.g. line them up at the door).  Can your child use the pieces of paper they made with ordinal numbers to label the position of each toy? 

**Challenge – can your child complete the sentences below? 

Friday 18th October 2024

Phonics/English 

This week we are sending home a phonics workbook. Each week we will list the pages to be completed by the children. This week the children will need to complete pages 9 and 10. These are the skills they have been learning this week.

Maths 

This week the children can practise writing subtraction number sentences and representing them in a part-part-whole model. Perhaps roll a die to generate two values. Write these as the two parts in a part-part-whole model and then work out what the whole (total value) is. Now write a number sentence to show this information. For example, if you roll 4 and 3, the number sentence would become 7-4=3 or 7-3=4.

Reading 

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs. 

Friday 11th October 2024

Phonics/English

Last week we sent home a phonics workbook.  This week the children will need to complete pages 7 and 8 in their phonics workbook. 

Maths

The children also have a short Maths activity. This week can the children practise their number bonds to 10 using the number frames: https://mathsbot.com/manipulatives/numberFrames 

Reading

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs.  

Each week, e-books will be added to the children's Oxford Owl accounts. Your child’s login and password details are stuck into your child’s reading log. Feel free to choose books from the list supplied. We encourage the children to read a book at least three times. Once for decoding, a second time to increase fluency and the third time to encourage expression and understanding (this doesn't have to be all in the same night). If you encounter any issues with this system, please let us know so we can resolve it quickly. Remember to record any books read in the log. Thank you and happy reading! 

Friday 4th October 2024

Phonics/English 

This week we are sending home a phonics workbook. Each week we will list the pages to be completed by the children. This week the children will need to complete pages 5 and 6. These are the skills they have been learning this week.

Maths 

The children also have a short Maths activity. This week can the children practise writing numerals to ten correctly with the corresponding words. Play the 'words to 10' game below to practise this skill.

Teddy Game - Words To Ten

Reading 

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs. 

As of last week, e-books have been added to the children's Oxford Owl accounts. If your child has brought their reading log into school this week, their login and password details are now in there. Feel free to choose books from the list supplied. We encourage the children to read a book at least three times. Once for decoding, a second time to increase fluency and the third time to encourage expression and understanding (this doesn't have to be all in the same night). If you encounter any issues with this system, please let us know so we can resolve it quickly. Remember to record any books read in the log. Thank you and happy reading!

Friday 27th September 2024

Phonics/English 

The children have been working hard in Phonics to recall all that they learned in Phase 2, Phase 3 and Phase 4 from Reception.  Please look in your child’s Guided Reading log for their Essential Letters and Sounds eBook sign-in card.  Follow the instructions to sign-in and see which of the ‘Little Blending Books’ your child would like to practise with.  Each Little Blending book supports blending skills using focus sounds.  First, your child needs to blend the word on a page, then they can turn over to see the picture and press the sound button to hear if they read it correctly.  You can access the eBook library from a phone, tablet, laptop or PC.  You could even go large and mirror it on a TV screen. 

Maths 

The children have continued working on their number knowledge within 10.  This week we have been looking at comparing numbers and using the following mathematical language: 

• more than 

• less than 

• 1 more 

• 1 less 

On 10 pieces of A4 paper, can your child write the digits 1-10? Next, jumble them up and see if they can re-order them correctly on the floor going from the smallest to the greatest number (1 to 10). Ask your child to stand on a particular number (e.g. 4).  Next, ask them to move to a number that is 1 more than that number (e.g. 5) or 1 less than that number (e.g. 3).  You could take it in turns where you stand on a number and they give the instructions. 

You could do a further challenge where you name a number (e.g. 7) and ask your child to pick up all the numbers that are more than that number (e.g. 8, 9 and 10) or less than that number (e.g. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1). 

Reading 

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs. 

Friday 20th September 2024

Phonics/English

The children have been working hard to improve their fine motor skills this week, so that they are ready to do neat handwriting in Year One. Can they continue to work on this by drawing around small objects (eg. counters or coins), using the pincer grip to pick up small items (eg. using tweezers to pick up things) or building the strength in their hands by playing with something malleable such as sand and slime.

Maths

The children have continued working on the number to value correspondence within 10. On 10 pieces of paper (or post-it notes) can your child write the digits 1-10? Next, jumble them up and see if they can re-order them correctly. Perhaps get them to close their eyes and remove one of the pieces of paper. Can they work out which value is missing? Now, how many representations of each value can your child find, eg. three toy cars can be placed next to the paper with 3 on it, as could a domino with three dots, or a flower with 3 leaves etc.

Reading

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs.

Friday 13th September 2024

Phonics/English

The children have been working hard to remember their phase three and phase two phonemes. Each child has been given a sound mat to practise these at home each night before reading their book (electronic copy below). Please help your child to build their confidence with the recall of these sounds. 

Maths

The children will also have a short Maths activity. This week can the children practise writing numerals to ten correctly. If they find this tricky, for example write in reverse, perhaps they can copy the numerals below an example done by an adult.

Reading

The children will read at least once a week with a teacher and have been given a reading book or an e-book to practise reading at home. Please ensure that these books are returned to their bags after reading at home, so that they can be re-read in school and used with other children. Please encourage your children to read other books and record in reading logs.