This week the children have completed some assessments before our Bollywood dancing on Thursday. We all had a great time and are looking forward to you joining us for our second session next Thursday at 11am. Everyone was shattered afterwards; it’s a workout! They have all been asked to share some of the moves with you, get practising!

The children have started to gather facts for their information text about India. They are becoming very knowledgeable about the wider world. They have written definitions and checked them in a dictionary. Next they will be writing an introduction, making sure they hook the reader so that they want to find out more.

In maths, at this time of year, it is all about problem solving. They are learning to apply their knowledge and skills to new contexts. Regular practise of times tables is important so that they become fluent in their recall of facts.

We have an extraordinary amount of lost property in school. Please make sure your child’s belongings are clearly marked with their name. This way, items can be returned to the owner rapidly.

Have a fab weekend,

Mrs Dowell and Mrs Armstrong

These weeks are going fast! We have worked hard at staying cool this week. The children are getting used to seeking out shade and keeping themselves cool.

We have written instructions for going on a tiger hunt using information from our story ‘Talking Tigers’. Next week we will start our information texts about India.

Please remember our trip on Wednesday. The children will arrive at school at the normal time and we will aim to be back by normal home time.

Your child will need:

• a water bottle
• packed lunch
• backpack
• sun hat
• applied sunscreen if it’s sunny
• school t-shirt and school jumper
• dark coloured leggings or joggers – no shorts or skirts
• waterproof coat if it is wet
• trainers or sensible shoes which will not come off when walking/playing in the woods

If you have any questions, please come to see me at the end of each day.

Have a good weekend,

Mrs Dowell and Mrs Armstrong

Welcome back to everyone in Elm Class! I hope you all had a great half term break. All the children seem raring to go and are looking forward to all the activities planned.

You should all have had a letter detailing the trip to Fordhall Farm on Wednesday 21st June. In addition to the information in the letter, I have told the children that it would be best to wear jogging bottoms with their school uniform tops. We will be walking through fields of long grass and den building in the woodland area. It would be advisable for everyone to have their legs covered so no skirts, dresses or shorts please.

All children will be bringing home an invitation to our Bollywood Dance Workshop. You are all invited to join in on Thursday 6th July at 11am for a 11:15am start. It will last no more than one hour. The children and yourselves are welcome to wear Bollywood style dance clothes or just anything colourful and sparkly! There is absolutely no need to buy anything specific for the session. PE kit will be suitable too.

We are having a giant push on time tables at the moment, please help your child by practising little and often. Telling the time is another focus. Again, little and often is the key to remembering o’clock, quarter past, half past and quarter to. Some children will have learnt the time to five minute intervals too.

Enjoy the weekend, please keep reading!

Mrs Dowell and Mrs Armstrong

This half term has flown by. The children have really grown up since September, they’re nearly Year 3! We have all enjoyed learning about India and they have written some wonderful descriptions of the characters in The Jungle Book. They have imagined they are a tiger cub to write a description of their first walk in the jungle. I have been impressed by the adjectives they have used to paint a picture in the reader’s mind.

In maths, they have completed our unit of statistics. They have drawn tallies, tables, pictograms and block graphs. We have been spending a great deal of time recalling our 2, 5 and 10 times tables. Some children have moved on to 3s, 4s and 8s too! All children know how to use the free online game called ‘Hit the Button’ to improve the speed of recall. Next term we will recap some of the learning from earlier in the year and learn to apply their skills in new ways.

As mentioned earlier in the term, we have an educational visit on Wednesday 21st June to look forward to. We will be going to Fordhall Farm to learn where our food comes from. We have had some interesting discussions on this topic so far and this visit will help to clear up some misconceptions. In the afternoon, the children will enjoy a den building experience in the woods.

Following on with our India topic, we have a dance teacher visiting school to teach the children some Bollywood style dancing. On the morning of Thursday 6th July, parents/carers will be invited to join in with the second session. Look out for specific times nearer to the day.  This is a great opportunity for you to learn alongside your child. Indian or Bollywood style costumes will be encouraged for the day!

Mrs Armstrong and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support, it means a great deal.

Enjoy the half term but please keep reading,

Mrs Dowell and Mrs Armstrong.

Another busy week comes to an end!

I’m really impressed by the improvements that the children are making in their reading. We are enjoying reading The Jungle Book together. They have started to bring some extracts home to share with you. We have been describing the animals, now we are using adjectives to describe the setting. We watched a video of a walk through the tropical forest and listened to the sounds we could hear. There was a mixture of opinions when they described how they thought they might feel if they were alone in the forest!

In maths, we have been solving problems using a mixture of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This will continue to be our focus over the coming weeks. Please continue to help your child with their 2, 5 and 10 times tables.

The children are beginning to recall facts about India such as the capital city, surrounding countries and India being part of Asia. Next week they will compare daily life in India with their own routine.

Please keep reading, every little helps!

Mrs Dowell and Mrs Armstrong

This half term has gone by so fast! We have worked incredibly hard to improve our reading, writing and maths.

All the children are now writing more and most are punctuating sentences correctly. We have concentrated on rehearsing sentences before we write and thinking about how we can make our writing more interesting by adding adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions. Some pupils are also using possessive apostrophes. So,  ‘The boy climbed the ladder’ becomes ‘ The little boy carefully climbed the wooden ladder because he needed to mend the alien’s spaceship.’ Next term we will continue to consolidate what we have learnt.

In maths, we have been learning to tell the time using an analogue clock, the children are finding it difficult. This could be because so many of the clocks we see now are digital! Please help your child by asking them to tell the time regularly. All children need to know o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. Some children will progress to five minute intervals: 10 minutes past 2 or 20 minutes to 5. We have learnt to count in fives around the clock and to use this to help with our 5 times table facts.

The children know why Easter is important to Christians and can answer questions about what happened. They have also learnt about money matters using resources from Santander which you may have seen on the T.V. with Ant and Dec. They can say where money comes from, different forms of money and what we can do to keep it safe. They had the common misconception that you just go to the bank to get money (if only), they hadn’t thought about who puts it in there. We had an interesting lesson on the difference between things we need and things we want!

Well done to everyone who entered the Easter Competition, it was great to have so many amazing entries.

Next term, PE will only be on Tuesdays.

Have a fantastic Easter break,

Mrs Dowell and Mrs Armstrong

What a busy week we have had! The children have completed lots of assessments so that we can see where they need further support. The work that we have put into reading comprehensions has greatly benefitted them as they prepare for their End of Key Stage 1 Statutory Assessments (Year 2 SATs) in May. Their stamina is improving but there is still a lot to do.

In Design and Technology, they have all enjoyed designing a ‘Moving Picture’ of their own. Over the past three weeks they have used a slider, lever and wheel mechanism to make a single part of a picture move. This week they designed and built their own version, they were very creative. Most children managed to incorporate all three mechanisms, well done! It would help if the children could practise their accurate cutting skills, especially cutting out circles, there were some very wonky wheels!

We have also welcomed Max to Elm Class this week who has settled in fabulously. All the children have been really helpful and friendly.

Next Wednesday is the Easter Competition Day and the Easter Disco. The children are invited to wear their disco clothes to school for the day.

Next week will be our last Monday PE session. PE will continue to be on Tuesdays only after the Easter Break.

A reminder that bookbags and Reading Records need to be in school everyday. We read in class EVERY morning. They also regularly need their login details for Mathletics and TTRS which should be stuck inside the cover of their Reading Record.

Have a fab weekend, please keep reading!

Mrs Dowell and Mrs Armstrong