SEAL
The SEAL topic for this half term is ‘New Beginnings’. As a class, we have decided what rules we should all follow and have created a learning contract that we have all signed. The children will develop their speaking, listening and thinking skills through circle time. It is also a good opportunity for children to reflect on their week and help others with their problems.
Well done to Grace and Mia for making Jorja feel welcome in her new beginning at Moortown Primary.
Welcome to Reception!
We’ve now visited all of the children and are looking forward to them starting next week. We are confident that they will settle well and enjoy the new challenges of ‘big’ school!
There are three members of staff in Reception this year: Mrs Boulton, Mrs Maqbool and me, Mrs Burke. In addition, Mrs Wilson and Mrs Taylor will be taking the class for a short time on Tuesday afternoons. When your child starts school we encourage you to come in each morning and settle them in classroom. This is an ideal opportunity for you to find out what your child is learning, look at your child’s Learning Journey and discuss their learning with us.
We’ll open the doors at 8.50 each morning and take the register. When collecting your child, please wait at the gate. We’ll let your child out at 3.15 when we see the adult who is collecting them. Please make sure to bring and collect your child on time. Children can become very anxious if they arrive or leave late from school.
Our main emphasis this term is the children’s personal, social and emotional development. We’ll be settling the children into school life and familiarizing them with routines and expectations. The children will be forging new friendships, learning to share and care for one another and look after their environment.
Here are some of the ways you can help your child at home over the coming weeks:
Mathematics – Encourage your child to count objects and actions. For example, counting while going up the stairs or how many knives and forks on the table. Look for numbers around the house and in the environment. For example, on the remote control, on the telephone, house numbers, bus numbers and numbers on car registration plates. Look for different shapes within the home and environment, clothing, the walls and windows.
Writing – Provide your child with opportunities to use pencils and pens. Encourage your child to ‘mark make’ and develop good pencil control. Encourage your child to use writing in their play. If they are playing shops ask them to write a shopping list. If playing police get them to write an incident report! If your child is writing their name please help us by teaching them that the first letter of their name is a capital letter and the rest are lower case letters. Please use the school’s handwriting style. There is a copy in your ‘Welcome Pack’.
Reading – Share books with your child. While reading encourage your child to talk about the illustrations and predict what may happen next. After reading, talk about what happened in the story and encourage them to re-tell the story. Look for letters and print in the house and environment – encourage your child to look for letters from their name while you are out and about. If your child shows an interest in letter shapes encourage them to use the ‘sounds’ the letters make, for example ‘sssss’ for snake, ‘mmmm’ for Mummy, and ‘zzzz’ for zebra.
As the term progresses, I’ll send you more information about how we teach reading and phonics. Keep checking on-line, too!
Please remember that we want you to be very much involved in your child’s learning so please ask if you need more information or have any questions or concerns.
For more information about the Foundation Stage and how children learn in Reception go to www.foundationyears.org.uk
Welcome to Year Six
Hello and welcome to Year Six! I hope you all had a relaxing summer and managed to find some good weather amongst the rain.
Things have been busy already in Year Six with lots of learning. I’ve been really pleased with how motivated and responsible the children have been on their return to Moortown, especially now they are the oldest in school.
Our first few weeks will involve some re-capping. For example, checking through the children’s preferred strategies for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as well as lots of learning in Literacy on how to use punctuation correctly, especially commas. Children already have a guided reading book and a target page to read to for the following week.
For those of you who I don’t know, this will be my third year at Moortown Primary, all of which have been in Year Six. I have taught at several other schools and have been a teacher for more than twenty years. Parents’ evening will be towards the end of October; in the meantime, please feel free to drop in if you have any questions. I look forward to getting to know you all better.
Finally, I’d like to welcome Mehak to our class. She’s been welcomed by all the class and is already proving to be a great member of the Year 6 learning community and is impressing everyone with her excellent Maths and quietly confident attitude to learning.
Welcome to Year 3
Hello and welcome to Year 3!
I hope you all had a lovely summer. I’ve been really impressed with how the class seem to be settling into Year 3 over the first week and a bit and have enjoyed listening to all the fun things that they have done over the holidays.
In this post I’ll go over some of the key things that you will need to know for this year:
Ok, here goes…
• PE is on Wednesdays and Fridays. Children will need a PE kit suitable for both indoors and outdoors. This should include a pair of trainers or pumps. I usually ask parents to bring in the kit at the start of the term and take it home at the end of each half-term to wash. This way, the children always have a kit. Also, please put the children’s name on the kit!
• We have a spellings and tables test each Friday morning. The new spellings and tables are written in the red learning lists books. These books are for the children to take home each day to practise. However, they should bring the books back in to school each day in case we do some practice in school as well. The children will be given ten spellings and ten times table facts to learn each week but they will only be tested on eight out of the ten. The times tables we learn in Year 3 are the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 times tables. The spellings we will be learning are a mixture of important spelling rules which may be revisited more than once during the year and specific vocabulary which will tie in with the learning in the literacy lessons.
• Homework is the same in Year 3 as it was in Year 2. There will be a mixture of creative and talk time homework with a few practice makes perfect as well. New homework is given out on Friday and is to be handed in by the following Wednesday.
• Some of the children have asked me what they are allowed to bring in for a playtime snack. They can bring in any type of fruit but not cereal bars, yoghurt, fruit bars etc.
• Tuck shop is starting next Tuesday and will be weekly on this day. Children can bring 20p to buy some fruit at morning break.
I’m sure I won’t have covered all your questions in this post so please pop into the classroom to see me or grab me in the playground if you have any queries – or even just to say hello!
Finally, I’d like to welcome Lennox to our class. He’s been made welcome by all the class and is already proving to be a great addition to Year 3!
Welcome back!
As most of you already know, I taught the current Year 4 two years ago in Key Stage 1. They were a wonderful group of children then and it’s great to see that Mr Wilks has had such a positive impact.
In literacy, Year 4 are currently story-writing in literacy. Further into the term, they will be learning about promotional writing (advertisements, leaflets) as well as writing reports (information texts – often a website or factual book). Encourage your child to read these different types of text when you’re out and about or if you spot an interesting report in a newspaper or magazine.
In maths we’re investigating place value (this is all about knowing the value of digits in a number, such as knowing 357 has three hundreds, five tens and seven units) as well as the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and divide). By the end of the year, your child has to know all times table facts up to 10 x 10. It is imperative that they practise their times tables every day for a few minutes until they can recall any times table within five seconds.
Parents’ evening will be towards the end of October; in the meantime, please feel free to drop in if you have any queries. Finally, I’d like to welcome Luca to our class. He’s slotted perfectly into our learning community and has already made excellent contributions– especially in art!
I look forward to seeing you all again soon.
Fruit tuckshop returns!
Our fruit tuckshop, to be run by the Year 5 class this year, returns next week on a new day – Tuesday.
The tuckshop is open to all Key Stage 2 children during playtime. Reception and Key Stage 1 children receive free fruit at playtime.
Each item costs 20p and the fruit can be a snack for playtime or used to top up their packed lunch box – all contributing to their 5 a day!
As stated in our Food Policy, fruit is the only snack allowed at playtimes for Key Stage 2.
Maths websites
Today we looked at choosing the most appropriate number operation in maths. Based on the television programme Countdown, here is a website the children used to test out their skills – well done to Yasmin and Ayesha for your hard work today.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/countdown/index.htm
Another version can be found on the excellent nrich maths website:
SEAL statement 07 September
This week we begin our new SEAL theme, New Beginnings, and the weekly statement is ‘I can make someone feel welcome.‘
Over this half term, as the children are experiencing new beginnings, each class will be looking at how they can all contribute to establishing a welcoming and safe environment for learning.
Welcome to Year 5
Welcome to the Autumn term of 2012. It is a new start for everyone including me; a change from Year 1 to Year 5 is interesting and so far it has been a very enjoyable one. Having taught most of the children before, it has been fantastic to see how they have progressed and matured and the first week back has been a pleasure.
A big welcome to Brannoc who has made a fantastic start at Moortown; he was nominated by Pavanpal and Amit to receive a certificate in his first assembly as they felt that he had made a “brilliant start with a smile on his face”.
Our first mini topic, over the next couple of weeks, will be “Materials and their Properties”. This is a science-based topic with investigations, predictions and lots of questioning. The brain will then be investigated (not literally!) in a “Brain Box Week” before our main topic starts which is “Rich and Poor”; more on this at a later date.
A busy half term with lots of learning to be done. As always, my door is always open if you have any problems or questions. I look forward to seeing you all at parents’ evening in October if not before.
Thank you.
PE
PE will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please ensure that your child has pumps for indoor PE and suitable outdoor footwear.
This half-term, we’ll focus on dance in our indoor PE sessions and throwing and catching skills in our outdoor PE sessions.
