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19 September 2014

This week’s homework is Talk Time and is due on Wednesday 24 September 2014.

I can talk about a painting.

Have a discussion at home (maybe over dinner) about ‘Sunflowers’ by Vincent Van Gogh. Here are some questions that might help your discussion.

• Do you like the painting? Why?
• What colours have been used?
• Why did the artist choose to paint it?
• Would you want it up in your house?
• How much do you think it would cost to buy the original?

From this year, your child is expected to make some notes about they they’ve discussed.  Also, please could you (the adult) sign the page or possibly write a comment to show that this homework has been discussed and how your child engaged in the discussion.

Did you know yoga means union?

From balances to relaxation, Year 1 had a very calming end of the day with a yoga session with Roisin who runs a local children’s yoga class at Yoga Kula in Chapel Allerton.  Information will be sent out about her class for any children who are interested in doing yoga regularly.

Take a look at some of our poses.

Vincent Van Gogh or Kandinsky?

Today we have started our new Big Topic, Katie and… based on the books by James Mayhew.

Year 1 had some great group discussions about likes and dislikes of a number of famous paintings.  We concluded that it was ok to each have our own opinions and to respect others’ opinions, too.

Welcome!

Welcome to Reception Class!

Thank you all for welcoming us into your homes. It was lovely to meet you all and get to know your child a little bit more.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about this new chapter in your child’s life and hope you’ve been provided with all the information you need. As always, please ask if you are not sure about anything.

The children will all begin this week, with the last children arriving on Thursday.

After your first day, school will begin at 8.50am and finish at 3.15pm. Please bring your child into the classroom and help them in the different learning areas to have a go at a learning challenge. Take this time to look at your child’s learning journey.

We try to get the children to be as independent as possible early on, so please let them hang their coat up and sort themselves out while you wait in the classroom.

At 3.15pm, please wait at the gate to the Reception outdoor area to collect your child.

See you all soon!

Ralph the Rabbit

Let me introduce you to a member of Year 1 that you may not have met before – this is Ralph:

Ralph goes to someone’s house every Friday but doesn’t like being away from school too long so needs to be returned to school on Monday morning.  Ralph will have a rucksack with his pyjamas in and he has a full set of clothes (including boxer shorts) so please make sure he doesn’t sleep in his clothes.  In the bag with Ralph, you will find a book for you to record what Ralph has done at your house while he has been visiting.  Please make sure that all his clothes are returned back to school with Ralph – one of the main objectives for your child is to be responsible for something else which means caring for his possessions.

We hope you enjoy having Ralph to stay – he’s a very easy-going house guest!

Welcome to Year 1

Wow!  What a brilliant start to Year 1.  The children have moved from Reception to Year 1 without any upset and are certainly ready to learn – well done to Mrs Burke and her team who have done a brilliant job preparing the children for Key Stage 1.

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks, learning new routines and getting straight into all lessons.  We have seen some fantastic independent writing and have discovered that there are some great imaginative ideas when predicting stories.  Gerry the Giraffe has helped us to learn some positional language and there has been some great PE which has impressed Mr Catherall.

Here are some photos of our first couple of weeks:

12 September 2014

The first piece of homework has been sent home with Year 1 children this week.  There is a homework guide in the front of their homework book and there is more information on the website.

There are three different types of homework:

Creative homework – this is when the children can use their imagination as much as possible and be as creative as they want.  There will be a statement or question and this is can be responded to through pictures, writing, photos, videos, presentations or anything else that grabs their interest.  The only restriction is that they can only use one side of A4.

Practice makes Perfect – this homework is used to reinforce something that we have done in lessons or it might be that your child is finding something particularly hard and it is an opportunity for them to have more practice.

Talk time homework – this is when the children and you are encouraged to talk about a question or a statement and then the children feed back to the rest of the class.  There does not have to be anything recorded in their book for talk time homework.

Homework is sent home on Friday and it must be sent back to school by the following Wednesday.

This week’s homework is “creative” homework and concludes our “Where in the World?” topic:

I can show where I live.

As always, if you have any questions or would like some support then please come and see us.

12 September 2014

We have started as we mean to go on in Year 1 with some spellings to learn.  Every week, apart from holidays, your child will bring some spellings home to learn.  There are many fun ways to help your child learn them but the essential thing is to do spend a short time on them every day;  5 or 10 minutes every day will make a difference and will make your child confident with the new words.  If you would like any support with helping your child then please come and ask.

Year 2 parents:  you are familiar with the concept of spellings coming home but this is also a reminder to you that time spent daily is the best way to help your child learn their spellings.

There are 3 different groups for spellings and phonics; your child should know their group or there will be a sticker on their learning list book.  They only need to learn the spellings for their group even though all the lists are shown above.

Spelling Test – there will be a spelling test every Friday where the children will need to know how to write their spellings.  However, please note that the spelling test will be on Thursday this week as we have a theatre workshop all day on Friday.

These are the spellings for this week; if you have any questions then please come and ask one of us.

12 September 2014

Now your child is in Year 5, he or she will be given two pieces of homework every week – this additional homeowrk is in response to parents’ feedback. Every week, your child will get a Practice Makes Perfect homework which will usually be extra practice in English or Maths. He / she will also receive a Creative or Talk Time homework. Both pieces should be handed by Wednesday.

This week, the Practice Makes Perfect homework is a maths activity which will test and reinforce the learning we’ve been doing on doubling and/or halving.

The second homework is Creative and is an opportunity for children to show what they have learned in our first mini-topic of the year, Where in the world?

Here are a few ideas we came up with as a class:

12 September 2014

This week, the spellings are all adverbs which end in ‘ly’. This suffix is added to an adjective to form an adverb. For example, sad becomes sadly. 

Children will be tested on the ten adverbs on Friday 19 September.