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20 April 2012

This week, your child has been given an extensive spelling list of about 50 different words. All the words are the type of spelling have previously appeared in the spelling SAT test.  The children will be tackling their spelling SAT in early May, though we don’t know which words will be tested when it comes to the real test.

Children will be given mini spelling tests based on the words they have been given to learn, but won’t know which ones are happening on which days.

It’s important that the children learn the words and the rules associated with the spellings.

The words that the children have been given will be their spellings for the next three weeks.

25 April 2012

The homework this week is creative and is due in Wednesday 23 April.

I can show what I know about forces in the world around me.

It is completely up to how your child decides to present their homework. Here are some ideas:

• a diagram
• pictures/photographs
• video
• a report
• a conversation between two people

Welcome!

Welcome to Alex and Katarina who recently joined Year 2. Both children have made a positive and enthusiastic start at Moortown. Katarina is already impressing us with her excellent range of vocabulary in literacy and Alex is wowing us with his reading skills. Year 2 are very pleased to have two lovely new friends!

Dance class at Allerton Grange

20 April 2012

This week, we’re learning words with the ‘ou’ grapheme which makes an ‘ow’ sound.

These words will be tested on Friday 27 April.

20 April 2012

This week’s spellings are adjectives with the suffix ‘est’. Your child will be tested on Friday 27 April 2012.

• fastest
• kindest
• slowest
• bravest
• largest
• neatest
• weakest
• tallest
• brightest
• strongest

Magnificent Magnets

Today, we’ve been learning about magnets. We’ve been testing what type of materials are magnetic, what happens when we put two magnets together and whether magnets work underwater!

Our new SEAL theme…

…starts next week. 

This week, we think about our manners: we encourage children to make way for others.  We’ve talked about stepping to one side or holding the door open for others, and especially for people who might have difficulty walking, or those who might be carrying heavy bags, or generally those to whom we want to show respect.

The SEAL theme beginning next week and lasting for the rest of the half-term is Relationships.  This theme explores feelings within the context of our important relationships including family and friends.  The key areas of learning are self-awareness, managing feelings and empathy.  There is a focus throughout the theme on helping children understand the feelings associated with an experience that we all need to cope with at some time: that of loss – whether of a favourite possession, a friend, a family home, or a loved one.  Although relatively few children are bereaved, most will experience losses of other kinds during their childhood; losing a home, losing friends because of moving house or changing schools, or losing a pet are examples.  We therefore ask you to alert us to any experiences your child has had that might make this area particularly difficult for them – for example, a bereavement.

Ready, steady write!

This term the children will gain confidence in their writing. All the children have learned enough phonemes to enable them to confidently write using their phonic knowledge. This term they will write stories, lists, poems, messages and letters, practise letter formation, good pencil control and when to use a capital letter and a full stop. It is important for children to know why we write.  In the classroom children will see adults writing for a variety of purposes, for example, notes, cards, labels and instructions. Through such experiences children will come to realise the importance of writing and the pleasure that can be gained from it.

We will be using lots of ‘Modelled Writing’ in which we will explicitly demonstrate the process of writing by ‘thinking aloud’ as we write and talking through the process step-by-step to show children what to do. Children will see that writing is an interactive process and will be reassured that writers make mistakes.

Children will be taught that

– printed text is recorded speech.

– writing can be read to or by others.

– writing can be used for different purposes.

You can help your child at home by encouraging them to write shopping lists, greetings cards, messages and stories. Let your child see you writing and talk about what you are doing. Most importantly, their writing should have purpose, be relevant and interesting and remember to give lots of praise.

Please ask if you have any questions relating to your child’s learning.

Phonics

This term we will begin phase 4 of our phonics learning.

Phase 4 relates to the blending of adjacent consonants at the beginning and end of simple words where the single letter sounds are blended together in a left to right order.

Examples of the adjacent consonants found at the beginning of English words are ‘bl.., cl.., fl.., gl.., pl.., sl.., br.., dr.., fr.., gr.., pr.., tr.., sk.., sm.., sn.., sp.., st.., sw.., tw..’ in words like ‘blob, clap, flag, glad, plop, slip, bran, drip, frog, grab, pram, tram, skip, smell, snip, stop, swim, twig’. These are known as ccvc (consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant) words.

Examples of adjacent consonants found at the end of English words are ‘..mp, ..nd, ..nk, ..nt, ..st, ..ft, ..ld, ..lp, ..lt, ..sk’ in words like ‘jump, hand, bank, tent, lost, left, held, help, belt, ask’. These are known as cvcc words.

There are also some combinations of three adjacent consonants such as ‘spr.., str.., spl..’ as found in the words ‘spring, street, split’.

Children will learn to blend and segment these words in just the same way as cvc words.

Remember that some adjacent consonants e.g. ‘ch, sh, th‘ are not blended together in the above manner. They are the spellings of distinct English sounds (phonemes) in their own right, and their sound is different to the sounds of the two separate letters.

As always please ask about any aspect of your child’s learning.