The children have really settled in to the swing of things now and have got used to the new routines. Many children have really risen to the challenge of being independent but there are just a few who need some gentle reminders. It would be a huge help to all staff, if you could encourage your child to come into school on their own from now on, as we do seem to getting a bit of traffic jam at the moment in the area! Also, as the weather is now getting cooler, the children do need a coat in school every day for the playground.
Literacy
This week, we are focussing on writing, based on the work we have been covering on Stories with a familiar setting. The children have read lots of stories, but they will be asked to write a story based on an experience of when they couldn’t get to sleep...(maybe a bit early to start talking Christmas!)
They have been talking about the ‘Story Mountain’ and have been looking at sequencing the main ideas in a story:
1. The beginning
2. Something happens
3. The exciting bit
4. Events to sort it out
5. The ending
There are even some actions to go with these headings, so see if they can remember them when you are next reading your bedtime story!
BY the end of the week, the children:
Must be able to write three simple sentences to retell events based on personal experience.
Should be able to use an opener to begin each sentence.
Could write a story based on personal experience using openers and more adventurous vocabulary
Homework
The children have been working really hard on their spelling homework and we can see that some of it is being transferred into their independent writing. Just as a reminder, we do assess the children’s ability to remember the spelling patterns from their homework on a Monday morning. A couple of children handed their homework in early, so had forgotten them. Little and often is the key! Try to do 5 minutes each day, rather than a 40 minute session on a Sunday.
You should also find a coloured sheet of paper in their homework book this week, with the letter formations on. It would be helpful if you could support your child by ensuring that all writing in homework books, uses the same formation as we teach in school. Many thanks for your support with this.
High Frequency words
The children have been assessed on their high frequency words last week and the lists in the front of their diaries have been updated. The children are required to spell these words on three separate occasions, before it is ticked as being known. This is to ensure that they are truly embedded and not simply learned for the ‘test’. A big thank you to the parents who have been working with their children at home on their words . There are lots of links on previous blog posts, for you to support your child.
http://www.longman.co.uk/books/contents.htm some lovely online books for you to share at home with your child
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/english/games/story_plant/small_no_sound/standard2.shtml I put this link on a couple of weeks ago and it proved so popular, I have included it again! We would love to read some of the stories that come out of this site!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/adventures/patch.shtml click on the game to practice ordering a sentence.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/adventures/index.shtml choose any of these ‘adventures’ to help with lots of areas of literacy
http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/html/fiction/bigbooks/groovyg/index2.html a lovely book, which does read the text for you. We will run the risk of spoiling your fun and say that we discover there are red apples in a 'groovy garden', which some animals like the look of. Make a note of the animals when they appear as you can't click back to them. However when said animals come to eat the apples, they find there are none left. What could have happened? Over to you...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories/colour/ourhouse.shtml Print out the pictures and write your own story about being at home.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/jackanory/create/picture_story.shtml ooh, remember 5 o’clock in front of the television, before your tea for Jackanory?? Well, here is the son of Jackanory – Jackanory Junior! There are some lovely stories to share on here, but why not have a go at creating your own picture story?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/drilldown/stories/2/2/1/ As we are looking at stories with familiar settings, these links give you some great ideas for writing about everyday life.
http://demo.iboard.co.uk/screens/thread_home.htm?thread_id=16 for those children working on writing their own sentences, a good place to start is this site, using a wordbank to help.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/literacy/phonics/index.shtml There are lots of fabulous games to practice both Literacy and Numeracy. There is also a sheet that can be downloaded, to check how much your child has retained!
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/english/caerphilly/adjectives/index.htm This is a really good site to illustrate to the children just how important adjectives are when writing an interesting story.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/english/caerphilly/larry_the_lion/index.htm another site which uses ‘Larry the Lion’ (wasn’t he Larry the Lamb??) to help the children learn describing words.
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=aroundyourhome play a quiz and see if you can match objects around your home to their description
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-writing-storymaker.htm choose any type of story to help you get started on your writing
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-short.htm fancy reading some short stories? There are some lovely ones here, all with follow up activities to support comprehension
http://vpups.com/ I came across this site, and although it is aimed at older children I think it would make a lovely activity to share at home with your child. Maybe they could print some of their characters off and bring them into school to show? http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/writingfun/writingfun.html a really useful site, which even shows some examples for you to share with your child. Click on Narrative this week and then select numbers 1 or 2 at the bottom of the screen for examples.
Numeracy
This week’s focus will be on number, particularly looking at number pairs to total 10. We will also be working on finding missing numbers in a number sentence.
Why not try the following activity to help with ‘number bonds’:
Have 10 red counters and 10 blue counters. Choose 4 red counters and place them on the table. Ask your child to choose some blue counters to make 10 counters all together. Then, write down the number sentence underneath 4 + 6 = 10. You could then repeat this for all the pairs to 10. See if your child is able to spot the patterns when they see the numbers written down.
By the end of the week, the children:
Must: be able to know addition and subtraction facts to 6.
Should: be able to know addition and subtraction facts to 10.
Could: be able to know addition and subtraction facts to 10 and can relate the number bonds to corresponding facts, for example 16+4=20
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=fmach the doubling machine! Enter a number into the boxes and try to guess the number that the machine will give out!
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/games/magic-gopher-central.swf How do they do it?? I promise you, you will keep trying this one, just to see if you can beat the gopher!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/numbers/ch3.shtml some of these activities are quite simple, but the missing number questions are a really good place to start for this week’s activities
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/numbertime/games/test.shtml the children are used to using jumping frogs, but how will they feel about the Toad?!
http://www.freewebtown.com/weddell/mw/add_sub/9%20and%2011.swf can you fill in the gaps in the 100 square?
http://www.ictgames.com/submarinenopad2.html add 10 to the target number
http://nwlg.org/pages/resources/ma_num/swf/y2d2a3.html a good site to help children understand mathematical vocabulary
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/add/add.html you will need to sit with your child for this, but once they see the pattern, it should become easier
http://www.ictgames.com/safecracker.html use Z and X and the arrow keys, to move the numbers to make the number sentence correct and crack the safe!
http://www.ictgames.com/flight_for_fuel.html add three or more numbers together to make a total
http://www.ictgames.com/funkymum20.html%20%20number%20bonds%20to%2020
http://www.interactivestuff.org/sums4fun/colquiz.html add the numbers to colour the pictures
http://www.wmnet.org.uk/resources/gordon/Hit%20the%20button%20v9.swf choose ‘Number Bonds’, then bonds to 10 or 20 and select Digit. This is really good on the interactive whiteboard – it might be a good idea to remind your children that your monitor at home is NOT interactive and therefore they should remember to use the mouse when they are at home!
http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/maths/num%20machine/num%20menu.html click on the number machine you want to work with
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/working_with_coins/eng/Introduction/default.htm see if your child can see any number bond patterns when adding these coins together
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/maths/guess_my_number_10/index.htm try to guess the number up to ten by following the instructions on the screen
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/guess_my_number_100/index.htm the same as the above site, but this site goes up to 100
Science
The children move on in our Ourselves topic this week, to investigating the human life cycle and looking at other animals.
They will learn that humans are animals; name the body parts of various animals; and learn about the differences between humans and other animals.
The really interesting part of this week, is when the children have to predict how they will look when they are older. A good way of doing this is to look at photographs of their grandparents, and compare their facial features and bodies with their own.
We would love the children to bring in a photograph of themselves as a baby, so we can look at how they have changed so far. I promise that this treasured photograph will be returned unscathed!
http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/thezone/animals/life/produce.htm you may have to sit with your child for this site, but there are some lovely diagrams on here to illustrate life cycles.
http://www.zephyrus.co.uk/lifeofthefrog.html life cycle of a frog – some lovely animations!
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/skeleton4.html labelling a frog life cycle and skeletons
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/ourselves.shtml labelling parts of the human body and animals
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/wild/pets/ even I was fascinated by this site! It shows all the information any budding vet would want to know!
Here I Am
We conclude our topic of Myself, with a class celebration of the work we have done so far. The children will write and draw their favourite part of the topic and write a special thank you prayer. We will also be singing our favourite ‘fuzzy-wuzzy’ bear song, which I will attempt to record to put on our whiteboard!
Topic
We will be having a fun-filled week of art work...glitter – glue – clay – paper – more glitter – feathers – even more glitter...the children will be given the task of making our classroom and the area more aesthetically pleasing! They will be looking at the work of famous artists and, trying to emulate them, develop their artistic skills by using different media.
Some of the following websites are lovely and will fuel the children’s ideas for when we start with gusto on Monday. If you fancy an afternoon out, then the Lowry is very child-friendly and has lots of hands-on activities for them to try while you walk around the exhibits! http://www.thelowry.com/galleryinformation/default.aspx
http://www.museumnetworkuk.org/landscapes/themes/themesindex.htm looking at Landscapes - if you click on the materials section on the site, it shows how artists select the different materials they use to create landscape pictures
http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/play/landscape1/index.html I love this! The cartoon character guides you through various artists’ interpretations of landscapes. There is even a section on how to make your very own canvas painting!
http://www.museumeducation.bedford.gov.uk/bedfordbytes/nature/making_patterns.htm a lovely site to make patterns in nature to make a personalised piece of artwork. Maybe some of the children could print them off at home and bring them in to show!
Think that's all for this week...mmm....will we fit it all in?
Year 1 Team x
No comments:
Post a Comment