'Twas the weekend before bookweek....

Do you like the title?? Guess what's happening this week in school...? Yes, it's BOOKWEEK!!!!!

All of this week's activities are based around the theme of books and fostering a love of reading. This year, it has fitted in really well with our current literacy topic of Stories from other cultures.

The children will also decorate a leaf, with the title and author of their favourite book. It would be a huge help if you could spend some time over the weekend, looking through your children's books that they have at home. It will help to aid our discussion about the different types of books and how many different children's authors they can find. Each child in the infants will be asked to complete this leaf, and all 130 of them, will be attached to our reading tree in the area.

http://www.ukchildrensbooks.co.uk/ this is an excellent 'one-stop shop' to all the current children's authors, who have websites available. By clicking on the name, you should be re-directed to their own website. Roald Dahl is particularly interesting! On the same site, you can search for children's illustrators.

QUESTION? Who always illustrated Roald Dahl's books?

On Monday, the Book Fair arrives. The children will get the opportunity to browse through the books which are available during the day and will come out ready at 3pm with a long list of the books that they would love! By buying a book for your child at the Book fair, you could really give their enthusiasm for reading a boost. If they get to choose a book they can keep, they will try so hard with their reading skills. It may even encourage them to want to read even more, which would be fantastic! The bookfair will be open every evening during the week, from 3.00-3.45pm. For every book that is purchased at the fair, the school earns commission, enabling us to restock our school library, so, as Tesco would put it, ‘every little helps’ !

http://www.scholastic.co.uk/zone/book_home.htm We can't promise that all of the titles on this site will be available at the book fair, but it will give you an idea of the books which will be suitable for your child's age and reading ability.

As well as many other art and craft activities which will be happening during the week, my favourite day will be FRIDAY when the children will be able to come to school DRESSED AS A CHARACTER FROM A TRADITIONAL TALE.

The costume needn't be complicated nor expensive. The children are also very skilful in making props for their costumes from any 'junk' materials that you may have at home...
· a cardboard tube - sword - how else can the handsome prince cut down the vines to rescue the princess?
· a cereal box - cut up, this could become a shield, a crown; a wand
· foil - this can cover any of the above props, to transform anyone into a fairy godmother

Homework this week will be slightly different. In addition to the spelling sheets and numeracy homework, we will be holding a competition. The children will be asked to design a WANTED POSTER for a villain from a Traditional Tale. If possible, we would like them to use their ICT skills for the design and print out the finished product. All of the posters will be used as part of a display and the winner will be announced during the whole school assembly. Go on – get creative!

Well, with all of this going on, are we going to be able to fit anything else in? Of course we can...

Numeracy

This week we will be looking at the shape and space area of the numeracy curriculum. The children will get the opportunity to link lots of areas of the curriculum together this week, particularly as they will be using Roamer and BeeBot – two ICT ‘toys’ which the children are already familiar with.

The children will be reviewing how to describe the position of something – is it in front of, below, at the side of, to the left/right of etc.? The children will also be reviewing the names and descriptions of 2D and 3D shapes, using mathematical vocabulary.

At home, try giving your child instructions, using these:

Put the remote control on the left hand side of the television

Put the phone on top of the table

This could also be applied to their knowledge of numbers and their place within a 100 square.

Give the children a hundred square. Ask them to find a particular number – say 67. Ask them ‘What number is BELOW it? What number is to the RIGHT of it? Etc.

TOP TIP!

Does your child get mixed up with with left and right? (don’t worry – many do!) Ask them to hold out their hands flat in front of them (palms down). Then move their thumbs down, so that they make a corner or right angle to their first finger. The side that makes a capital letter L is the left!!

We will then move on in the second half of the week, to looking at right angles, quarter turns, clockwise and anti-clockwise. A really fun way to introduce this is through dancing! No I haven’t gone mad! Think about all of the dances that you have done in the past, usually at weddings...the Macarena, Locomotion, Ketchup Song?? Can anyone actually remember the order of the hand-jive type dance that goes with it? Neither can I! The children will be doing these dances (with staff!!)in class, but we will teach them how to turn in quarter turns – first clockwise and then anti-clockwise! Why not look at the way the minute and second hands on the clock move? See if they are able to make to connection between turning to right being clockwise and turning to the left being anti-clockwise.

By the end of the week, the children:

Must be able to identify left and right, up and down

Should be able to identify a right angle and locate them in the classroom

Could be able to turn an object clockwise and anti-clockwise through a quarter turn

These are a few suggestions of sites that can support our teaching objectives for this week, but the best way is by experiencing this practically.

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jeux.lulu/html/anglais/flcoccin/coccinel.htm# get the ladybird to eat all the flowers but be careful she doesn’t fall down the holes!

http://www.lgfl.net/lgfl/leas/haringey/web/teachers%20section/KS2/ICT/Links%20%26%20Resources/documents/clowns.swf quite a complicated one at first, but ok when you have had a couple of goes! The children need to rotate the car 90 degrees ( a right angle) and make it moves forwards to pop the balloons. Type 90 into the turn box and the distance in metres into the ‘how far’ box.

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jeux.lulu/html/anglais/flvoyage/fleches4.htm click the arrow to get Lulu back to his spaceship.

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/navigation/navigation.html use the arrow buttons on the keyboard to try and find the virus before it destroys the island!

Reading

As part of our continuous drive to raise standards, we have included a couple of links to sites which can be used both online and give you some ideas of reading materials which you could look for in the library, or add to your own collection at home.

The children are progressing really well with their reading and we are grateful for the support which you are giving up at home with this. In the last week of the half term, the percentages for our class regarding comments in their diaries were:

60%

I think we can make this 100% by the end of the week!

When we assess the children’s readiness to move onto the next colour book-band, we assess their ability to decode the words, or sound them out AND their understanding of the text. It would be a real help if you could refer to the targets which are in your child’s diary to help you make a comment regarding your child’s reading. We are also in the process of compiling some ‘prompt’ questions to help you support your child when they are reading at home. These will be given to you during our parent/teacher meetings next week.

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/load.htm?f some excellent interactive texts, which also have pre-reading activities to show the children how to decode some of the more difficult words.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo/parents/books/index.shtml a list of recommended reading materials for Year 1-2 and beyond.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/kids/bigtoe/ listen to favourite stories read online. These are particularly good at stretching the children’s comprehension skills, as the written texts are quite difficult.

Here I Am

We begin our new topic of Communion this week, where the children will learn all about the celebrations where we all come together as a family.

The children will:

Recognise that coming together makes other people happy
Respect on the times they come together as a family or with friends
Respect the joy that coming together brings.

Maybe you could talk about the parties that you may have had over Christmas as a family (although it does seem such a long time ago now!). Look at some photographs that you may have taken and talk about the expressions on people’s faces – how do they know they are happy?

Modelling

For next week, the children will each need a cereal sized box in order to make a 3D copy of their house. It would be helpful if these could be sent into school on THURSDAY, as this is when we shall be getting the glue, sellotape, masking tape etc. out.

The children will also learn about the qualities of a variety of materials, by using them to build their houses. Hopefully we will be able to make our very own street by the end of the week!

On Friday, the Friends of St Vincent's will be holding a cake sale in the hall at 3pm. Why not come along and browse the book fair at the same time? We will need cakes to be donated for this to be a success, so if you do send some in, in a container, please ensure it is named, so they can be returned to you.

Parents Evening

Thank you for those of you who have been in to offer an alternative choice of times for next week. I still have a large number of parents who have requested the same time slot at 5pm, so time slots will be allocated in the order in which they were received. Many thanks for your understanding with this.

I think that’s all for this busy week and I look forward to seeing you all at the book fair on Monday!

Year 1 team xxx