Assessment and Review

Welcome to the final week of this half term – can you believe we are into February already?

Before we begin this week’s blog, may I pass on my thanks for your generosity during last week’s book fair. From the ‘Wish list’ of books chosen by the children, you donated 9 books to our class library! These have provided some lovely stories at the end of the school day and now have pride of place in our class library, complete with dedication labels for posterity!

In total, we raised over £1000, which will be translated into commission to add to our school library stocks. A big thank you to Miss Knight and all staff who manned the book fair each night last week.

The children all looked fantastic on Friday, dressed as their book character – I was tempted to find a costume myself, as it looked great fun!

I have taken a photograph of all of the children in their costumes, which you will receive at the end of year – ooh 21st birthday posters??! Once again, as a mum myself, I know how traumatic it can be when you are asked to provide a ‘costume’, but you all very talented costume designers and a huge thank you for your time and efforts.

Well, as always in the last week of any half term, it is Assess and Review week, where we see how well the children have progressed towards the objectives and begin to plan our teaching for after the half term.

Mass

There will be a mass held in the school hall at 9.15am on Friday, on the theme of Communion. This is to tie in with our current Here I Am theme and will be led by staff and children from Key Stage 2. All primary schools in the Parish are following the program and each term, a mass will be held on school, on the theme of the Here I Am topic.

You are warmly invited to attend, but please remember that space is at a premium in the school hall. If you have prams or buggies, then please feel free to leave them in the infant area if needed.

Parent/Teacher meetings

You will be informed of your child’s targets during our meetings this week, but please feel free to ask any questions which you have and we will do our best to answer them.

Many thanks for those of you who have been able to be flexible in the times allocated for our meetings. I’m sure you can appreciate the logistics involved in syncing-up times with teachers of older siblings, so it is greatly appreciated!

Meetings are arranged at ten minute intervals, but if we find that more time is needed, we will ask you to arrange another appointment, to avoid running over the allocated times. Thank you for your understanding with this.

Reading

There has been an increase in the number of parents making comments in the diaries, but we are still some way from our 100% target. In order to help with, you will receive a pack of prompt questions during our meetings, to support you when reading with your child.

The children are showing real skill now in being able to applying their learning from their phonics sessions, to the decoding of the words. This may mean that the home reader which your child is bringing home, may appear to be easy for them. When we assess the children’s readiness for the next level, it is a combination of the ability to decode the words and their understanding of the text that determines the appropriate level for them.

I shall be assessing the children’s readiness to move on to the next book band this week and will inform you of their progress through the diaries.

Homework

Apologies for the confusion with the homework last week. A couple of children have already handed their wanted posters in, but they need to be in for MONDAY. I will be sending a writing piece of homework out on FRIDAY of next week, for the children to complete over the holidays. It would be great if we could get 100% of children returning this homework as this is an area which the children are doing well in.

Numeracy

We will be assessing the children on the following this week:

Can they partition numbers into hundreds, ten and units?
Double numbers up to 10? Up to 20?
Find halves of those numbers?

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/resources/gordon/Hit%20the%20button%20v9.swf one of my favourite sites. Click on the doubles/halves button and select the doubles on the left hand side to begin
http://www.ictgames.com/bridgedoubles.html select the doubles from the circles to complete building the bridge
http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/games/game1.htm move the sheep into the correct paddocl to double the quantity
http://www.freewebtown.com/weddell/mw/doubling/doubling%202%20digit.swf if you fancy a real challenge, see of you can work out how to double any two digit number
http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/maths/num%20machine/double.html type in the number you want to double and see if you can calculate the answer before the machine!
http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/maths/num%20machine/halver.html exactly the same as the previous site, but this is the halving version.
http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/853/Postsortingv3.swf click on the tens and units postbox to post the letters. Be careful, as you cannot post all the letters!
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=Toolkit%20index2a this will open up lots of things that we use in class, but for this week, you will need to click on the place value calculator. Although it says it is aimed at Key Stage 2, many of the children will be able to use the knowledge they have to calculate the answers.
http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/853/PlaceValueChartv4.swf having used this before, we know how much the children enjoyed it!

Can they add two numbers totalling less than 20?
Can they say which number is ten more and ten less than a two digit number?
Can they investigate this with 3 digit numbers?

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/number-english.html match the number names to the figures http://www.ictgames.com/100huntplus10.html click on the number in the 100 square to find 10 more
http://www.hyperstaffs.info/work/math/wilce/cosmic.html I love this! The children have to solve the problems along the way, to complete the mission. Some are harder than others, so it may be best if you sit with them for this one. Good for problem solving.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/ngfl-flash/estimate/estimate.html group these objects into small groups in order to make counting easier
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/ngfl-flash/estimate/estimate.html this site is a bit more challenging, but it great at allowing the children to practice grouping in 10s to make counting quicker.
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/number-english.html match the number names to the figures http://www.ictgames.com/100huntplus10.html click on the number in the 100 square to find 10 more
http://www.hyperstaffs.info/work/math/wilce/cosmic.html I love this! The children have to solve the problems along the way, to complete the mission. Some are harder than others, so it may be best if you sit with them for this one. Good for problem solving.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/ngfl-flash/estimate/estimate.html group these objects into small groups in order to make counting easier
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/ngfl-flash/estimate/estimate.html this site is a bit more challenging, but it great at allowing the children to practice grouping in 10s to make counting quicker.


Can they subtract a single digit number from another by counting up?
Can they subtract a single digit number from a two digit number by counting up?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/numbertime/games/test.shtml a simple game to play to work on mental calculation of subtraction
http://www.ictgames.com/football2.html a game for calculating ten less – a really good one for the boys!
http://www.ictgames.com/soccer_subtraction.html click on the footballers to work out the answer, then click on the ball to score a goal. Possibly the only time that England will ever beat Brazil!
http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/games/game8.htm although this is a great site, why not use your own bottles and play this large scale game in the garden?

Can they tell you what a right angle is?
Can they tell you what a quarter turn is?

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!

Science

We will also be assessing the children’s learning in science this week, by giving them a challenge. They will work in their teams, to plan an investigation to find out the best material for specific purposes.

They will be given a box of materials and a series of questions to answer. From this investigation, they will have to label the equipment with labels such as: transparent, translucent, opaque, waterproof, rough, smooth, bendy, hard, and soft.

You could help at home, by asking the children if they can name any materials in your home and see if they can name the purpose they are made for.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/sorting_using_mate.shtml a favourite website, but why not try doing this yourself with materials from around the house?http://www.glassforever.co.uk/ find out how glass is made
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=materials2d a great sorting activity for explaining how materials are grouped
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/scope.html you will keep playing with this one! Click on the numbers on the left hand side to get and image. Then, click on the magnify button to see what the image looks like up to 200x bigger!http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=materials drag and drop the materials names to the correct places
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/science/material_matters/index.htm you will need to support your child with the reading of this text, but it is really interesting information.

Medication Notice

Mrs Walker has kindly asked that any children who have volumatic spacers for asthma need to take them home for half term to be washed . Unfortunately school are unable to do this. The children will then need them back on the first day after the holidays.

Also, as a reminder, we are unable to administer any medication which has not be prescribed by a GP. We also need you to complete a medication permission form, which may be obtained from Mrs Walker. Many thanks.

And finally...

We say a sad goodbye to Miss McKay this week after her 5 weeks teaching practice with us. She has thoroughly enjoyed her time with us and has loved teaching the children. We wish her every success for her future teaching career and hope she keeps in touch with us all at St Vincent’s.

All that is left, is to wish you all a happy and safe half term break and look forward to seeing you all this week.

Year 1 team xxx