Spring has sprung!

Well, Spring has sprung (or at least that is what the meteorologists are telling us anyway!)

We have lots to get through this week, so...

Literacy

We will be continuing with the second week of Information Texts and the children will be starting to write some of their own texts in class. There will be some very diverse pieces of information to read, as we had a wide range of suggestions from the children!

Last week, we asked if you could make some time to look through an encyclopaedia at home. If you haven’t managed to do this yet, it will really help in consolidating the kind of information which your child would like to write this week. If, for example, they have chosen to write about dinosaurs, then they need to come prepared with some knowledge about them. Maybe focussing on one dinosaur, may be better than trying to remember information about lots of them!

The children were also introduced to a ‘marking ladder’ last week and they became teachers. They had to mark authors of information books and check that they had included certain elements in their books. As you can imagine, they thoroughly enjoyed this activity, giving them marks out of out 10!

This week, they will be applying this to their own writing. Why not use it at home this weekend, to help with this week’s writing homework?

I have used questions
My labels and diagrams are clear
I used captions to give more information about the illustrations
I have used full stops and capital letters
My sentences make sense when I read them out loud
The information chosen is about the title
The information can be found using the contents page and index
I used headings and sub-headings to organise important information

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/writingfun/writingfun.html if you click on Information/Reports on the right hand side and then click on the numbers at the bottom of the screen, it gives you examples to share at home of what an information text could look like. Also, you can download the template to type into.

The other links from last week’s blog will help to support this work for this week.

Phonics

The children are progressing well with their phonics and this is evidenced in how well the children are doing with their reading. The spelling of words however, is causing a little confusion at the moment. Please try not to worry, as this is down to the fact that they are now learning alternative ways of making the same sounds with different letters. The question that they need to ask, is whether they can hear the sound at in the MIDDLE or the END of the word. This will determine the pattern that they use.

This week, we will be looking at the patterns:

oy – this usually comes at the end of a word (oi usually comes in the middle)
ir – this usually comes in the middle of a word (er usually comes at the end)
ue – usually comes at the end of a word (oo usually comes in the middle)
aw – usually comes at the end of a word (or – usually comes in the middle)

Challenge: how many different words can they come up with that contain these different patterns?

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/foamPhonemes_v10.html click on the arrows on the rainbow on the right hand side until you get to this week’s sounds. By click on the canon, you release foam letters and can make words containing the sounds.

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/sound_buttons_v14.html similar activity, but this time with the sound buttons that the children use in class.

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/helpAhedgehog_v4.html why not make your own game up, using words that you have made up with your child using this week’s sounds?

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/airport_xray.html keep up with those High Frequency words – remember that once they are ticked in the diaries, the children are expected to spell them correctly independently in their writing.

Numeracy

The children did really well last week, using the pan balances to measure different objects, using both cubes and the 10 gram weights. Maybe you could get them to do some baking this weekend and get them to help you measure the ingredients out? Linking maths to real life activities, really does get the children to see the purpose of numeracy, and if it involved food, even better!

The children will be moving on to recording the information from last week on a block graph. They will also be expected to answer questions based on the graph that they produce.

Wednesday is World Maths Day and the children will be doing lots of fun maths activities and competitions, to support their numeracy learning. Of course, it wouldn’t be our class, if there wasn’t some food making, baking and tasting involved!

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/grapher.html a great bar chart creator to be able to record the information from weighing objects

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/bargraphs/bargraphs.html a great game to play at home for bar charts

Science

The children were fantastic at identifying light sources last week and even managed to identify that the moon reflected light from the sun, so wasn’t a light source itself! Some Key Stage 2 children struggle with this concept...and even some adults so well done!

This week the children will be investigating torches and seeing why some light sources are brighter than others. They will also be investigating why objects can be seen better when they are in brighter light rather than dimmer light.

If you are willing to send a torch in with your child this week, then please label it clearly in a bag, so that it may be returned to you.

By the end of the week, the children will:

· recognise that a variety of light sources show up best in the dark;
· know that some torches give brighter lights than others;
· state that it is easier to see things in brighter light.

The links from last week’s blog will support learning in this area this week.

Geography

This week, the children will be preparing their map display for Barnaby, to show where he and his friends have visited in the world. If you could go through some of your holiday photographs and talk with your child about where you have been, this will be great preparation for this week’s work.

The children will make a flag of the country they have visited, find the place on a map and place the country’s flag there. They will also be expected to talk about the climate there are talk about which clothes would be appropriate. It always raises a smile, when the children think that a swimming costume is always needed – after all, it is a holiday!

Mother’s Day Craft Fayre

This Sunday, there will be a Craft Fayre held at St. Joseph’s, from 11am-2pm. Many thanks for your generous donations from the non-uniform day yesterday.

Request

The children are now half way through Year One now and are becoming gradually more independent. Could we ask that children come into school on their own in a morning, as we are getting quite a bit of congestion in the cloakrooms. This is resulting in a number of children being late for the register each morning and being unsettled for the start of the day.

Also, we have noticed a couple of polo shirts being worn. These are for the Summer term only, as are gingham dresses for the girls.

Could we also remind you, that bobbles, clips and hair bands should be black or blue. Visitors to our school always comment on the smartness of our children, so many thanks for your support with this.

I think that is all for this week!
Year 1 team x