Year group: Kindergarten Date: Friday 27th September 2019

Wow! What a week!

The Kindergarten children have had a busy yet amazing week in school this week. On Tuesday, we had Exotic Explorers visit school with their beautiful owls. The children found out lots of interesting information about them and were even able to get hands on and stroke and hold the owls. We have also had the opportunity to take home a biscuit which we decorated as an owl’s face. The children really enjoyed mixing the icing and spreading it on their biscuits. We have continued our Autumn theme by painting with conkers and creating colouring designs. We have used our hand prints and cutting skills to make crows for our lovely Harvest display.

Homework

This week we empty the contents of our homework boxes into the large tuff tray and talked about what we had found on our Autumn Treasure hunt. The children were so proud sharing their finds with the rest of the class.

What’s happening next week? Next week we will be looking at the story ‘The Little Red Hen’. We will be joining in with the repeated refrains and using the story to inspire our play in our farm role play area. We will also be making bread rolls just like the Little Red Hen and exploring different root vegetables. Next week on Thursday 3rd October, we will also be having our first ‘Stay and Play’ session of the academic year. Please come along to the main school office to sign in, where you wait until you are escorted over to the Kindergarten class. The session will begin at 9am and finish at 9.45am.

Word of the week

Combine Harvester – This week we will be focussing on how the Little Red Hen harvested the wheat to make her bread and comparing it to how we harvest wheat now.

Suggestions of ways you can support your Kindergarten child with the EYFS curriculum:

• Continue to encourage your child to use a knife and fork independently.

• Encourage independent toileting.

• This week we have been looking at matching quantities to numerals and recognising numbers. Please continue to practise number recognition at home.

Extra information: School Coats – Please could all children have a navy blue school coat. These can be purchased from the school uniform shop. Nail polish – Could nail polish please be taken off.

Year group: Reception Date: Friday 27th September 2019

Literacy and Communication and Language This week we have been learning about what is under our skin, our skeleton! We listened to the storybook ‘Funnybones’ and then talked about how our skeletons help us to stand up, move, dance and play. We felt our bones, completed a skeleton life-size puzzle and added labels, naming the different bones in the body. The children then practised pencil skills by tracing a skeleton picture, painted a skeleton and then made a skeleton picture by cutting and sticking art straws. Some children have used playdough to mould and make a skeleton and everyone has enjoyed our role play Doctors surgery area. There have been many visits to the surgery and many prescriptions and remedies administered! We have continued to revisit and apply our sounds in our phonics lessons and some of us are blending the sounds together to read simple words and sentences. Next week, we will continue our topic ‘All About Me’ and explore our senses and use them in a variety of activities.

Maths

In our maths lessons we have continued to recognise, order numbers and make amounts. We are also encouraging the children to practise writing their numbers during opportunities in pretend play, such as writing ‘telephone numbers’ when ‘booking appointments’ in our Doctors surgery. We have also had some salt dough ‘bones’ in our classroom and we have been discussing and ordering them according to size. The children have been encouraged to use vocabulary related to size and length such as longest, shortest, shorter than and longer than. The children continue to sing number and counting songs daily and enjoy moving to music using counting actions. Next week we will continue to recognise numbers and look at different patterns and repeating patterns.

Suggestions of ways you can support your reception child with the EYFS curriculum:

Explore the world around you, using your senses and ask your child questions about what they can see, hear, feel, smell, touch and taste. Encourage your child to describe what they experience and model longer sentences as you talk about the senses you are using. Allow children to ‘write’ or mark-make at every opportunity. Let them pretend to write you a letter, a shopping list or a greeting card. Any opportunity to get their fingers busy and holding a pencil or a pen! ‘Sound-talk’ some simple words (break the word down into phonemes- single sounds e.g put on your h-a-t) and see if your child can recognise the word. Keep on counting and recognising numbers. Also, practise using the vocabulary more and less when comparing quantities and objects.

Extra information:

Thank you for those parents for joining in our Global Be Well Day activities, we very much appreciated your support and the children had a fantastic day learning about the different topics and activities linked to their well-being. We are still finding items of uniform in our classrooms that are not labelled and it proves difficult to ensure it goes home with the right child! Please regularly check uniform labels as some do come loose in the wash and need replacing. Thank you for sending in a small piece of fruit or vegetable with your child and the smaller snack pot size is much appreciated and easier to store during the day. Please note that current advice is that grapes should be cut into quarters for children under 8 years of age. Most children are bringing a water bottle to school each day and this is perfect for keeping the children hydrated and ready to learn as they can access their own water bottle freely during the day. We thank you for your continued support and we hope you have a very restful weekend.

Year group: Year 1 Date: Friday 27th September 2019

English Throughout this week, we have completed the following writing activities:

• Creating a story map and then writing of our own version of ‘The Three...’

• Correcting the missing or misused capital letters and full stops in sentences.

• Using conjunctions (such as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘because’) to extend our sentences.

• Identifying what a verb is and exploring examples of these.

Next week, we will be completing activities with a reading focus. Over the course of the week, we will be covering the following skills:

• Correcting inaccurate reading by changing the choice of wording or rearranging the order of words in sentences from the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’.

• Using a dictionary to find out the meaning of words from the story.

• Using our knowledge of word meanings to follow a character description of the Big Bad Wolf to create a ‘Wanted’ poster.

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s English:

Please talk to your child about the use of conjunctions in their sentences. Support your child in recording a recount of their weekend and encourage them to use the conjunctions ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘so’ and ‘because’ in their writing to extend their sentences.

Maths

This week, we have developed our knowledge and understanding of multiplication and division. We covered the following learning objectives this week:

• Beginning to know doubles (mental maths).

• Beginning to know halves.

• Solving one-step problems involving doubles and halves.

• Learning the 10 times table and recognising any number patterns. Next week, we will be focusing on fractions and 2D shapes. Over the course of the week, we will be covering the following skills:

• Finding half of a quantity less than 10 using concrete objects (mental maths).

• Recognising and naming 2D shapes.

• Describing the properties of 2D shapes.

• Recognising, finding and naming a half as one of two equal parts of a shape.

• Solving one-step problems involving 2D shapes and fractions.

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s Maths:

Please practise reading and writing numbers from 0 to 20 in numerals and words. Check your child has not reversed any numerals.

Extra information: (This could include: trips, notices to parents, school initiatives, class events) Please could you make a note of any after school clubs your child will be attending in their homework diary. Just a reminder that your child should bring a named towel and hat with them to their swimming lesson every Friday. Please ensure that your child’s belongings are clearly labelled.

Year group: Year 2

Date: Friday 27th September 2019

English Throughout this week, we have focused on character description. The children have been writing expanded noun phrases for description.

Towards the end of the week we discussed the actions of the characters.

We have been reading through the text and highlighting the verbs and

adverbs. Then, the children have written their own sentences including verbs and adverbs.

Next week, we will be writing the opening of the story. We will complete

the following activities:

• Giving their opinion and explaining their answer.

• Writing their own ideas for the story opening.

• Using inverted commas to write speech.

• Write expanded noun phrases for description.

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s English: Please talk to your child about the characters in different stories they read. Encourage the children to

think about the language that the author uses to create the characters in the story..

Maths

This week, we have compared two numbers, identifying the number that

is greater than or less than. We have also looked at numbers that are equal. We have used the symbols <, > and =.

These are the objectives we have covered this week:

• Can I use the equal signs?

• Can I compare numbers?

Next week, we will be using our multiplication knowledge to

count forwards and backwards in steps of 2, 5, 10 and 3.

Over the course of the week, we will be covering the following objectives:

• Can I count forwards and backwards in steps of ten from

any number?

• Can I count in steps of two?

• Can I count in steps of 5?

• Can I count forwards and backwards in steps of 3?

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s Maths:

Please practise counting forwards and backwards in steps of 2, 5, 10 and 3.

Extra information: (This could include: trips, notices to parents, school initiatives, class events) Please encourage your child to get dressed and undressed independently. This will benefit the children in their swimming and PE lessons.

Year group: Year 3 Date: Friday 27th September 2019

English

This week, we have enjoyed performing The Sound Collector by Roger McGough. We will looked carefully at the imagery used which the poet had intentionally included to help us paint a picture within our minds. Next week we will be using the skills shown by Roger McGough to write our own poem with onomatopoeic language. We want to allow our audience to imagine our world through our use of imagery and descriptive language.

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s English:

I hope you enjoyed sharing poetry with your child last week. Share your favourite poem this weekend and discuss what it is exactly that you enjoy about the poets words and style of writing.

Maths

This week we have explored how fractions are used all around us. We have discovered how to use our division and multiplication skills to find fractions of amounts. Next week we will be beginning a two week block focusing on time. We will be telling the time to the nearest minute and ensuring we all know the facts about time.

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s Maths: If your child has an anaologue watch (plain black or navy strap) which you are happy for them to wear to school over the next fortnight please do so as the more they see the physical time, the easier they will find this often complex topic.

Extra information: We hope your child enjoyed our special day on Friday for them to focus on themselves and their own well being. It was a lovely day to celebrate how amazing we all are as individuals and to ensure we look after ourselves fully.

Year group: Year 4 Date: Friday 27th September

English

This week in English we have been focusing on our reading skills. We have continued with the BFG for our text and using the skimming and scanning technique, we have identified key events from the different chapters. We have also been reading between the lines and using clues from action, dialogue and description to explain what characters might be thinking and feeling. This has helped us to understand the character and the events that take place. Next week is writing week and we will be learning about writing instructions. By the end of the week the children will be creating an instruction manual to help the giant create dream jars. We will be focusing on the following learning objectives:

• Can I ask relevant questions to extend my knowledge and understanding?

• Can I select details to engage my reader’s interest?

• Can I use paragraphs to group related ideas and information?

• Can I evaluate the effectiveness of my own and other’s writing?

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s learning:

Reading is still a very important skill in year 4. Please ensure all children read regularly at home and record this in their homework diaries. It is beneficial if you question the child about the book, discussing vocabulary, events and making predictions – thank you.

Maths

This week, we have been learning measurement and the perimeters of shape. We covered the following learning objectives:

• Can I multiply and divide by 10 and 100?

• Can I use a ruler accurately to measure lines?

• Can I measure the perimeter of a rectilinear shape in cm?

• Can I calculate the perimeter of a rectilinear shape in cm and m?

Next week, we will be focusing on shape and direction. We will be identifying different shapes such as triangles and quadrilaterals and naming them. We will be looking at symmetry and identifying symmetrical shapes. Finally, we

will be applying all of these skills to compare and classify different types of quadrilaterals.

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s Maths:

Children should now know their times tables and related division facts up to 8x12. Can you continue to ensure your child can recall these quickly and correctly. The children are working hard on this.

Extra information: (This could include: trips, notices to parents, school initiatives, class events) Thank you for your continued support. With kind regards, Miss Shepherd

Year group: Year 5 Date: Friday 27TH September 2019

Science In science this week, we conducted experiments whereby we made paper aero planes and paper propeller helicopters and tested their flight to learn about gravity, thrust, lift and drag.

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s English:

Reading is still a very important skill in year 5. Please ensure all children read regularly at home and are able to clarify tricky words – thank you.

RE

In RE, we designed our own prayer mats including geometric designs, flowers to represent paradise and a fault to represent that humans are not perfect.

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s Maths: Next week, we are looking forward to exploring and analyzing a variety of instructional texts in English. Additionally, we will be challenging ourselves to apply our knowledge to calculate multi-step multiplication and division worded problems in context.

Extra information: (This could include: trips, notices to parents, school initiatives, class events) Thank you for your continued support. Year 5 have had an extremely busy week and have had a great day learning about keeping themselves healthy and happy ☺ With kind regards, Year 5 Staff.

Year group: Year 6 Date: Friday 27th September 2019

A story of

greed, ambition and power.

English

Over the course of the week, Year 6 have covered the following skills:

• how the writer’s language choices contribute to the overall effect on the reader

• the ability to explain, using appropriate terminology, how language is used.

Next week: writing week Year 6 will be transferring the reading skills from this week and writing a character study of a witch.

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s English:

Reading is still a very important skill in year 6. Please ensure all children read regularly at home – thank you. Partner reading is recommended.

Maths

This week: Year 6 have been adding and subtracting fractions by writing them with a common denominator; they also developed their knowledge related to BODMAS or BIDMAS as some say it. Next week: fractions, decimals and percentages (equivalents and calculating), square numbers

Suggestions of ways you can support your child’s Maths:

Counting on and back in 25s from a given number can be a fun way of passing time on a car journey and recognising Roman numerals on old buildings.

Extra information: (This could include: trips, notices to parents, school initiatives, class events) Global Be Well Day was an enjoyable, worthwhile day for the children. From the morning Boxercise session through sessions including sleep, social media, and healthy eating to the Colour Run, the whole school was enthused and the smiles were wide and many. Wellbeing will continue to be a focus for both staff and pupils every day at Oakfields. Just a reminder that snacks at break time should be healthy: fruit, vegetables, yogurts, healthy cereal bars.