Welcome to the Spring Term! Week 1

 

Hello Class 2 Parents and welcome to the spring term!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. 

It was so lovely to see all of your children on the first day back. They came in with huge smiles and lots of excited chatter about their various Christmases. 

We've spent this past week or so getting back into the swing of things and doing a lot of art! The children have learnt about Paul Klee's 'Castle and Sun' and have been experiementing with creating pictures in the same style (cubism). They've had a great time drawing pictures using 2D shapes and learning how to layer and blend oil pastels. 

Tomorrow (Friday) we will be going for a walk around the village to identify some features of villages. 

Reading Cafe
Following the survey I sent around, I will be trialling a Wednesday afternoon Reading Cafe from 3.20 to 4pm. You are all welcome to come along and read with your child in the classroom, with some squash or water and a biscuit. I'm hoping it will be particularly beneficial for less confident readers, or if you find reading at home a challenge. 

Reading Books

The twice-weekly reading groups have been working very well in class. Children and adults alike are enjoying them and your feedback in reading diaries suggests that pre-reading a book in school a couple of times before taking it home is beneficial. 

At the end of last term I did some phonics and reading assessments, and have re-grouped the children accordingly. This means that your child might bring home books they have already read. Please don’t worry about this - it simply means they need to be at a certain level for a little bit longer, and taking home a familiar book will only help with their confidence and fluency.

I will continue to send home Badger books as well of course. 

If you find your child would like an extra reading book each week, please let me know and I will arrange this. 

Please read with your child as often as possible - just a couple of pages per day makes the difference!

Maths

The children have all been working on subtraction. Year 1 have been subtracting using counters, a part-whole model and a number line. Their homework is here and will be in book bags. 

Year 2 children have been subtracting crossing a multiple of 10. Their homework is here and will be in their bags. 

Year 1 phonics
This half term the children will be revisiting some of the digraphs learnt last half term, but with an added spelling challenge! They will have some spellings to try and learn each week. More information is in their book bags - they will either be in Blue group or Green group for spellings (following my assessments of their phonics before half term). 

Year 2 spellings
The children looked at the 'le' ending this week. Their spellings are here and will be in book bags. 

I think that's all for now. An overview of the half term's learning will be with you shortly via email. 

From Mrs Simpson