Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year!

UPDATED TO ADD:
I have to apologise - I've had a major printing problem with the maths fact booklets. They will be with you next week! 

I hope you all had a good festive season. 

It was lovely to see your children's happy faces on Monday. They have settled right back in to life at school and we've had a great week. 

Important!  A homework change. 

To help boost the children's knowledge and quick recall of maths facts, I am making a change this term. 

Year 2 children will no longer have weekly spelling challenges. Instead, all children will have a weekly maths challenge. These will be progressive, with the children moving on when they are able to complete a sheet of maths facts correctly in the time given. 

In your child's homework folder is a copy of this booklet.  I will indicate on it which maths facts I'd like your child to work on. 

Please help your child to practise their focus maths facts regularly - I have given you ideas of how to do this. Your child might move quickly through the booklet, or they might need a few weeks on each maths fact.

Come and find me if you have any questions about this!

This week.

In phonics the Year 1 have been recapping the 'ee' alternatives -  ee ea y e_e ey. They also learnt that 'ie' is an 'ee' alternative.  You can help your child by spotting these digraphs in their reading books or badger books. 

In spellings  the Year 2 children have learn the spelling pattern wor - after 'w', the 'ir' sound is often spelt 'or'.  Their words are here if you want to help them to practise them - but they will no longer be doing a weekly spelling challenge in the same way ( we will, of course, practise these words at school). 

In maths the children have been working on place value to 100.
Year 1 children have been counting in 10s, recognising 'how many 10s' and 'how many altogeher'.  
Year 2 children have been looking at the pattern when we add 10s to any number - for example, 3,13,23,33,43,53....  the ones stay the same!
Both year groups spent time looking at a 100-square and writing their numbers to 100. 

In other news to start of our new Mantle of the Expert story, the children learnt that London is the capital city of England. They looked at some of the geographical features of London and made representations of them - which you can see here.  

Next, the children looked at a video showing what London would have looked like in 1666. They compared London now with London then. They focussed on what Tudor houses looked like and had a go at drawing some ready to make a representation of Pudding Lane. 

You can find out more about this term's learning here - you will have received a copy of this via email as well. 

It's going to be a good term!

Have a good weekend,

Mrs Simpson