Lights, Camera, Action!

Well what a great start the children have made to the first week of rehearsals for the Christmas Production! I hope you are singing along to the songs at home? Mmmm...maybe we should have song sheets for a bit of audience participation during the performances?? A huge thank you to all the parents who have been helping their child learn the words for the play. We are amazed at just how quickly things are coming together this year – we have definitely discovered the actors of the future...just remember the teachers when they are rich and famous!

Because of the rehearsals, which are a great opportunity to develop the children’s speaking and listening skills, routines will be slightly different for the next few weeks, as I’m sure you can appreciate just how much is involved in preparing over 120 children to get on the stage.

Curriculum will still be taught throughout the rehearsal times, but maybe some sessions may be moved to the afternoon, where ordinarily, they happen in the mornings. This may be unsettling for a few children, but most will be able to adapt easily. Also, it is the run up to a VERY busy time of year and some children do tend to get tired very easily, so a few earlier nights may help to combat this. The end product is most definitely the ‘extravaganza’ it is billed to be and you will be thrilled, amazed and astounded by our new ‘equity-card’ holders!

Literacy

The children worked really hard last week during their guided writing sessions and can’t wait to start showing off their new found skills. The children ALL can tell us the rhyme for onomatopoeia (just ask them and see what happens!) and they came up with some great WHIZZ, BANG, POP lines to include in their poems.

As well as developing the children’s writing skills, we will be developing the children’s comprehension skills. Many of the children are now getting to grips with the ability to ‘decode’ the words, by using the spelling patterns, which is great. To improve their reading even further, the children now need to develop their comprehension skills.

When listening to your child read at home, try asking them some of these questions, in order to help with their comprehension:

· Where does the story take place?
· When did the story take place?
· What did he/she look like?
· Who was he/she?
· Where did he/she live?
· Who are the characters in the book?
· Where in the book would you find?
· What do you think is happening here?
· What happened in the story?
· What might this mean?
· Through whose eyes is the story told?
· Which part of the story best describes the setting?
· What words and/or phrases do this?
· What part of the story do you like best?

There are lots of other ways to support your child’s reading, but why not try some of these ideas?

· Make your new book into a caption or concertina book
· Play a game using text from the book
· Re-order chopped up sentences or word from the book
· Write your own story based on the book and illustrate
· Re-tell the story with finger puppets
· Re-read familiar texts with the same high frequency words
· Paint a picture of a favourite character, part of the story, etc

We will also be updating the children’s high frequency words this week in the diaries, so if you haven’t practised them for a few days, this weekend is a chance to have a little refresher. Even if your child knows all of their target words, try going back over some of the ones which have been ticked – can they still spell them?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/adventures/patch.shtml can you put the sentence in the right order?

http://www.pet-educationresources.co.uk/item.asp?item=Year+1 some good ideas for comprehension activities for Year 1’s to support you at home. Click on the left hand side for the Year 2 ideas.

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/lit_sites/alpha_drag/widepage.htm add capital letters and full stops to these sentences

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/adventures/lug.shtml capital letters practice using the Magic Key site

Have a look back through previous posts to see sites which are useful for high frequency word practice.

Numeracy

As you know, we sent home a number bonds game over the holidays to help develop the children’s number bonds to 10 knowledge. We can tell that many of you have been playing it, as the children are getting faster and faster in their ability to ‘rapidly recall’ those facts. If they are able to know the bonds to 10, then they will be able to easily calculate the bonds to 100 or even 1000.

The children have been working on the Must, Should and Could targets for our number bonds for a few weeks now...where is your child? Let’s go for the challenge!

MUST
I know all my number pairs to 10.
I can tell you the addition stories to 5 at least.
SHOULD
I know all the + and – number stories to at least 10.
COULD
I know all the number pairs to 20.
I know all the pairs of multiples of 10 up to 100.

This week, we will be reviewing our work on number bonds and beginning to apply their knowledge of number to problem solving.

http://www.rainforestmaths.com/ a favourite of mine! Click on level B or C and then any of the number activities

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/units120.html how many questions can you answer in 2 minutes?

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/numberskills.html click on any of the timed activities to help with number bonds knowledge.

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/resources/gordon/Hit%20the%20button%20v9.swf select the number bonds activity and then make 10 or 20. How many can you get right before the clock runs out?

http://nwlg.org/pages/resources/ma_num/swf/make10.html make 10

http://www.ictgames.com/funkymum20.html make 20 - the dance will really make you giggle!

http://www.ictgames.com/brilliant_beadstring.html move the beadstring to make patterns to 10 and 20

http://www.ictgames.com/save_the_whale_v4.html match the pipes to make the number bonds to 10

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/numberbond.html make up your own number bond games

http://www.interactivestuff.org/sums4fun/colquiz.html for each question you get right, it colours in a part of the picture!

Here I Am

This week, we are looking at the Hindu festival of Diwali, the festival of lights. The children will be making a traditional wall hanging, which is given as a present from one family to another. Why not have a go at making one yourselves at home, particularly as the weather seems to realised that we are most definitely in Autumn! You could also try making some traditional Barfi sweets. There are lots of simple recipes, none of which require any cooking and the children will love the finished product!

One recipe to try goes something like this...

Barfi is a popular Indian sweet, which is always made for Hindu Festivals. It is usually made by boiling sugar and milk together. This recipe is much easier to make and it is just as delicious!

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Makes: 20 pieces

Ingredients: 120g honey
120g peanut butter
80g dates, finely chopped
85g milk powder
130g dessicated coconut
70ml rose water

Equipment: large mixing bowl
Small mixing bowl
Greaseproof paper
Cutting knife
Sweet tin

Mix the honey, peanut butter, dates and milk powder in a bowl using your hands. Make the sticky mixture into a non-sticky dough by kneading it.

Roll the dough into a log about 50cm long. Now wash you hands and dry them as well.

Into the small mixing bowl, mix the coconut and the rose water.

Spread out the coconut and the rose water mixture onto the greaseproof paper.

Cut the log in half and roll each half in the coconut so that it covers the log.

Cut each log into 10 pieces and store in the sweet tin. It will keep for a week in the fridge.

It tastes best if you take it out of the fridge about an hour before eating it.

You could even design a little box to give it as a present!

http://www.senteacher.org/wk/3dshape.php print of this net of a shape, design your pattern, pop your sweets inside and you have a lovely Diwali gift for your friends and family.

http://www.indexo.pionexnet.co.uk/elloughton13/dday.htm lots of information on the festival of lights

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/carolrb/hinduism/hindui.html this site has a very simple way of explaining some of the ideas and customs behind the festival

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/carolrb/hinduism/hindui.html the story of Rama and Sita

http://www.hindukids.org/festivals/diwali_mm/index.html I loved this animated story of Diwali. The text is quite difficult to follow, but the animations make it really easy for the children to follow if you sit with them.

New Adventure Playground

You will have noticed as you drop your child off, our brand new adventure playground at the front of school. The children were able to use it for the first time last week and to say they were thrilled is an understatement! A huge thanks go to The Friends of St. Vincent's who, as always, work tirelessly to raise the funds to enable these kinds of things to happen for the benefit of your children. The 'outdoor stage' on the field will be completed very soon too!

Christmas Production

The rehearsals are well underway for our Christmas production and the children are very excited to show off their singing and acting skills to you. As always, the children in Year 2 have been allocated speaking parts and the Year 1 children will each perform as part of a dance group. They are eagerly watching their peers and suggesting what parts they will take next year! Costumes should be brought into school by the 26th November, so if any adjustments need to be made, they can be organised that week.

The year 2's will have brought home their lines last week and they are doing really well at learning them. Please do give them the time to practice at home - maybe you could take on some of the other roles, so that your child gets used to the line that comes before their's. Having listened to all the children last week, you really do have a treat in store for you!

Also, you will have received your tickets for each of the three productions. Because of Fire regulations and the children's health and safety, each family has been allocated ONE TICKET per performance. This has been the case for a number of years and entrance will be strictly by ticket only. Many thanks for your co-operation and understanding with this.

Homework

This week, you will notice a new item on the numeracy homework sheets. It is a traffic light system, that the children use in school, to help them to 'self-assess' the work that they have been doing. From this week, we would like them to do the same for their homework.

The 'traffic light system' is really easy to get to grips with:

RED - I found this hard

YELLOW - I understand how to do this

GREEN - I thought this was easy

Just ask your child to colour in the level that they think they are at. It might be worth mentioning to them, that no one else sees their homework and so they can be completely honest!

We would also like you, as parents to complete your own traffic light for how you think your child got on with their homework. We would also love you to add some other comments to your child's work. It may be that they knew the answers straight away, but were unable to explain how they got there; they got the wrong answers, but worked systematically through the problems using the correct strategies.

Notices

We pride ourselves on our smart school uniform and many visitors to our school very often comment on how fantastic the children look. There are a few items of non-uniform starting to appear in school, so please do check that your child is wearing the correct uniform. We would also ask that girls wear blue, black or white plain bobbles and clips. Also, a few names are beginning to 'wash off' jumpers and ties. We would be grateful if you could take a few minutes to check over this weekend - it could save many more minutes searching for the a lost jumper or tie?

The children are doing a great job in becoming independent and we would like to thank you for your help with this. In order to further support our efforts, we would welcome your support in a few reminders for the children:

• children should come to school with a water bottle each day, even though water is available from the water fountain in school. Please encourage your child to drink as much as possible during the school day and remind them that they can refill their bottles during breaks and lunchtimes


• EVERYTHING which your child brings into school, needs their name written on it, in a prominent place. There are around 120 children in Key Stage 1 and so if someone has lost a jumper, it is much easier to reunite them with if their name is written on it.


• diaries should be brought into school EVERY day and placed in the book boxes outside each of the classrooms. Please remind your child to ensure their reading book is placed INSIDE the diary, as we have had a few instances where the wrong colour book has gone home, due to books falling out.


• many of the children have the school book bags and these are more than large enough to hold the equipment which the children need in Years 1 and 2. A few children are bringing in quite large rucksack style bags, which can be quite difficult to store in school. If you are considering buying a new bag for your child, please do consider purchasing a book bag for them.

Think that's all for a very busy week ahead!

Year 1/2 team