Order, Order!

Well, the children came back to school last week after the holidays and they were all thrilled to be back! It is really evident just how many children are working hard at home, so a big thank you for all your support. We have had lots of positive feedback about the Writing workshop run by Mrs Narraway last week. Please do send in any of the examples that you have made at home with your child, using Boxing Clever – we would love to read them!!

So what have we got on the menu for this week? Well...

Literacy
Last week, we started our block of work on Explanations and we have made a really positive start. Lots of children managed to bring in a non-fiction book from home and were able to talk about what a glossary was, showing us examples from the books they had found. If you haven’t had chance to visit the library or share a non-fiction book with your child, it would be a real boost to them, as they will have the knowledge and ideas to draw upon for their writing next week.

This week, we will be reviewing alphabetical order and using this to locate words in a dictionary. The children will then be able to write a sentence to explain what the word means. The children are really coming along with this, but they can improve even further, by making their sentences longer, by using a connective. Words such as because, but, and, so are all useful and form part of the children’s targets for writing.

As we are linking our work on Explanations with the science topic of Forces and Movement, an example of this, could be when explaining how we can get a car to move faster or slower...

We moved the ramp higher. The car moved faster. We moved the ramp lower. The car went slower.

Becomes.....

We moved the ramp higher SO the car moved faster, BUT the car went slower WHEN we moved the ramp lower.

Why not try doing this experiment at home this week? Investigate how you can get objects with wheels, such as a toy car, to move faster or slower. It is important to get your child to pose questions that THEY want to find out the answers to. So, ideas such as...

Why does the car move slower on the carpet than on the wooden floor?

How can I get the car to move faster?

What materials make the car move quicker?

What materials make the car move faster?

What things do I need to use the PUSH force for?

What things do I need to use the PULL force for?

Write out the question words WHY, WHERE, WHAT, WHEN, WHO and HOW on separate pieces of paper and see if your child can think of a question starting with each of the words?

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/carCreator_v3.html why not design your own car on the computer, print it off and make your own car? All you will need is a couple of cotton reels and some straws!

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/Phase2delivery/Wales/Science/Keystage2/Lifeprocessesan/Lifecycles/Introduction/ put the pictures of the life cycle of a frog in the correct order in the cyclical diagram and then write a sentence to accompany each picture.

By the end of the week, the children:

MUST be able order the letters of the alphabet

SHOULD be able locate words in the dictionary using the first letter of a word

COULD be able to write an explanation of a word using the dictionary definition to support them and include a connective to join sentence together

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=wordorder1 can you put these words in alphabetical order on the screen?

http://www.learningplanet.com/act/abcorder.asp click the next letter in the sequence by moving the train along the track

http://www.primaryonline.co.uk/sitetour/pol/alpha1.html decide which is the missing letter in the sequence

http://www.little-g.com/shockwave/garden.html another way of finding the missing letter. Click on the flowers and if the answer is right, then your flower will bloom!

http://www.spinandspell.com/game.swf oh I loved this one!! Choose an area – I chose things we eat and click on a picture. It says the word for you and then you have to click on the letters in order on the wheel. Then when you have finished, click on submit. A fabulous way on developing spelling and helps the children will their alphabetical order skills!

Phonics

This week we will be reviewing the patterns which we learned last week, and introducing four new ones. Although this may seem like we are progressing quite quickly through the sounds, the children have amazed us with how quickly they can link previously learned sounds with new ones.

‘oy’ and talk about the difference between this and ‘oi’. Explain that ‘oy’ usually comes at the end of a word.

‘ir’ and compare to ‘er’. Explain that ‘er’ usually comes at the end of a word.

‘ue’ and compare to ‘oo’. Explain that ‘ue’ usually comes at the end of a word.

‘ue’ and compare to the word ‘you’

Why not try some spelling investigation games at home, seeing if they can identify the sound they can hear in the word and whether it is at the end or the middle of the word. Then have a go at writing it out, seeing which sound ‘looks’ right! The children are familiar with these kinds of activities in school on the Interactive Whiteboard and it is VERY popular!

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/phaseThreeAS1_v2.html the children will be using this in school this week to practice segmenting words to spell new ones. Click on the arrow on the rainbow to see all the sounds.

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/poopDeck_v3.html quite a simple site, but a fun way of practising blending 3 and 4 letter words. Keep the ‘good’ coins and throw away the ones that are wrong.

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/phonemeChecker.html this is a great site where all the sounds that the children have learned so far, are in one place. This would be a great place to start if you wanted to try some of the spelling investigations!

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/airport_xray.html click on ‘new bag’ to get a new HFW. Then click on the speaker to hear the word being said. Select the tick for the correct word.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/phonics/sandcastle/flash/game.shtml choose the correct phoneme to complete the spelling of the word. A good site for Year 2’s particularly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/longvow/spelling/spelling.shtml drag the correct phoneme to complete the word.

Reading diaries

This week, the percentages of comments in the diaries have dipped slightly, although we know many of you are working on lots of activities at home with your children. Please do try to make at least one comment in your child’s diary each week, as they are really keen to show us and you how well they are progressing. It may help if you refer to the reading targets which are stuck into your child’s reading diary.

Mrs Pinto-Edwards – 57%
Mrs Malone – 53%
Mrs Worrall - 67%

Numeracy

This week we will be looking at the shape and space are of the numeracy curriculum. The children will get the opportunity to link lots of areas of the curriculum together this week, particularly as they will be using Roamer and BeeBot – two ICT ‘toys’ which the children are already familiar with.

The children will be reviewing how to describe the position of something – is it in front of, below, at the side of, to the left/right of etc.?

At home, try giving your child instructions, using these:

Put the remote control on the left hand side of the television

Put the phone on top of the table

This could also be applied to their knowledge of numbers and their place within a 100 square.
Give the children a hundred square. Ask them to find a particular number – say 67. Ask them ‘What number is BELOW it? What number is to the RIGHT of it? Etc.

TOP TIP!

Does your child get mixed up with with left and right? (don’t worry – many do!) Ask them to hold out their hands flat in front of them (palms down). Then move their thumbs down, so that they make a corner or right angle to their first finger. The side that makes a capital letter L is the left!!

We will then move on in the second half of the week, to looking at right angles, quarter turns, clockwise and anti-clockwise.

A really fun way to introduce this is through dancing! No I haven’t gone mad! Think about all of the dances that you have done in the past, usually at weddings...the Macarena, Locomotion, Ketchup Song?? Can anyone actually remember the order of the hand-jive type dance that goes with it? Neither can I!

The children will be doing these dances (with staff!!) in class, but we will teach them how to turn in quarter turns – first clockwise and then anti-clockwise! Why not look at the way the minute and second hands on the clock move? See if they are able to make to connection between turning to right being clockwise and turning to the left being anti-clockwise.

By the end of the week, the children:

Must be able to identify left and right, up and down

Should be able to identify a right angle and locate them in the classroom

Could be able to turn an object clockwise and anti-clockwise through a quarter turn

These are a few suggestions of sites that can support our teaching objectives for this week, but the best way is by experiencing this practically.

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jeux.lulu/html/anglais/flcoccin/coccinel.htm# get the ladybird to eat all the flowers but be careful she doesn’t fall down the holes!

http://www.lgfl.net/lgfl/leas/haringey/web/teachers%20section/KS2/ICT/Links%20%26%20Resources/documents/clowns.swf quite a complicated one at first, but ok when you have had a couple of goes! The children need to rotate the car 90 degrees ( a right angle) and make it moves forwards to pop the balloons. Type 90 into the turn box and the distance in metres into the ‘how far’ box.

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jeux.lulu/html/anglais/flvoyage/fleches4.htm click the arrow to get Lulu back to his spaceship.

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/navigation/navigation.html use the arrow buttons on the keyboard to try and find the virus before it destroys the island!

Here I Am

We continue with our Thanksgiving topic this week and the Relate section. The children will learn some of the prayers which are said during Mass and they will shown the responses. Maybe you could use the opportunity at Church this weekend, to point out some of these responses.
We will also talk to the children about the story of the Last Supper, by re-enacting the story in class.

http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_life_of_jesus/the_last_supper/mt26_17.html a simple version of the Last Supper, told through Lego characters. The children will have the opportunity to retell this in class using small world characters.

Mothering Sunday – did you know?

Mothering Sunday is on the fourth Sunday of Lent – this year on March 2nd. It is often called Mother's Day in Britain. However it has no connection with the American festival which is also known by the same name.

On this day children often give their mothers gifts and cards as a way of saying thank you for their hard work. In church, prayers are said for mothers at a special service.

In the past girls who worked as domestic servants were given the day off work to visit their mothers. They often took a simnel cake as a present. Simnel cake is especially associated with Mothering Sunday. It is a fruit cake with two layers of almond paste. On top there are eleven balls of marzipan, one for each faithful disciple, Judas not being included as he betrayed Jesus.
We will be making ‘something special’ this week, but apparently, I’m not allowed to say anything.....!

Lent activities

During Lent, as a school, we raise funds for the Nugent Care Society, to help those less fortunate than ourselves. The children in Key Stage 2 have been raising funds for the last couple of weeks, by setting up a variety of stall on their playground at morning breaktime. The children are so keen to take part in this, so maybe send in some loose change for them to buy a little something, or take part in the lucky dip etc. It is also a great way to give them a little independence with money and certainly helps, as they can all calculate their own change!

Think that’s all for this week!

Year 1/2 team.