16th September 2013

 

Information	Many thanks to all of you who attended our Induction meeting on Thursday evening. We hope you found it useful and we are looking forward to working with you in partnership throughout this year. Also, thank you to those of you who have volunteered your support this year. We have plenty of opportunities and there is always some way in which you can support both the children and the staff. Just pop a note in the diaries and we will get back to you. Mrs Malone This week, Mrs Malone will be accompanying the Y6 children to Conway and we are sure she will have a great time. Mr Hughes, who works in Key Stage 2, will be working in Mrs Malone's class this week, alongside the rest of the team. A reminder We have noticed quite a few children playing on the equipment outside Foundation Stage in a morning and again after school. Could we ask that you refrain from playing on the equipment during these times please. Many thanks. Congestion A big thank you to those parents who drop your children off on the playground in a morning. It really does help them to become more independent and ensures that they are ready to start work much more quickly. Unfortunately, there are still a number of parents who bring their child into school every morning. The corridor where the children come in, gets very congested and often contributes towards lots of tears from some children. Could we reassure you that the children who do come into school on their own, do so brilliantly and are often the children who are ready and eager to learn. If there are tears, it is better to hand your child over to a member of staff to bring into school. The children are always fine after a couple of minutes and are off playing with their friends! Please be assured that if there was an issue, we would always contact you by phone.
Literacy	We continue with our second week of Stories with Familiar Settings. The children made some great worry dolls last week after they read the story of Silly Billy. We will be describing characters’ feelings using adjectives; the children will be creating story bridges, using the Story ‘Operation Night Monster’. If you get a chance to watch Monster’s University this weekend, it will really give them a head start. The children will also be allocated their guided reading groups this week, so we can begin to work on their comprehension targets for this year. You will also be informed of the sounds your child needs to work on as soon as our assessments are complete. A big thank you to everyone who has commented on their child’s reading in the diaries. It really does make such a difference to the progress your child can make during the year. We would ask that you make a comment at least once per week in the diary and value your support with this.
Numeracy	Maths This week in Maths we will be starting the topic of place value. This is a very important topic in Maths as it is the basis of many areas including ordering, addition and subtraction of bigger numbers. Year 1 children will recognise the value of each digit in a 'teens' number and say which is more or less of two numbers. Year 2 children will partition 2-digit numbers into T and U; order numbers up to at least 100 and position them on a 100-square. Some websites to help:- http://www.funbrain.com/tens/index.html   http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/media/games/numbersense/   http://www.ictgames.com/dinoplacevalue.html   http://www.ictgames.com/arrowcards.html   http://www.ictgames.com/rabbit2.html   http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/online/numorder.swf   http://www.channel4learning.net/sites/puzzlemaths/pinpoint_game.shtml   http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/activities/ntrack.swf
Science	What does your child know about electricity? Where does it come from? How many objects in the house use it as a power source? Why is it dangerous? This is our first science topic of the year, so why not see how much your child already knows?
Come and See	Our first topic is all about New Beginnings. Have a look through your own family tree and see if your child can identify any photographs of you as a baby!
TOPIC	Warrington Project   What can we find in our local area? The children are following a school project about Warrington. The whole school are covering different aspects of the local area. The children will be learning a lot about Warrington and its special features including the history of the local area. This week the children will be continuing to learn their address and write their street name. They will be looking at Google Earth and trying to identify some local landmarks such as the school, church, parks, shops and industry. If you have an A-Z of Warrington you could help your child by identifying some of these features. We will be looking at a local map and the children will be drawing their own maps.
Web-links	http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/850/calcbalancev3.swf click on the number names in the middle of the scale to match the number name to the digit. This will be a really useful site to bookmark, as we will be using it regularly throughout the year. http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/ngfl-flash/numbers_eng/numbers_e.html this site is useful for practicing the formation of each of the numbers. The first slide is VERY fast, so click on the green arrow on the bottom right-hand side to practice the numbers individually. http://www.numbernut.com/basic/activities/number_mem20_1-10words.shtml play a memory game and match the number names to the digits at the same time! http://www.sums.co.uk/playground/n2a/playground.htm click on the ‘continue’ button to start the activity. This activity looks at the number names up to 100, so give it a go if you fancy a challenge! http://www.primaryonline.co.uk/sitetour/pol/blastoff1.html a lovely game in which you have to launch 5 spaceships! Remember that the number name won’t always match a spaceship, so you have to click on ‘next’ until you get a match. This game is most suitable for Year 1, as it covers numbers up to 20. http://www.ictgames.com/postletter.html fancy a challenge? Listen to the number and post the letter in the correct letterbox. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/hfwords/index.shtml a great site, where you have to match the shape of the HFW to its spelling http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/cvc/index.shtml choose any of these activities to help with CVC words (cat, hat, mat etc) http://www.ictgames.com/dinosaurwordsrepeat.html you need to turn the volume up for this one! Click on the dinosaur egg to hear the word and then click on the written word that matches it. http://www.ictgames.com/lcwc.html I love this one! You can either choose from the lists of prepared words, or you can type in the words that your child is working on. You need to click on start to begin ‘look, say, cover, write, check’. http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=stickyl drag and drop the letters on the green letter rack at the top of the page and then click on the ‘Send’ button to send it to the word bank. http://www.ictgames.com/wordreader.html listen to the word and then click on the matching flower http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/airport_xray.html this may bring back memories of your holidays (doesn’t it seem a long time ago?!) Scan the suitcase to find the high frequency words