9th September 2013

 

Information	The first two weeks back to school in September are called the Induction Period. This is an invaluable time for both children and staff, as we become familiar with routines and children’s different learning styles. Both this blog and your child’s home-school link book will be valuable sources of communication throughout the year. Please do comment in the diaries when you have listened to your child read or if you have any information to pass onto us. In terms of the home - link books, unfortunately there has been a problem with their manufacture over the Summer and we had hoped they would be with us by the end of last week. We have been assured they will arrive in school this week. As soon as we receive them, we will send them home. INDUCTION MEETING THIS THURSDAY 12th SEPTEMBER at 3.15pm in Mrs Worrall's room. Creche facilities will be available in the school hall.
Literacy	We will be starting a new topic of Stories with Familiar settings this week. The children will be looking at a story called Silly Billy and will be discussing worries that he may have, that are similar to their own. We would also encourage you to practice handwriting at home with your child, as well as colouring, both of which will support the development of their fine motor skills.
Numeracy	Can your child tell you what the pairs to 10 are? What about adding and subtracting quickly in their heads? We will be spending the induction period assessing where they are up to after the break. As with literacy, we shall be assessing just how much the children have been able to recall from last year, so that we can ‘hit the ground running’ with more formal numeracy sessions. This week, we will be assessing the children’s knowledge of number – can they match the correct number of objects to the digit? Do they know the number names? Are they able to form the number correctly? Can they count in 1’s, 2’s, 5’s and 10’s? Can they order numbers correctly, both forwards and backwards? A good way of practising ordering numbers (and a good way for children to check for themselves if they have got it right!) is to completed traditional ‘dot-to-dot’ puzzles. Tesco or Asda have lots of books of these ready-made for you! Perhaps when you are putting the shopping away this weekend, you could ask your child to group things together – If I have 6 tins, how many more will I need to make 8? 10? Also, why not get your child to pair up all the socks for the family? This is a really good way of encouraging them to count in twos.
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 Beginnings. We will be looking at what the word family means to them; what people do they associate with family and what joys and sorrows does family life bring? We will then move onto the story of the Creation.
TOPIC	This term's topic question is What do we know about our neighbourhood? We will be looking at Penketh and Warrington more generally. If you have any historical or geographical information about Warrington, we would love to hear from you.
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