Weekly update 20th October 2014

Information

Welcome to the last week of this half term. The children are tired now and ready for a break- and so are the staff!

 Although it seems very early, we have mentioned the Christmas play to the children and we had many happy faces!! By the end of this week you should receive a letter about what character your child is going to be and the costume they will need.  The Year 2 children should also have lines to learn as we only have 4 weeks in school after half term before the first performance.

Thank you for your support.

Maths

This week in Maths we will be learning about measuring length. The Year 1 children will compare two or more lengths or heights by direct comparison and measure lengths using uniform non-standard units.

 

The Year 2 children will estimate, measure and compare lengths in centimetres and metres and use a 30 cm ruler.

 

Some websites to help:-

 

 http://mathszone.webspace.virginmedia.com/mw/ruler/ruler_cm_easy.swf

 

http://www.funbrain.com/measure/

 

http://www.taw.org.uk/lic/itp/itps/ruler_1_2.swf

 

 http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/measures/index.htm

 

 http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/book7/bk7i19/bk7_19i1.htm

 

English

In English this week we are starting our ‘Autumn’ topic. It is a beautiful time of the year and the children will be inspired to write lovely poems about what they see, hear, smell and feel outside. We will be focusing on adjectives and using lots of visual aids for the children to describe. 

Ask your child what they can see, hear, smell and feel this time of year.

If you find any conkers, acorns or pretty leaves, please ask your child to bring them in so the children can describe them.

Have a go at some fun online literacy games.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks1literacy.html

Topic

This week in Topic we will be finding out who Christopher Columbus was and why was he famous.

Children will be taught about the story of Christopher Columbus who thought that by crossing the Atlantic Ocean he could get to Asia more quickly than other people.  However using just a compass and stars he discovered the Americas and not India as he had thought!

Following previous grammar based lessons we will be discussing adjectives to describe Christopher Columbus – was brave? Courageous? Clever? Uneducated?

To conclude our Journey’s topic the children will compare the two famous explorers – Neil Armstrong and Christopher Columbus.  How were their journeys similar? Different? Whose journey was the most daring – and why?

Interesting fact – did you know that Columbus sailed to the Americas four times in all and died believing that he had been sailing to Asia!

Come and See

Belonging

We will be continuing to explore the many different experiences of being welcomed into new situations and groups.

We will be talking about the different groups that the children may belong to in school, at church and in the neighbourhood eg. Swimming, Rainbows, Beavers, choir.

We will exploring the following key questions.

·         What groups or clubs do you belong to? (Al children belong to school and their particular class)

·         What do you do in the group?

·         How does it feel to belong to the group?

·         What helps people feel they belong?

·         How would someone know you belonged to the group? (e.g. badges ,uniform, special skills)

·         How can we help a new child in our class feel they belong?

 

The children will design a class badge to show “belonging.”

The children can bring in any items from their clubs to show the class. E.g. badges, awards, uniform.

 

Thank you for your continued support- and have a great week!

The Key Stage 1 team.