Beech Class

Welcome to Beech Class – Years 1 & 2

Teacher: Caroline Norris
Teaching Assistants: Tracey Thompson & Tara Butcher

Beech Termly Booklet – Spring 2019

What have we been learning this week?

We’ve been science investigators this week in Beech. We each chose a nocturnal animal and practised question writing, thinking about what we would like to find out about them. We then used secondary sources such as websites and information books to try to answer our questions. Finally, we designed a non chronological report, to publish our findings, using headings, pictures and captions. Today we worked on the final product and we hope to show them in our next showing assembly.

In maths, we investigated measure and compared the length and height of objects and people. The year 2 children measured the classroom and found out that it is nearly 10 metres long! We enjoyed our cricket session this afternoon and practised our throwing and catching skills.

Beech Class Information

Homework and Home Learning

Spelling words:

Year 1: dear, hear, beard, near, year, fear

Year 2: door, poor, floor, more, explore, chore, launch, sauce, pause, caught

Homework: maths for both year groups

Here are some links to online games that may help with maths practice:

Hit the Button

Number fact families

Please ensure that spelling test books & spelling folders are brought to school by Friday.

Don’t forget that we also have links to lots of educational games (from external websites) in our learning links section.

Reading – All children have a reading book. This is primarily a home reading book, to read to parents or other adults. Please see the section on reading rewards for further information. Within school, we carry out a range of other reading activities, such as guided (or group) reading, where the teacher hears individuals read and then the group discusses the text, and shared reading, where the class reads together.

Reading Rewards

We are very keen for children to become regular readers and we use a reward scheme to encourage home regular reading, at least 3 times per week. Mrs Thompson will be updating the chart every Monday, so please ensure that home reads are written in the home link book. Thank you!

Ideas for talking about books with your child:

As your child gets older you tend to ‘hear’ them read less and less because they become more fluent. However, it is important that the children continue to develop their comprehension and reasoning skills, through talking about the books they are reading. These brief discussions will count towards your child’s reading reward too, so please note them in their home reading log.

Here are some ideas to help:

Fiction

1) Ask them to find their favourite paragraph in the chapter they have read
· Ask them what happened before this?
· Why did they like it?
· What do they think will happen next?
· How do they think the issue/problem will be resolved?

2) Ask the children about their favourite character in the book. Then ask them if they have read any other books with similar characters? Or ask them if they know of books which have characters that are completely the opposite.

Non-fiction

Is the information presented clearly?
Do you think then layout is good? Would you lay it out differently?
What age do you think it is intended for?

Year 1 Parent Information

Phonics

We currently use the Letters and Sounds phonics scheme as a basis for teaching phonics, though this is supplemented by the guidance from the National Curriculum for English 2014, Years 1 & 2.

Please find below some information taken from the Government guidance on the Year 1 phonics screening check, which is carried out nationally.

What is the Year 1 phonics screening check?

The phonics screening check is a quick and easy check of your child’s phonics knowledge. It helps your school confirm whether your child has made the expected progress. The check normally takes place in June.

How does the check work?

Your child will sit with a teacher he or she knows and be asked to read 40 words aloud. (20 real words and 20 ‘pseudo words’)
Your child may have read some of the words before, while others will be completely new.
The check normally takes just a few minutes to complete and there is no time limit. If your child is struggling, the teacher will stop the check. The check is carefully designed not to be stressful for your child.

Year 2 Parent Information

Assessment Information

As well as ongoing teacher assessment, which takes place throughout Year 2, pupils will take end of Key stage 1 tasks or tests in Reading, Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation and Maths. These new tests were used nationally for the first time in 2016. The administration times of these tasks and tests are flexible to a certain extent, though most will have to be taken during May. The results of the tests are combined with teacher assessment of each child’s work throughout the year to show where each child is in relation to age related expectations (ARE) by late June. These results will be reported to parents in the annual report in July. As we move from the old curriculum to the new, it may appear that your child is no longer doing as well as before. This is nothing to worry about and is due to the way the new curriculum has been designed, with some difficult concepts moved down to Year 2 from older age groups. Please let us know if you’d like further information or discussion about your child and how they are getting on.