Beech Class

Welcome to Beech Class – Years 1 & 2

Teacher: Caroline Norris
Teaching Assistant: Tara Butcher

Beech termly booklet – Summer 2019

Homework and Home Learning

Spelling words:

No spelling words to learn this week. Instead, we will be working on the common exception words that we practise in class.

Homework: Investigating Antony Gormley and the Angel of the North and creating a poster about your research. Due Thursday 23rd May

What have we been learning this week?

17.5.19

We’ve had very busy week this week. We’ve really enjoyed looking at the webcams of different birds to see how they have grown. We finally saw some puffins today! As the weather was lovely, we enjoyed going outside on plant and bird hunts in the grounds. We’re becoming much better at recognising different birds, though we still need practice at being quiet enough to hear their song!

3.5.19

We’ve had a really exciting week this week. with lots of work on our topic of ‘Flight.’ We found some amazing webcams of birds’ nests and have really enjoyed watching the chicks and their parents. We were amazed by how often the blue tit parents had to feed their young and loved writing some information to accompany the webcam. We also enjoyed reading our book ‘Fly by Night’ and retelling the story, sequencing events. Next week, we will write our own stories based on the theme. In maths, Year 1 have worked brilliantly on fractions of shapes and numbers. Year 2 have enjoyed working on money, including coin recognition and adding different values of coins and notes together.

Here are links to some of the webcams that we have viewed in class:

Blue Tits (This one is amazing!)

Owls

Peregrine Falcons

Puffins (I have only seen 1 puffin in the distance so far!)

We also loved learning about the land art of Andy Goldsworthy. We watched a short BBC clip about him creating one piece of art (click here to view it). We used grey paper and chalk to create our own individual slates, inspired by what we saw in the film. Then we arranged them together to make a piece of collaborative art. It is harder than it looks!

What have we been learning this week?

29.4.19

Welcome back to school for an action-packed summer term. Our new topic is ‘Flight’ and we have lots of exciting activities planned, including a trip after half term. See our termly booklet for more information. This week, we loved investigating shadows by creating shadow puppets, writing our own questions and discovering the answers through our research. In English, we enjoyed reading one of our favourite books, Owl Babies. We then retold the story for our special writing wall work. In maths, the Year 2 children worked hard on telling the time and the Year 1s enjoyed some outside learning, representing numbers using natural materials. Both year groups learnt how to complete and interpret bar charts about birds.

What have we been learning this week?

29.3.19

We’ve had another super busy week in Beech Class. We loved writing our own stories based on the Lighthouse Keeper’s lunch and tried hard to include exciting words such as concocted and scrumptious. Our favourite phrase from the book was ‘devoured with great gusto’! In maths, the Year 1s worked very well on multiplication, learning about the importance of equal groups and representing problems with their apparatus. The Year 2s had some tremendously tricky word problems to work on, in two parts, and we also learnt how a bar model can help us to represent the problem.

We were very excited to do some investigative work this afternoon for our DT projects this afternoon. We experimented with rolling paper to create structures and tried various ways of creating a winding mechanism. We will begin the design process on Monday, so please try to bring your box to school early next week if you haven’t already done so. Thank you!

What have we been learning this week?

22.3.19

Working on our coordination skills!

We’ve loved sharing the book ‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’ this week. We particularly enjoyed the amazing word choices of the author. Today we all invented a new way that the Lighthouse Keeper’s wife could send his lunch to the lighthouse. Next week, we are going to look at other books in the series and plan and write our own version of the story.

In maths, the Year 1s worked really hard on their word problems and are now much more confident with the language used such as ‘how many more/less’ and ‘the difference between’. The Year 2s have been working on fractions of amounts which we found exciting and challenging.

Using objects to help visualise a maths problem.

We’ve loved out focus on St. Lucia and this week using a graphing program to plot the mm of rainfall that they get each month on average. We also created our own Thornford flags, using the symbolism of the St. Lucia flag as a model.

Beech Class Information

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.