I would just like to welcome Mrs Hayward to Squirrels class who is a student teacher. Mrs Hayward will be working in Squirrels class until 26th March and the children have made her feel very welcome this week!

The children who have put their books in the basket this morning have had their books changed ready for half term. They have also been encouraged to bring home a book of their choice from the book corner. This may be too easy, too difficult or just right for them however it is their choice which one they would like to share with an adult at home.

Homework for half term is to either write a recount about their holiday OR to write a story (this can be any story as we have been writing dragon stories in class). Please encourage your child to use pre-cursive, neat handwriting and to write neatly on the lines with finger spaces. We have been learning to use all of the following techniques to make our writing amazing:

• Capital letters and full stops
• Adjectives (describing words)
• Conjunctions and, but and because (to extend sentences)
• Full sentences (reading regularly to check they make sense)
• Simile (comparing something to something else e.g. the tree was as tall as a mountain)
• Punctuation ( !   ,   ?)
• Using phonics (sounding out) to help spell words correctly)

I hope you all have a lovely, restful half term and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Mrs Edwards

The children have had a great week in Squirrels class!

We have been very busy writing our Dragon stories and have spent some time today writing them up neatly. I am very proud of how hard they have worked and Mr Verling came into read some of our stories. He was very impressed!

Congratulations to Charlie for winning our reading raffle this week! Keep up the hard work!

Emily was our star of the week on Monday who got to choose a friend each day this week to sit with her on the main table in the dinner hall. This was for Emily’s continuous hard work and super attitude to always trying her best.

Seren was star of the day today – she got star of the day for being so brave at the beginning of the week after a nasty fall on the playground. Well done Seren for being so brave!

There is no homework this week (I will set some for over half term) but please continue to encourage lots of reading and writing at home.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Edwards

We have been learning about recognising coins and amounts of money this week and practising adding coins together to give a total. Homework is to continue practising this and has been handed out in their green homework files (please return these before or on Friday 24th January 2020).

Just a reminder that all home writing diaries are to be handed in on a Monday, please encourage your child to write a few lines in these to share on Monday as a class.

The children have been reading well and are inspired by the reading raffle to read their books at least twice through. These will not be changed every day during the week as we would like the children to build up their reading fluency and comprehension skills, however they can still place their reading diaries into the basket each morning to ensure their name is entered into the raffle.

Thank you for starting to donate junk modelling materials, any more donations next week will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you for your continued support!

Mrs Edwards

Common exception/high frequency words (these are tricky words that they cannot sound out to support spelling). Please take some time to review them with the children at home so they become familiar with reading and spelling these.

Year 1: be, he, so

Year 2: year 1 + old, past, father

The sounds we will be focusing on/revisiting this week are Phase 5 ue and aw.

Words that the children may want to practise spelling at home are:

ue = clue, blue, issue, true, glue, Sue, tissue

aw = saw, law, crawl, paw, claw, lawn, raw, shawl, draw, jaw

We will also quickly revisit Phase 3 sounds sh, ch, th and ng

The children will not be tested on these but additional practise at home will help them with phonics work in class.

To encourage lots of reading at home, we would like the children to remember to change their book (place it in the blue basket in class for Mrs Murphy to change) when they come in in the mornings. Mrs Murphy will ensure the child has read the book at least two times, fluently and then give the child a raffle ticket. The raffle tickets will be put into a bag and drawn on a Friday. The more times they read the more chances they have of winning the raffle prize!

Thank you for your continued support!

Mrs Edwards

Homework: Apologies for this not going out on Friday! The children are to find lines of symmetry in 2D shapes. This is due in on Friday 6th but can be given in Monday 9th due to being given out late.

Nativity: Please could we have all costumes for the nativity given in by Wednesday this week, in a carrier bag with your child’s name on it. We will be doing a dress rehearsal at the end of the week! Any problems, please do not hesitate in coming to see me.

Kind regards

Mrs Edwards

Homework this week is writing in Home Diaries (please hand in on Monday) and reading to a grown up. Children who have been given a line to say in the Nativity this year should spend a few minutes practising these over the weekend as rehearsals start next week.

Thank you for the Maths homework that has been handed in today, please hand in on Monday if it hasn’t been given in today.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Edwards