Term 1 

Week 1

Week ending 6.9.19

Dear Parents,

Below is a guide to what your child will be learning in Willow Class this term.  If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

ENGLISH

We will be learning to read and spell words with long vowel digraphs, i.e.: ‘ee’, ‘ea’, ‘oa’,  ‘o-e’, ‘ow’, ‘ai,’ a-e’, ‘ay’, ‘ie’, ‘igh’, ‘y’, ‘oo’, ‘u-e’, ‘ew’, ‘ue’, ‘oo’ (as in good).  At the beginning of each week the children will be given spellings to learn, these will be sent home on Friday and tested the following   Friday.  We will be investigating the use of capital letters, commas and exclamation marks and using them in our writing.  We will also try to make our writing more interesting by using connectives, such as suddenly, unfortunately, luckily, etc.  Our text work will be based on fiction and poetry, with familiar settings and we will use non-fiction to look at instructions.  Good letter formation is a priority, with Year 2 children practising a cursive style.  Children are invited to take home a home reading book as often as they wish- please fill in the title and date in their home reading book, together with any comments about their reading.  The children are invited to take Bouncer Bunny and his cousin Betsy, for a sleepover:  they record what the bunnies do at home, in Bouncer Bunny’s Diary. They may also take Willow Bear home for a weekend visit.

MATHS

Children are becoming familiar with reading and writing numbers over 100.  They will count on in ones, twos, fives and tens.  They will practise recording in number sentences, using +, -, =, x and division.  They will learn to recall pairs of numbers that total 10 and 20 and addition doubles to at least 10+10, together with corresponding halves. Year 2 children will become familiar with multiplication facts of the 10x, 5x, 2x and 3x tables and deduce corresponding division facts.  They will recognise odd and even numbers.  We will also be looking at: length, 2D and 3D shapes, time, money and position and the associated vocabulary.  We will recognise halves, quarters and thirds and investigate maths problems and puzzles.  We will look at ways of handling data, including tables, bar charts and Venn diagrams.

SCIENCE

We shall be studying ‘Animals, including Humans’, finding out about their needs, their senses and how they grow.

HISTORY

Our topic is Famous Events- we shall be finding out about Remembrance Day.

GEOGRAPHY

Our over-arching topic to encompass all areas of the curriculum is Mexican Choccywoccydodah!  We will begin by comparing life in a village in Mexico with Elham.

R.E.

This term we are studying Christianity – the Creation and the parables of Jesus.  We will be making a book of the Christmas story, linking with our Nativity play.

I.C.T.

We will learn to use a word processor to improve the presentation of our work.  This will include saving and loading work, editing and printing; we will use a variety of programs throughout the curriculum and produce artwork. ICT is used on a daily basis in Literacy and Numeracy, and where appropriate, in other areas of the curriculum

P.E.

In the first half of the term we will learn ball skills and develop these into playing Pop Lacrosse.  P.E. is on Wednesdays and Fridays. This term, Mr. Hodgeman will be teaching the children Hockey on Tuesday morning.  Please wear suitable plimsolls or trainers and bring a cosy top and trousers or a tracksuit to wear.

MUSIC

We shall investigate the sounds we can make, loud and soft, short and long, fast and slow and rhythm.  This will develop into using percussion instruments to compose and perform music. Mrs. Hickman teaches the Ocarina, as well as singing and percussion on Wednesdays. We will be practising singing songs for the Nativity play.

ART/DESIGN

We are investigating making different marks on paper and colour mixing.  We will develop this into studying portrait painting and sculpture.  In the second half of the term we shall be designing and making pop-up cards for Christmas.

Thank you very much to all the parents and friends of Elham School, who give up their precious time to help in Willow Class:  your contribution is very highly valued.  If anyone feels they can help with any area of the curriculum we would be delighted to hear from you!

Yours faithfully,

Genevieve Ferguson

September 2019

Welcome back Willows!

How lovely to see you after the summer holidays: everyone is happy to be back and ready to have fun and learn!

What have we learned this week?

'I have learned where my peg and desk are.'

'I have learned to write the date and the title/learning intention at the top of my work.'

'I have learned how to do the Dinner Register interactively.'

'I have learned how to write my numbers correctly.'

'I have learned how to write my numbers as a word.'

'I can count up to 100, with Cedric the bear.'

'I have learned how to put the correct spelling into my Word Book.'

'I have learned about the Story of the Creation.'

'I have learned about food groups and which foods we should eat more of and which foods we should eat occasionally.'

'I have started on Accelerated Reading!'

'I wrote about myself for Hector, the Willow Class dog.'

'I wrote about my summer holiday.'

Term 1

Week 2

Week ending 13.9.19

We introduced our topic for the term: Mexican Choccywoccydodah!  The children came up with ideas about what they would like to find out about Mexico - they really liked the one about tasting different chocolates!

We practised one of our school rules: to listen and respond to instructions at the first time of asking.

What have we learned this week:

'I learned the 'ee', 'ea' phoneme/grapheme.'

'I learned to count in twos.'

'I learned to count in fives.'

'I learned to count in tens.'

'I learned to count in threes.'

'I learned to write the numbers to 100.'

'I learned about Zacchaeus the tax collector.'

'I learned what the word 'humility' means because it is one of our school values.'

'I learned the names of the seven continents and five oceans and labelled them on a map of the world.'

'I learned how to do my spelling corrections and 'Pink for thinks'.'

'I learned what a syllable is.'

'I learned how to hold a hockey stick and how to dribble the ball.'

'I learned how to hold a lacrosse stick and how to bowl a ball and scoop it into my stick.'

Star of the Week:  Lola - for always listening well and trying hard with her learning.

Term 1

Week ending 20.9.19

Week 3

What have we learned this week?

'I learned the phoneme/graphemes 'ay', 'ai', 'a-e'.'

'I learned to put a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence and a full-stop at the end.'

'I learned to add a tens number and a one digit number.'

'I wrote a prayer about humility.'

'I learned about foods that are healthy and foods that should be eaten occasionally.'

'I learned to work out missing numbers on a hundred square.'

'I learned the story of 'The Little Red Hen'.'

'I learned about the artist Paul Klee.'

'I learned to add white to a colour to tint it.'

'I learned to make a symmetrical pattern using 2 D shapes.'

'I learned to dribble a ball in hockey.'

'I learned how to throw and catch a ball.'

Star of the week: Sofia for listening well and demonstrating excellent learning.

Term 1

Week 4

Week ending 27.9.19

We had a very exciting beginning to the week , when we went to visit Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler at The Manor house in Elham.  Mrs. Wheeler is an old friend of Willow Class, and has been coming in for many years to help with handwriting.  The house was amazing and the children learned such a lot about its construction and life in the Manor 600 years ago.

What else have we learned this week?

'I learned the 'oo', 'ew', 'u-e', phoneme/graphemes.'

'I learned to write a letter.'

'I drew a portrait of my friend.'

'I learned to draw a self-portrait.'

'I learned to draw a picture of a Tudor house.'

'I practised my cutting out skills.'

'I learned about the story of the Creation.'

'I learned to add a two digit tens number to a ones (unit) number.'

'I learned to add 10 to a number.'

'I practised my keyboard skills.'

'I learned to write sentences with a capital letter and a full-stop.'

'I learned the story of 'The Little Red Hen' with actions.'

Star of the week:  Willow for always listening well and applying her learning.

Term 1

Week 5

Week ending 4.10.19

We really enjoyed our visit to The Methodist Church for the Harvest Festival.  The children had practised hard and performed their Talk4Writing version of The Little Red Hen.  They were magnificent and we are very proud of their achievement.  Talk4Writing encourages children to learn a text with actions, before they attempt to write their own version.  Firstly, it gives the child something in their memory to write and then the rhythm of the text helps with sentence construction, e.g. capital letters and full-stops.  Other grammar can be added in as the child becomes more confident, e.g. additional punctuation, frontal adverbs, adjectives, strong verbs and adverbs - WOW WORDS!

We celebrated 'National Poetry Day' on Wednesday by reading lots of poems!

What else have we learned this week?

'I learned the 'oo', 'u' phoneme/grapheme.'

'I learned number bonds to 10 and the corresponding multiple of ten bonds to 100.'

'I learned a mnemonic for 'because' : big elephants can't always use small exits!'

'I learned a mnemonic for 'people': penguins eat oranges, people love eggs.'

'I learned a mnemonic for 'said': Sally Ann is dancing.'

'I learned to write a letter.'

'I learned to write sentences using my spellings.'

I learned to add 10 and subtract 10.'

'I learned to use a number line and Numicon.'

'We went on a conker hunt and i drew a conker and its shell.'

'I learned how to hold a lacrosse stick and scoop up the ball.'

'I made a headband for The Little Red Hen and sequenced the story.'

Star of the Week:  Rome for listening well and applying himself well to his learning.

Term1 

Week 6

Week ending 11.10.19

On Friday, James Campbell visited the school.  He greatly entertained the children with his poems, the story of 'The Umbrella Tree' and excerpts from his book on' Funny things about Animals'.  We were inspired to draw a story map about  The Umbrella Tree!

What have we learned this week?

'I learned the 'igh', 'ie',' i-e', 'y'' graphemes, for the long vowel sound.'

'I learned to order the coins from the smallest value.'

'I visited 'The Polite Knight Cafe' and ordered a drink and something to eat and then calculated the total.'

'I learned how to write money as a money decimal.'

'I learned how to make money totals using the fewest number of coins.'

'I wrote about what sort of character God is because He created the world.'

'I learned how to draw a self-portrait.'

Star of the Week:  Daniel for very good behaviour sitting on the map.

Term 1

Week 7

Week ending 18.10.19

What an amazing Book Week we have had!

On Monday, our old friends 'Tales from the Book of Life' visited us and entertained us with stories, songs and beautiful music, played on the harp, fiddle and burdum.

On Tuesday, another great friend of Elham School, Ian Crosher, from KIC Theatre, worked with each class to enhance their curriculum.  We explored 'You're a Bad Man, Mr. Gum', by Andy Stanton and we were very impressed with the children's understanding and working together.

On Wednesday, we had a return visit from the poet, Mr. Peek, who entertained the children with his poetry.  We also had a visit from The Bourne Vets Surgery. The children were able to stroke the dog, guinea pigs and a tortoise! The nurse was very informative and the children learned a lot from her visit.

On Thursday, Linsey from the Library service, came in to talk about how to use the library and Eddie and Sofia's dad, Steve Skinner performed his poetry.  The children loved wearing the poet's cap and reading his poems!

Friday was dressing-up day, with the theme of Shakespeare! There were Hamlets, Titanias and Properos aplenty! The children looked magnificent - many thanks to all the parents for your creativity! To crown our Book Week, Andrew Clover returned with his high-octane assembly, full of tips and hints on how to write a story.  The children were truly inspired and many of the Willow stories were picked out by Andrew as deserving a special mention.  Jack won a prize and Ted was the overall winner of the best story competition- well done boys!

What else have we learned this week?

'I learned the 'oy', 'oi' grapheme/phoneme.'

'I learned to make the same amount of money using different coins.'

'I learned about The Creation frieze.'

'I sequenced the story of The Creation.'

'I learned about the village of Tocuaro, in Mexico.'

'I learned about the physical features of Tocuaro.'

'I learned to use a key on a map.'

'I located a village on a map, using my knowledge of the physical features.'

'I learned to play a game of hockey.'

Star of the Week:  Florrie, for listening well and working hard.

Term 2

Week 1

Week ending 1.11.19

What have we learned this week?

'I learned the grapheme/phoneme for 'ge', 'gi' and 'dge'.'

'I learned the nasmes of 2 D shaapes.'

'I learned the properties of 2D shapes.'

'I learned to measure in cms.'

'I learned to draw lines.'

'I created a self-portrait in the style of Paul Klee.'

'I learned how Mexicans make tortillas.'

'I learned some songs for our Nativity play.'

'I practised my lines for the Nativity play.'

Star of the week: Hugo for being very helpful and for working hard.

Term 2

Week 2

Week ending 8.11.19

What have we learned this week?

'I learned the 'ou' and 'ow' phoneme/graphemes.'

'I learned how to find symmetry in 2D shapes.'

'I learned to re-read my writing and put it into sentences.'

'I went on stage to rehearse my play!'

'I investigated which exercise made me the most out of breath.'

'I described how my body felt after exercise.'

'I learned how to solve a maths' problem by counting in twos.'

'I learned how to work out the cost of pairs of socks by counting in fives!'

'I learned to count in twos, fives and tens.'

'I learned to work out a sequence of numbers.'

'I learned some actions to go with the Nativity songs.'

Term 2

Week 2

Week ending 15.11.19

The children looked magnificent for 'Mad Hair Day' and raised lots of money for Children in Need - well done!

What have we learned this week?

'I learned what it means to be a friend for 'Anti-bullying Week.'

'I learned the 'oa', 'ow' and 'o-e' phoneme/graphemes.

'I learned to write sentences using 'and, 'but' and 'then' as conjunctions.'

'I learned to count in twos.'

'I learned how to turn repeated addition into a multiplication number sentence.'

'I learned how to write my 2 x table.'

'I can solve maths' problems using facts from the 2 x table.'

'I learned to carry out a scientific investigation into chocolate, using my senses!'

'I learned how Joseph was told in a dream to marry Mary.'

'I learned how The Wise Men were told in a dream not to return to King Herod to tell him where baby Jesus had been born.'

'I learned how to make masks using a template.'

'I wrote instructions for making my butterfly kite.'

Star of the Week:  Ted for his enthusiastic approach to his learning! 

Term 2

Week 4

Week ending 22.11.19

What have we learned this week?

'I learned the 'ay', 'a-e', 'ai', and 'ey' phoneme/graphemes.'

'I learned the 2 x table.'

'I learned to double a number.'

'I learned that doubling is the same as multiplying by 2.'

'I learned to share a number into two groups.'

'I learned the sign for division.'

'I learned to halve a number.'

'I learned that halving is the same as dividing between two.'

'I learned how to write instructions.'

'I learned about what Christmas means to Christians.'

'I learned what 'incarnation' means.'

'I learned who knew Jesus was the son of God, when He was born.'

'I learned to write a prayer about forgiveness.'

Term 2

Week 5

Week ending 29.11.19

What an exciting end to the week with the children having their 'flu' inhaler AND visiting Father Christmas at the Elham School Fayre!

What have we learned this week?

'I learned the soft 's' phoneme, made with the graphemes 'ci', ,'ce' and 'cy'.

'I learned the soft 'g' phoneme, made with the graphemes 'gi', 'ge' and 'gy'.

'I learned my 2 x table.'

'I learned how to write an addition number sentence as a column addition.'

'I learned how to write instructions, using bullet points.'

'I learned that each new instruction must start on a new line.'

'I learned to use imperative (bossy) verbs when writing instructions.'

'I learned to put a capital letter and a full-stop or exclamation mark at the beginning and end of my instructions.

'I learned to add more detail and description to make my instructions more accurate.'

'I practised my lines for 'Everyone Loves a Baby!'

Term 2

Week 6

Week ending 6.12.19

On Thursday we went to the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury to see 'Mother Goose' ( Oh no we didn't, Oh yes we did!).  The children thoroughly enjoyed the performance and were brilliantly behaved - a credit to the school!

The 6th of December is St. Nicholas' Day - which some of the Willow children celebrate!  They enjoyed finding out about St. Nicholas and seeing the connection with Santa Claus.

We had a lovely Christmas Dinner, as well on Friday, and spent the morning after our first dress rehearsal, making crowns to wear to the lunch.

Next week I will be teaching the first of our SRE lessons - please see the website for further information.

What else have we learned this week?

'I learned my 10 x table.'

'I learned the 'ge' and 'dge' phoneme/graphemes.'

'I learned about how babies grow into toddlers.'

'I learned how children grow into adults.'

'I learned about incarnation on the 'Big Frieze'.

'I learned how to divide between two, three, four and five.'

'I learned how to edit my writing.'

'I made a symmetrical pattern on my crown.'

Term 2

Week 7

Week ending 13.12.19

After many weeks of rehearsal and song practise our Nativity Play 'Everyone Loves a Baby' was finally ready for an audience!  The children were very nervous to begin with, but managed to turn their butterflies into excitement and acted and sang wonderfully, getting more confident with each performance!  We are extremely proud of them all!

The K S 1 and Reception Team Elham were amazing as always, but a special mention and many thanks must go to Mr. Davison  on lights, Mr. Elgar: staging and seating, Mrs. Cooper: costume making, Mrs. Mills: voice production and Mrs. Lewis: Box office and publicity.

On Friday Mums and Dads joined us in the class, for an English lesson on exclamation marks. It was lovely to have them in and we hope they enjoyed working with us!

What else have we learned this week?

'I learned to write a letter to Father Christmas.'

'I learned to write a list with commas between the items and 'and' between the last two items.'

'I learned my 5 x table.'

'I learned words with graphemes 'gn' and 'kn'.  The 'g' and the 'k' go with the 'n' to make the 'n' phoneme.'

'I planted daffodil bulbs.'

'I wrote my learning journey for Term 2.'

'I learned to divide a number, where there is a remainder.'

'I learned that boys and girls don't have to play with different toys or have things of a certain colour.'

'I did a science questionnaire.'

Term 2

Week 8

Week ending 18.12.19

A lovely week making things!  We made pop-up Christmas tree cards, a snowflake calendar, a fir cone Christmas tree and Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer.  On Wednesday we made Christingles and took them to church, in the afternoon, for our annual Christingle service: it was amazing!

A very happy Christmas and a wonderful new year to all Team Willow!