Term 1

Week 1

Week ending 7.9.18

Welcome back Willows!  How lovely to see you all looking refreshed and ready to learn!

What a busy week we have had - we hit the ground running!

What have we learned this week:

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

'I learned to write a cold task - writing a recount about my summer holiday.'

'I learned to write all about myself - so I could introduce myself to Hector, the Willow class dog.'

'I learned about different groups of food - vegetables, fruit, protein, fat, sugar, cereal and carbohydrates.'

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

'I learned to write numbers up to 100.'

'I learned to write the names of numbers.'

'I learned how to mix primary colours to make secondary colours.'

'I learned how to play Danish rounders.'

'I learned how to do the dinner register on the interactive whiteboard.'

It was really difficult to choose a Star of the Week, because I have an amazing class, who all tried very hard in their first week in Willow class, but.... I only have one cup so, there was an outstanding candidate...

Star of the Week: George,  for a super attitude towards his learning.

Dear Parents,

Below is a guide outlining what your child will be learning in Willow Class this term. If you have any queries, please 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 tested on 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, and the children will be 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 up to 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 and 2x 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 and quarters and investigate maths problems and puzzles. We will look at ways of handling data, including bar charts and pictograms.

SCIENCE

We shall be studying seasonal changes as an on-going project. We will be investigating animals, including humans, looking at classification, skeleton structure and senses.

HISTORY

Our topic this term is Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. We will be finding out about them from different sources and discovering why they are famous. We will also be finding out about Remembrance Day.

R.E.

This term we are studying the miracles of Jesus. In the second half of the term the focus will be on Christmas and we will be rehearsing and performing our Nativity play.

Computing

We will be learning how to programme a computer, starting with Bee Bots and progressing to a simple animation. ICT is used on a daily basis in Literacy and Numeracy, and where appropriate, in other areas of the curriculum

P.E.

Hockey skills will be practised, e.g. holding the stick, dribbling and striking the ball. I would suggest your child has a track suit or similar sportswear as it can get chilly later on! We will also practise gymnastic skills- jumping, travelling, stretching and rolling, which will develop into sequences of movement. P.E. is on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

MUSIC

1. children will sing and learn how to play the ocarina, with Mrs. Hickman. We shall investigate the sounds we can make, loud and soft, short and long, fast and slow. In the second half of the term we will be learning songs to go with our performance of the Nativity at Christmas.

ART/DESIGN

We are studying colour, paint effects and collage, looking at the work of Monet and Jackson Pollock. In the second half of the term we shall be designing and making fruit salads.

PSHE

This will be an integral part of our Science project. We will be investigating how we can keep our bodies healthy.

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 2018

Term 1

Week 2

Week ending 14.9.18

What have we learned this week?

'I learned the 'ee' 'ea' phoneme and grapheme.'

'I learned to put capital letters and full-stops in sentences.'

'I learned to count in different steps.'

'I learned to find hidden numbers on the 100 square.'

'I learned about Claude Monet.'

'I learned that some food should be eaten as a treat and not all the time.'

'I learned about how God created the World in seven days.'

'I thought of some questions to find out about Florence Nightingale'

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

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

Star of the Week: Ollie for settling into Willow class really well.

Term 1 

Week 3

Week ending 21.9.18

What have we learned this week?

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

'I learned to write a prayer about humility.'

'I learned the story of Zacchaeus.'

'I learned to recognise a Horse chestnut tree.'

'We went on a conker hunt!'

'I drew a conker, its shell and a Horse chestnut leaf.'

'I learned to control the ball in hockey.'

'I learned to scoop the ball in Pop Lacross.'

'I learned to write a sentence.'

'I learned to write an acrostic poem about Harvest.'

'I have started to learn to retell the story of The Enormous Turnip.'

'I learned the place value of Tens and Ones (units).'

'I can say which number is larger or smaller, by looking at the tens first and then the ones.'

'I painted the water and trees in my Monet picture, using watery paint.'

Star of the Week:  Ruby for listening well and giving maximum effort.

Term 1

Week 4

Week ending 28.9.18

What have we learned this week?

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

'I learned to write my own acrostic poem about Harvest.'

'I learned the class acrostic about Harvest.'

'I put waterlilies and their shadows on my Claude Monet painting.'

'I learned that things get smaller in the distance.'

'I learned to add 10 to a single digit number.'

'I learned to add ten to a two digit number.'

'I learned to use a number line to add 10.'

'I learned to recognise a Sweet Chestnut leaf, shell and nut.'

'I can retell the story of 'The Enormous Turnip' using actions.'

'I learned that  Homophones are words that sound the same, but have different meanings, e.g. 'plain' and 'plane'.'

'I learned that Homonyms are words that are spelt the  same but have a different meaning, e.g. 'duck' and 'duck'.'

Star of the Week:  Riley for being quick to offer help and being very organised.

Term 1

Week 5

Week ending 5.10.18

On Thursday we went to church for Harvest Festival.  The children performed an acrostic poem they had written and they were brilliant! Thank you very much for all the gifts they have brought in for The Rainbow Centre.

What have we learned this week:

'I learned the 'oo' phoneme and graphemes.'

'I learned number bonds to 10.'

'I learned number bonds to 100.'

'I learned number bonds to 20.'

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

'I made a gilt frame for my Claude Monet picture, out of pasta shapes.'

'I made a symmetrical pattern with pasta shapes.'

'I read a story to the class.'

'I can identify a Beech tree, by its leaves and nuts.'

'I played a game of hockey.'

'I learned that if I play hockey when there is low cloud it makes my hair go straight.'

'I learned to identify the coins of the UK and can put them in order.'

'I learned to make different amounts of money.'

Star of the Week:  Anabelle for always trying her best and achieving a high standard.

Term 1

Week 6

Week ending 12.10.18

What have we learned this week?

'I learned the 'u', 'oo' phoneme and graphemes.'

'I learned to combine amounts of money to make a total.'

'I learned how to 'Hot Seat' a character.'

'I learned how to play a hockey match.'

'I learned how to add connective or joining words to my sentence.'

'I learned to write sentences with connectives on a story map.'

'I learned my take-away number bonds from 20.'

'I planted my daffodil bulb.'

'I wrote the instructions for planting a daffodil bulb.'

'I learned to sequence the story of Florence Nightingale.'

'I started to learn some of the songs for our Nativity Play.'

Star of the Week: Mae for working hard and always being polite.

Term 1

Week 7

Week ending 19.10.18

What a brilliant Book Week we have had!

On Monday, we had the amazing Mr. Peek visit us with his very entertaining poems.

On Tuesday, our old friend, Ian Crosher, from Kic Theatre worked with Willows on the life of Florence Nightingale. The children were inspired to write a diary entry for Florence, explaining what she saw when she first visited Scutari Hospital.

On Wednesday, more friends, Tony and Ramona, visited us from 'Tales from the Book of Life.'  As always, they were very entertaining, playing different instruments, singing and telling stories;  we can't wait to make some Anansi spiders!

On Thursday, Jane Pace, from Lyminge Library, spoke to the children about the history of Lyminge Library, being sited in the old railway station.  She also spoke about the library service:  did you know you can borrow up to 30 books at a time?

Also on Thursday we had an added treat, as Mr.Steve Skinner offered to come in to school to read some of his poetry and work with the children.  What an inspiration he was!  He explained he had only just started to write poetry and the children had great fun thinking of rhyming words.

Friday was dressing up day on the theme 'History'. Parents and children did not disappoint - the costumes were magnificent!  Thank you for joining in with so much enthusiasm!  We were joined by the incredible high-octane author, Mr. Andrew Clove, who wowed us with an hour long assembly, visited our classes to encourage our 'Big Writes' and then read five stories from each class before choosing winners to receive a signed copy of one of his Rory Branagan - Detective books.  After our Celebration Assembly, he went into the playground to sign copies of his books and he kindly donated a set to the school.

George was a very worthy winner in Willows, of the competition set for KS1 to draw an historical character - well done King George!

From Monday to Thursday, we had the Scholastic Book Fair after school.  Many thanks to Mrs. Carolyn Clayton for helping and organising the army of mums to sell the books and a big thank you to the mums, who gave up their time to take the money.  As we go to press, it looks like it has been a record year for sales - watch this space!!  Every book sold means money to spend on books for the school.

Please do not forget Readathon/ReadforGood , which runs for the next few weeks.  All proceeds go to children's charities.

A huge thank you to the PTA for funding the visits of Mr. Peek, Mr. Clover and Tales from the Book of Life.  These incredible experiences make all the difference to a child's learning.

What else have we learned this week?

'I learned the 'igh', 'ie', 'i-e', and 'y' phoneme and graphemes.'

'I wrote a diary entry for Florence Nightingale.'

'I shot goals in Pop Lacrosse.'

'I drew an historical character.'

'I learned about non-standard measure.'

'I wrote a story for Andrew Clover.'

'I am learning to play my ocarina.'

Star of the Week:  Jago for an excellent standard of work .