Kingfishers

 Ｐｌａｎｅｔ  Ｅａｒｔｈ

This term our topic is Planet Earth! We will be exploring the many aspects of planet Earth through a range of lessons and activities. 

Not only do we have an exciting topic themed trip coming up, we also have a fantastic reading cafe 'Reading is a Hoot'! This cafe will support you and your child with home reading and also give you a chance to experience a wonderful story and a fun craft activity. We hope that you can make it.

In English we will be learning about Earth and culture with the brilliant text 'Pattan's Pumkin'. Children will participate in lots of book talk, group activities, drama, shared writing and meaningful writing experiences.

In maths, we will continue to recap the four operations and cover shape, capacity and position and direction. 

Through COOL time (choosing our own learning), children will take part in many activities learning about the continents, oceans, where our food comes from, famous individuals from the past and learn new skills such as sewing, planting seeds, preparing food and print making.

Spring 

This term our topic is 'Time Travellers'. Throughout this topic, we will be exploring events within living memory and comparing our present lives to that of children 100 years ago. We will be exploring Ipswich then and now, Ranelagh school then and now as well as talking to grandparents about their childhood.

Please see attached the medium term plan that details coverage of objectives in all subjects.

Autumn 

I am excited to say that our first topic of the year is 'All you need is a book'. In English, we are researching the author 'Julia Donaldson' and exploring a range of her fictional stories. We will be comparing them, writing stories and creating alternative endings.

Last half term we had a fantastic time reading 'James and the Giant Peach'. The children loved watching parts of the film, listening to the story and trying peach for themselves. This half term we will be reading a range of Julia Donaldson texts; predicting, making inferences and holding debates focusing on our reading fluency and oracy skills. 

In maths, we are focusing on number, place value, subtraction and mastering these concepts through applying them to real life problems. Year two children will continue mastering their understanding whilst developing more effective methods to work out operations and check their work. We will develop our understanding of multiplication and naming and describing shapes.

This year in Key Stage 1, all children will be encouraged and supported to become independent learners. Through COOL time (choose our own learning), the children will explore open ended activities and discover the curriculum in depth through the arts, computing, science, history and geography. This will include exploring famous authors including Roald Dahl and A.A Milne, identifying physical features in aerial photographs, naming and testing a range of materials based on properties, exploring primary and secondary colours and recreating Monet inspired paintings, improving our motor skills when playing ball games and learning routines in dance, respecting the beliefs of others in particular relating to Judaism and finally, embedding and understanding the values of our school rules and routines.

KS1 will also be extremely busy this half term preparing for our Christmas Production! :)

Ｒｅｍｉｎｄｅｒｓ

PE is every Monday and Wednesday. Please ensure your child has a PE kit in school on these days. The PE kit is a t-shirt, shorts and plimsolls or trainers.

Spellings will be sent home every Friday, for a test the following Friday. The spelling books will be due in on the Thursday. Please practise the spellings with your child in their book.

Please read with your child frequently, at least 3 times per week, and record this in their journals.

Please can you ensure your child has a water bottle in school every day.

Please find below a few fun, educational games for your child to develop maths skills:

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/caterpillar-ordering

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/coconut-ordering

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/place-value/place-value-charts

http://www.toytheater.com/fishing.php

Also, a few useful English links:

http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm

https://www.youtube.com/user/breakthruchris

http://splash.abc.net.au/res/i/L7855/index.html

http://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/handwriting-warm-up-exercises.html

http://www.e-learningforkids.org/language-arts/lesson/putting-words-together/