Medway Class 2017-18 Welcome back introductions. Settling in and getting to know your children. The Team: Mrs Glover – Teaching Assistant (5 mornings) Mrs Petros – LSA working with a child on a 1:1 (5 mornings) Mrs Peto - LSA working with a child on a 1:1 (5 afternoons) Open door – you can catch Mrs Glover in the morning who will pass on a message to me or speak to me after school. We are working together to make your children’s learning fun and purposeful so please keep in touch!

Our topic – Off we go! Curriculum map and learning journey Geography focus looking at: Our Summer holidays - Finding out about different places around the world and how people travel there Map work: Where we live The 4 countries in the UK and finding out about the capital cities Continents and oceans Country study – Australia

The children will be developing a range of skills using high quality texts. Key Texts: Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak The land of Never believe by Norman Messenger Miranda the Explorer by James Mayhew The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg The requirements for spelling and grammar in the National Curriculum will be covered through the key texts.

Phonics and Grammar Phonics/spelling patterns are taught daily in year groups using: Song of Sounds for Year 1 No nonsense spelling for Year 2 Early work spelling of the common exception words Word wall challenges (take home to practise with your child) Grammar is taught through high quality texts. The children are taught to recognise the technical terms e.g. noun, verb, adjective

Phonics and Spelling at home You can help at home by: Practise spelling the common exception words using the ‘Word Walls’ Encourage your child to recognise these words in their reading Encourage your child to use their sounds when reading to decoding unfamiliar words

Reading The children will be asked to change their books every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This will be their responsibility but Mrs Glover will support them to start with Please record the reading your child does at home in their reading records Reading records – please bring this in every day so that we can record any guided reading or 1:1 reading comments

Reading Rockets Challenge Please try to listen to your child read 5 times a week and record this in their reading diary The children will move up the rockets each week if they read 5 times and will be given a special sticker At the end of each half term if they have reached the top rocket they will be given a small prize

Maths A range of maths skills will be covered over the course of the year. The emphasis is on ensuring your child has a deep understanding of the concepts taught so they can apply their maths skills to problem solving in a range of contexts Number bonds Times tables challenge

Science Yearly Overview In Science the children will be building on their previous learning and skills They will be carrying our practical experiments throughout the year to develop their scientific enquiry skills The topics are: Animals, including humans (Year 1 and 2) Living things and their habitats (Year 2) Everyday materials (Year 1 and 2) Seasonal changes and the weather (Year 1) Plants (Year 1 and 2) Working scientifically (Year 1 and 2)

Our timetable PE is on a Monday and Wednesday. Computing is on Tuesday with Mrs Upstone. PPA - Mrs Martin will be teaching the children PE, guided reading and maths/English on a Wednesday morning. Any changes to the timetable will be on our webpage. This is also regularly updated with photos of what the children have been up to!

Forest School Forest school is on a Wednesday afternoon for the first half term Please make sure the children bring in a suitable change of clothes, waterproof coat and wellington boots on that day Due to limited cloakroom space we are unable to keep the wellington boots at school permanently As you know they do go out whatever the weather!

Homework Homework will be set on Wednesday to be handed in the following Tuesday Value homework at the beginning of each half term where the children will be given a task related to our Christian value Weekly homework will focus on spelling and grammar 'Word Wall Challenge' and 'Times Table Challenge' Informal number bonds or times table quiz every Monday Topic homework

Class rules and rewards School Golden Rules Class charter – written by the children ‘Clever Monkey’ Weekly class awards for maths, reading and writing Child of the week Lots of stickers!

Day to day life in Medway Class Morning routine The children line up outside the gate and I will collect them. I would encourage you to leave your child at that point and not come into the classroom with them The children sort out their belongings and then come straight to the carpet to practise writing the words of the day on whiteboards The register is taken followed by phonics Whole school worship – every day except Thursday (we have a class worship)

Day to day life Lunchtime - The year 1s go into lunch first and year 2s at 12.30 Water bottles – please can you make sure your child has a named one in school (with plain water in it) School fruit/fruit snack from home. Labelling clothes No rucksacks please! 

Thank you for your support! Questions I am really looking forward to working with you and your children Any questions? Thank you for your support!