First Class Mr. Murphy, Miss Diskin and Miss. Reilly

Contents Greeting from Principal Literacy Numeracy Homework First Class Curriculum

English Readers-sent home daily with reading for homework listed. Reading homework should be signed each night. Focus on reading and comprehension strategies e.g. questioning, prediction and summarisation. Asking them questions, summarise what they’ve read, talk about the characters, find tricky words to practise, retell the story etc. Join the library

Dolch words-220 in total-10 a week. This will greatly help your child’s reading fluency and comprehension. Spellings-10 a week, based on a sound such as ch, sh and including two tricky words. Everyday, children will make up sentences with their new spellings. Spellings-Look, Cover, Write, Check, shapes of the letter, sounding it out, spell it as its written.

Writing Three types of writing, a recount-my summer holidays, my news, procedural-how to make rice crispie buns and narrative-writing stories. Practise writing at home-getting your child to help with writing a shopping list, a card, letters. Free Writing Copy. Sunday evening/Monday morning revise your childs news to prepare them for recount writing lessons throughout the week.

Oral Language Talking to your child about their day. Who, When, What, Where Why, How? Poetry Readers Curriculum- integrated in every subject

Maths Number-addition with renaming, subtraction. Large emphasis this year on place value, tens units i.e. 43 is 4 tens and 3 units. Tables both addition and subtraction. Counting in 2’s, 5’s and tens, doubles and halves. Hundred Square, Number Line, Snakes and Ladders.

Maths Shapes-2d, 3d, language of space-beside, between, left, right etc. Measures-litres, metres, kilograms, up to 50c, and telling the time in half hours and hours. Use mathematical language at home – plus, add, minus, take away, subtract, equals, altogether makes. Concrete materials. Maths Time/Table champions

Counting at home Start on numbers other than one. Counting forwards and backwards. Specific focus on the ‘teen’ numbers e.g. 14, 17. Counting across a ten e.g. 19, 20, 21 - forwards and backwards. Counting games.

Homework You child’s homework should take no longer than 40 minutes each night. Sign homework journal, reading homework and test notebook each week. Spellings- 10 spellings for the week (take 2-3 each night) revise all on Thursday night for test on Friday. Sentences- based on spellings (1-3 Monday, 4-6 Tuesday, 7- 8 Wednesday, 9-10 Thursday). Dolch list: 10 words per week that your child needs to be to read and recognise. Tables: learn tables off by heart as well as filling in the book. Mental Maths: Monday-Thursday as indicated in the book. Please help your child with the estimates.

Gaeilge Emphasis in school is on speaking Irish and being able to follow instructions in Irish. Getting your child to teach you a few phrases. Looking for Irish in the local community. Tg4

SESE-Geography, History and Science Local Environment, develop knowledge of other countries and areas e.g. Artic and Antartica. Stories-Óisín in Tír na nÓg, Children of Lir. Changes-in themselves, toys, clothes, community, environment etc. Historical events e.g. The Great Fire of London. Would welcome volunteers to talk about their country, toys they played with when young, talk about your job, somebody with a new baby, story telling etc, teaching a game they learned when young, talking about different festivals. Plants, Seasons, heat, light, lifecycles etc.

Other Subjects Drama, Music, Art-Any parents with a particular interest in any of these areas, please feel free to volunteer. P. E. –Swimming, Games, Athletics for this term. After Christmas-dance, gymnastics, games and orienteering. SPHE-Stay Safe, Road Safety, Water Safety, themselves and their families. Goodness Me, Goodness You.

Themes September – Myself, my family, my home. October – Changes (school now and then, clothes in the past). November - All around me(Local area, mapping, people at work). December – Traditions and winter.

Themes January – The Earth and Space (North and South Pole, Solar system). February – The elements (fire, water, wind). March- Nature and Spring. April – Transport (Titanic, Amelia Earhart).

Themes May – Games ( The Olympics, Greece). June – Summer.

Questions?