We would like to welcome you all back from a lovely summer holiday and we hope you have had a lovely break. The children have settled into school really well and we are very proud of them! Below you will find information for the first half term of 2019.

Learning Experience

The children will have the opportunity to get up close and personal with worms and discover what amazing creatures they are. The children have received a letter from a worm farmer who has challenged them to write their own worm stories and to create a wormery of their own! We are keen to help the children to build their understanding of worms and the vocabulary they use when talking about them so we will be explicitly teaching them the scientific language used. In order to create our wormeries, please could we ask that you bring in any old and unused clear plastic or glass bottles into school by Monday 16^th September. They may be handed to the teacher at drop off or pick up.

Rotation:

In RE we will be learning about special stories from Christianity and why they may be special to us. In Spanish, we will learn how to greet each other and in music we will learn the names of many of our school percussion instruments and play them keeping to a steady beat.

Outcome:

Please join us in our Environmental Area on Thursday 31^st October at 2:40pm to see our wormeries and read our stories.

Homework

Online maths challenge will be set for your child to complete, using a new website called ‘The Maths Shed’. Soon you will be provided with log in details and passwords in order for you to access this. This replaces MyMaths as a newer platform that promotes fluency of numbers. We ask that children play once a week but there is no limit! You will also be given log in details for ‘Sumdog’ and ‘Times-tables Rock Stars’. These are sites with helpful maths games for you to use with your children. We will send out details about how these sites can be accessed and there will be more information about these programs at the meet the teacher meeting next week. Your child will also bring reading books home weekly and we ask that they practice their reading daily to improve their decoding and fluency.

This half term’s focus School Value: Respect. The children will develop their respect for our environment.

Swimming this half term:

Snowy: Wednesdays, Little: Mondays, Tawny: Fridays.

MEET THE TEACHER: Unit 2 Parents meeting in Hall Tuesday 17^th September 2.45 – 3.15pm.

We have children in school with a nut allergy. Please ensure you do not pack food that contains nuts for snacks or lunches to help us keep everybody safe.

HOME LEARNING TASKS (please choose at least one). Please bring to school by Friday 4^th October

• Research into worms and bring your project in to share with the class.
• A poster about worms
• A food chain with details of what worms eat and their predators
• A painting or model of a worm.

We are really looking forward to a busy and exciting year ahead. If you wish to discuss anything further, please do not hesitate to contact us via the office or at pick up time.

Many thanks, Miss Pettitt, Mrs Braddon and Mrs Blatchford