WOMBWELL PARK STREET PRIMARY

Reception/Year 1- Brilliant Bumble Bees

Class Teacher - Miss Walker

Spring Term 2010 Newsletter

Autumn Term 2009 Newsletter

English: We will be investigating traditional tales, the content of the story and the language used. Children will recall events and characters, describe and explain the events that occur. Children will also build up a word bank to use when completing writing and stories themselves. We will also be looking at pattern and rhyme within poetry, how words rhyme and which sounds within the words that are the same.

• At home children can discuss any stories read, the characters, content, and sequence of events. Children would benefit from discussing connective and descriptive vocabulary. By encouraging children to develop their descriptive language you will encourage the depth children can add to their writing. Children need to be encouraged to sound out the words that they wish to spell. During any reading activities you complete please ask your children to use this skill. Children also need more input regarding capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. If children could practise these skills at home whenever possible this would be fantastic. Any opportunity you have to discuss rhyming words would be great, use both ‘real’ and ‘nonsense’ words, you could start a rhyming string and then let your child to continue by providing more rhyming words.

Numeracy: We are learning about number bonds, doubling and halving, calculating number facts and time. Children will be completing activities regarding number. Children will use their number knowledge to complete a variety of calculations. They will also begin to tell the time and identify when the clock is showing quarter past, half past and on the hour.

• At home, practise counting up to 20 and in 5’s and 10’s up to 100. Children are progressing in their counting but an extra input at home would be greatly appreciated. Children need to develop their understanding of subtraction, please encourage your child to develop this skill at home, this could be done during making tea or walking to school, using the items you see along the way. Children would also benefit from some input regarding money. Some children can identify the coins 1p - £1 however choosing the correct amount of money when asked is more difficult. Maybe let your child help you identify the coins in your purse/ pocket and give you different amounts.

Science: We will be investigating two main questions:
What is the same and what is different about the places where plants and animals live?
How are living things similar and how can I sort them into groups?

We will be using different methods to answer these questions, our Science topic will involve looking around the school ground including the nature reserve to find plants and animals that live and grow here. We will also grow our own plants and record their progress in a variety of ways, such as tables, graphs, illustration etc.

• At home, you can talk the plants and animals that you can see or that grow around your house. Children could also identify the animals that they see while in their local community and discuss the features they have that match them to this environment.

Topic: Our topic for this term is ‘Weather’. Within this topic we will be focusing on animals and plants and their habitats both in this country and around the world. We will also relate our continuous provision to our topic, therefore at the moment we have a ‘Winter Wonderland’ in one of our areas for children to access.

We will be arranging an education visit to support the learning across our topic and more details will be given when the arrangements have been finalised.

ICT: We are learning how to log onto the computers independently and access and use computer programmes purposefully. We will use our ICT skills to complete searches on the Internet. We will use ICT on a regular basis through all our topic and subject activities and this will integrated into our weekly activities.

At home, please make sure you are aware of what your child is accessing on the Internet and help us to reinforce Internet safety.

Our PE days are Monday and Friday. Please make sure children have black shorts, white t-shirt and pumps in line with the school policy. No jewellery to be worn, especially on these days. On Friday PE will be outside and children may bring a tracksuit and trainers in addition to their normal PE kit on that day.

Reading: Children will read in school a minimum of once a week. Books should be changed daily, please assist your children with this. Children are required to bring their reading books and reading records to school each day.

Homework will be set on a Friday if appropriate. Children will be required to find out information on certain subjects or events, or to make/design a piece of work to show their understanding of the topic we have covered that week.
Children will also receive spellings to learn over the weekend, please encourage you child to read and spell these words.

Brilliant Bumble Bees are pleased to welcome Mrs Barraclough into our class to support us on a morning throughout the school year. Mrs Greenhalgh will support in our class on an afternoon.