We have an English lesson every day. An ongoing
focus all term will be developing phonic skills, spelling
SStarlings
patterns
and rules. Each day I start lessons with a
‘Word of the day’ where children identify features of a
word and discuss / share strategies for remembering
it. We also practise reading real and pseudo words
using all the
vowels
e.g. pram,
prem,
prom and
I have
a range
of games
thatprim,
the childr
prum. One focus for the term will be the rules around
pluralising nouns e.g adding es, ies, ves etc. I will be
practising and reinforcing all the strategies required
for tackling unknown words for reading and spelling.
Reading is taught throughout English lessons and
children will also read at least once a week in their
reading groups. The text type for the term is recount
which is a retelling of an event. Teaching will focus on
the features of this text type (saying when, where and
why the event happened along with who was with
them and a feeling at the end.) Input and teaching will
also include work on sentence construction,
punctuation, and tenses. In writing the children will be
encouraged to use a range of connectives to join their
ideas (not repeated ‘and then’) and to extend their
written vocabulary with interesting words and
description.
There will be three sessions of
handwriting each week when I will be teaching both
formation and joining letters in the ‘c’ family (c o a g d
q) and we have a weekly dictation session.
There will be three sessions of handwriting each week
Each week we have two P.E. sessions (Monday and
when I will be teaching both formation and joining
Thursday). Outdoor lessons will focus on multi-skills
letters in the ‘c’ family (c o a g d q).
and will involve a range of activities that develop
balance, agility and co-ordination. In gymnastics this
term the class will be taught by our sports coach Mr
Murphy. These lessons will involve floor work on the
theme of balances.
The focus in R.E is ‘Christianity’ and asks the question:
‘What did Jesus teach? The sessions will involve
discussing Bible stories and considering if it’s possible
to be kind to everyone all the time.
Starlings
Term 1 – 2015 - 2016
In Science the topic is ‘Living things and their habitats’.
This will involve learning about the seven life
processes of all living organisms (movement,
reproduction,
sensitivity,
nutrition, excretion,
respiration and growth). Understanding how these
relate to plants is not easy. We will start by identifying
the characteristics of things that are living, dead and
have never been alive. The children will be looking at
living things in the school environment and will learn
about the needs of all animals and plants. We will
discuss and share how they look after any pets and
younger siblings at home. The topic then moves on to
investigating habitats and how these provide for the
needs of whatever is living there.
The topic this term is ‘The Enchanted Wood’ and we
will be revisiting my childhood and listening to the
story by Enid Blyton. We will start the topic with a
hunt for ‘mysterious creatures’ in the school’s wooded
area. (I have a selection of dragons and fairies to hide.)
The main subjects covered are Design Technology and
Art. The children will be drawing fantasy creatures
and settings and designing and building dens in the
wooded area. They will also be producing art with
natural materials. Geography activities will involve
using and drawing maps. Towards the end of the term
I shall be taking the class to some woods in the town.
The focus in computing will be developing word
processing and keyboard skills. The children will
create, save, retrieve, edit and print their work. We
will also be changing the font type, colour and size.
We will be using other programs to support learning in
English and Maths and will be using the internet to
support our topic work.
There is a daily Maths lesson with most lessons this
term being number based. These will involve counting,
ordering and writing numbers to at least 100 with a
focus on place value. Children will be partitioning 2
and 3 digit numbers into HTU and using this in a range
of calculations e.g. adding onto a multiple of ten ( 80 +
6 = 86) and using this for subtraction (86 – 6 = 80 and
86 – 80 = 6). There will be a focus on number facts and
the children will work on pairs of numbers that total 10
and 20 and adding all pairs of single digit numbers. I
will be testing the children and will send home a list of
+ and -facts that they need to learn, along with data on
how your child did in relation to the rest of the class.
Work on multiplication will involve counting in twos,
fives, tens and hundreds. A priority for the term will
be on using all these number facts to solve worded
problems, e.g. Billy has twice as many sweets as his
brother Harry. If Harry has four sweets how many do
they have altogether? Year two children often find
these two part problems difficult. An objective new to
Year Two is reading and using greater than and less
than signs (< >). There will be a focus on money which
will involve all coins using + and -. Other areas of
Maths we will be covering include sorting on different
diagrams and collecting and displaying data that arises
as part of our topic and science work. I will be starting
with lessons on odd and even numbers because it was
very tricky during change over days.
The theme for P.S.H.E is ‘Our Happy School’. This aims
to settle the children into a new class and help them
contribute to shaping a welcoming, safe and fair
learning environment. We will be discussing and
agreeing what rules and expectations we want in the
class and what we can all do to help each other.
French is taught by Madam Webber for a 30 minute
session on Tuesday mornings. These sessions promote
familiarity and confidence in French and involve
question and answer activities, songs and games.