Weekly update

Weekly update
Week beginning 22nd May 2006

Be prepared for very tired children this week! We have an action packed four days ahead of us. I had so many ideas for this week I am going to try and cram everything into four days! So here goes.

In Communication, Langauge and Literacy, the children are continuing working on the non-fiction texts. They have amazed us with their understanding of the use of a contents pages and how it is used. We are going to now move to placing an emphasis on writing this week. Each child is to be given a photograph of a minibeast. They will use a series of questions to help them write a caption to match the photograph. We will then publish our writing to make a non-fiction book to share with others, complete with a contents page.

We will continue to work on developing spelling and reading. Our big push is on high frequency words and blending sounds together. You may wish to visit the following websites:
www.ictgames.com/cluster.html
www.ictgames.com/machine.html - this site is familiar to the children as we use it all the time in class. The emphasis is on blending the sounds together to help them read the word to match the picture.

Mathematical Development.
No wonder it took me so long to do my planning this week as I spent ages playing on the fantastic websites to help support the learning in class.
This week we are looking at a mixture of learning objectives:
to share a set of objects equally;
to consolidate the children's understanding of subtraction;
to use coins to purchase goods in the flower shop;
to compare sets of objects;
The class target for this week is to be able to count in tens to 100. Below is a little rhyme you may wish to use to help your child achieve the class target.
Centipede had lots of legs,
To climb up garden walls.
They stop him from falling off,
He counts them as he crawls.
10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100.
Websites you may wish to visit are:
www.toonuniversity.com/flash.asp?err=513&engine=12 - this is a great site. The children have to help Duck Von Fly get to his destination quicker by clicking on the cloud with the correct answer to the subtraction question.
www.scweb4free.com/elemsub.html - you have to look at the two red balloons and subtract one from the other. Then click on the green balloon which holds the answer.
www.primarygames.com/takeaway/questions%201.htm - the children must work out the subtraction but they have four choices for the answers.
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/numbers/chi.shtml - click on Hoot the Owl for subtraction games.
www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/subtractiontest.html - the children work out the answer and type in the number. They can check their answer.

We are teaching the children to play dominoes also this week so you may want to have a game at home.

I bet you are all wondering about those Smartie plants! Well, the children have completed their third reording of the growth of their plant and we should see some smarties appear this week!

We will also be investigating other minibeasts and setting up an area to attract minibeasts for our minibeast hunt in the first week back after the holidays.

Of course there are lots of other fabulous activities planned. There will be no handwriting homework this week.

Many thanks
Jayne Narraway x

Weekly update

Week beginning 15th May 2006

First of all thank you to all the children last week who were tremendously helpful in preparing for our new intake induction evening. I was so proud of them and our parents for next year were very impressed with the work they saw in the classroom, especially the models they created in teams.

This week we will be looking at minibeasts - ladybirds, beetles, spiders!!! etc. We will be using an electronic big book I have created which will review the work we have already done on non-fiction texts. The children will be reminded of the following features of a non-fiction texts:
They give us information and do not have be read from start to finish - you just 'dip' into them;
They have photographs rather than illustrations;
They have a contents page which guides you to the page you will find the information on;
Pages have a heading, photograph and a caption which explains the photograph;
You have to ask yourself a question to be able to find the answer.
It would be really useful to make a trip to your local library and select non-fiction texts to share with your child to support the work we are doing in class.

The children will go onto writing their own captions to create a class big book of our very own. To extend this even further, in Creative Development, the children will be doing some papier mache balloons in order to use later to create a minibeast of their choice. A very messy week!! We would appreciate any old newspapers for our papier mache.

To further enhance this experience they will be investigating which musical instruments reflect the minibeasts hey have been studying.

There are a few great websites you can visit to support this fantastic topic. Some do require and adult to help them but they would enjoy them.
www.sycd.co.uk
www.ers.north-ayrshire.gov.uk/minibeasts.html
www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/wwww/living/kids.shtml - on this site there are a range of different activities for the children to do.
www.highlandschools-virtualib.org.uk/primary_curriculum/minibeasts.htm

For the rest of this half term we are going to be having an enormous push on high frequency words. Please can I draw your attention to the following websites which you can use to help your child.
www.ictgames.com/plankgameR.html - this is a game which looks at the Reception words only;
www.ictgames.com/plankgame.html - this is the same game but with the Year1 and 2 words;
www.ictgames.com/wordreader.html - this is a lovely website but beware as the words range from Reception to Year 2 words;
www.ictgames.com/lcwc.html - this is a look, cover, write, check approach to spelling high frequency words. You can type in your own words to play with.
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/hfwords/index.shtml - this site has other links to phonic activities.

In Mathematical Development the children will be continuing to look at doubling and consolidating their understanding of addition. The websites I gave you last week for these concepts will be just fine. The more they play on them the quicker their mental recall will be.

In Knowledge and Understanding of the World, the children will be continuing to record the growth of their 'Smartie' tree. Will they ever grow Smarties on them???? Wait and see! The children will also be reviewing some of their previous learning since September.

This looks like another exciting and busy week!

Please could I also remind you to send a sun hat and sun cream if we are blessed with sunshine. Please remember to label them also.

Many thanks

Jayne Narraway x

Weekly update

Week beginning 8th May 2006

Hi there!
I hope you all enjoyed the sunshine!

This we we are continuing the work on Vincent Van Gogh. You may want to have a look at www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/art/artyfacts/vangogh/index.shtml where there is a selection of his painting online. It is quite a child friendly website but you will need to sit with your child to read the text. Last week, we created textured paper and mixed colours that can be foud in Van Gogh's Sunflower painting. We are to going to continue by creating our very own art work inspired by Van Gogh. Our classroom is to start the week off as an artist's studio and transform into an art gallery. We would like to invite you to 'drop in' and have a look around our classroom prior to the new intake meeting on Thursday evening. (Yes, I too can't believe it is a year since you were sat before me!) Your child will be more than happy to give you a guided tour.
I read a story to the children last week called Camille and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt. It is a story based around Van Gogh's works of art. They loved it!

We also completed a co-operative learning activity last week. The children worked in teams of four to make a model animal using junk materials. Each child in the team had a role to play, the boss, the photographer, the goffer and the motivator. The models they created are fantastic! The photographer took photographs at different stages of the creation. The photographs have been processed and they will use them this week to sequence and write instructions linked to their model. Again, this will be a team activity.

In Mathematical Development the children are reviewing addition and counting on. They will move onto applying it to doubling numbers. I've found this amazing website but you will need ear plugs!
http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/toftwood/robindoubles.html - I'll not explain it and leave it as a surprise...
A more relaxing one is:
http:/atschool.eduweb.co.uk/toftwood/bridgedoubles.html - this asks the children to double the number of boulders so that the car can cross the bridge.
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/numbers/ch1.shtml - this site is worth putting on your favourites as it supports the development of the children's mental recall of number bonds for addition and subtraction.

In Knowledge and Understanding of the World, the children will complete their investigations. They will look at the effects of no water or sunlight on the seeds they grew. They will record their findings. In addition to this, they will chart the growth of their own 'Smartie' plant in thier very own zig zag book.

If the weather is as nice as it was last week, please can you remember to send your child in with a sun hat.

Thanks

Jayne Narraway x