Weekly update 19th June 2006

Week beginning 19th June 2006

Thank you to all the children for being so sensible and caring when our children for September came in last week. It was a real success and we are really proud of them all. The Year 1 teachers were thrilled at how well behaved and hard working the children were. Thank you.

Communication, Language and Literacy
This week we are beginning to look at traditional stories. We are going to begin this week with Jack and the Beanstalk. Traditional stories are fantastic and I am sure you remember them being read to you as a child. Sadly, more and more children are not having experience of these stories early on in their lives. Therefore, we are on a mission! You could support your child by reading as many traditional stories as possible with them. The stories do have common themes: the triump of good over evil/bad, a goodie and a baddie, the significance of the number 3, in the original versions(not disney) Cinderella goes to the ball three times. When sharing the stories with your child perhaps you could talk about these features.

The children will be sequencing pictures of the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, matching captions to the pictures to support their reading, and some children will be retelling the story using the pictures as a guide both orally and in their writing. Drama will feature strongly over the next few weeks as the traditional stories often lead to some amusing role-plays, with most children wanting to be the baddie!

If you would like to have a look at some traditional stories on the internet, try the following websites:
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/stories/gingerbread1.htm
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/english/story_telling/index.htm

However, nothing can beat a visit to the local library.

Mathematical Development
In Mathematical Development we are continuing with 2d and 3d shapes as we didn't manage to complete the plans from last week. Therefore, please refer to last week's blogspot for websites to support your child. The main focus though for this week is the mathematical langauge used to describe the properties of the shapes e.g sides, corners, curved and straight, etc.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World
The children will be completing a number of review tasks linked to the topics that have already been taught. This is to enable us to collect more evidence of the children's attainment in this area of learning before submitting the results to the Local Education Authourity. We will be mainly focusing on exploring differences and similarities between materials and living things, identifying likes and dislikes about the natural environment, asking questions about why things happen and how things work, and identifying uses of technology in everyday life as well as learning how to programme an electronic toy. Sounds fab!!

Creative development
You may have noticed but this is my favourite area of learning! This week we are preparing our artists for their exhibition on the 28th June. The children will be creating a piece of art that will be framed and on sale for you to purchase. On 28th June, in the school hall, every child in the school will have their art work displayed in the hall. You can purchase them at a reasonable rate and the best bit is that a small percentage of the profits are given to school. Just another excuse to get the paint and glitter out but I like it!!

Physical Development
We will be preparing for Sports day this week. The children perform a running race, a balancing race and a skipping race. We have a great time! Please ensure that your child has their PE kit in school, complete with pumps that fit. The children will need a sunhat, suncream and a drinks bottle for their own protection and safety.

Just in case you may need to book off work, or you have misplaced the holiday list, the Sports day for the infants is on Tuesday 4th July in the afternoon. If it should rain on this day then it will the next day at the same time.

Class Target
In preparation for the children going into Year 1 we are having a real push on the children learning to write their full name. Some children can do this but lets aim for 100%.

I think that that is it for this week!

Take care and I'll see you soon

Best wishes

Jayne Narraway x