Kingfishers

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to the second term from the Kingfisher Class.

From January to March, our new topic is Underground. We will be looking at all the different things we find right under our feet and exploring all the different things that happen underground.

The cross curriculum approach will develop from the book………‘What’s Under the Bed? By Mick Manning. The book’s colourful illustrations show the layers of underground, and communicates facts which will support the children’s learning over two weeks for each depth. We will use British sign language to help us recall the repeating pattern of text, and make booklets as a way of recording our learning of underground.

Our role play area will begin as a slice of the land Beneath our Street. Cardboard tubes will help construct the pipes, cables and wires found under us and how they supply us in everyday life. Masses of maths will be learnt in the processes and lots of communicating on walky-talkies will help make sure there’s no burst pipes or disconnections.

When we look at ‘Life Underground’, we’ll explore animals, minibeasts and their habitats; The vegetables that grow underground will be prepared and cooked then eaten as a stew,

As we travel deeper we’ll discover the ‘Underground Wonderland’ of caves; the history of them and the different materials they evolve from. The use of different art media will no doubt show off the stalagmites and stalactites which we’ll display on the wall.

An underground topic wouldn’t be the same without a visit down the mine. So, if you fancy helping when we go to the National Coal Mining Museum at Wakefield, please let me know. (A separate letter will be out soon about this)

The ‘Underground Treasures’ which we’ll discover throughout this topic will produce an interesting ‘Research Centre’, which will link with our science learning of natural or man-made materials.

Below and beyond, before we know it the term will be covered and we’ll be tidying up like the Wombles and going underground to rest for the next terms work. Hopefully the children will have lots of underground wonders to remember about life beneath us, which will be good foundations for their future ahead.

If you have any resources for this topic, such as unwanted, clean guttering, pipes or books we would be very interested in seeing them.

As always, we have an open-door policy for you to approach us if you have any queries or information to pass on.

P.E kits are needed on Mondays and Thursdays.

You can help support your child at home by reading regularly with them, practising their spellings or help them learn their maths in their number work book.

Don’t forget to look at the school website for other information such as, general events and the home school link.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Kind regards

Mrs Law, Miss Flower, Mrs Kerslake and Miss Mackey.

For current school events visit our facebook page. You do not have to have a facebook account just click here

KS1 Maths & English Workshop Presentations

KS1 English Workshop 2018

KS1 Maths Workshop 2018

Transition to KS1

You can help support your child at home by reading regularly with them, practising their spellings or help them learn their times tables for 10s, 5s 2s and 3s.

kingfisher

Photos

Home School Link

KS1 link letter 0918

Spelling

Dear Parents, Carers of KS1 children,

I am writing to give you some information regarding spelling in KS1.

This year we felt it was necessary to look at spelling across the school and so the teachers and support staff are carrying out some research in their classes to try and find the most effective way to teach spelling and for children to retain this knowledge.

In addition this year, we have a new National Curriculum which started in September 2014. Each year group has a bank of words to learn in that year. We have put this word list on the website and over the year (September to July) the teachers will be covering these.

Should you wish to help your child with these, they can be found on our website under the classes Kingfisher, Robins and Doves. Please feel free to have a look and download them.

Don’t try and learn them all at once!! You have all year. If your child knows all these words you can help them by getting them to put one of the words into a sentence. If they master this then challenge them to write a story using as many words from the list as they can.

If you have any difficulty finding them please give us a ring and we will try and help.

Phonics Screening Check

What is the Phonics screening check?

The phonics screening check is a short assessment to show whether children have learnt to sound out and read words to an appropriate standard.
It will take place in June 2014 and be done by the class teacher.
It includes a list of 40 words (20 real and 20 made up words which we refer to as ‘alien words’ because they come accompanied by a picture of an alien so the children know they are the made up words.
Last year children had to score 32 or more out of 40 to reach the expected level This year they are raising the pass mark but we do not know what to.
If children do not pass the test in Year 1 they will receive extra help from us and will take the test again in Year 2.
You can watch a short video of a child sounding out some of the words on the test here.
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/assessment/keystage1/a00200415/phonics
If you have any more questions there is a link below to a useful information page with everything else you might want to know:
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/pedagogy/a00198207/faqs-year-1-phonics-screening-check
We do phonics everyday in class where we learn all the sounds and read real and alien words but support at home will really help your child.

How can you help at home?

When reading with your child, ask your child to look for graphemes in words (2 or 3 letters which together make one sound). All the graphemes your child needs to know are on the ‘All the graphemes’ sheet attached.
Using the graphemes sheet, point out different graphemes and ask your child what sound they make. The children know actions for each sound so they could use these to help them too.
Encourage children to sound words out then blend these sounds together. Make sure children do not miss sounds out or add sounds in.
Ask children to invent their own alien words and design aliens to go with them.
Use the word cards to play pick the words and sort into real or alien piles.
Play games on the computer to read real and alien words.

Some useful links

www.phonicsplay.co.uk

click ‘free phonics play’

click phases 5

Choose game: Buried Treasure, Picnic on Pluto or Dragons Den

Click Phase 5 again

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/phonics/postcard/index.shtml

http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/kentict/content/games/literacy_menu.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/

All the graphemes

Real and Alien Words