Newsletter- week ending 17th June

Dear parents and carers,

I just wanted to say an enormous thank you for all of the very thoughtful and generous gifts that I have received today. I shall be spending the Mothercare voucher on a baby monitor and some clothes.

I’d also like to say thank you for all of your help and support this year. I have particularly appreciated the time that the reading helpers have given to the class, as this has really helped the children to improve their reading skills.

This week the children have been working on a large art book project. They have really enjoyed being able to work on an individual project with plenty of scope, as well as having the chance to try some different materials. I was incredibly impressed with the high standard of the work that they produced. They had really thought about different colours, textures and materials to create their own individual masterpiece.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with class 3 this year. Every single child has worked really hard and I have loved being their teacher. Some of the children have been with me for two years, so it’s going to be very strange in September to not have them around! I will be popping into school from time to time so I’m sure that you will see me soon. Baby Barker is due at the end of August, so you might see me at the start of term with a new born!

Have a wonderful summer with your children.

Mrs B

Newsletter- week ending 10th July

Dear parents/carers,

In English this week we have been looking at puns and wordplay in poetry. The children particularly enjoyed Andrew Fusek Peters’ “Hey Diddle Diddle”. We looked at why this poem was funny and studied the structure so that we could write our own versions with a partner. Then we studied the John Hegley poem “Emergensea”, looking at the way that the poet has made up new rhyming words. The children each then wrote their own animal poem. The poems were hilarious, and the children all did a brilliant job.

In maths this week we have recapped some of our favourite methods for adding and subtracting. The children have mainly been using partitioning (splitting a larger number up into hundreds, tens and units) to make larger numbers easier to deal with. Next week we’ll have a quick recap on multiplication and division methods.

Next week we will be working on an art project about books. We will be making our own artistic books based on our environment. I went on a course about this a few weeks ago and it was brilliant, so I’m hoping that the children will really enjoy it too.

Reports are coming out tonight, and I hope that you’re as pleased as I am with your children’s progress this year. They have all worked very hard and I am extremely proud of all of them. I’m really going to miss them!

I also hope that you enjoyed seeing “Hoodwinked” this week. I was very impressed with how well my class did in their first speaking roles. Thank you to all of you for your help, especially with costumes.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:
1 What’s your favourite method for taking away?
2 What happened to the octopus?
3 How do you lay a table?

Newsletter- week ending 3rd July

Dear parents/carers,

Another short note this week as I’m writing this while the children are working!

This week we have been very busy rehearsing our play. The children have worked extremely hard to learn their lines and song words and they are doing a wonderful job. I hope to see you all at one of the performances next week. I’d like to say a big thank you to all of the parents/grandparents who have been involved with making costumes. They look great!

The current Met Office forecast is for sunny spells this evening so it looks like the sports evening will be going ahead! I’m making a small change to the organisation this year. The children in my class must carry their chair back to the school before they will be released to you. Last year the staff spent quite a long time carrying piles of chairs back to the school, and obviously this isn’t something that I’m going to be able to do this year. I promise that it won’t take long! Thanks in advance for your understanding about this.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:
1 What’s the most difficult thing bout learning the guitar?
2 What was your favourite thing about your new teacher?
3 Which is your favourite part of the play, and why?

Newsletter- week ending 26th June

Dear parents/carers,

I am still in the middle of report writing so it’s just a quick update this week.

Our recent English film projects are now finished and have been entered into the Oxfordshire ICT team GRAFTAs competition. The children did a fantastic job and the results were very impressive indeed.

Our play rehearsals are in full swing, and the children have worked very hard to learn their lines and songwords. Next week we will need the children to have their costumes, and we’ll be practicing frequently in order to make it even more polished. This does mean that our schedule has to become rather flexible, but normal service will be resumed afterwards.

There are a number of other things happening next week- Thursday morning is our “Icebreaker Morning”, where your children will spend some time getting to know their new teacher. Friday evening is our Sports Evening, which all children must attend.

It was lovely to see so many parents and grandparents at the Open Day yesterday, I hope that you enjoyed seeing a selection of the children’s work. They really have worked very hard this year and I am immensely proud of them all.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:
1 What do you like best about being in the play?
2 What did you do in your film project?
3 How can you use a spinner to investigate friction?

Newsletter- week ending 12th June

Dear parents/carers,

In our English lessons this week the children have been devising and writing their own short scripts, as part of our work on dialogue and plays. Their ideas are very imaginative! We’ve looked at the features of a playscript and the children have been using these to write their own scripts. Next week we will be filming the plays and editing them, with a view to entering the short films into the ICT Team “Graftas” competition. This has given the children’s work a real purpose, which I think has encouraged them to create some brilliant scripts.

In our maths lessons this week we’ve been looking at measuring length and mass. The children have estimated in metres, centimetres, grams and kilograms, and compared their estimates with measures to see how accurate they were. The children found it most difficult to estimate heavier weights, but they were very competent on the whole with length. Next week we will be continuing with measuring by looking at measuring liquids in litres and millilitres, and then we will be looking at solving some measures based problems.

In science this week the children have planned their own investigation into how friction affects surfaces. Next week we will be carrying out the investigation, and I look forward to seeing the results!

I’m really pleased with how well our topic work is going. The children are working in groups on some wonderful Aboriginal Australian style paintings, each of which tell a story that they have devised themselves. The quality of work is really high, but I’ve been most impressed at how well the children have worked together on this project. I’m hoping that we will finish the paintings this week. We’ll be doing some more art when our visiting artist comes into school next week.

Rehearsals for the school play have started and are going to continue over the next couple of weeks. We’re very lucky this year as all of my year 3 children have a speaking part, so please encourage your children to learn not only their lines, but the cue line that comes before it. Soon we’ll be sending out letters about costumes, so please keep an eye on book bags for that information.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:
1 What does a kg feel like?
2 Is it more difficult to write a story or a script? Why?
3 How do Aboriginal style paintings tell a story?

Newsletter- week ending 5th June

Dear parents/carers,

In English this week we have been looking at different ways of writing dialogue. We’ve explored speech bubbles, speech in prose using speech marks, and also looked briefly at play scripts. This work has culminated in the children writing their own chapters of “The Twits”. Next week we will be starting a project to write and record our own play scripts. The children will be able to film and edit their scripts, and then enter the completed films into the local ICT team competition. We’ve already have a bit of a think about what we could do, and the children are coming up with some fantastic ideas!

In maths we’ve been looking at charts and graphs, particularly interpreting the information on graphs and asking questions about the information. The children have also used Excel to make their own graphs. Next week we will be looking at measuring, including reading scales and looking at the relationship between different units.

In science we’ve started a new topic on friction. This week I asked the children to tell me what they already knew about friction, which they generally found difficult. Next week we will be doing some experiments to try and work out what friction actually is and how different surfaces affect friction.

I was really thrilled to be awarded a distinction in my category at the Teaching Awards this week. As I am still a very new teacher I wasn’t even expecting to get that far, so to also receive a distinction was a real honour. I’d like to say a big thank you to Mr and Mrs Tyack for nominating me. The gentleman who won had been nominated by a colleague at a software company, so to be nominated by a parent was really special. Thank you also to everyone for your congratulations.

Next week is going to be very busy. We start rehearsals for the school play, as well as continuing to perfect our May/Junepole dance for the performance on Thursday afternoon. I’m hoping that the weather improves before then, or else we shall be very soggy!

I’m also pleased to say that our guitar lessons have restarted. These will be taking place on a Tuesday morning for about half an hour.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:
1 How is speech in a playscript different to speech in a story?
2 Why are graphs useful?
3 What are you going to draw in your aboriginal art project?

Swimming

Just a quick reminder that my year 2s are *not* swimming tomorrow (20th May). My year 3s are swimming, but it will be their last visit to the pool this year.

Newsletter- week ending 15th May

Dear parents/carers,

This week in English we have been writing our letters to our favourite authors. The children have either written their letters up in their very best handwriting, or used the laptops to word process their work. The letters are really wonderful and I am pleased how the children have used a formal tone and arranged their work in paragraphs.

In maths we’ve had a look at halving and quartering 2d and 3d shapes, as well as finding halves, quarters and three quarters of numbers. Part of this has involved looking at word problems, as well as practical problems involving perspex 3d shapes and sand.

In science this week we have created animals for either rainforest or desert habitats using the “Creature Creator” part of the computer game “Spore”. The children not only designed the animals but had to explain how the animal was adapted to its environment. For example, the desert animal had spread out claws to take its weight on soft sand, and the rainforest creatures were camouflaged to make it more difficult for predators to find them.

Next week is our final assessment week of the year. Both year 2 and year 3 will be involved in reading, writing and maths assessments. Please do not worry about these tests, they’re used to help me check that my ongoing assessment of your child’s progress is accurate. I tell the children that they can worry about assessment week when I look worried- and I’m not at all worried! As it is assessment week, my lovely reading mums are entitled to a well deserved week off.

On the 3rd of June I will be going to Winchester for the regional finals of the National Teaching Awards. As I have three extra tickets I have decided to take Mrs Watts and two children from my class. I wish that I could take the entire class, as they all deserve recognition for their hard work. In order to choose which two children to take I asked the children to write a letter, explaining why I should take them. The standard of letters was very high, and I really found the decision incredibly difficult. I have decided that Rhys and Matthew wrote the most persuasive letters, so they will be coming with me on the day.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:
1 How can we fill half of a pyramid or a sphere with sand?
2 How are desert or rainforest animals and plants adapted to their habitats?
3 Why is the story of Joseph and his brothers about forgiveness?

Newsletter- week ending 8th May

Dear parents/carers,

In English this week we have been looking at letter writing, particularly the differences between formal and informal letters. We’ve been careful to make sure that informal doesn’t end up as rude! We have also looked at which author we want to write to next week, and done a little bit of research on them. This included thinking of some really good questions to ask. Next week we will be writing our letters, posting them off and hoping that we receive replies!

My year two children have been doing some independent writing this week for their end of keystage 1 assessment. The rest of the assessments will take place in the week before half term. Please make sure that your child is in school that week, as it will really throw a spanner in the works if they miss anything.

In maths this week we have been looking at one and two step word problems. This is something that the children tend to have a bit of a brain freeze over, so I wanted to make sure that we did plenty of extra work in this area. The children are now feeling much more confident that they can solve word problems effectively. Next week we’re going to be looking at quarters and fractions.

In science this week we have been looking at Australian habitats, and imagining what sorts of creatures might live in certain unexplored habitats. We’ve started using the creature creator section of the videogame “Spore” to create our animals. We’ve also looked briefly at camouflage in insects, by attempting to hide a butterfly on some wrapping paper. Next week we will be continuing to create our animals and plants that are adapted for certain kinds of habitat.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:
1 How might an animal that lives in the desert be different to an animal that lives in the rainforest?
2 What’s the difference between an informal and a formal letter?
3 What steps do we need to take to solve a word problem?

University of Oxford Botanic Gardens

We had a wonderful trip to the Botanic Gardens last week, here are some of my favourite photographs from the day.