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
Newsletters | Comment (0)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?
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?
Newsletter- week ending 1st May
Dear parents/carers,
This week in English we have been looking at two books by Neil Gaiman, “The Wolves in the Walls” and “The Day I swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish”. The children have compared the two books, finding similar things which give us an insight into Neil Gaiman’s style as an author. Next, we talked about our reading preferences and wrote a short book review of one of Neil Gaiman’s books. Next week we will be looking at the features of letters, including formal and informal writing. We will then be writing a letter to a real author, asking questions. We tried this last year and many children received replies!
In maths this week we have looked at problem solving through estimation and trial and improvement. We’ve also briefly touched on solving one and two step word problems. I’d like to spend more time next week looking at word problems, as this seems to be an area which many children are finding difficult. We’re going to look at ways of establishing which operation we need to use, and then how to actually solve the problem.
The trip to the Botanic Gardens this week was a great success. Thank you very much to the lovely mums who gave up their time to come with us, it was much appreciated. The children were incredibly well behaved and we learnt a great deal about plants and habitats. We also did brilliantly with the Waste Free Lunch Challenge, making less than 5g of waste. I shall put some photos of some of the plants that we looked at up on the blog soon.
My year 3 children will be swimming next week, but my year 2 children won’t as we need to spend some time doing some extra writing. The year 2s will be swimming as usual the week after (the 13th).
Congratulations to Harry and Rhian who won my paper cube competition. Elliot and Martha were highly commended, as their cubes were very close in size too.
This week I’ve sent out instructions for the next homework project, due in just before half term. The children should now have an idea of the sort of habitat that they would like to make. Please make sure that your child talks to me if they have any questions or need any resources, I do have some sand and gravel, and might be able to help with other things too.
Enjoy the bank holiday weekend!
Mrs B
Three things to ask your child this week:
1 What was your favourite thing about our trip to the Botanic Gardens?
2 What did you like best about the Neil Gaiman books that you read this week?
3 How do we make good estimates?
Newsletter- week ending 24th April
Dear parents/carers,
I hope that you had a lovely Easter break. The children have returned to school rested and ready to work hard this summer term.
In English this week we have looked at information texts as an introduction to our Australia topic. In pairs, the children have researched an aspect of Australia (from wombats to clothing) and created their own information book about it. They’ve done a wonderful job, including titles, subtitles, introductory sentences, photos and captions. I was really pleased that they avoided using any story language and wrote in a very factual tone. Next week we will be starting a new topic looking at an author and their work, as well as giving our recommendations and book reviews.
In maths this week he have looked at partitioning- that’s splitting larger numbers up into more manageable chunks. We’ve also briefly looked at rounding and estimating. Next week we will be looking at solving number problems, using some nifty IWB software which we have just purchased.
I have sent out some homework sheets this week- I know this isn’t my usual modus operandi, but I had some aspects of both maths and English that I wanted to check. The year 2 children have three pieces of homework- one short piece of writing about a character, a quick maths paper (to be done on their own please) and a maths challenge. I’ve told the children that if they can’t do any of the questions on the maths paper to skip them. Year 3 children also have the maths challenge, as well as a sheet about rounding, because I just wanted to check that they are all secure with this. The maths challenge is to create the biggest cube possible from one piece of A4 paper. I’ve given the children the cube problem as I am looking to run a maths club over the rest of the year, which will be investigating problems like this, and I’m looking for some likely candidates! Please feel free to give your child a hand with this if they need it. As always, if there are any problems please let me know. All of the maths homework is due in next Friday, the 1st of May.
I will be setting the next homework project early next week, based around our science topic about habitats. More information will be available soon!
Please don’t forget that we are going on our class trip to the University of Oxford Botanic Gardens next Wednesday. There will be no swimming that day so I will be doing outdoor PE a couple of times that week to make up for it. Please make sure that your children have PE kits in school.
Mrs B
Three things to ask your child this week:
1 What sort of things do you find in information books that you don’t find in story books?
2 How can you identify the trees on the school field?
3 What do you already know about Australia? What would you like to know?
