Term 5 & 6 Newsletter – Class 1

Kenya
Bug Hunters

Dear Class 1 Parents,

We hope you have all had a wonderful Easter break. Our main theme for Term 5 is ‘Kenya’ and Term 6 is ‘We’re Going on a Bug Hunt’. We have lots of exciting learning opportunities planned for the children.

If you have any queries or questions, please do not hesitate to come and speak to either of us after school or email us at sbooth@blackboys.e-sussex.sch.uk or jnobes@blackboys.e-sussex.sch.uk.

Many thanks,

Mrs Booth and Mrs Nobes

Literacy

The children will be exploring African animals and insect themes through fiction and non-fiction books. Our focus for Reception children is to build on their confidence to enable them to use their phonics knowledge in their independent reading and writing. Year 1 writing focus will be on persuasive letter writing, stories, poetry and explanations about life cycles. Year 1 children will also be extending their understanding of punctuation, grammar and vocabulary.

These are some of the books we will be sharing in class:
Little Red and Hungry Lion
Non-fiction African animals
Handa’s Surprise
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Bad-Tempered Ladybird
Mad About Minibeasts
Superworm

and many, many more!

Mathematics

Through the use of practical maths sessions, in which we will promote the use of a wide range of concrete apparatus, the children will be covering the following objectives:

Please remember to make the most of our online maths learning platform ‘Numbots’. Using this will give your child the chance to develop and consolidate their maths skills. Please let us know if you would like another copy of their log in details.

Computing

Reception children will be using a Bee-Bot to learn about simple sequences of instructions and programming. Year 1 children will be looking at games to predict algorithms and understand what debugging is.

If you would like to find out more about what your child will be learning please look at the curriculum map on the Class 1 webpage.

Geography

The children will be locating Kenya on a world map and identifying the seven continents and five oceans in the world. The children will learn about the human and physical features in the UK and Kenya. They will also have the opportunity to draw their own maps of different routes.

Forest School

Forest school will continue run on a Monday afternoon. The children will attend fortnightly, please see the new rota for details of the dates for your child to attend.

PE Kits & Uniform

Our P.E. lessons are on Tuesday morning and Friday afternoons. Please make sure your child has their full P.E. kit and it is clearly named- thank you.

Please check that your child’s uniform is clearly labelled with their name. Many thanks.

Reading

Please can read as much possible with your child. Remember to discuss the book, pick out favourite words, retell the story and make the reading fun!

The children will continue to bring home a Monster Phonic book that they can read by themselves using their phonics skills. These books will be changed every Friday.

The children will also have a story book sent home on a Monday that is a sharing book for you to read to your child. The children will have the opportunity to share this story in our guided reading session on a Monday.

May we also remind you to fill in the reading record when you have read with your child.

Science

We will be naming the parts of our body and finding out about our senses. We will be doing lots of learning outside and observing the insects and animals in our role play areas as a safari centre and minibeast investigation area! In term 6 we will be looking at the life cycle of a butterfly and observing caterpillars growing in our classroom! The children will also be pond dipping in our very own school pond and going on minibeast hunts!

Phonics

All children will be continuing their daily phonics sessions. Please do continue to help your child practice reading and writing the sounds from their appropriate stage. The reception children will be using the letter sounds they have learnt to read CCVC and CVCC words and captions in phonics and the Year 1 children will continue to extend their knowledge of alternative spellings of letter sounds.

RE

We will be learning, which places are special and why? Places that are special to them and places that special to Christians and Muslims. In term 6 we will explore the question ‘which stories are special and why?’

Design & Technology

The children will be tasting a variety of sandwiches and talking about what makes a good tasty filling. They will then design, make and evaluate a healthy sandwich.

Educational Visit

We have organised a visit in term 6 to Wakehurst Place in Ardingly to support our learning about mini-beasts. A letter will be sent out about all the details nearer the time.

Year 1 Homework

The children will continue to have a weekly Maths and English task to complete. Homework books will be given out on a Friday and need to be handed in on a Thursday morning.

Wanted

Could we ask for any donations of any doll’s clothes and baby dolls if you have them to supplement the items with currently have?

Water Bottles and Sun Hats

Hopefully the weather will start to get warmer so please can we ask that your child brings a named bottle of water to drink in class. A named sun hat is also useful to have in school on particularly bright days, so that should we go outside for any long periods of time, these can be worn.