Windmill Class
WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL.
We are so pleased to see you all!
Our school value this term is...
Community
Hello Everyone,
Welcome to Windmill Class. The adults working with your children are Mrs Ball, Mrs Chapman and Mr Gibbons. Mrs Sinclair will be teaching science and music to the class on Thursday afternoons. We have already made a great start to the year, gelling together as a class community. We all know that things are a bit different this year but we are determined to have a safe and happy class where we can learn together in the best way we can.
Information will be added to the website every week so please keep an eye on what is happening. This is our way of communicating with you in addition to the texting service used for short messages. As we can no longer use the daily communication boards outside the classroom, an outline of learning for the week ahead will be available on our Learning page starting Monday 21st September.
If you have any questions or need to share information with us, please get in touch by calling or emailing the school office.
Here is some useful information to ensure that we are all prepared and ready for learning every day.
Reading
Please read with your child for a short time five times each week and sign and date the reading diary. It is so important that we are able to keep track of the amount of reading your child is doing and if the book isn't signed we don't know if they have read or not or if the reading book needs to be changed. There will be an acknowledgement when children read regularly and frequently and this will be celebrated in class. Remember that all kinds of reading counts, for example, reading a couple of pages of a favourite book at bedtime or reading from a children's website such as CBBC and remember the different genres including poems, encyclopedia, comics and so on, any kind of reading counts and can be recorded in the reading diary. A class reading challenge will be on our class Learning page soon and the activities on it will also count towards the five times weekly reading when they are recorded in the reading diary.
Your child's reading book and diary need to be in school everyday and should be kept in their bookbag in their drawer so it is available should we wish to read with them individually. Reading diaries will be checked on Friday mornings and books changed if they have been completed. If your child needs a new book before Friday, please let us know. You can give a message to Mrs Westerwijk at the gate or ask your child to tell us.
In class your child will read to an adult each week as part of a guided reading group. In class, we share books and poems at least twice each day and this is something that we all enjoy.
Spellings will be given on a Friday and there will be a low stakes check in on Thursdays. Spellings to learn at home will be given this Friday 18th September and stuck in their Home Learning books. These spellings are from the statutory spellings lists in the National curriculum. Spellings for the whole term will be available on our Learning page. There will be daily phonics/spelling lessons in class to learn new spelling patterns and rules.
Maths
It is so important for children to be fluent with number facts, including number bonds and times tables facts. There are many ways to practise number facts and information of how and what to practise can be found on our Learning page.
PE is on Mondays and Fridays. These sessions will be outside as long as the weather allows so please make sure your child comes to school in an outdoor PE kit (including trainers and jogging bottoms to save knees from grazes on the playground).
Home Learning
Just like last year there will be a grid of Home Learning activities based around the term's school value and links to this term's learning journey. The children will all have a Home Learning book to record their learning. This will also be a place for the weekly spellings and any other learning they do at home, for example maths number facts including times tables when they are introduced. The Home Learning Activity grid and book will be available from Friday 18th September on our Learning page. Learning Journey
During the first two weeks of this term the whole school's English learning is based on the book Here We Are- Notes for living on planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers. We are also using the Bounce Back Curriculum to settle every child back into school so they feel safe and happy to be here again. We have started maths lessons with place value to 100 for year 2 and to 1000 for year 3.
Keeping Children Safe Online- Top Tips
15 minute activities from THINKUKNOW (e-safety)
Looking after your child's mental well-being Ten Tips from the NHS
Corona Virus - A book for Children
North Somerset Library Service- ebooks for children and the Encyclopedia Britannica for children
Just2easy is a safe place online where your children can access a suite of ICT apps. Each child has their own login details and can save any learning they do into their own virtual folder. If you have any problems logging in please email me and I will send you the information you need.
Click this link to start exploring J2e.
Oxford Owl is a great resource with lots of free ebooks. We have a class login which I can let you have but it is easy to create your own free account if you'd like to start reading straight away.