A squad of 8 Year 5 children were chosen to represent Coundon Primary School at the ‘Values’ dodgeball event against 15 other schools. These values events aren’t about how well the children play the game, instead they focus on the respect, honesty and teamwork showed by the players. These judgements are made by the opposing team at the end of each match using a points system. Our squad played incredibly and represented the school well, unfortunately we didn’t make it to the next stage. The children still enjoyed themselves and were lucky to have had the opportunity to take part. Well done!
This week Year 2 went on a welly walk to Coundon Wedge to look for signs of autumn. We saw lots of beautiful leaves that had fallen from the trees, bare branches, a rushing river and mushrooms growing on logs, among many other things. We had a great time and were role models for our school when walking to and from the wedge.
This week we will continue with our topic of celebrations by looking at Bonfire night. We will be learning about Guy Fawkes and the reason for bonfire night. We will do a variety of crafts and activities linked to bonfire night and will be discussing bonfire night in relation to the other celebrations we know about. We will also focus on firework safety and how the children can stay safe when watching fireworks. Ask your child what they have learned about bonfire night and see if they can tell you some of the safety rules. Coundon Primary are hosting their own firework display on Monday the 4th of December so please contact the school office if you would like tom attend and join in with out celebrations.
The children have now been introduced to all of the set 1 single letter sounds. Please continue to practise these so that your child is confident with them. We are now focusing on blending to read. Put three of the cards together to make simple CVC words such as s-a-t and p-i-n. Can your child say each sound and then read the word? keep going through these activities to help your child become confident at blending words to read, On Friday your child will bring home a reading diary. Please look to see what activities have been set by your child’s Read Write Inc. teacher. Please get into the habit of doing the activities every night and signing the diary to record what your child has done. Below are some blending videos for you to watch with your child to help develop their blending skills.
This week in Maths we will be looking at both circles and triangles and their properties with a focus on number of sides/ edges to link with the number work already done. We will identify shapes in the environment and we will also be looking at position and direction with a focus on the mathematical language. Have a look at home for circles and triangles. Can your child identify any in their environment? What can they tell you about circles and triangles?
As we lead into the winter and the weather gets colder, ensure your child comes to school each day in a warm waterproof coat with a hood. We would also ask that your child brings in a hat and a pair of gloves. Please take the time to help your child learn how to put these on by themselves so they are not relying on an adult to do it for them. We also ask that when your child takes off their gloves and hat they put their gloves in their coat pocket and their hat in the sleeve of their coat before hanging it up. This allows them to access them easily when they need them as their bags are too difficult to get to on the coat pegs when they are all on there. Please can you make sure that ALL ITEMS are clearly named so we can return lost items to the right child.
Have a lovely week. We hope to see you on the 4th at our firework display.
Today Year 2 made some fruit kebabs in our Science lessons. We have been learning all about how to stay healthy, including healthy diets. We loved the delicious fruit kebabs, and it was great fun making them!
Please make sure that your child is accessing their weekly E-book and Book bag book during the week as this helps greatly with their fluency. The children will receive new reading homework every Friday and will then be expected to bring their books back on a Wednesday morning all completed with a short comment in their reading diaries. Thank you to all those who are already supporting us with this. Just to let you know, the children won’t be receiving a book bag book this week but the E-book and quiz will be set as normal.
Lots of our Year One children are now accessing our Maths App ‘Numbots’ which helps to consolidate what we learn in class. This is super! If your child hasn’t yet gone onto ‘Numbots’ their logging in details can be found in their reading diaries (1st page)
We are now checking their progress and it looks like we have lots of super mathematicians! Well done!
Spellings
Spellings are now in full flow and your child should have received a weekly spelling list from the teacher. As we come to the end of our first half term new spellings will be sent home for your child to learn.
The children have all worked so hard this first half term and we would like to say a big thankyou for all of your support so far. It was lovely to meet so many parents last week and look forward to the lead up to Christmas! We wish you all a great half term break.
This week we will begin our work on festivals. This is a topic that runs across the year looking at different festivals that are celebrated across our school community. This week we will be talking about the festival of Diwali, how it is celebrated and by whom. The children will be involved in a series of different activities ranging from making Rangoli and mehndi patters, making their own diva’s and tasting some Indian food. We will learn about the story of Rama and Sita and the children will have the opportunity to act this story out. This will form the basis of the children’s understanding of how festivals are celebrated and will be further enhanced as we celebrate other festivals over the coming months. The children love to share their new knowledge so ask them about what they have learned and what they can tell you about the festival of Diwali and how it is celebrated. If you and your family are celebrating Diwali over the half term break, we wish you a very happy celebration and would love for you to send in photos of your child celebrating Diwali so that we can add them to our class books. Please send in any photos or notes of how you have celebrated to [email protected] or [email protected]
Last week the children were assed in their phonics session and we are now sorting them into their new groups for after the half term break. Some children will move on to learn the next set of sounds where others will need to recap the sounds already taught before we move on to teach more new sounds. Please do not worry and begin comparing your child to others. We will teach your child what they need. We will now be having a focus on blending the sounds taught to read simple words such as s-a-t, t-o-p etc. Please do this as part of your reading work with your child. After the half term break your child will come home with a reading diary with a reading activity to do. Please do these activities every night and sign the diary to say what you have done and how your child got on. All reading diaries should then be returned on a Wednesday ready for staff to add new reading activities to go home on Friday. When your child is ready they will get login details for an online account where reading activities will be set for them. We will let you know more about this when your child is ready. below are the videos for the last few sounds learned
In Maths this week, the children will explore how numbers can be composed of 1s and, from this, begin to investigate the composition of 3 and 4. Composing and de-composing numbers involves children investigating part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2. The children will learn from practical experience that a ‘whole’ is made up of smaller parts and is, therefore, bigger than its parts. The children will have experience of subitising small quantities and will use their skills to identify the numbers within 3 and 4.They will begin to recognise that 3 and 4 can be made by combining sets in different ways. When children are able to compose and flexibly de-compose numbers mentally, they will become more fluent in their knowledge of number bonds, and be able to use these efficiently when calculating in KS1 and KS2. Can your child tell you how many there are up to 4 without the need to count? Can they tell you/ show you different ways to make an amount up to 4?
Over the last few weeks the children have been working hard at their independence. They have been set the challenge of putting on their own shoes and coats and most children can now do up their own coat. Please continue this at home and allow the children the time to foster their own independence by allowing them to dress themselves and getting their own shoes and coats on when they are going out. Try to continue going over the sounds that have been sent home so that they do not loose any of their learning over the break. Once the children have had a week at home they may get upset again about coming back in to school. This is completely normal after a break (think how you feel going back to work after a holiday) so don’t worry that there is something wrong.
It was lovely to meet so many of you last week at parents evening. Thank you for taking the time to come and chat about your child. We hope you have a lovely half term break and that the children get recharged for the term ahead.
This week, many of the year 5 pupils took part in a range of activities. In Maths, we had a scavenger hunt for clues to find numbers. We then had to work out sums to find the solutions – some of the clues were really hard to find. We produced an art pallet using different media after exploring leaves and trees. Following this, we had our own leaf slide show exploring the many beautiful colours in our natural environment. In English, we debated the pros and cons of ‘Cycle lanes versus trees!’. We finished the two days with digital photography and editing to produce autumnal finished photo slides. At Coundon, we really appreciate our school grounds and Forest School.
