Dear Cygnet Parents,

Our topic this half term is  ‘Walking through the jungle’ - from the wilds of Africa,  tropical rainforests and safari through our woods. Cygnet class have been great reflective learners and certainly keen to help plan and develop where our learning will go next! I am very grateful for your interest and involvement in providing resources and encouraging your children to bring in learning from home.

Personal and Social Education… to continue to be interested and motivated, to be confident to try new activities  learning as a group, taking turns and sharing fairly.

Communication, Language and Literacy… Developing speaking and listening skills through role play, opportunities to read and write stories, information and poetry. Books will include ‘Walking through the jungle’,  ‘Dear Zoo’ and poetry texts including ‘A rumble in the jungle’. Children will read individually, in groups and as a class, they will be encouraged to begin to write independently and be supported in writing to improve their skills.

Mathematical Development...Counting ,ordering and sequencing numbers, developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems, the exploration of 2D and 3D shapes and recognising and recreating repeating patterns.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World...Finding out about the different environment animals live in from deserts, rainforests and jungles. Using ICT to support learning across the six areas. ICT not only includes using the wide selection of software in school but also accessing excellent websites to support learning and opportunities to use programmable toys.

Physical Development...Moving with confidence, imagination and safety in gymnastics, games and dance. The continued development of fine motor skills through art, craft and construction.

Creative Development...Exploring colour, texture, shape and space in two and three dimensions. Listening to and responding to music from different cultures and opportunities to play a range of musical instruments.

Throughout the week the children will take part in a wide range of activities to suit all learning styles, learning opportunities will include our ‘outside classroom’ so please remember to send hats- we are hoping for plenty sunny weather this year!

Monday:- maths games returned/P.E.(Gymnastics)Library exchange/French

Tuesday:-P.E. (Dance)

Thursday:-P.E. (Games)French

Friday:- ‘Showtime’- when children are encouraged to bring in ONE toy/item to share with the rest of the class/’Celebration Assembly’ –time to celebrate good learning/birthdays

FOREST SCHOOLS– Friday mornings 11/6, 18/6, 25/6, 2/7

Please be sure to label all belongings( it certainly helps at the end of the day!)

Your support and interest is invaluable to your child’s learning. Please keep in contact by continuing to visit Cygnet class news on http://nayland.suffolkschools.net and information on

www.parentmail.co.uk or please do not hesitate to make an appointment to talk to me..

Many thanks   

 

 

 

Dear Robin and Woodpecker Parents,

 

A warm welcome back to you all.

 

 

The theme for the first half of this term is A Painting , with a selection of famous artworks providing the inspiration for our learning.  We will explore a range of styles and subjects with a focus on artistic techniques and elements such as line, texture, colour and perspective.  Across the curriculum children will be able to undertake an in-depth exploration of a famous impressionist work of art. Using this as our stimulus, we will find out more about French culture, make comparisons between past and present and explore various art media to recreate a famous painting.

 

We will use the lives and experiences of some of the great artists to inspire us to create our own poems, write letters, reports and instructions.  Alongside our weekly structured activities that focus on spelling and grammar, child-led learning will feature prominently.  Children are welcome to bring in any books, CD-Roms or resources linked to our learning, but please remember to label them clearly because they are shared by the whole class.

 

 In the second half term our topic is “A Passport to…” where we will ‘visit’ several different countries – China, Australia and Mexico to name but a few.  This will give children an opportunity to explore, compare and contrast geographical and cultural features.  Children will be encouraged to ask questions and identify ways to research answers.

 

Children will consolidate and develop key literacy and numeracy skills through a range of topic-related activities as well as structured learning sessions such as Jolly Grammar and the Suffolk Empty Number Line.  

 

We would like to thank parents who generously give their time to hear readers.  This is extremely valuable for children to develop their reading skills and we always need more volunteers. Please contact us if you can offer some time. 

 

 

Angela Chappell & Cathy Carlisle  

Class teacher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 2010

Dear Kingfisher Parents,

 

I hope you all enjoyed the Easter break and are looking forward to the summer term.

 

This half-term our learning is inspired by the theme of ‘Let’s Go Green’.  We begin our topic with a trip to the ‘Suffolk Farm Show’ tomorrow with many exciting exhibits.  I am sure that it will be an enjoyable day and a valuable learning opportunity.  Please remember to arrive at school for 8.30am, with a packed lunch, a waterproof jacket and sensible shoes/trainers as we have been told that there is a lot of walking.  During this topic, we will be thinking about where our food comes from? The importance of the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  What is energy?  Where does it come from? And what are the sustainable alternatives?

 

After half-term, we will be taking ‘A Passport to Africa’ and in particular Kenya.  If anybody has any artefacts or photos, Kingfishers would love to hear from you.  Our learning about Africa will give us the opportunity to learn about the culture, contrasting lifestyles and environment of Kenya.   

 

Within these topics, the children will continue to use a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry with a focus on adventure and mystery stories, performance poetry, letter writing and stories from other cultures.  To continue to extend our writing skills, our grammar will be focused on a wider range of connectives and sentence structure as well as organising our writing.  Children will continue to use their phonic strategies and word books to encourage them to become independent spellers. 

 

In maths, we will be expanding children’s mental calculation strategies for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as well as their understanding of fractions.  We will continue to learn about measures (time, length, capacity, mass); various forms of data handling and begin to check our answers when problem solving.    

 

In PSHE we will be discussing ‘Good to be me’, as well as learning about our community and reflecting on our achievements this year and looking forward to the next!

 

Indoor PE will continue on Tuesdays, outdoor PE on Wednesdays and dance on Thursdays. Library books and maths games exchange will continue on Wednesdays. 

 

Thank you for your continued support and a special thank you to those parents who offer their time to hear children read in school.  If you are interested in becoming involved or would like to discuss any other matter please do not hesitate to contact me. 

 

Please continue to visit the Kingfisher Class learning news on the Nayland School website at http://nayland.suffolkschools.net/ for useful links to help your child’s learning. 

 

Thank you for taking the time to find out about our learning this term.

 

Barbara English,

Kingfisher Class Teacher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.deltamicro.co.uk/primary_online/tablechant.html  

Table chant times table of your choice.  Say answer, no writing

 

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/testtest.html

Mixed tables tester at 3 levels of challenge

 

Multiple choice ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ style tables tester with increasing challenge an ask the aliens/astronaut/50:50

 

Choose your target times table to practise (not timed)

 

http://www.ictgames.com/spitfireufo.html

Practise your target times table with a spitfire plane!  (Not timed)

 

Applying your times tables to answer word problems.  Choice of 2 levels – multiple choice or answer.

OWL CLASS SUMMER TERM NEWS 2010

Hopefully we all enjoyed that lovely Easter weather and are looking forward to learning lots more in owls this term.

 

This half term our learning focus is Let’s go green.

We shall be thinking about where our food comes from and how it is produced, the problems of waste and what we can do to reduce our own, climate change and alternative energy. In general we shall be finding out how we can all adopt more sustainable and eco friendly ways! The field trip to Aylmerton will add to our learning in this subject by focusing on the natural environment and how we can all look after it.

 In our writing, the class will learn how to explain how materials are produced, as well as persuade others to adopt “greener” lifestyles! Adjectives and how to create effective writing will be studied, as well as using different types of punctuation, including commas. Using paragraphs to organise story and information writing will be an important part of this term’s work.

 

After half term, we shall take a Passport to India where we will discover much about this fascinating country’s culture. Areas to investigate will include Indian village life, as well as life in the larger cities and the RE topic of Hinduism will add to the children’s overall understanding .If anybody has anything we could borrow to add to our displays, please bring it into class and we will add to our collection.

 

MATHS:

 We shall again be concentrating on all the usual areas of Numeracy, including mental strategies for working out sums in our heads and formal methods of recording longer calculations. For some children, this will involve column addition, subtraction and multiplication. We shall also be tackling lots of “real life word problems”, as this can often be an area of weakness for some children.

 

PE Games: Every child needs to have outdoor PE kit for this, although shorts and T-shirt are probably all that will be necessary, as the weather gets warmer. The class often have a dance lesson most weeks and Gymnastics on Tuesdays so shorts and PE shirt are also needed in their bags.

 

 

This year’s Owl class has been great for completing homework so well done to all of you who have done it - and handed it in!  The Island project has really inspired them to produce some excellent writing and the presentation of some of the folders is outstanding! I think they also enjoyed it! Any other marked homework is usually filed in with the children’s school learning.

Until the end of term, homework will continue to be set on a Thursday, to be handed in the following Wednesday. We are also expecting children to continue to read at home and share their reading with you. It will really enable them to have a good start at the Middle School if they are able to read for longer periods of time and can talk about what they have read.

 

On Monday April 26th at 2.50, I am holding a meeting about the Norfolk trip, which is now very close! This is to give you details of the centre and the activities your child will be involved in, what they need to take with them and is an opportunity for you to ask me any questions.

If you haven’t yet looked at the website here is the address http://www.afsc.co.uk/

Hopefully, I shall see you at the meeting although if you can’t make it, I am always available to answer your questions by phone or an informal meeting after school.

 

Once again, if you need to see us about anything please don’t hesitate to come in!