Kestrel
17th-21st July Term 6 Week 7
Wow-we have reached the last week of the year! Kestrels are tired and ready for a long holiday but it will not stop us having fun in our learning!
It is Enrichment Week this week and we have some fantastic experiences happening. On Tuesday, we will be doing a Samba Drumming Workshop and performing our learning in a showcase at the end of the day and on Wednesday we will be taking part in some drama activities.
We will be carrying out investigations in maths and completing our computing project, iMovie book trailers, which we have loved this term. I am certainly looking forward to the week and I am sure the children will have lots of stories about what we have been up to share at home with you!
As ever, please keep up the reading and work on Times Tables with your child at home. We really appreciate your support!
Have a great weekend,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
10th-14th July Term 6 Week 6
This week, we will be continuing our learning on statistics in Y2 maths, we will be applying our knowledge of the 2,5 and 10 times tables to read and interpret information from different types of graphs. Our lovely Y3 children will reviewing their understanding on fractions in readiness for Year 4 in the autumn term. At the heart of both of these topics in maths is an understanding of multiplication. It is an essential skill in maths so please practise times tables at home with your child! Don’t forget they have a log in to TT Rockstars which is an engaging way to improve skills.
This will be the last week of The Boy Who Grew Dragons in our reading lessons, the children have loved the story and have maintained their enthusiasm through out the term when hearing the story and completing reading tasks in our lessons. In writing, the children will continue to base their writing around the text, The Search for the Giant Artic Jellyfish.
In our learning enquiry this week, we will be asking the question, What lives in our oceans and coastlines? We will be thinking about what we need to do to protect our oceans and create posters to share our ideas.
Finally, we have been enjoying making iMovie trailers for our favourite books. We will be returning to our trailers and editing them them this.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
3rd -7th July Term 6 Week 5
We are super excited about the coming week of learning!
In English, we will be writing about animals and continuing to work on our text, The Boy Who Grew Dragons. In maths, Year 2 will be curious learners, asking lots of questions of other children in the school to generate data for our statistics unit. Meanwhile, Year 3 will be reviewing their learning on 3D shapes and fractions as move towards to end of term.
In our learning enquiry, we will be finding out all about hot and cold climates around the world. If you would like to support your child in this area, please watch this video and discuss it with your child. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob8zzXjDfc4
We will be completing our D.T project this week which is all about making healthy food choices. We have some lovely parents who are coming into class to help on Friday afternoon when we make healthy wraps. Please watch the BBC video below to find out more.
Finally, we have our reading café on Friday this week as well. I look forward to seeing lots of you then.
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
26th-30th June Term 6 Week 4
In English this week, we will be continuing with our story, The Boy Who Grew Dragons. The reading skills we will be focusing on are retrieval and inference. Inferring is a tricky skill to learn but we have done lots of work on this by looking at images and working out meaning from clues we can see. We also use the phrase, “I think…..because I can see….” to help us understand we must find evidence for our ideas. In writing, we are starting a new text, The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish. This links with our Learning Enquiry, we will be researching and writing about an animal of our choice.
In maths, Y2 will be beginning a new topic on statistics and Y3 will be completing a unit on shape. Year 3 have been investigating angles in this topic-test your child at home by asking, What is a right angle? Parallel lines? Perpendicular lines?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3AOoLbA3us
The link above is for a great song to support understanding of different types of lines. As children get older, they need to be able to describe 2D shapes with more precise language which is why we teach them about these different types of lines.
Our reading café is on Thursday at 3pm this week, we look forward to seeing lots of you then!
Have a lovely weekend,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
19th-23rd June Term 6 Week 3
This week, we will be continuing working on our geographical skills in our Learning Enquiry. We will be using Google Earth to help us look at images and maps of the Pawlett. We will learn how to use the street view to take a virtual tour around the village. If you have not used Google Earth before, it is an amazing tool and well worth having a look at! Just Google “Google Earth”.
In science, we will be investigating how humans stay healthy. This week, we will devise our own set of exercises and then record how many we can do each. We love practical investigations in science!
We are looking forward to full and busy week as always!
See you on Monday,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
12th-16th June Term 6 Week 2
We have only got 6 weeks left of the year and we intend to make the most of it! This week, we will be taking our learning outside again. In our Learning Enquiry journey, we are considering What is a home? and we have thought about the micro-habitats in our school. This week, we will be considering what the environment around us is like and we will be considering what is Pawlett like? As a class, we will pose a question to help us find out more about our village.
In maths, Year 3s will be starting a new unit of learning about shapes and angles. They will be finding out what a right angle is and exploring the school to find as many right angles as they can. The BBC bitesize clips below are really good to help explain these concepts clearly. Year 2 are working on fractions this week and we will be finding fractions of amounts and in shapes.
Year 3
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zb6tyrd/year/zmyxxyc
We hope you have a super weekend in the sunshine!
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
5th-9th June Term 6 Week 1
Welcome back!
22nd-26th May Term 5 Week 6
In our last week before half term, we will be continuing with our anchor text, The Boy Who Grew Dragons in reading. We are about half way through the book and it a joy to teach each lesson as the children are so engaged in the story! This week, we will be thinking more deeply about the grandfather character in the story. We will be drawing on our inference skills to consider what words and phrases tell us about him and interpreting meaning.
In writing, Kestrels have been busy working on independent writing skills. This week, we will be writing instructions for a game of our own. We will be using imperative verbs, adverbs and remembering to write clearly and precisely.
On Friday, we will hold our postponed Sports Day so we look forward to welcoming as many families into school as possible. You will be sent information from the office via the Weduc app. Although the Coronation has now already happened, our sports day will still be Coronation themed. I cannot wait to see the “Showing Jumping” in action!
Have a wonderful sunny week ahead!
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
15th-19th May Term 5 week 5
This week in Kestrels our Year 2 children will be completing their SATs tests. This mean they will be doing reading and maths booklets over the course of the week. We aim to make this as low key and stress free as possible in order for the children. We ask that they try their very best but will not be putting pressure on them in any way to do more than this. Our afternoons are as normal and we will be continuing with our fabulous Learning Enquiry, “How do we live?”
In art this week, we will be drawing characters and showing emotions by using simple marks and lines. We may even draw each other-remember to ask your child about their art lesson! In science, Kestrels will be nature detectives. They will be identifying and classifying different creatures, the children will be using scientific language in their discussions. In history, the children will be exploring Anglo-Saxon artefacts to continue their journey finding out about our past.
We have the reading café on Friday morning this week so I look forward to seeing lots of you then.
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to ask!
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
9Th-12th May Term 5 week 4
In Kestrel Class, we will learning about Time in maths. We will be learning all about analogue and digital time, learning to tell the time to nearest 5 minutes! We will be encouraging the children to notice clocks all around them at home. If you could support this by talking about time with your child, it would be fantastic! Here is a great game to play online to develop time skills.
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/116/telling-the-time
In our Learning Enquiry, we will be continuing to learn about the Anglo-Saxons and how people lived in Britain in the past. For more information and great, educational video clips see the BBC Bitesize link below.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zxsbcdm/articles/zq2m6sg
In English, we will be working on instructions in writing and continuing with our anchor text, The Boy Who Grew Dragons. This week, we will be exploring some of the vocabulary found in the text in more detail.
Wishing you a wonderful Coronation weekend,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
2nd-5th May Term 5 Week 3
We are super excited about our Coronation sports day this Friday. We were busy practising last week with lots of show jumping (hurdles!) and “orb and spoon” races in PE. We hope as many of you as possible can come on Friday 5th May. See the information below for more on the afternoon!
Although it is a short week, we will still be packing in lots of exciting learning! In reading, we will be exploring the characters in our new text, The Boy Who Grew Dragons. The children are always working on their retrieval skills in reading and this week we will also be visualising what the dragon looks like from the description in the text.
In writing, we will be writing instructions on how to make a bug hotel. The children are inspired by this writing and love learning about the natural world. Don’t be surprised if your children comes home asking to build a bug hotel in your garden!
Our weekly reading café will be on Wednesday morning this week and we look forward to seeing lots of you then. In the meantime, enjoy a lovely, long weekend.
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
24th-28th April Term 5 Week 2
This week, we will be getting stuck into fractions in Year 2 and we are ready for it! We have learned about fractions through other areas on the curriculum such as in DT and art when we have folded paper into halves and quarters so we already know we use fractions in real life! Here are some super videos to support your child’s understanding of fractions from the BBC.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z3rbg82
Year 3 will be working on measurement next week. This week, the children will be exploring capacity. They will be measuring, comparing and adding and subtracting. The game below is to support with measuring in centimetres but the children will benefit from recapping on what they have already learned in the topic this year.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/measuring-in-cm
In reading this week, we will read the first chapter of our fabulous new story, The Boy Who Grew Dragons. As the title suggests, the boy grows some unusual things in his grandad’s garden. It is an exciting and funny story of the mayhem that happens when you try to keep a pet dragon in secret!
In writing, we will be focusing on how to write instructions. We will be learning about time words, imperative verbs and how to ensure their instructions are clear and in order. For a selection of games to help with reading and phonics, see the link below.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds
We hope you have a wonderful weekend and look forward to a full week of learning this week.
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
17th-21st April Term 5 Week 1
Wishing you all a very warm welcome back to school this week!
We are super excited about the term ahead and the wonderful learning Kestrels will be doing!
Our new Learning Enquiry is “How do we live? “
We will be starting the journey with the mini enquiry question, What is a home? We will be exploring the Anglo Saxons and how they came to find a home in the UK. In science, we will be learning about what is means to be alive.
In maths, this week Year 2 will be completing some SATs style questions as well as beginning to learning about Time. Please support us in this topic as your help will be invaluable! The link below is a fun game that you can play at home but if you could just talk about time and refer to any clocks you have around the house to help your child get a sense of time, it would be fantastic.
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/116/telling-the-time
Year 3 will be working on fractions, adding and subtracting simple fractions before moving onto finding fractions of a set of objects. Below is a link to a fractions game which is really visual to help reinforce the concept of parts and whole.
Looking forward to seeing you on Monday!
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
27th-31st March Term 4 week 6
How is it the last week of term already?!
This week, we will complete our learning enquiry, “How do we explore?” First of all, we will look at photos and our sketch maps of the river area. We will compare photos, our drawings and maps to help us develop our locational knowledge. We will also think about our mini question, “Would you explore the past or the future?” Our final lesson will be a debate about whether we would explore the past or the future. We will justify our choices and give reasons for these. Kestrels love to share their ideas and opinions so I am really looking forward to this!
In maths, Y2 will be working on mass with lots of practical work to enable the children to gain an understanding of what 5g, 10g and 100g is. We will also be working on answering problems involving mass using the 4 operations. Y3 will continue their work on fractions, working on equivalent fractions as well as fractions of amounts.
In reading, we have finished our wonderful text, Too Small Tola-I have loved teaching it and the children have loved reading and talking about it. This week, we will be working on our independent reading skills with a particular focus on retrieval and vocabulary understanding.
In writing, the children will completing their adventure stories. I know how hard they have been working on them so I look forward to reading them!
Another action-packed week ahead for Kestrels so we hope everyone has a really restful weekend!
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
20th-24th March Term 4 Week 5
This week, Kestrels are becoming explorers! We will be walking down to the River Parrett to explore our local area as a class and see what physical features we can spot. We will be sketching the view and comparing our photos and drawings with a map back in the classroom.
Here is a link to famous explorers, ask your child which ones they have learned about in T3 and the beginning of T4.
https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/history/explorers/
This week, we will be assessing the children in phonics and reading skills instead of having our daily Read Write Inc. sessions. This helps us to ensure that our Y2 children are progressing and that they are in the right RWI group for Term 5.
Please support your child at home with this essential skill! Reading aloud to your child, hearing them read and aloud and talking about the books is so important to develop reading ability but also a love of books.
We have the reading café in the afternoon at 3pm on Friday 24th March, we look forward to seeing you then!
Have a super weekend,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
Thursday 16th March
We hope you had a good day yesterday – can’t wait to see what you have found out about Comic Relief tomorrow.
Today, could you take a look at a recent Newsround episode. It is Neurodiversity Week this week and the second item on the programme is all about neurodiversity. After watching this, could you have a go at designing a sensory wall or area. What would it look like, feel like, sound like, even smell like?
You can bring your designs in next week for us to take a look at. Looking forward to it!
You can also always practice your spellings on SpellingShed, your multiplications tables on TTRockstars, and snuggle up and read or write your own story – or both – your choice!
Thank you for your support today.
Wednesday 15th March
Today’s learning looks a little different. Some activities for today are listed below. Details for tomorrow’s learning will be posted up here later – so check back later on!
It is ‘Red Nose Day’ on Friday this week -so can you find out as much as you can about the charity Comic Relief; the event – when it started, who started it, examples of what it supports – anything you can about it. You can decide how you want to demonstrate your learning – it could be written, drawn, painted, presented…we don’t mind, but we would love hear/see what out found out on Friday in school so bring whatever it is you are produced with you on Red Nose Day itself!
Here is a link to the official website: https://www.comicrelief.com/
You can also always practice your spellings on SpellingShed, your multiplications tables on TTRockstars, and snuggle up and read or write your own story – or both – your choice!
Thank you for your support today.
13th-17th March Term 4 Week 4
This week, Kestrels will be innovating their own journey story based on the text, The Great Explorer. We are all very excited to read their wonderful writing. Everyone is working so hard to make exciting word choices and super sentences! 
In maths, Y2 will be working on measurement this week. We have already done some learning on this topic in the autumn so we will be focusing on comparing and ordering length before tackling problems involving measure. Year 3 will continue working on fractions and will be comparing and ordering them this week. Year 3 will also be counting in fractions using a number line to support their understanding.
A tricky area of maths that Year 2 need to learn is Time. If you can help at home it would be so helpful! Talking about time, showing your child an analogue clock and helping them recognise quarter past/to and half past the hour would be invaluable. Here is a game that is also fun to play and will help children become more familiar with the concept. This will also be great for Year 3 as they continue to learn time all the way through KS2!
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/116/telling-the-time
Finally, we will be completing our D.T project this week. Thank you to everyone who has sent in cardboard boxes for us to use. I am hoping that we will get the castles built on Friday and the children will be able to bring them home to share with you when they are finished. Kestrels loved making the ferris wheels in the autumn term so I am expecting this D.T project to be as successful and enjoyable!
Have a wonderful week,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
6th-10th March Term 4 Week 3
Kestrel Class love outdoor learning and always enjoy investigating the amazing grounds of our lovely school! This week, we will be beginning a series of sessions that will help us develop our fieldwork skills in geography as part of our topic, How do we explore? Over the next few weeks, we will be thinking like geographers and asking and answering our own enquiry questions. We will also be having a walk around the local area, if any of you would like to come with us please let Ms. Turner know!
In maths, Y2 will be completing their learning on 2D and 3D shapes, we have really enjoyed this topic and so it will be fantastic fun to make our castles in D.T later in the term. Please keep sending in the cardboard boxes and tubes for this project!
Year 3s are working hard on fractions and will be continuing in week 3. Although fractions are challenging in some ways, we actually use fractions all the time in every day life. The more our children understand this, the better their understanding on the concepts will be. This video below is great to help with finding fractions of amounts.
Our reading café is on Wednesday at 3pm this week!
We look forward to seeing you soon,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
27th-3rd March Term 4 Week 2
It’s an exciting week ahead!
Mrs Smith will continuing with the fabulous text, The Great Explorer. This week, Kestrels will be focusing on using conjunctions in their sentences. They will be writing “Super Sentences” by the end of the week!
In reading, we are reading, Easter and Eid. We practise retrieval skills each lesson and will be working on understanding words and sequencing this week.
In maths, Year 2 are working on 2D and 3D shapes. The challenge is to remember the vocabulary related to the shapes so that we can describe them. See if you can spot 2D and 3D shapes around your house-what are they? How do you know? Are great, open questions to ask.
See the link below to some great online games as well.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/shape-position-and-movement
Year 3 are starting a new topic, Fractions. They are enjoying the challenge of working with Year 4 children. They will be begin with reviewing understanding of denominators and numerators, compare and ordering fractions before moving onto counting in fractions.
Reading Café is in the afternoons this term. We look forward to seeing you on Monday 27th at 3pm.
And FINALLY….
.
We have World Book Day on Thursday 2nd March! I know lots of you have already planned outfits with your children. We are dressing as words this year which will produce some amazingly creative outfits! I cannot wait to see you all on Thursday. Here are some ideas in case you are still thinking about it.
Have a lovely weekend,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
20th-24th February Term 4 Week 1
It is Term 4 already!
Kestrels have a busy week ahead with lots of exciting learning to look forward to. In reading, the children will continue learning about our wonderful heroine, Tola as we begin to read the next story in the collection, Too Small Tola. In writing, Kestrels will be reading a new text, The Great Explorer. They will be writing stories from this text based on an imaginary journey over the next few weeks.
In maths, Year 2s will begin learning about 2D and 3D shapes. Year 3s will be moving into learning about decimals as they are now working alongside the Year 4 children for their maths lessons.
We will be learning about Neil Armstrong in our explorers topic which the children will enjoy a great deal, I am sure! The internet has lots of interesting information about the moon landings, here is a link to National Geographic Kids which has some great information.
We look forward to seeing you bright and early on Monday 20th February!
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
30th-3rd February Term 3 Week 5
What an exciting week we have coming up!
In writing, Kestrels will begin a sequence of learning based on Meerkat Mail-a fabulous tale about the main character Sonny’s hilarious journey to various relatives and then home again. The story is cleverly told through the postcards Sonny sends home along the way so the children will be writing postcards and letters within this sequence.
In reading, we will be reading some sections of a wonderful non-fiction text, Amazing Africa by Atinuke, the same author who wrote Too Small Tola. We will be finding out about some African countries this week as well as finding out a bit more about meerkats.
If you would like to support your child, please have a look at the National Geographic Kids website link below.
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/geography/countries/article/nigeria
The reading café is on Thursday this week. I look forward to seeing lots of you in class at 8.30-8.55am.
To top the week off, we have NUMBER DAY on Friday 3rd February! Look out for messages about the day from our school office or on Wedoc!
Have a wonderful, restful weekend!
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
23rd -27th January Term 3 Week 4
We have a lovely week ahead…Kestrels are fully into the swing of the term so we will achieve great things!
In English, we will be continuing to develop our reading skills. Our text, Too Small Tola is set in Nigeria so we have come across some interesting new words to learn! Our reading skills focus for this week is inference. This is when we use the story to help us interpret how characters feel and act in the way they do. We have to become reading detectives, using clues in the text to reveal answers. At home, ask your child questions that start with why when reading, this will help them develop inference skills at home. The reading café will be on Wednesday 25th January this week-please do join us if you can!
In maths, Y2 will be working on the 10 and the 5 times table this week and Y3, are working on 3,4 and 8 times tables, including division facts. We have sent home TTRS (TT Rockstars) log ins this week so please do try to log in the website as it is a brilliant way to learn the tables. We will hopefully be able to show the children how to do this at school this week as well.
In art, we will be making more fabulous clay creations with our new found skills of making and using slip to help us join separate pieces of clay together. We are really enjoying this topic and will soon have some wonderful creations to bring home!
Have a wonderful weekend,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
16th-20th January Term 3 Week 3
We are excited about the week ahead! Kestrel Class will be learning more about famous explorers form the past and about the continents of the world. A fantastic song to help with learning these is:
In reading, we will continue with Too Small Tola, reading the second short story, “Small But Mighty”. Each week, we work on new vocabulary, retrieval skills and then an additional reading skill such as inference or prediction. Kestrels are enjoying finding out about life in Nigeria through the text as well as enjoying some new and colourful phrases.
Don’t forget the weekly reading café which is on Tuesday (17th) morning this week!
Maths this week will be a continuation of multiplication and division in both Y2 and Y3. Please support your child with their times tables by playing games or asking them times table questions at random times. On the way to school, in the car on the way to a club, at the dinner table-ANYWHERE!
Y2 need to know 2, 5, 10 times tables
Y3 need to know 3, 4, 8 times tables
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/multiplication-and-division
In art, we will continue to develop our clay skills and we will be creating small pots this week. Our R.E topic this term is Judaism. This week, we will be writing a diary entry as a child who is celebrating Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. For more information about this see the bbc bitesize clips below.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/znwhfg8/articles/z4vvjhv
Have a lovely weekend,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
9th-13th January 2023 Term 3 Week 2
This week, we will be continuing with our new text, Too Small Tola in reading and writing persuasive letters in writing. Our class text is set in Nigeria and we will continue to learn about life for the main character, Tola this week.
In writing, we are enjoying learning about Amelia Earhart. She was the first woman to fly across across the Atlantic Ocean, one of her many achievements. If you would like to support your child at home with this topic, the website below give lots of information about Earhart and other inspirational pioneers of the 20th Century.
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/amelia-earhart
We are starting a new art project this week, the children will learning how to use clay and manipulate the material to make 3D shapes. We made some 3D pictures last week in paper and will build on these skills to make 3D models this week.
As always, we appreciate any support at home with maths and reading. It is vital that children are reading regularly and so please continue to support your child in any way you can!
The website link below is for Oxford Owl which has phonics advice and an excellent selection of e-books once you have a log-in with them.
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/
The book Trust (see below) has lots of recommended reads, advice for parents and a new parents’ library area. It’s really worth have a look at!
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/
Wishing you a wonderful second week back!
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
3rd-6th January 2023 Term 3 Week 1
To all our families, we wish you a very Happy New Year!
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas break and are looking forward to the new term ahead.
Kestrels will be starting a new learning enquiry this term, “How do we explore?” Throughout the topic, we will be asking lots of mini-enquiry questions such as, What is an explorer? and Is it harder to explore land or sea?
The children will find out about explorers from the past and considering who is the greatest explorer from the people we research. To link with this, we will be designing and making shelters in D.T and creating clay figures in art.
We will be starting to work on multiplication in maths, Y3s will be recapping on their understanding of equal groups and multiples of 2,5 and 10. Year 2s will be also be learning about equal groups and beginning to learn the 2,5 and 10 times tables.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
Hit the Button is an awesome game to help learning all the times tables and can be used to help with other number facts such as number bonds and doubles, all of which are really useful skills to continue to practice.
We look forward to seeing you all this week!
Mrs Smith and Ms Turner
12-16th December T2 Week 7
Wow! How is it the last week of term already? The children have worked incredibly hard and they should be very proud of all their fantastic achievements throughout the term. This week, we will be finishing off our amazing Ferris Wheels-keep an eye on Twitter as we post pictures of the finished products! We will also be completing our anchor text, Leonora Bolt and concluding our work on addition, subtraction and measurement for this term.
We have put logins for Ed Shed into the children’s reading records, not all children have them yet so please send in your child’s reading record with them every day. Ed Shed is a great website to help support any spelling work at home with lots of really good online games to play.
We have one more reading cafe for the term on Monday 12th december at 3pm. We look forward to seeing lots of you there.
In the meantime, stay warm and have a super weekend!
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
5th-9th December Term 2 week 6
This week is our Christmas nativity play, The Sleepy Shepherd. We will be performing it for parents on Wednesday 7th December in the afternoon at 1.45pm and on Thursday 8th December at 6pm. Get your tickets from Miss Clements in the office if you haven’t already!
PLEASE can you make sure your child have their clothes ready for Monday 5th December, if you are having any problems sourcing something suitable, do let us know and we will be able to work out an alternative!
This is what we need you to provide for your children:
narrators-black or dark coloured top and bottoms
shepherds-black or dark coloured top and bottoms
sheep- black or white tops and bottoms
angels-white top and bottoms or plain white/cream dresses
kings-dark or black top and bottoms
stars-white or grey tops and bottoms
Mary- white or cream top and bottoms
Joseph-dark top and bottoms
Reading Café
It was lovely to see so many of you yesterday in class for the reading café and I look forward to seeing you again next Friday 9th December at 3pm.
Whilst we have all the excitement of the performances this week, we will also be completing lots of exciting learning as well. In English, the children will be focusing on different types of sentences, comprehension skills and punctuation. In maths, we will be continuing to work on addition, subtraction and measuring length.
We will be carrying out our D.T project this week so expect your children to be telling you all about Ferris wheels and how they work!
Have a lovely, relaxing weekend,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
28th-2nd December Term 2 Week 5
Next week, we will be in full rehearsal mode for our performance of The Sleepy Shepherd! You should have received a message about the costumes we need your child to have ready for the performances in week 6. Here is an additional costume list in case you need to check:
narrators-black or dark coloured top and bottoms
shepherds-black or dark coloured top and bottoms
sheep- black or white tops and bottoms
angels-white top and bottoms or plain white/cream dresses
kings-dark or black top and bottoms
stars-white or grey tops and bottoms
Mary- white or cream top and bottoms
Joseph-dark top and bottoms
Please could you send your child’s costume into school in a named bag by Monday 5th December.
As well as play practice, Kestrels will be continuing their learning on the key texts for this term in reading and writing and completing end of term assessments. In art, we will be printing our press print tiles, the prints so far are amazing and I am looking forward to seeing all the children’s work finished and displayed as a collaborative piece.
The reading cafe will be on Thursday 2nd December at 3pm this week, I am looking forward to seeing you lots of you then.
Have a wonderful, peaceful weekend,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
21st -25th November
Term 2 week 4
First of all, I would like to congratulate Kestrels on their amazing focus and engagement when we visited the Clifton Suspension Bridge this week. It was such a fabulous day out, I that you have seen the pictures on Twitter this week!
This week, we will begin rehearsals for our Christmas nativity play, The Sleepy Shepherd. The children have been given their parts and will be bringing home scripts to learn their lines at home if they have a speaking part. It will help enormously if you could help your child to learn their lines!
As well as this excitement, we will be continuing with The Building Boy in writing and Leonora Bolt in reading. The story is very exciting and the children are developing their understanding of the vocabulary alongside developing skills such as predicting and making inferences about the characters. In writing next week, the children will be writing a diary entry based on The Building Boy text.
For maths, Y2 children will be continuing with subtraction strategies and Y3 are learning to use the column method for addition and subtraction. they are very confident with this already-go Y3s! On Thursdays and Fridays, we will be working on length and height. The children will be reviewing their understanding of measurements and then carrying out lots of practical activities to develop accuracy when measuring length. Please see the link to Top Marks for a measuring game to support the practical tasks we will be doing in class.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/measuring-in-cm
The reading cafe will be on Wednesday 23rd November at 3pm this week, we look forward to seeing lots of you in class then.
Have a wonderful weekend and see you next week!
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
4th-18th November Term 2 week 3
We have a busy week ahead! It is Anti-Bullying Week and Road Safety Week, as well Children in Need and our trip to Bristol! The children can wear Odd Socks to school on Monday to start Anti-Bullying Week off. I have included a link to the website below for more information about what the focus for the week is this year.
https://anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/anti-bullying-week/anti-bullying-week-2022-reach-out
We are off the Bristol on Monday to the Clifton Suspension Bridge. We will be taking lots of photos to share with you all and know the children will be ambassadors for our school. Although the children can wear odd socks, please make they have comfortable shoes, a suitable jacket and school uniform as normal!
We will be continuing with our texts, The Building Boy in writing and Leonora Bolt in reading. Mrs Smith will be working on writing at the start of the week from The Building Boy and Ms Turner will be working with the children on reading skills with the text, Leonora Bolt on Thursdays and Fridays. This will ensure the children have a balance of reading and writing across the week.
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We love having parents in to share books and stories with the children. The reading cafe is on Tuesday 15th at 3pm this week. We hope to see as many of you as possible.
We also have Children In Need at the end of the week, for this the children are invited to wear something spotty to school. It could be a spotty top or trousers (or skirt). If they don’t have anything spotty, please do not worry. They can just come in normal uniform.
We look forward to seeing you all on Monday morning,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith.
7th November – 11th November Term 2 Week 2
We are looking forward to lots of exciting learning this week with our new texts, The Building Boy in writing and Leonora Bolt as our anchor text for reading. We will continue to work on our understanding of nouns and adjectives and will be writing setting descriptions. This will lead onto looking at the features of a diary which will help us write our own diary entries in week 3. In our reading sessions, we will be focusing on reading skills including understanding vocabulary and making predictions about the story.
In maths, we are continuing our learning in addition and subtraction. Y2 will be adding 3 1-digit numbers together to begin the week before moving onto using their number bonds to add across 10s. Y3 will be continuing to build on their understanding of adding 1s across 10s and 10s across 100. Fluency in number bonds to 10 and 100 are crucial at this stage. A great game to help with number bonds to 100 fluency is Hit The Button. (Number bonds to 10, 20 and 100 both addition and subtraction.)
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
Dates for your diary:
Monday 7th November 3pm
We are super excited about our upcoming trip to The Clifton Suspension Bridge on Monday 14th November. Please ask if anyone is unsure of the details of this. It is an amazing structure and the children will benefit so much from the experience of being on the bridge as well as have lots of fun building their own bridges in the workshop.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Ms Turner and Mrs Smith
Term One:
Week 6
It was lovely to see so many parents today in the Reading Café this morning, thank you to all those who came. The children love sharing books with you and it’s a super way to start the day.
Next week, it will be on Monday 10th October at 8.30am. Hopefully, we will see lots of you again then!
In English, we will be continuing with our fabulous text, “Iggy Peck, Architect” using their ideas from today’s hot seating drama activity to help them write speech using inverted commas.
In maths, we are recapping on number bonds to 10, 20 and 100. Y3s will be adding and subtracting using 1s and 10s, Y2 will be building on their knowledge of number bonds, families of facts and begin to find related facts. For example, 1 +5 = 6 so 10 + 50 = 60.
Here is a great game to play to help with fact families:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/number-facts/number-fact-families
We are looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at your child’s Learning Review next week as well, please sign for a slot to see either Mrs Smith or Tuesday 11th October or myself on Thursday 13th October.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Smith and Ms Turner
Term 1 Week 5:
30.9.22
What a busy week have had! Kestrels have been learning all about Brunel in our topic and English lessons. In maths, we have been continuing our learning about number and have been comparing and ordering numbers.
In English next week, we will be starting a new text, “Iggy Peck, Architect” which is all about a young engineer. We will continue to work on building sentences, developing our knowledge of adjectives, nouns and verbs.
We will also be starting our next maths topic, addition and subtraction. The children will be focusing on money in the next week so it would be amazing if you could talk to your children about the different values of coins and notes at home. We know the children see money being used less and less (as so much shopping is done online or with bank cards!) so any support you can give them would be fantastic.
Here is the link to a good website to support the learning in maths:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money
On Tuesday 4th October, Kestrels and Buzzard Classes will be going to the church for a Harvest service. You should have had a message about this via the office. If anyone would like to accompany the classes to the church, you would be more than welcome to walk down with us. We will be leaving school about 10am.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Mrs Smith and Ms Turner
Term 1 Week 4:
29.9.22
Dear parents and children,
I am super excited to welcome you to Kestrel Class! I trust you had a fabulous summer, enjoying all that glorious sunshine. This letter is to inform you about class matters for the upcoming terms, so you know what to expect and can best support your child.
Mrs Smith will be teaching Mondays – Wednesdays and Ms Turner will be teaching on Thursdays and Fridays. Our class TA is Mrs Blyth .
All children will be expected to read at home every day. Some children will have phonics based books to read and others will have a selection to choose from the school library. Children are expected to bring their books to school in a book bag every day, along with their reading record book. Please support your child by listening to them read daily and signing the record books when you have done so.
Children will be given logins for Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots (these are the same). Alongside reading everyday, children are expected to practise their number skills and times tables on these interactive platforms. Teachers in school will check to see how much children have engaged with these online learning tools.
PE will take place twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. Unlike previously, children will be asked to come to school wearing their PE kit on their PE days. They will wear their kit for the whole day so will not need to bring any uniform to change into. This will help ensure children have full PE kits and will avoid any items getting lost in school as well as gaining valuable learning time.
It is essential that your child comes to school with a named water bottle every day! Thank you for your support with this.
Our learning enquiry for the next two terms is How did Brunel make a difference?
We will be learning all about Isambard Kingdom Brunel, his work as an engineer and how he impacted Bristol. To support our learning, we will be investigating sources, becoming engineers ourselves and even going on a trip to Clifton Suspension Bridge!
We are very lucky this term as we will be having ukulele lessons every Wednesday morning for the first term. Children will be able to bring their ukulele home to practise what they have been learning. Please remember to return the form to say your child will look after their instrument whilst in their care.
I hope this letter tells you everything you need to know about Kestrel Class and our forthcoming term together. More details about what we are learning in each subject, are outlined in our curriculum overview, which is attached to this letter. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any other questions.
Many thanks,
Mrs Smith and Ms Turner
WELCOME BACK!!
We all hope you have had a wonderful summer break and you are back ready and raring to go for the new academic year of learning. We are delighted to have Mrs Smith, Mrs Turner and Mrs Blyth in Kestrel Class this year.
We are very excited about our new learning enquiry where we will be asking (and more importantly) answer the big question of:
How did Brunel make a difference?
More details will available on here soon with what is in store over the coming weeks, so watch this space!
Logins for TTRockstars and SpellingShed will be ready for you, in the meantime keep reading, keep learning!
If you are having to stay at home, the most important thing is to get better but if you are well enough, there are lots of activities that can keep you learning key skills while having fun!
You have a login for Spelling Shed which provides lots of games and activities based around spellings that match the curriculum requirements. You also have access to TTRockStars which will help you with learning your times tables in a fun and engaging way, you can collect items for your avatar the more you practise. Also now we have access to Sumdog which is great fun for Maths learning. You have all of these logins in your reading diary.
You can go outside and enjoy a book or write a story or a piece of writing of your choice outside in this beautiful sunshine!
Some recommended sites to help keep you learning are:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize
https://www.thenational.academy
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers
Don’t worry, you’ll be back to school soon and in the meantime, keep smiling!
Term Four
Week Four
21.3.22:
This week we are revising and consolidating our key skills.
We will finish reading The Iron Man and we will write a book review of the story.
In Maths we will consolidate our understanding of shape, length and perimeter.
In other curriculum areas we will continue to consider the question ‘How could you live without electricity or light?’
Spelling Shed and TTRock Stars are available to use and help our learning and we should be aiming to read at least three times a week at home. We also now have access to Sumdog online. All of these login details are in our reading diaries.
Term Four
Week Three
14.3.22:
This week we will continue to write our newspaper reports in English, linked to the story of The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. We are learning to write for an audience and to use a style that captures the reader’s attention. Our headlines have certainly done just that and have created an exciting atmosphere in our writing. We will add eye witness accounts and we will develop and improve on our articles. We continue to develop reading and writing skills through using Read, Write Inc.
In Maths, Year Two will be learning about properties of 2D and 3D shapes while Year Three continue to learn about length and perimeter. We are aiming to answer questions that need us to think a little more deeply and explore our understanding even further as well as solve problems. We are trying to understand that Maths is all around us in everyday life and is needed for so many different things.
In our learning theme this week, we are exploring British Science Week (11.3.22-18.3.22) which is all about growth this year. We will explore some of the different roles in everyday life that need scientific skills and we will also explore the question ‘What is Science?’
Spelling Shed and TTRock Stars are available to use and help our learning and we should be aiming to read at least three times a week at home. We also now have access to Sumdog online. All of these login details are in our reading diaries.
It has been lovely to welcome families in for the reading cafes and we look forward to continuing to be able to do this.
Term Four
Week Two
7.3.22:
Well here we are in Week Two of Term Four and the children in Kestrel Class have made a great start to the term.
We are learning all about electricity and light through our learning theme ‘Could you live without electricity?’ The question certainly generates some deeper thinking on the concept! We have learned all about being safe around electricity and the various different components of an electrical circuit. This week we will focus on light, reflection and how light helps us to see.
In English we continue to develop reading and writing skills through using Read, Write Inc. and we also continue to read and enjoy ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes. We will look at the features of a newspaper article and we will consider what makes a good headline as well as begin to present our own report in the style of a newspaper article.
In Maths we are learning about lengths and measuring using metres, centimetres and millimetres. We are appreciating how Maths can be used in everyday life and measuring lengths is a very good way to understand how practical and fun maths can be! We are learning skills to enable us to be accurate when measuring and we are learning how to convert between different units of measure.
11.10.21:
It is hard to believe that this is the last week of Term One, the time has passed incredibly quickly!
This week we look forward to welcoming you into the classroom for Learning Review Meetings, it will be a super opportunity for the children to share what is going well for them in their learning.
Within our learning this week we will be consolidating our skills in Maths and revising over the concepts covered this term on place value, addition and subtraction. In Read Write Inc, we will look closely at how well we are doing with our knowledge of sounds, they are certainly helping with our reading skills and spelling patterns within reading and writing.
The children will be creating a Stone Age fact book this week, they will have a go at cave paintings as well as numerous other activities related to the Stone Age within this final week of term.
The support with reading, spelling homework and use of the online platforms has really helped the children in their learning and we appreciate all of the effort, this is all helping to ensure that the children make great progress!
4.10.2021:
This week the children will write their own Stone Age stories with them as the main character. They already have a lot of imaginative ideas, it will be wonderful to see the stories take shape. They will continue to develop reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc. as well.
In Maths we will be continuing to develop our skills with addition and subtraction and will move onto slightly larger numbers, for Year Three this will mean 3 digit numbers and for Year Two; 2 digit numbers. The children are trying hard in their maths learning and are benefitting from practising their mathematical fluency skills on a daily basis, using open ended questions to develop their thinking.
We will be learning about the different types of foods available in Stone Age times and the children will create a menu based on Stone Age foods.
We have been really interested in this learning theme this term and have learned a lot about prehistory.
Children have access to Spelling Shed to support their knowledge of spellings and their logins are in their reading diaries, as well as the sheet of spellings to be filled in. New spellings will be set each week on Mondays. They will also have access to Times Table Rock Stars and we use this platform to secure knowledge of tables.
They should read at least three times a week at home as per school policy. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. We actively encourage you to read longer books beyond their capabilities at home as we do in school to give them access to a range of vocabulary. Don’t forget our reading cafe is open this week on Thursday (8.45-9), look forward to seeing you there!
Looking forward to another great week of learning ahead.
27.9.2021:
This week the children will continue to enjoy the story of ‘Stone Age Boy’ and we will write our own stories for our English learning. We will plan, think about the characters, the setting and what it might have been like to live in the Stone Age within our stories. We continue to develop reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc.
In Maths, we will continue to use skills to develop our understanding of addition and subtraction, beginning with a secure understanding of the numbers that make 20 (our number bonds to 20) and moving onto larger numbers for Year Three.
We will learn about different types of houses from the Stone Age to modern and what types of houses the earliest settlers had available to them. We will consider how this was different according to where in the world they lived and this will include geographical learning of different localities.
Children have access to Spelling Shed to support their knowledge of spellings and their logins are in their reading diaries, as well as the sheet of spellings to be filled in. New spellings will be set each week on Mondays. They will also have access to Times Table Rock Stars and we use this platform to secure knowledge of tables.
They should read at least three times a week at home as per school policy. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. We actively encourage you to read longer books beyond their capabilities at home as we do in school to give them access to a range of vocabulary. Don’t forget our reading cafe is open this week on Wednesday (8.45-9), look forward to seeing you there!
Looking forward to another week of great learning ahead!
20.9.2021:
This week, the children will learn more about the earliest settlers based on our Learning Theme question of ‘Who settled here first?’ They will look in closer detail at what resources early humans had available and how they lived. We will use art, DT, geography, history and science skills to learn more.
In English, the children continue to develop reading and writing skills using Read Write Inc and we will look at a class text ‘The Stone Age Boy’ to develop our English skills further, including understanding the type of language used and linking this with our learning theme understanding.
In Maths, we will begin to use skills to develop our understanding of addition and subtracting, beginning with a secure understanding of the numbers that make 20 (our number bonds to 20) and moving onto larger numbers for Year Three.
Children have access to Spelling Shed to support their knowledge of spellings and their logins are in their reading diaries, as well as the sheet of spellings to be filled in. New spellings will be set each week on Mondays. They will also have access to Times Table Rock Stars and we use this platform to secure knowledge of tables.
They should read at least three times a week at home as per school policy. We want children to love reading and to gain confidence in their own ability in order to access a range of books. We actively encourage you to read longer books beyond their capabilities at home as we do in school to give them access to a range of vocabulary. Don’t forget our reading cafe is open this week on Tuesday (8.45-9), look forward to seeing you there!
Looking forward to another week of great learning ahead!
10.9.21:
The end of a successful week of learning, establishing routines and adjusting into a new school year. Our Learning Theme question for this term and Term Two is ‘Who settled here first?’ and Kestrel Class have started to think about what this could mean. This week we unpicked the word ‘settle’ and the children had some excellent ideas of what this could suggest.
We really enjoyed ‘Cave Baby’ by Julia Donaldson this week in English and we have looked at her work as an author. She has written a wonderful selection of books and we learned more about her through her website: https://www.juliadonaldson.co.uk
We have also been using Read Write Inc. to help us with reading and writing skills with a focus on phonics and spelling patterns.
Place value has been the focus of our learning for Maths and will continue to be for the next few weeks. For Year Two this week our learning has been based on 2 digit numbers and for Year Three, 3 digit numbers and the value of each digit within the number. We are participating in daily fluency learning to help to enhance our skills.
We will be changing reading books on Mondays and Thursdays. Please see the letter in the reading diary for further information on this. Re-reading and answering questions as well as reading with expression are all key skills that can be developed further through having a text for longer. The children are excited to be collecting beads on a keyring for having their diaries signed once they have read at home.
Spelling homework will be sent out next week and your child will receive a set of words to practise at home to support their learning as well as access to Spelling Shed online. We will also be sending out login details for Times Table Rockstars in due course. Practical maths opportunities at home such as setting the table, counting out the correct number of an item, following a recipe, shopping and many more incorporates a range of mathematical skills and understanding.
Please do ask any questions that you have at any point.
On Monday (13.9.21) we restart our reading cafe and we hope to see you!
Welcome Back!
Welcome to the start of a brand new academic year! We are so excited to welcome our learners into Kestrel Class today.
Keep an eye on here for updates as well as all of our social media sites.
Looking forward to a really successful year with you,
Mrs Semken
Mrs Blyth
We would like to wish you all a relaxing and restful break over the Easter period. Looking forward to seeing you all from 8:30am on the 19th April for the start of Term 5!
5th January 2021
For those children not in school please access the remote learning through google classroom. If you have trouble accessing the online learning set up for Term 3 please email info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk or call the school on 01278 684151.
End of Term Two!
We are so very proud of all of Kestrel Class over the past two terms and all that they have managed to achieve and learn, well done Kestrels!
We all wish you a happy and restful holiday. We look forward to welcoming you back in the new year.
Here is a picture of our wonderful children using Makaton sign language to wish you a Merry Christmas!
Term Two: Week Six: 7.12.20
This week in English we will be researching information to help us to create a presentation based on an explorer of our choice. We will use our understanding through our learning theme throughout Term One and Two to make a presentation of our learning about different explorers.
In Maths we will consolidate and deepen our understanding of all areas of maths covered over Term One and Two on place value, addition and subtraction and multiplication and division. We will answer problems and develop our reasoning skills on all areas of maths learning covered so far. We have been trying very hard to learn our 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10 times tables. TT Rock Stars is really helping with this.
In our learning theme we will conclude our learning on different explorers through the presentation that we will create in English. We will look at the Nativity Story and its importance to Christians and we will learn about how Christmas is celebrated all over the UK.
Spelling Shed is available to be used with new words added each week. TT Rock Stars is also available to support the children’s learning. Logins for both are at the front of the children’s reading diaries.
Looking forward to the next week ahead Kestrels!
Term Two: Week Five: 30.11.20
This week we will be exploring Mount Everest. In English, we will create a report about Everest and we will look at a range of features for non fiction writing, such as how we can present factual information using paragraphs, headings and subheadings and create information that is interesting for the reader.
In Maths, we continue with our learning about multiplication and division, we will deepen our understanding and we will look at a range of different problems and questions that involve multiplication and division skills.
Through our Learning Theme, we will look at who has explored Everest, who the first explorers were, what it is like there, what might grow there. We will look at where Everest is located and the Himalayan Mountains.
Spelling Shed is ready to be used with new words added each week. TT Rock Stars is also available to support the children’s learning. Logins for both are at the front of the children’s reading diaries.
We are very impressed with the children’s attitude to reading both at school and at home and we continue to reward good effort in reading with our class incentive chart, we have now started to collect buttons and beads!
Another great week ahead Kestrels!
Term Two: Week Four: 23.11.20
This week in English we will continue with our ‘Barley The Bear’ stories and we will present them orally to one another and we hope to share some of our stories with Sarah Fiander Harrison, the author of the ‘Barley The Bear’ stories. We will also look at other schools around the world in different countries and climates and find out how the schools are similar and different to our own school.
In maths we will continue to deepen our understanding of multiplication, including grouping, arrays and we will begin to look at sharing as division. We are starting to learn our 3 and 4 times tables and to secure our knowledge of the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. We are using a variety of games and songs to help with this and we have logins for TTRock Stars that we can use to help with our learning.
Through our Learning Theme this week, we will look at a hot country and desert environment in the continent of Asia and we will explore what a desert environment is like, including what lives and grows in a desert.
Spelling Shed is ready to be used with new words added each week. TT Rock Stars is also available to support the children’s learning. Logins for both are at the front of the children’s reading diaries.
We are very impressed with the children’s attitude to reading both at school and at home and we continue to reward good effort in reading with our class incentive chart.
Looking forward to the week ahead Kestrels!
Week Three: 16.11.20
This week is ‘Anti Bullying Week’. We would like the children to wear odd socks on Monday to acknowledge the fact that we are all different. We will be using role play, drama, PSHE opportunties to discuss what bullying looks like and what we can do about it as well as the opposite behaviour which is kindness and how we can really demonstrate kindness towards others.
In English we will be writing our own stories based on ‘Barley The Bear’ and we would like to present them to Sarah Fiander Harrison. We will plan, draft, write and publish our stories as well as present them to an audience.
In Maths we will be continuing to learn about multiplication and division, we will continue to practise2s, 3s, 5s and 10s, odd and even numbers, arrays, we will use our knowledge to practically solve problems and answer questions.
Through our Learning Theme we will look at early sea exploration and navigation, we will explore different oceans from around the world, we will look at how primitive sea travel was years ago and how the stars helped explorers navigate the oceans.
Spelling Shed is ready to be used with new words added each week. We will also send out copies of the children’s spellings in folders this term too to support the great learning already taking place on the Spelling Shed platform. Logins are at the front of the children’s reading diaries.
We are very impressed with the children’s attitude to reading both at school and at home and we continue to reward good effort in reading with our class incentive chart.
Looking forward to the week ahead Kestrels!
Week Two: 9.11.20
This week we will start to look at ‘Barley The Bear Stories’ by Sarah Fiander Harrison in English. We will also have the exciting opportunity to meet her virtually through ‘Zoom’ which means that the children will be able to ask lots of questions and actually meet the author who has written the stories, how exciting! We will describe our own version of ‘Pawlett Island’ which is the setting in the stories and we will have a go at writing some poetry this week.
In Maths, we will start to look at multiplication and division. Our focus this week will be to group and share objects, to ensure that we are able to group in 2s, 5s, 10s and to divide into 2s, 5s and 10s, we will learn about odd and even numbers, look at the symbols for multiplication and division and recognise that multiplication is repeated addition.
Through our Learning Theme we will have a geography focus of learning more about our local area. We will look at Pawlett on Google Earth, we will map out our route to school and we will explore our school grounds to see what wonderful plants and trees we have within our school environment.
Spelling Shed is ready to be used with new words added each week. We will also send out copies of the children’s spellings in folders this term too to support the great learning already taking place on the Spelling Shed platform. Logins are at the front of the children’s reading diaries.
We are very impressed with the children’s attitude to reading both at school and at home and we continue to reward good effort in reading with our class incentive chart.
Looking forward to the week ahead Kestrels!
Term Two:
Week One: 2.11.20
Welcome to Term Two Kestrels!
After a fantastic Term One, now we embark on our second term of the year!
This week we will complete our class story of ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’ in English. We will write a persuasive argument and evaluate how persuasive our reasons are for writing using the idea of exploring in the dark as a starting point. Is this a good idea or not? We will look at reasons in favour and against such exploring and it will be really interesting to see what the children come up with!
In Maths we will deepen our understanding of addition and subtraction using a range of practical situations, various apparatus and methods to really cement our understanding. We will look at problem solving activites that will apply our understanding to everyday situations and ‘real life’ situations.
In our Learning Theme this week we will explore the continents of North and South America to conclude exploring the world’s continents, which will mean that we have been all around the globe before we begin to look at individual explorers in more detail. This will lead us into exploring rainforests such as The Amazon Rainforest and their importance to our everyday lives. We will look at the wonderful text ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ by Lynne Cherry which will also support our understanding of persuasion as we consider reasons to protect our rainforests.
We would like the children to retain their great habits of reading; including reading at home and will continue to reward the children’s efforts through our class incentive chart and certificates.
Spelling Shed is ready to be used with new words added each week. We will also send out copies of the children’s spellings in folders this term too to support the great learning already taking place on the Spelling Shed platform. Logins are at the front of the children’s reading diaries.
Looking forward to a great term together Kestrels!
12.10.20: Week Seven
We continue this week with our class story ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’ in English. This week we will write diary entries from the points of view of different characters, including understanding the features of a diary entry within our writing. We are trying really hard with phonics and spelling and ‘Spelling Shed’ continues to provide us with new words to learn.
In Maths this week we will continue to develop our understanding of addition and subtraction. We will use different representations, such as bar-models, part-whole models and will use different apparatus to help our understanding, such as number lines, counters, base 10 equipment.
In our Learning Theme this week we will look at the continent of Europe. We will look at maps of Europe, learn about the different countries that make up Europe as well as their various flags and capital cities. We have certainly enjoyed exploring around the continents of the world this term and our Learning Theme of ‘Who Is The Greatest Explorer?’ will continue into Term Two.
Kestrel Class are trying very hard with reading and this is so important to help with the children’s learning and development.
We look forward to our consultation phone calls with families, talking about what is going well for each individual child and give suggestions as to how to help at home.
This term has gone very quickly and we are proud of the children’s efforts in Term One; we hope all our families have a well-deserved rest when Half-Term arrives and look forward to new learning adventures in Term Two with the children!
Well done Kestrels!
5.10.20: Week Six
Kestrel Class are really enjoying their class book ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’! This week in English, we will look at non-fiction texts. We will look at their features, layout and style and we will have a go at making some of our own non-fiction books. We are also really trying hard with phonics and reading skills.
In Maths, we will be continuing to develop our skills with addition and subtraction and will be continuing to learn how to add and take away from larger numbers. We will use our skills to try and solve some problems involving addition and subtraction.
This week we will learn about the continent of Asia for our Learning Theme. We will look at the countries of Asia and who has explored the continent of Asia. There is so much to find out!
The children are trying hard with reading, they have a new login for Spelling Shed in the front of their reading diaries and new spellings are set on there each week.
Looking forward to another great week ahead Kestrel Class!
28.9.20: Week Five
This week we continue with our story of ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’ and we will be creating our own superhero in English. We will be learning about punctuation and making sure that we understand when to use different punctuation marks. This will include a bit of Kung Fu to help make our learning really stick!
In Maths, we continue our learning on addition and subtraction, including using different ways to represent this such as pictorial form, bar modelling and using apparatus and equipment to really help us to understand different methods. We are really trying to learn by heart our number bonds to 20 and 100, this means knowing by heart numbers that make 20 and multiples of 10 that make 100.
Our learning theme ‘Who Is The Greatest Explorer’ will take us to the continent of Antarctica. I wonder what we will find out…!
We have introduced a sticker scheme to encourage us to get our reading records signed and to promote reading skills. We are doing well with this and hopefully some certificates for reading and getting our records signed will be given out soon!
Don’t forget Spelling Shed for spelling practise!
Looking forward to another great week Kestrels!
21.9.20:Week Four
This week we will continue to read our story of ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’ in English and we will write a recipe using instructions as well as an adventure for a pet of our choosing to go on. We continue to revise over our understanding of phonics to help our reading and spelling skills.
In Maths this week we move on to addition and subtraction and we will be using our skills from learning about place value to help us to add and subtract. We will use pictures, bar models, part whole models to help our understanding and show that we can present our answers using different methods. There is a lot of language associated with adding and subtracting and we will be learning how to use it correctly, such as ‘altogether’, ‘more than’, ‘less than’ ‘difference’, for example.
The children want to explore the continent of Australia this week in our learning theme, so we will be taking a trip down under to find out more about this continent! We will be learning about famous landmarks, the climate and the animals found there within our exploration!
Looking forward to a great week ahead Kestrel Class!
(A reminder that reading books continue to be changed on Mondays and Fridays, please do encourage your child to read to you and change their books regularly).
18.9.20: End Of Week Three!
We have tried really hard this week and have learned lots! This week in English we have been really cementing our knowledge of phonics. We have continued to read our story of ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’ and this week we described Grandad’s garden from the story (which is very overgrown). The children have really been enjoying the story and we can’t wait to find out what happens next!
In Maths, we have continued to learn about two and three digit numbers, including how to order and compare their size. The children have used a range of apparatus to cement their understanding, including our outdoor area. Representing their findings with pictures and objects makes the learning even more fun and helps us to remember it well.
Within our learning theme, we learned this week about the continent of Africa. The explorer David Livingstone was the first European explorer of Africa and we learned about his life and work exploring Africa. The children also learned about ‘The Big Five’ animals in Africa and created posters to show what facts they discovered.
Another great week Kestrels!
11.9.20: End of Week Two!
Our first full week back in Kestrel Class and we are so very proud of our Kestrels! The children have put maximum effort into all their learning this week and have really been aiming to challenge themselves in their learning. We have had the excitement of discovering a dragon fruit in our outdoor learning environment; will we grow a dragon? We have really started to get into our story of ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’ by Andy Shepherd and the children have been very enthusiastic about their English learning this week! Maths learning has involved place value and recognising hundreds, tens and ones (Year Three) and tens and ones (Year Two). The children are very excited by their Learning Theme which is: ‘Who is the greatest explorer?’ This week they learned to name and label the seven continents and five oceans of the world. We are building on their enthusiasm of wanting to learn more about the continent of Africa next week and we will explore this magnificent continent together!
We are emphasising the importance of reading this year and we really do encourage the children to read books taken home from school. These will be changed on Mondays and Fridays for the children and the books will be quarantined before returning to general stock. Can you please return any books from school that you might have at home, we really do need these to build our supply back up again. We cannot stress the importance of reading enough within these impressionable years, this can be anything from sharing a newspaper article together to reading instructions for a recipe.
Spelling shed is up and running for Kestrel Class and we will send home some words to practise very soon. Don’t forget TT Rock Stars too! Reminders of these logins will be sent out in due course.
Have a wonderful weekend, the children deserve a well-earned rest!
4.9.2020: End of our first week into the new academic year!
Well done Kestrel Class! We are all really proud of how well you have settled back into school this week. You have shown us that you are prepared to try new things and put lots of effort into your learning, fantastic to see, keep it up!
Children have a new reading book to take home. These will come back to school and remain ‘quarantined’ until they go back into the general stock again. The children will change their book on a Monday and a Friday. Please encourage them to read the book more than once if possible, this will really cement their understanding of the text. Please do ask the children questions about their book and get them to give you their opinions of it. Did they like it? Why? Why not? Did they think that what happened in the book was expected or unexpected? Could they suggest any other endings? Which characters did they like? Why? These are some examples of the types of question that could be asked about the book. Having the book for longer really gives the children a chance to deepen their understanding of the text and be able to talk in depth about it.
Spellings have been set on Spelling Shed and this week are words with the split digraph: a_e, as in ‘cake’ for example to make a ‘long a’ sound. These will be changed on a Friday and will reinforce learning in class, currently children are ensuring that their phonics are really secure, for Year Three this is a revision experience and more difficult words will also be presented to the children. For Year Two this is a chance to ensure that phonics are really secure as we move forwards in our learning.
We have been very imaginative this week and have really given some good suggestions about what our class reader ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’ by Andy Shepherd might be about and have really used our imagination to suggest places that we would like to explore around the world through our Learning Theme: ‘Who is the greatest explorer?’ Maths learning is currently based on place value and we have really started to explore tens and ones and hundreds, tens and ones effectively and with lots of enthusiasm!
Keep up the great effort Kestrel Class, have a great weekend and looking forward to next week with you already!
Term One 2020-2021: Welcome Back!
A huge hello and welcome to this academic year Kestrel Class. We are so excited to meet you and work with you this year and we will embark on our learning journey together as a team. We will update you on here as the term develops. For now, a big welcome to Term One!
I, Mrs Semken, will be your class teacher and I am supported by Mrs Blyth and Miss Robinson.
Information that has been sent out from school should give you an insight as to how coming back to school will look. We understand that you may have questions, please do ask us if you do. You are also encouraged to email the school should you wish to on: info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk
Really looking forward to the year ahead and working as a team with you all.
22.5.2020
Following further guidance, we have issued the following letter for all parents and carers of our Pawlett Primary School Academy families. Please email us on info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk if you have any questions.
Reopening letter PPSA 22.5.2020
These fun Reading Challenges have been created by the @OpenUni_RfP team.
Click on this link and choose your preferred age range and get going! Which reading challenge will you do first?
Google Classroom is now live! You will have all been sent login details, ANY problems please let us know on info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk and we will help!
WELCOME TO TERM 5!
Today marks the start of term 5 and even though it’s not the start to the summer term we would have wanted or liked, we will all make the best of it.
Logins and passwords for Google Classroom will sent to you today. Along with a children and parent guide of how to use it. If you have any problems with this over the coming days and weeks. please let us know (info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk). It is all very new to us too but between us we will work it out – we promise!
We appreciate how hard it is to keep children motivated and engaged with home learning and many of you are also trying to work from home so please don’t put any pressure on yourselves or your children and only do what you can. We are here to help if you need anything so please contact us if you have any concerns.
The most important thing is that we all stay home and stay safe. We will continue to post lots of links to free online materials that are easy to access from home on Facebook and Twitter. From today BBC bitesize are launching daily lessons for all year groups which are a fantastic free resource: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize We will signpost you to some of these lessons on Google classroom.
Please take care and know that we miss you all so much and cannot wait until we can be together again.
3/4/2020
Morning everyone! In RE we have been looking at Christianity. Before we move on, you can have a look at the Easter story on
and lots of Easter related activities on
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/seasonal/seasonal1.htm
We are expecting everyone to have a lovely break this Easter holidays. However, we still have today and if your child is wanting to do a word search or a fun maths problem, just have a look!
It’s Friday and that can only mean one thing (well two actually but more of that in a moment).
#FreeWritingFriday
For just 15 mins today, find somewhere quiet and write – about anything you like, as long as you are writing – one rule – silent working! I will share the fact we are continuing this with Cressida Cowell (author of How to Train Your Dragon series and the Wizards of Once books) as she is the one who inspired us to start it.
The other thing that Friday means is #HotChocFriday! We’d like to see as many of you enjoying a well-deserved hot chocolate, because we feel you have all been going above and beyond at the moment. You know what mums and dads, you absolutely deserve one too, thank you for ALL your support at this time – send us your pictures of you enjoying your #HotChocFriday.
2/4/2020
Hello to all you distance learners out there! I wanted to say how exceptionally proud we all are at PPSA of what learning you are continuing to do whilst we are in this situation. It is really tough, we do understand and parents out there we are not expecting you at this point to be teaching your child NEW things that we cover at cover (don’t worry we won’t be asking you to teach the present perfect tense or fronted adverbials) but what you can teach them is how to boil an egg or re-wire a plug or how to build a den with nothing but a sheet and some clothes pegs! All of us are having to grow into our new roles at the moment, so give yourselves time to do this – we all need time to readjust.
After Easter, if we are all still in this current situation, we be using Google Classroom. More information will be sent out about this over the coming days. This will enable children (teachers and parents) to have a little more structure in their distance learning. Watch this space.
In the meantime here are some mindfulness ideas for kids – enjoy!
1/4/2020
Good morning! There is a poetry competition from the author of Gorilla Ballerina, Neal Zetter. Let’s get creative and write about an imaginary animal. But be quick as the competition closes shortly
.https://thereadingrealm.co.uk/2020/03/29/the-reading-realm-poetry-competition
Do let us know how you get on!
1/4/2020
Good morning all! Welcome to April everyone. It is lovely to be hearing from you, emails, pictures, videos – they are all fabulous to see please keep them coming info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk
We have been updating our Facebook page – thank you to the parents who have sent me things to add, this is great.
We all know we cannot go out and about at the moment (except for essential reasons) so lots of places have opened up their virtual doors for us to visit.
Take a look at: virtual tours
Let us know where you have ‘visited’ today!
Any of you want to get crafty and arty? Leila who runs create you has got products which can be delivered and she does a live class every Monday and Wednesday at 2pm and sets challenges for the children as well.
Thank you Louise for sharing that with us at Pawlett Primary School.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/210513623365870/?ref=sha
30/3/2020
Bonjour! or Hello! to everyone this morning.
I am adding the French file we did on the last week. Don’t worry if you weren’t there as you can all have a look and learn how to recognise where you live. Where-do-you-live-Vocab-powerpoint Place-to-live-French-Flash-Cards Where-do-you-live-worksheet
For English, you can start to write a diary. Write about anything exciting that you have done, what you have learnt and anything else you want to add about your day. You can add to this while you are learning at home.
27/3/2020
Good morning all! What another beautiful day it is out there.
I have just been sent a link to @ChesterZoo as they are opening up their (virtual) doors for us all to spend the day at the zoo.
?? LIVE: A virtual zoo day at @chesterzoo! ??
As you can’t come to #TheZoo right now, we’ll bring it to you!
Join us on our @Facebook page tomorrow from 10am and enjoy a whole day of animal antics, LIVE from your sofa ?#StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/rNsMpCpnXk
— Chester Zoo (@chesterzoo) March 26, 2020
Enjoy!
26/03/2020
GOOD MORNING ALL! Watch this space for updates later….
In class we have been reading ‘Pugs of the Frozen North’. What do you think will happen next? Email your ideas to info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk
When you have done that you can listen to the audio recording of the rest of the story. You can listen to it on audible.co.uk/pd/Pugs-of-the-Frozen-North-Audiobook/B01BLSF3GA
Don’t forget to cancel the subscription before 30 days are up so you can get it for free.
25/03/2020
Hi everyone – we do hope you are all ok out there? Please get in touch with us if you are experiencing any problems with any of the activities we have suggested – or indeed just want to say hello – we would love to hear from you. We are all missing seeing you, drop us an email on info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk
There have been a few issues with some of the websites being a little overwhelmed with traffic, but as far as we are aware this has settled a little now.
We are looking into using Google Classrooms as this situation continues, but we will update you with how this develops and how we can all use it.
Take care of yourselves, stay safe, and stay in touch
24/03/2020
Here is a link to Audible Stories – All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet.
Good morning all! Another beautiful day out there, try as much as you can to get some sunshine and fresh air albeit in a garden, balcony or even through an open window! Take care and stay safe.
David Walliams is releasing a free audio story every day. Click here to find out more World of David Walliams. Thank you!
23/04/2020
Suggested TimeTable
Please click on the link above for some ideas of what to do and when!
10am today (and every day) there is a #MathsParty hosted by White Rose Maths.
Log in to WhiteRoseMaths/Homelearning
Select your year group, watch the video, try the questions, if you are stuck you can email mathshelp@whiterosemaths.com or email us at info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk – Happy Maths Party!
Useful links and resources for you to access over the coming weeks
We can’t thank you enough for your patience and kindness over the past week with regards to our current situation. This is an unprecedented situation that we find ourselves in and we know you appreciate that we do not know all the answers but we can assure that we will keep the communication lines open and keep you up to date with developments. Should you need to contact us please email info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
We will be updating all our class pages over the coming weeks. Learning resources have been sent home, along with reading books and exercise books in which children can use – they are theirs to keep.
Lots of learning related organisation are offering free access or free apps. Ones we would suggest are:
There are spellings on there ready to play and learn until the start of May!
TTRockstars
Keep playing!
We follow the small steps approach to maths and use White Rose Maths at school – this has been released today.
More to follow…
Useful links and resources for you to access over the coming weeks
We can’t thank you enough for your patience and kindness over the past week with regards to our current situation. This is an unprecedented situation that we find ourselves in and we know you appreciate that we do not know all the answers but we can assure that we will keep the communication lines open and keep you up to date with developments. Should you need to contact us please email info@ppsa.theplt.org.uk and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
We will be updating all our class pages over the coming weeks. Learning resources have been sent home, along with reading books and exercise books in which children can use – they are theirs to keep.
Lots of learning related organisation are offering free access or free apps. Ones we would suggest are:
There are spellings on there ready to play and learn until the start of May!
Keep playing!
We follow the small steps approach to maths and use White Rose Maths at school – this has been release today.
More to follow
