We have had a fantastic first week back in Falcons' class! I am so proud of how all the children have settled into the class and into the routine. On a personal note, it has been wonderful to be reunited with a class who I loved in Year 1, and I have had a great first week experience into KS2!

I will be posting a few updates about some of the learning activities that we have done throughout the week. I will also be posting any key messages as well on here so please make sure to regularly check these class updates.

Here is what we have been learning about this week. 

Maths

In our Maths learning, we have been recapping our learning on numbers up to 1000, learning how to partition and represent numbers to 1000, and then counting to 1000 in different intervals on a number line. We have used this to help our understanding of numbers up to 10,000 as well. The children have been learning how to count in 1000s, and we have been learning how to represent these numbers as well. The children have done amazingly with this and have become so fluent with counting and representing to 10,000!

Here are some challenges you can have a go at;

I have set some Maths Shed quizzes on this week's learning. You can access this using your child's login details at the front of their Reading Record. 

https://www.mathshed.com/en-gb/

I have also set some online games here too; 

https://wordwall.net/resource/70138560/numbers-to-10000 - Numbers to 10,000 game.

https://www.matific.com/id/en-gb/home/maths/episode/watch-this-space/ - Tricky word game to 10,000.

English

In our English learning this week, we have been focusing on a stimulus called "The Dragon Slayer". It is a video clip of a viking-like slayer going to hunt for a dragon, but returns with an unexpected surprise. The video is here if you wish to watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_f3AtPfuiw

The children have been immersed in the text, drawing story maps to understand the story, coming up with ambitious words to describe the character and writing impressive sentences. This is leading up to our work on writing the story, and then we are going to be creative and write our own sequels to the story!

History

In our History learning, we have been started our learning on The Anglo-Saxons. We will be eventually learning about the Vikings in Autumn Term 2, but chronologically we will start with the Anglo-Saxons. We started to learn about where they came from and why they came to Britain. The childrne have really enjoyed the learning so far!

Whole Class Reading

The book that we have been reading this term is Anglo-Saxon Boy.  We have read two chapters already! We have so far learned that this is a book about Magnus Godwinson, son of Harold Godwinson, and he has just been asked by his father that if he becomes king, will Magnus be his heir. Magnus is quite unsure about this. We have also found out that Magnus' mum, Edith, is also not quite happy with Harold Godwinson, but we don't know why! 

Science

We have started our unit on electricity and talked about how electricity gets into our homes, and how electrical appliances can get electricity through mains-powered electricity, or battery-powered electricity.

Spellings and Homework

We have been learning about the various ways of making the /ai/ phoneme. We learned about some of the rare graphemes of ai such as ey, ei, eigh, and ea. We looked at a phoneme spotter to spot these words. We talked about when we may see these different spellings of /ai/ and what letters may normally follow them. 

You may have found in your child's homework folder some sheets. These are your child's homework sheets for this week. I have sent the phoneme spotter in your child's homework folder just so you can see what words your child has learned.

In your child's homework folder there is a small sheet with 10 spellings, and a sheet to write missing /ai/ words. Please can you practise writing the 10 spellings at some point to help your child with these spellings. We are not do Spelling Tests at our school following on from last year's changes, but we are doing regular practise of these spellings through dictation lessons in our English lessons so it would be helpful to practise these spellings. You do not need to show proof of practising these spellings. I have put these spellings on Spelling Shed as well for your child to practice these spellings if your child would prefer to do it this way. The only sheet your child needs to return next Friday is the 'Long A' sheet where the children have to complete the missing sentences with the correct /ai/ words, which can be found at the top of the sheet. A quick note: those sentences are also some of the dictation sentences that I will be using this coming week! 

Completed homework needs to be on Friday, but can be returned before then. Completed homework is 3 house points!

Next week, I will also be giving one sheet of Maths homework out each week to help with times table practise as well, but for the first week back I just thought to start with this first. If your child finds these spellings too hard, then please let me know and I can provide alternaitve spellings. 

If your child has lost any of their sheets. I have attached the sheets below.

Have a lovely weekend Falcons, and well done on a terrific week!

Mr Armishaw