Welcome to Class 3!
Hello and welcome to Class 3 where your child is taught to work hard, have fun and try their best in everything that they do. It is going to be a great year full of new adventures, discoveries and learning. Mrs Baldock and all support staff are here to support you and your child. Within the classroom both students and parents are cared about so please let us know if you have any concerns – ideally via Seesaw. Each day your child is required to bring to school a coat, book bag, water bottle and snack (unless they order toast) and their reading record which will be checked daily.
Class 3 Curriculum 2021.pdf
Lunches
Each day, children have the choice of ordering a hot school meal or bring in a packed lunch from home. Each new term, the school dinner menu is sent to all parents via Seesaw messages. Please ensure you discuss the meal choices available with your child. Unfortunately, the kitchen is unable to provide any alternatives (dietary requirements will be catered for), for this reason, Mrs Baldock would like to request that, on the days your child does not like the meal choices, a packed lunch be provided from home.
Messages between school and home
Seesaw will continue to be our main method of communication within this academic year. Please try where possible to send any message big or small (remember no message or question is silly and Mrs Baldock will always get an answer for you as promptly as possible) through the inbox tool on Seesaw. Support staff based in Class 3 may also respond to you if they see a message and are able to provide you with an answers to queries. If a message is sent in the evening or weekend, it may be seen, however depending on the content of the message it may not be responded to until the following school day. Likewise, Mrs Baldock will be endeavour not to message in the evenings and weekends where possible.
Behaviour and Rewards
The whole school follows three rules: kind, ready and safe. Displayed in class is a sunshine and cloud behaviour chart where all children will begin, and hopefully end the day, on the sunshine; however, if a member of staff feels that your child has not chosen to be kind, ready or safe, they will be given time to think about their actions and their name placed on the cloud. If they persistently choose not to be kind, ready or safe, they will be spoken to privately by the teacher, move onto the rain cloud and it will be communicated to you through Seesaw. Each new day, every child will start the day on the sunshine, regardless of the previous day's actions.
Sticker Charts
In KS1 we have sticker charts for each child which will be displayed in the classroom. Children can earn stickers through good behaviour, hard work and stand out moments. When a sticker chart is filled it is celebrated in class and the chart will be stapled into their reading record.
Homework
Homework will be uploaded onto Seesaw on Friday at 3:15 and is due to be completed by the following Wednesday. In year 2, your child will receive one piece of homework beginning the first week we're back. The homework will alternate between Maths, SPAG or a reading based task. The homework that is set for your child will be something that they can access independently at home. Both their Maths and SPAG will be revisiting basics (times tables, addition, subtraction or the use of commas, question marks etc) in the hopes that they are secure and their year group objectives can be focused on in class. Mrs Baldock will have a homework tracker in school to monitor this area. Homework should not take your child more than 20 minutes to complete. It is important for parents to both, encourage your child to complete their homework independently, and to celebrate their knowledge and ability when they have completed it. If support is needed, please let Mrs Baldock know when the homework is uploaded onto Seesaw that way we can all work together to reach the best outcome.
Throughout the year, Mrs Baldock may assign additional short tasks to a child if she feels they need more support on a particular area of the curriculum. A private message will be sent via Seesaw to you to let you know and give further details of how to best support your child at home. Additionally, Mrs Baldock will also assign short challenges to encourage your child to share what they have learned in class and further demonstrate their understanding. These challenges are not compulsory but hopefully provide a great way to celebrate your child's learning and any challenge completed will be shared in class with their peers.
Reading
Reading records need to be in school every day. You are expected to comment in their Reading Record on how your child has read at least three times a week (remember it doesn't just have to be about a school book) this allows the child a chance to discuss the book; author, illustrator, its themes, features and language, all of which are important for your child's comprehension and literacy skills. Reading books will be changed on a Monday. Your child will receive a raffle ticket weekly if they have read three times a week, which is put into a raffle and pulled out termly to win a book token worth £5. Any additional reading will be rewarded with a sticker.
Mrs Baldock will have a tracker in class to monitor reading records coming and going throughout the year. Can it be mentioned here that if a reading record is lost, as the first one is given for free, there will be small charge to replace it. These details, if needed, can be found from Mrs Staveley.
Bug club
Bug Club is a literacy program designed to support the effective and engaging reading. The books are set to the child's direct book band. The children all have their own individual logins; therefore, we will be monitoring the use of Bug Club every Friday. It is a great app/website that children can enjoy reading books onscreen and completing fun quiz questions found in the eBooks. The quiz questions will help the children practise their reading skills. Many of the KS1 eBooks are also audiobooks, so children can enjoy hearing an expressive reading of the story.
Reading an eBook
Click on the book cover and see how many quiz questions there are. Read the book and click on the bug icons to open the quiz questions. Your child does not need to finish all quiz questions in one sitting. They can come back to a book later. However, the book is not marked as read until all questions are answered. Bug Club books are an additional reading resource for your child.
Reading Vipers
Class 3 will be using our 'Reading Vipers' during their guided reading whole class lessons. (Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Sequence) The reading vipers have had a massive impact on developing language, comprehension and inference skills. Attached to the website are key questions that can be asked to the children whilst they are reading at home. This will give you the chance to see the type of questions that they are asked during lessons and assessment periods. On here you will find a link with the Reading Vipers strands with example questions that we encourage you to ask your child at home during reading sessions.
P.E
Class 3 children will have two sessions of PE a week. This term PE will take place on a Monday with Mrs Baldock and a Thursday with Coach Craig. We will be continuing by asking that you child comes ready for PE on their PE days We request the children to wear a school PE kit with a logo or a plain white t-shirt with plain black shorts/bottoms.
Seesaw
As you all know, Seesaw is an interactive learning journal where your child will be able to share their work. It will be used in all subjects from problem solving in Maths to Dance in PE. Homework and spelling lists will additionally be added to Seesaw every Monday. You will be able to like and comment on your child's work, which will add to the great sense of achievement that the children feel when using the app. Any questions about Seesaw and how it works please feel free to ask Mrs Baldock. This is the best way to communicate with school staff. You can send a private message via the inbox. Staff will reply to these messages but be aware that they may not be seen during the school day whilst staff are teaching. Please ring the school if you have an urgent message.
Spelling
Your child will learn a rule on a Monday morning and will be expected to use the rules that they have learnt in all of their written work. Every Monday your child will have a new spelling rule and list of words to enable them to practise the rule. Your child will be tested on the rule the following week however; it must be reminded that we will be testing your child's knowledge of the rule not a list of words. Additional words may be added by the teacher to assess your child's understanding. Attached to the website page is a list of spelling for your child's year group that they will learn across the term. Again please be aware this is not a comprehensive list your child will be learning a spelling rule not a list of words.
Times table challenge
Every Monday, children will complete their times table challenge. Children will not be given this prior to the lesson however there is support to help your child that you may find useful on our webpage. When a child passes a challenge it will be celebrated in class and a photo uploaded to Seesaw.
Birthday Treats
We will ensure all children whose birthday it is are recognised and that their birthday is celebrated by school, however we would prefer not to distribute cakes and sweets or gifts in class as this can take up quite a bit at the end of the day and can put some parents under pressure to provide this treat for everyone. We are also a 'Healthy School' and should not be actively promoting sugar treats on a regular basis. Thank you for your support with this.
How to help your child
Here are some websites that you may find useful to support your child's learning.
Maths
http://www.ictgames.com: Fun and exciting maths and literacy games available.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/numeracy.shtml A BBC website with all maths topics covered.
http://www.mad4maths.com/ Fun maths games for children and advice section for parents
http://www.mathszone.co.uk/ Lots and lots of games and tools to help your child with maths at home.
http://www.teachingtables.co.uk/ Fun games to support the learning of times tables. Table Mountain is recommended and can be played in demo mode.
https://www.myminimaths.co.uk Lots of arithmetic practise for all areas of Maths
https://www.mathsframe.co.uk Maths games and
English
https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf
Reading VIPERS guidance.
https://www.pobble365.co.uk a picture a day that your child can talk or write about to let their imaginations soar.
https://www.spellingframe.co.uk Spelling rules practise for each year group.
Spelling Bee Record Card YR2 Autumn Term.pdf
Please always ask if you want anything to support your child at home
