Welcome to Class 3!

I would like to offer you warm 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. Miss Higham and Mrs Jones 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 or by telephone at this time.  Each day your child is required to bring to school a coat, book bag, water bottle, lunch and snack (unless they order a hot dinner or toast) and on a Friday, their reading record.

Behaviour and Rewards

The whole school follows three rules: kind, ready and safe. Displayed in class is a sun, cloud and thunder storm, all children will begin and hopefully end the day on the sun; 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 (cloud) and if they persistently choose not to be kind, ready or safe, they will be spoken to privately by the teacher, move onto thunder and it will be written in their reading record. Each child will always start the day on the sun, regardless of the previous day's actions. We will be rewarding children who remain on the sun throughout the week.

Homework

The children will be expected to read every night and practise the times table they are currently practising; Year 2 the children should recall and use multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 multiplication tables, including recognising odd and even numbers. Additionally, children will receive a list of spellings on Seesaw each Monday taken from the Spelling Bee termly card.

Reading

Reading records do not need to be in school every day, unless you want to send any messages to school, however, please try to use Seesaw when possible for messages to avoid us having to handle lots of paper. 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. Therefore, reading records need to be in every Friday, they will then be kept in school until the Monday. On a Monday, a new reading book, along with the reading record will be sent home with your child and again both will need to return on the Friday. 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.

Monday – a new reading book will sent home along with their reading record.

Friday – reading book and reading record both need to return and be kept in school over the weekend. (This ensures we meet our duty to keep books safe for other children to use. )

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.

P.E

Class 3 children will have two sessions of PE a week. This term PE will take place on a Wednesday morning with Craig and a Friday afternoon with Miss Higham. Children are required to come into school wearing their PE kits 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. We also have a school hoodie which can be worn as a jumper on PE days as part of the PE Kit. If your child does not have, a kit in school a note will be put in their reading diary, if they continue to forget their kit a text message will be sent home. After this it is a phone call home and then if this continues a letter will be sent home.

Seesaw

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. We invite you to set up your very own parents' account where you can receive notifications when your child or Miss Higham has uploaded or marked a piece of work. Spellings list 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 Miss Higham. 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

Class 3 will be continuing to use the scheme this year. 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 be sent a spelling bookmark that you will find on Seesaw that practises the rule. The words on the bookmark will be directly from their words on the spelling bee card. 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.

Sticker Charts

We have sticker charts for each child which will be displayed in the classroom. Children can earn stickers through good behaviour, work and stand out moments. Once a child has completed their sticker chart, they will receive five marbles during virtual celebration assembly on a Monday. We hope every child will aim for the Gold sticker chart by the end of the year.

Birthdays and Treats

During current circumstances we are not able to distribute any party invitations or have children bring any birthday treats into school for their classmates. We will ensure all children whose birthday it is are recognised and it is celebrated by their class. Thank you

Show and Tell

Please help us by ensuring your child does not bring anything in from home at this time other than their water bottle, packed lunch and snack (if required). Reading books and reading records need only come in on a Friday. We are not able to have 'show and tell' currently.

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.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/ks1-collection/zbr4scw - The children LOVE this! Engaging maths, literacy, PSHE and MFL songs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/numeracy.shtml - A BBC website with all maths topics covered.

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.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button - Great to practise number bonds, doubles, halves and times tables!

English

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm - Phonics.

www.topmarks.co.uk – for games and support materials in maths and literacy. 

 http://www.bigbrownbear.co.uk/magneticletters/ -  A fun different way to practise and test spellings.

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/list/phonics-games-phase-5 - Phonics games

https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf

Please always ask if you want anything to support your child at home