Kingfishers Class

Kingfishers Planning Letter: Autumn Term 1/2 2024 - Miss Black

We are looking forward to another school year filled with lots of exciting learning. For Term 1, Miss Black will continue on Kingfishers Monday-Thursday and Mrs West will be taking over on Fridays. Miss Saunders will continue to work with us every day.

We hope this newsletter will give you a brief summary of what your child will be learning in each subject this autumn term, as well as detailing some extra information about our class in general. As it is the first term of the year, we will put a strong focus on routines, expectations and developing independence to set the children up for a positive year and beyond.

Our autumn topic for Term 1 is ‘Houses Through History’ which will see us focus on homes and houses across different subjects. In Term 2, we will turn our focus to The Great Fire of London, a topic that is always of great excitement.

English

In English this term, we will initially base our writing on The Something by Rebecca Cobb. We will start by focusing on correct sentence structure which will support us in building up to writing our own stories by the middle of the term. For the second half of the term, we will be reading and writing poems and letters.

For reading this term, the class will be working as one group on some different texts to develop their fluency and comprehension: The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright, Dogger by Shirley Hughes and Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. We will start with echo and choral reading (repeating lines back and reading as a whole group) before children take turns at reading parts individually.

We have also started our new phonics scheme, Monster Phonics, which was a big hit with the children when we trialled it at the end of last year and they have also shown good engagement with it so far this term. We are excited to start our journey with Monster Phonics and anticipate it being a big support for reading and spelling.

History & Geography

In Term 1, we will start with a History unit, looking at how houses have change over time from the Iron Age through to today. We will then have a small Geography unit, looking at where people live around us and what the houses look like in Framfield. We have already made a start on this and the children have enjoyed looking at what Iron Age roundhouses were made from and what Anglo-Saxon villages were like.

In Term 2, we will start with a Geography unit on the UK. We will particularly focus on London in preparation for our History unit on The Great Fire of London. We have managed to secure a workshop on the Great Fire of London in the last week of Term 1 which will provide a nice ‘hook’ into this learning before the children dive deeper into it during Term 2.

Maths

We are hoping to keep the children together for much of our maths learning this year with the help of an updated scheme so this will provide lots of opportunity for the children to recap and extend their learning as well as support and learn from each other across year groups.

In Term 1, our main focus will be on Place Value to 20, which is fundamental for the majority of maths units. We will also look at addition and subtraction within 20 which will be a useful recap for those in year 2 before they move onto using harder numbers in Term 2.

In Term 2, we will continue building on our place value knowledge with numbers to 100 before moving onto our shape unit.

Computing

In Term 1 and 2, our unit of work will be ‘Computing Systems and Networks’. In term 1, we will be focusing on what technology is around us and developing skills with the mouse and keyboard. In term 2, we will then look at IT around us, how it benefits us and how we can use it safely.

PE

In PE for Terms 1 and 2, we will be developing different skills. On Mondays, we will be focusing on manipulative skills in Term 1 before moving on to attacking and defending skills in Term 2. Our fantastic coach, Wayne, will continue to lead sessions with us on a Monday. Our second session will be on a Wednesday and in Term 1, we will be placing a particular focus on team building skills to help us work together and build strong bonds as a class.

Homework

Compulsory

Maths homework will be given out every Thursday to be returned on the following Wednesday to allow time for marking. There may be times when we also send home an English based task too.

With our new phonics scheme, we will not be sending home weekly spellings as we incorporate time to practice and informally test spellings throughout the week. Instead, we ask that you practice some of the High Frequency Words (HFW) and Common Exception Words (CEW) for Year 1/2 with your child each week. Lists for these can be found on our class page on the website but if you would like printed copies of these then please just ask. If children struggle to spell those we are focusing on by the end of the week then there is a chance that we will send them home for some additional practice.

Encouraged

We would love to see the children using Numbots    regularly to support their maths learning, particularly their fluency and recall of key facts. The children will be rewarded with certificates for their progress using this platform. Logins will be stuck into home learning books.

We are also very keen for children to have a go at an activity from the home learning menu each term which is linked to their topic. We will provide an opportunity for the children to show and tell the class about their home learning and it will be put on display in the classroom for viewing by children, staff and visitors to the school throughout the term.

numbots.com

Science

In the Autumn Terms, our science lessons will be focusing on Everyday Materials. For Year 2, they previously did some learning with this unit in the summer term so will be extending their knowledge by looking at different materials in more detail. For Year 1, this will be a great start to their materials learning which they will then add to when the unit comes up again next year. In particular, we will be looking at floating, sinking, freezing and melting—you may wish to explore some of these at home too!

In Term 2, we will have a look at the seasonal changes that occur in autumn and winter before covering a unit on sustainability, learning how we can help to look after our planet.

 

Art & DT

This autumn term, we will be doing all of our art and DT lessons in Term 1. In Art, we will be using our new scheme, Kapow, to explore how we can draw with different types of lines. We will use these skills to draw objects by looking closely.

In DT, we will be focusing on structures and how we can make a shoebox house. Thank you very much for saving your shoeboxes for us to use in this exciting project!

RE

In RE for Term 1, we will be looking at the Islam religion with a focus on what God means to Muslims. In Term 2, we will look at why Christmas matters to Christians.

PSHE

Our Term 1 unit is called ‘Being Me’. This unit of work will really help us to set up our class in a way that everyone feels safe and special. We will discuss rules, roles and responsibilities that will allow everybody to be successful as well as consequences of our actions, positive and negative.

In Term 2, Our unit will be ‘Celebrating Difference’ with which we will look at stereotypes people sometimes have of boys and girls, why bullying might happen and how we are different from our friends. 

Music

In Music this term, we will take inspiration from a song called ‘No Place Like’ by Kerry Andrews. We will be using this to create our own songs about home. We will then move onto using our class text to help us create a story through music.

In Term 2, we will have another exciting nativity with lots of songs we will need to learn!

Developing Independence

One of our aims in Kingfishers is to support the children in developing their own independence and ability to support and      motivate themselves for their own learning. They will be in charge of taking their own reading books out of their book bags each morning, ready to be changed or read to adults, they will be taught to select the resources that will best help them with their learning and will be encouraged to have a go themselves before asking for help.

To support this development of independence, we would now like to see all Year 2 children walking around to the cloakroom, and sorting their things, by themselves. You are welcome to continue walking Year 1 children through the playground until you feel they are confident and happy to do so by themselves but we do ask that you leave them at the bottom of the ramp, to come into the cloakroom by themselves. Adults and Year 2 children will be around to support them with getting their things ready for the day.

Important Information and Reminders

Kingfisher’s PE lessons will be on Monday and Wednesday so please send your children to school in correct PE kit on these days. This should include a white t-shirt, black shorts/leggings, black/grey joggers for colder days and black plimsols or trainers.

Children will need a water bottle every day (please ensure this only has water in it). They will also need a warm, waterproof coat for rainy days with the addition of hats, scarves and gloves as we move into the winter. We can sometimes get lovely, sunny weather at the start of the year so sun cream and sunhats on any hotter days is also necessary.

To keep our cloakroom looking tidy and belongings easily accessible, we ask that additional bags, such as rucksacks, are not brought into school as there will not be enough space on the children’s pegs. We will also be using our cloakroom area as a second learning space so it is important that we are able to keep it tidy and clutter free to allow the children to focus on their learning when working out there. Rucksacks are of course welcome when we go on school trips!

We also ask that children do not bring in toys or things in for show and tell unless it is directly linked to our learning. If they have something that is very special that they would like to show the teachers then that will be lovely but we will not be able to show it to the class.

Gerald the giraffe continues to be an extra member of our class as he really enjoyed his first year with us last year. He would like to continue coming home with a different child each Friday to spend the weekend with their family. Please don’t do anything extra when Gerald joins you—he is interested and excited by your normal weekend activities! If the children could stick in/draw pictures or write into his book, that will be lovely as we will share Gerald’s weekend each Monday and keep a record of his adventures.

At the end of last year, we also introduced our class PE bags that will come home with a child in each year group every Friday to practice their PE skills using the equipment inside.