Welcome back to a new term and also welcome to the new parents of children in Chestnut class.  This newsletter will give details of some of the work that each year group will be covering during this term.  School activities can also be seen through a selection of photographs and work on the school website at www.farnhamcommoninfant.ik.com. 

THURSDAY MORNINGS 

Thursday mornings between 9.15 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. are reserved for parents to speak to teachers without prior appointments.  Please try to take advantage of this time as this is an opportunity for you to ask questions about your child’s progress or to raise any concerns.  If this time is unsuitable, teachers can make alternative arrangements with prior appointments. This term, there will be a formal Parents’ Evening on Thursday, 6^th March.  An appointment slip will be sent home nearer the date. 

GET HEALTHY WEEK (11^th - 15^th February) 

This is a fun week where the children will focus on ways of keeping healthy, including physical activities such as basketball, gymnastics and drama.   On the Thursday, there will be a sponsored workout to raise funds for ‘Lepra’ – a charity which helps people and families affected by leprosy.

ART WEEK (25^th – 29^th February)

This is always an enjoyable week, albeit messy, when the children will have opportunities to experience art through looking at specific artists and art from different cultures – and in particular, African art.   They will also be creating their own pictures using a variety of media.  If anyone has any special talents that could be of use during Art Week, please let us know.

RECEPTION - Beech and Chestnut classes 

The six areas of learning of the Foundation Stage curriculum will be accessed primarily through the following books: ‘Kipper’s Toybox’, ‘My Body’ and ‘The Three Little Pigs’.   In addition to this, the children will learn about health, space and Easter.  The children will focus on the initial phonic sounds of k,t,i,m,r,w,l and f, as well as the blends of ‘ch’ and ‘th’.  Mathematical development will include activities to develop recognition, sequencing and recording of numbers to 10, recognition of numbers up to 20 and addition to 10 for the older children, as well as work on 2D and 3D shapes, measurement, pattern and simple time.  Both classes have regular music sessions from an outside provider and two weekly P.E. sessions.

The topic for this term for both the Year One and Year Two classes is ‘Growth’

YEAR ONE - Oak and Silver Birch classes 

Maths work this term will involve learning to recognise odd and even numbers to at least fifty, matching zero to twenty with their number names, to identify number doubles to twenty and to use a variety of mathematical vocabulary for addition and subtraction. They will use the book ‘Handa’s Surprise’ to initiate problem solving activities. The children will continue to compare lengths and masses and use this knowledge to suggest suitable standard and non-standard units and measuring equipment to measure lengths or masses.  They will develop their skills of estimation.  They will be describing familiar 2D and 3D shapes (including their properties). They will also look at symmetry by folding shapes in half and making symmetrical pictures on the computer.  Money activities will include finding totals and giving change to 20p, as well as subtraction within 10p or £10.  In Literacy, the children in Oak and Silver Birch classes will be looking at a variety of fiction and non-fiction books, e.g. ‘Tortoise’s Dream’, ‘Look out for the Big Bad Fish’ and ‘Your Amazing Body’. They will focus on initial consonant clusters of br cr dr fr gr pr tr sm sn sw tw sp spl, as well as words ending with ck ff ll ss ng nd nk nt.  They will continue to extend their writing skills in both fiction and non-fiction activities, as well as continuing to improve their reading and handwriting skills.  Science work will include looking at how to keep healthy, senses, growth and life cycles.  In History, the focus will be on the stories of Saint David and Saint Andrew, as well as looking at transport and travel, both past and present.  Geography work will include doing a weather watch, as well as finding Wales and Northern Ireland

YEAR TWO – Sycamore and Willow Classes   

In Maths, work will continue to count up to 100 objects by grouping them in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s, as well as improving their ability to add and subtract mentally, including the addition of three single digit numbers to totals to twenty. The children will partition 2 or 3 digit numbers and understand the place value of each digit. The book ‘Mr. Wolf’s Pancakes’ will act as a starting point for investigation using multiplication.  In money, they will be using finding out totals, deciding what change to give and which coins to use, as well as looking at the value of £5, £10 and £20 notes.  Work on mass and length will involve estimation, measurement and comparisons.  They will look at the relationship between the units of time, e.g. second, minute, etc.  The children will look at the properties of 2D and 3D shapes and will use this knowledge in the symmetry of 2D shapes.  Throughout the term in Literacy, the children will be carrying out work on a variety of fiction and non-fiction books, e.g. ‘Starlight’, ‘The three wolves and the big bad pig’ and the ‘How Babies Grow’, as well as a selection of animal lifecycle books.   They will also be developing their own writing skills with the use of punctuation, speech bubbles, interesting verbs and correct verb tenses as well as continuing to improve their spelling and individual reading skills. The phonic focus will be on words containing long vowel phonemes:  -igh/-y, -oi/-oy, -au/-aw, -er/-ir/-ur, -ar and  words  with the  suffixes –ful and -ly. The children will practise the four basic handwriting joins.  In Science, the main focus is on healthy living, as well as looking at the life cycles of humans, animals and plants.  Both classes will visit an environmental centre to find out about seasonal changes.  In History, the children will be looking at the lives of Florence Nightingale and Louis Braille and will also be looking at schools in the past and children at work. The work in Geography this term will focus on a weather watch and Antarctica .  Art work will include seasonal pictures, portraits, artwork related to penguins and whales, as well as looking at the work of Monet and Van Gogh in Art Week.   In Design and Technology,

YEARS ONE and TWO

R.E. - This term the whole school will learn about different Spring festivals – the Chinese New Year, Holi and Easter. Weekly themes will involve the children learning about relationships and the needs of others, as well as finding out about special people.  Year Two will also look at the life of Jesus.

PHSE – The children will continue to look at making choices and their personal health and safety. We will also be encouraging the children to consider their own successes at school and to think about areas that they would wish to improve on at school.

HOMESTUDY IN YEAR TWO

The children in Sycamore and Willow classes will continue to receive work to carry out at home on a regular basis, although there may be times when the teachers feel that there is no appropriate work that will reinforce or enrich work carried out in school. 

  

 

Yours sincerely,

 

  

Mrs. C. A. Staynor,

Deputy Headteacher