Reading at home
In Reception and Year 1, reading is one of the most important ways that you can help your child in their learning. Sharing a story with each other helps to develop key comprehension skills and, most importantly, a love of reading. The children will take home a book chosen from our library. They are able to change this book as regularly as they wish. On a Thursday the children will take home a book that is matched to our phonics scheme. This is a book that the children should be able to read confidently so they can show off what they can do. We would love it if the children could work on their prosody skills (reading with expression!) and their comprehension skills. We ask that the children bring their reading books and reading records into school every day.
Phonics
We follow the Little Wandle phonics scheme and this half term we will be looking at phase 3 in Reception and phase 5 sounds with the Year 1s. If you would like to familiarise yourself with any of the sounds the children will be learning this year, then head over to the Phonics section of Robin's page where you can watch videos introducing the sounds. Below are some Sound Mats which will be really useful if and when the children are doing any writing.
Maths
Please feel free to focus on practical Maths, counting, number recognition and recall, particularly number bonds. Please engage your child in practical, everyday Maths at home. For example, this could include looking out for numbers on doors when on a walk, counting toys or counting two groups of objects to see how many there are all together. This is a great way to help your child with their number knowledge.
If you would like to further support your child with their maths learning, White Rose Maths have provided free workbooks for each unit throughout the school year. These will generally reflect the work the children will be completing in class throughout this unit. Used in conjunction with the termly overview and progression documents, these will give you a clear understanding of what your child will be learning in each unit this year. See the link below.
Similarly, to help children to learn the key facts they need to recall, appropriate for their age and year group, please find below a link for KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts). Knowing these facts is very useful for their number work in class. Each set of KIRFS builds upon the previous one over the course of their time in Key Stages 1 and 2.
Home Learning Project
During the last full week of this half term, we will ask the Year 1 children to make a presentation about an area of personal interest linked to our topic work. In the past we have had posters, stories, home videos, powerpoints, quizzes, models, cookery, art, music. Please read the header at the top of the project suggestions sheet; the key point is that the child takes ownership of the project whilst working collaboratively with a grown up at home. A timetable with the dates for the presentations will be send out on Seesaw the week prior to the presentations. Thank you so much for the brilliant projects for last half term! It is so joyful to see the children delight in sharing their interests and learning and watching their confidence grow!