Welcome to Kingfisher Class

Class teacher: Miss McCormack

Class email: kingfisher.class@rawreth.essex.sch.uk

Miss McCormack can be reached on this email address. This inbox will be checked at least once each day between Monday to Friday.  Please still contact the office for urgent matters including absence, school lunch orders, change in home time collection arrangements etc. 

Welcome back everyone! I hope you have all had a well-earned rest over the holidays! 

Changes to Kingfisher class this week:

Tuesday 6th - ECT/PPA time - Mrs Hill to cover

This section will be updated every half term. 

This week we will be learning:

• Maths - We will be returning to addition and subtraction. We will start by adding and subtracting 1s before moving onto addition and subtraction across a 10. We will move onto adding and subtracting two 2 digit numbers before exploring missing number problems.
• English - Our story focus for this fortnight will be 'Supertato - Green mean time machine.' We have started to learn the story and will be creating story maps and action to help us. We will then innovate our own ideas before writing our own version of this story.
• Science -  We will be looking at animals and their senses. We will start by naming body parts before exploring which body part of used for our senses and how these are used in everyday life.
• Art - We will be working with clay this half term. We will be using our hands as tools and explore different ways to make marks in clay. We then will design and plan to make a 3D clay tile.
• Geography - We will be looking at the journeys food takes to get into the shops in our high street. We will explore the shops we might find in the high street and the types of food they sell. We will then explore what types of food can be produced in a farm before planning a Great British picnic. Hopefully we will be taking a trip to our local shop to buy some supplies for our picnic so if anyone would like to volunteer to come along please let me know!
• Computing - We will be looking at online safety this half term. We will begin by exploring owning our digital artwork and what this means before moving onto using search engines safely. We will also look at how to keep our personal information safe and how to communicate using emails safely.
• PSHE - Our focus for this half term will be safety and the changing body. We will be looking at how to respond to known and unknown adults safely and exploring those who keep us safe. We will also look at road safety, what is safe to put into our bodies, how to respond to an emergency including how to make an emergency phone call before finishing with the differences between secrets and surprises and how to respond to each of these.
• RE - Our big question in RE this half term will be 'How did the universe come to be?'. We will explore different religious views of the creation story including Hindu and Christian before using these ideas to compose a creation story of our own.
• Music - We will be focusing on temp and dynamics this half term. We will be using our voices as instruments, learning how to listen, sing and perform songs. We will be trying to use our voices in different ways and exploring a range of music styles.
• PE - On Mondays we will be focused on fitness. We will be looking at stamina and co-ordination. We will practise running for a period of time and skipping using skipping ropes. We will then look at developing agility, balance and co-ordination. On Thursdays we will be trying parkour. We will start with different ways to move our bodies, exploring jumping, balancing and safe landings before exploring ways to travel under, over and through different obstacles.

PE Days - Monday and Thursday

Please could you ensure children have the appropriate clothing for the weather and they have a top, trousers/shorts and appropriate footwear in their PE kits.

Please remove any earrings before school.

Homework

Login details for homework will be stuck in the back of reading records by Friday.

Daily reading - please log their reading in their reading records. Please be aware that children's books will be changed once per week. If your child has read lots at home that's fantastic, please use the questions in the books to discuss the story so we are also building on their comprehension as well as their reading and fluency. Please also allow them to read their own materials - this could be magazines, books, poems, songs, etc. to help encourage a love for reading rather than just reading for homework. 

Maths - Please encourage your children to explore the numbots website. There will be dojos up for grabs for time spent using numbots.

Phonics - Children will receive a blue folder with the sheets for the year, this can be kept in their book bags and bought into school. Once your child is secure with the sound and words at home please could you highlight/mark this. 

Handwriting - Please spend time focusing on letter formation ensuring the letters start and finish in the correct places. This is to help ensure a smooth transition when they move through the school and begin to join their handwriting. I have uploaded some more resources below to help support handwriting at home. There is a worksheet for both lower and upper case letters as used in the Monster phonics scheme. There is also a document which details the handwriting rhymes used in Monster phonics to help the children remember how to form each letter.

Spelling - Using the spelling shed website, children have assigned tasks set for each week. Year 2s will have their spelling tasks assigned according to their group.

Thank you!

Phonics resources:

Pure sounds: https://youtu.be/oJGDN5p-Kvg 

Letter formation: https://vimeo.com/909204231?fl=pl&fe=vl

The children have a phonics book to read and an additional book from the library to share with someone at home. The library book is to be read for pleasure so they may need help to read this. Both books need to be returned to school each week. 

Year 2 pupils in Kingfisher class have been very excited to start quizzing on their accelerated reader book and have so far been amazing!!