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 to the summer term! I hope you have had a wonderful Easter break!

Changes to Kingfisher class this week:

Monday - INSET day 

Wednesday - class trip 

Thursday - Miss McCormack PPA/ECT day - supply to cover until 2pm.

This section will be updated every half term. 

This week we will be learning:

• Maths - Our focus will be measuring length and height. We will start with using objects to measure before moving on to measuring using centimeters and meters. 
• English - Our story focus for this fortnight will be 'Captain Luna.' We will learn the story by adding actions and drawing story maps before innovating the story with our own ideas and creating our own version.
• Science -  We will be looking at plants. We will be focusing on identifying parts of a plant before looking at wild and garden plants, deciduous and evergreen tress, how plants grow from seeds and bulbs and then exploring the parts of plants which we can eat.
• Art - We will be experimenting formal elements of art this half term. by exploring tone and texture. We will focus on shading to creates different tones, materials to created different textures and finishing with an observational drawing using our new skills.
• Geography- Our topic for this half term will be learning about Australia! We will look at the cities and locating these on a map, landmarks with a focus on the Great Barrier reef. We will explore different animals found in Australia before comparing Australia with the United Kingdom.
• Computing - We will be looking at data and information. We will look at gathering and interpreting data, entering data and then using the data.
• PSHE - Our next block of learning relates to economic wellbeing. We will begin by looking at money and how people get money. We will then move on to looking at the differences between wants and needs and keeping our cash safe. We will begin to explore bank and building societies. We will then look at our skills and interests to explore different job roles.
• RE - We will be learning How Jewish people celebrate Passover (Pesach). We will explore the celebration and learning the story of Passover. We will look at some Jewish artefacts before designing a leaflet to teach others about Passover.
• Music - Our focus will be looking at improvisation with both singing and on the glockenspiel. 
• PE - On Mondays we will be looking at athletics. We will build our skills relating to sprinting, jumping, throwing in preparation for sports day! On Tuesdays we will be focusing on net and wall games. We will be looking at how to ready our body against an opponent before moving on to hitting with a racket. 

PE Days - Monday and Tuesday 

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.

Hair should be tied up - especially on PE days.

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!!