Useful information and Home Learning

In this section, you will find useful information around what your child will be doing each term. Here we will outline your child's spellings, homework, PE days and book that we are sharing in class. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions. 

Important days for your child

PE - Monday (teacher) and Wednesday (coach). PE kit should be worn on these days.

Doodle Maths 

Please encourage your child to access Doodle Maths at home regularly each week. Doodle Maths is intended as an independent task and the children should complete this without any help. This is so that the programme is pitched at the correct level for your child. We can reset it at any time if necessary.

Reading at Home

We will regularly assess your child’s reading and change their reading level as required. We have just purchased some new phonics reading books so some children may be issued these books.  Children will be given the opportunity to change their school reading book every Friday but if they need to change books more regularly they can . Please aim to hear your child read daily to help them improve and reach their potential- an absolute minimum is 3  x per week. Ideally your child should read aloud for about 5-10 minutes a day. They do not necessarily need to read the whole book each day. Once the book has been read, it should be re-read another 2 times (up to stage 9). This is to build up fluency and confidence. Here is guide to help you understand this approach: 

1st time book is read

Using knowledge of phonics to sound out and decode words. Reading familiar words on sight. Can be an initial lack of fluency. Little adult interaction other than to support decoding.

2nd time book is read

Focus is still on decoding but there may be a bit more fluency and less sounding as the text becomes familiar. Adult continues to support decoding. 

3rd time book is read

Book should be read with fluency and understanding. Time for the adult to ask questions and engage in discussion about the book. 

You will find  some useful tips in this clip for when reading at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TElgZpGXp8U&list=PLFocan61FfOP84bs-quj4_xJCj814WhzH 

When you hear your child read, please date and write/sign in the reading diary. We will check reading diaries on a daily basis and if your child has read they will move along our reading race track and earn a certificate and house points for successful completion. Books should be kept in the plastic folder provided by the school and brought to school daily even if your child has not read. We aim to hear children read in school at least once a week in a group or individually. 

Book of the term

Wild Way Home by Sophie Kirtly

Rewards

Within Kingfisher Class work hard to understand and follow our school rules and values.  Housepoints are rewarded accordingly and we use 'The Good Behaviour Game' as an incentive where house points mean prizes - ranging from magic moments, to raffle tickets, scratch cards and prize box dips. Green, yellow and red cards are issued when children choose not to follow the school rules and values. Please see our behaviour policy for further information reagrding the cards.

Spellings

Your child will bring home a list of spellings which they should learn each week starting in week 1. These will be sent home on a Friday and tested the following Friday. The spellings will come on a Look, Cover, Write Check sheet which we strongly encourage children to complete. Please feel free to use other methods in addition to this to help cement the spellings in your child’s long term memory.  House points will be awarded to those who return the completed sheet on a Friday.  The sheet will then be returned home with the score that your child has achieved - noted on the bottom for your information. This does not need to be kept. The same words will be practised in school throughout the week. 

It was requested at the Meet the Teacher meeting in September that we share spellings on the website so that any children who forget to bring them home can still practise over the weekend.

Below you will find a blank look, cover, write, check sheet (that you can print at home). A list of the spellings will be added to the weekly class blog at the top of our class webpage. Your child should know which spellings they have been given but please ask if they are uncertain.