Welcome to the Autumn term everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful summer break and had lots of quality family time together.

We are so pleased to be teaching Red Squirrels class again this year and are looking forward to getting to know your children.

Our learning this term

This term we are having a big push on reading. All children will be developing their reading and comprehension skills through our ‘Reading for Meaning’ sessions where we will share a whole class text. We will explore the book together and the children will answer quiz questions. They will even have the opportunity to win prizes!     

In English we will be looking at the story ‘The Owl Who is Afraid of the Dark, focusing on punctuation and exciting vocabulary The children will then write their own story using the skills that they have been taught during the unit.

In Maths this term, the children will be focusing on place value of number. Place value is very important because it underpins all aspects of mathematical work. The children will also be deepening their knowledge through problem solving and reasoning activities.

In Science the children will learning about ‘Rocks’. They will learn about how different types of rocks are formed carrying out investigations.

Our topic in history is ‘’Stone Age to Iron Age’. Mrs Homer is looking to teaching this topic and can’t wait to see what home learning the children have been getting up to!

We hope your child has a wonderful year in Red Squirrels and we are looking forward to working in partnership with you.

Our door is always open so please feel free to come and talk to me about any further questions or queries that you may have.

Mrs Homer and Miss Corbin

Supporting learning at home

Reading – it is of utmost importance that children read regularly at home in order to apply and cement the knowledge they get at school.  The children should be reading their school reading book at least three times a week. We encourage the children to read their own texts in addition to the school reading books to help develop a love of reading.  

It is also important the talk to the children about what they have read, to make sure they understand what they read rather than just decoding it. If you would like some example questions to support your child with this, please just ask. Countless studies have shown that this is the single most important thing that you can do to aid your child’s academic progress.

Your comments in their reading diary are also greatly appreciated!  We will hear the children read their reading book at least once a week, alongside our reading for meaning sessions and reading comprehension sessions.

Times tables - Please help your child to practise their times tables at home.

Year 2 - 2’s 5’s and 10’s

Year 3 - 3’s, 4’s and 8’s.

 Spelling – Your child will have weekly spellings for them to practise. These spellings will help your child during our spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) lessons. As well as practising the spellings please complete the other second sheet where they write the words into a sentence. This ensures that the children understand the meaning of the words, allowing them to apply them to their writing.