Hello everyone; what a roar-some week we have had learning all about dinosaurs.
This week
As part of our main teaching this week, the children started the week learning all about Mary Anning. She was a famous fossil hunter who lived in Lyme Regis by the sea. Every day as a child, her father took her to the beach where they would spend hours looking for fossils. She found some very important fossils of dinosaurs that no one else had seen before including the Plesiosaur and the Ichthyosaurus. Her amazing discoveries inspired us to spend the rest of this week learning about fossils and dinosaurs.
We also shared a non-fiction information book with the children all about Dinosaurs. We discussed with the children that non-fiction means writing is factual or real rather than made up like fiction writing. We spoke about some of the features of non-fiction information books. This included the contents page showing what information is in the book and the page to find it on, an index at the back listing every subject in a book in alphabetical order, photographs and diagrams with captions and labels. The children also learnt that non-fiction information books are special because the pages can be read in any order, unlike a story which is read from beginning, to the middle and then the end. Each day we read the book and discovered lots of interesting and exciting new information about dinosaurs and had lots of opportunities to show our learning throughout our areas of learning. The children had the opportunity to make their own fossil using clay and pottery tools, create pictures of dinosaurs using 2D shapes, create junk model dinosaurs, design and build a dinosaur small world scene using junk models and paper mache, make dinosaur costumes with spikes and tails, large scale drawings of dinosaurs and measuring dinosaur footprints.
In Maths, we consolidated our learning about number bonds to 5 by practising adding pairs of numbers together to make 5. We also thought about what the words more than/most and less than/least mean to help us compare quantities and amounts. We also had a chance to practise applying our knowledge of odd and even numbers and doubles.
In Phonics the children continued to use and apply their phonic knowledge for reading and writing words. We used CCVC (consonant consonant vowel consonant) words as part of that learning.
This half term in PE, the children have been very busy having lots of fun in their learning. Mr Smith has kindly provided an update for us:
Next week
- We will be learning about different occupations. Thank you to those parents who are able to share with the children their occupations, we are very much looking forward to finding out more.
- We will be having a focus on maths this week. In place of the individual reading with children, we will be asking the children to show us their maths skills. We will of course still be sharing lots of story books and will practise reading as part of our phonics. We will change all of the children’s books ready for half term.
- In Phonics, we will continue to use and apply our phonic knowledge for reading and writing words including CCVC and CVCC words.
- In Maths we will consolidate our learning on number and numerical patterns including: composition of numbers to 10, subsisting, number bonds to 5 and counting beyond 20 to identify patterns in numbers.
Supporting your child at home
- Please talk to your child about your occupation. Share with them any information about what you do e.g. whether you were a uniform, if you use special equipment and what kind of activity you do. Encourage your child to think of some questions they can ask you.
- When writing, encourage your child to form their sentence before writing using the ‘Think it, say it, like it, write it’ sequence. Think it – what do you want to say? Say it – memorise the sentence by saying it aloud. Like it – are you happy with what you’ve said? Write it – write down your sentence remembering to use your phonics to write the sounds you heard in each word.
- When trying to recall number bonds to 5 and 10, intentionally give your child the wrong number of objects, for example: say that you are going to plant 5 seeds, but only give them 2. Then ask “how many more do I need to have 5?”
Any other information
- READING BOOKS – Please could reading books and book bags be in school each day.
We hope you have an enjoyable weekend.
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers
