Beech Class Curriculum Letter

Autumn Term 2007

Reading

Please help your child to read every day, both independently and with support, encouraging the use of expression and asking questions about what has been read. Your child should keep an up to date record of their reading in their Reading Record books, please also include your own comments.  Home Reading Scheme books are changed on Monday, Wednesday or Friday as required and providing a parent / carer has read with the child at home and signed the diary.

Weekly Homework 

Your child has a homework diary book, maths homework book and homework file to record and keep their homework in. Literacy & / or Numeracy homework is set on Fridays and should be returned by the following Monday unless otherwise stated. Activities and work set will support and consolidate work covered in the daily Numeracy (NNS) or Literacy (NLS) lessons.  Homework will also be given to support work in other curriculum subjects.

Spellings 

New spellings, based on the Literacy Hour and our daily word level work sessions, will be given on Friday and then tested on the following Friday. Please encourage your child to use the Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check method and spelling activities provided and practice their spellings with you daily.

Your role is crucial – you can help by talking through and sharing the activities. Encouraging your child to talk about their homework and how they are working things out will be of great support and helpful in developing your child’s understanding. Homework is generally intended to last about 15 minutes. If your child is struggling with an activity please record this in their homework diary. Please contact me if you have any concerns or queries about your child’s homework.

Literacy

Literacy lessons follow the New Primary National Strategy Framework based on the following texts: Information texts (Non-narrative); Creating images (Poetry); Recounts: newspapers/magazines (Non- narrative) and Stories set in imaginary worlds (Narrative)

Lessons include guided, shared and independent reading and creative writing, comprehension, grammar and vocabulary work.  Activities are linked to cross- curricular topics and ‘real life’ situations.

Numeracy

Numeracy lessons follow the New Primary National Strategy Framework based on: Counting, partitioning and calculating; Securing number facts and understanding shape; Handling data and measures; Calculating, measuring and understanding shape and Securing number facts, relationships and calculating

Lessons include oral, mental and written calculations and strategies, plus practical, written and problem solving activities linked to cross- curricular topics and ‘real life’ situations:

Regularly practicing timetables will greatly benefit your child’s development in Numeracy. Pupils should first develop their quick recall facts for the 2,3,4,5 & 10 timetables before learning the 6, 7,8, 9, 11 and 12 timetable.

Science 

The children will be investigating two areas of study.

‘Friction’ builds on their existing knowledge of forces, focusing on friction as a force that exists between objects moving across solid surfaces and opposes motion, and the forces of air resistance and water resistance that opposes the motion of objects moving through air and water.

In ‘Moving and Growing’ we will be learning about how the skeleton is related to movement and support in humans and what happens to the skeleton and muscles as they move. We will also compare human bones and skeletons with those of other animals.

ICT

The children will be developing their word processing skills in the unit ‘Writing for Different Audiences’. Here the children learn that ICT can be used to organise, reorganise, develop and explore ideas, and that working with information in this way can aid understanding. They will also be able to use their skills when: writing narrative and non-narrative texts in English and producing accounts that draw on sources in History.

In a new topic to Class 2 ‘Castles,’ the children will explore all aspects of castles; discussing why and how they were built, construct models of castles and weapons and research the social and historical aspects of castles. The topic will refer closely to our local castle at Goodrich.

Art and DT

The first half of term will be Art & Design focused. In ‘Take a Seat’ the children explore the design of chairs. They look at examples of designs in the past and in other cul­tures as inspiration for developing their own imaginative designs for a chair for a castle setting and character. In DT ‘Storybooks’  the children make a book (linked to Literacy) with pages that incorporate moving parts, including linkages and levers.

PE and Games 

The children will participate in gymnastic activities, dance and outdoor games including Tag Rugby and Mulit-skills. Please ensure your child has their full PE kits in school for these lessons.

Dragon scales - Exploring pentatonic scales. This unit develops children’s ability to recognise, and use pentatonic scales and create short melodies and accompaniments. The pupils sing songs based on a pentatonic scale

MFL

Je parle français! - children learn to introduce themselves and to greet others. They begin to work on sounds and spellings and use simple language of classroom interaction.

Harvest: Growth & IncreaseWho was Jesus and why do people follow him today?

Christmas: Journeys – Mary’s Christmas story