It was lovely to meet so many parents and carers at the Parent Consultation sessions. If you were unable to make an appointment, please do email on the Maple email and I will organise a suitable time to meet with you.

This week in English, we will be starting a new unit, based on the book, Stone Age Boy, by Satoshi Kitamura. This lovely, engaging book, follows the story of a modern-day boy, who steps back in time and discovers a Stone Age village. This week, we will begin to investigate the book, using this as a basis to improve our language skills and to use adverbials of time and place.

Guided reading this week will focus on an extract from Dick King Smith’s ‘The Hodgeheg’. The children will listen to a reading of the extract and then share the story to build familiarity, reading in pairs and answering questions to discuss the narrative and language features of the text.

In Maths this week we will be finishing the place value unit, comparing and ordering numbers to 1,000, and counting in 50s. At the end of the week, the children will complete a small, end-of-unit assessment to check their understanding. Times tables will continue through the week, with opportunities for the children to practise their tables and completing a times table challenge.

In our Stone Age topic work, we will be investigating why the Iron Age was better than the Stone Age, and in IT, we will begin to investigate animations.

Mrs Johnson will begin the Incarnation unit in RE this week, asking ‘What is the difference between a ‘Gospel’, which tells the story of the life and teaching of Jesus, and a letter?’. Mrs Tompsett will be starting a new Unit, ‘Volcanoes, Rocks and Soils’, this week looking at the key aspects of volcanoes. The children will complete the weekly spelling test on Friday too (words can be found in the home learning section) and have their weekly French session.

Maple class have PE on Mondays and Thursdays, and both sessions will be with myself and Mr Luckhurst.

Reading Records will generally be changed on a Monday and Thursday. We would continue to ask however, that children bring their books and Reading Records in to school each day and that they aim to read daily, ideally with an adult – details of this can then be recorded in the Reading Record. Pleased do contact me if you feel your child’s book is either too easy or too difficult, or if your child’s book has not been changed. There are times when a book will be sent home more than once, either because a child is reading chapter books, or if it is felt that the book needs to be read more than once to enhance familiarity.

I am always happy to answer any questions you may have, so please do contact me if you have any queries, using the class email address:

maple@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk

Best wishes

Mrs Smallcombe and the Maple Team