This week in English, we will be continuing to look at instruction writing, focusing our learning on the book ‘How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth’, by Michelle Robinson. We will re-read/share the book and further discuss the story. The children will be using prepositions to extend the sentences they wrote last week. Then, they will be asked to follow some tricky instructions to create a paper woolly mammoth!

Whole Class reading this week will be an extract from ‘Bill’s New Frock’ by Anne Fine.  We will read the extract together to build familiarity, and then we will use questions to discuss the narrative and language features. The children will then complete independent work to confirm their understanding of the text.

In Maths this week we will be continuing to focus on place value, continuing to investigate ‘hundreds’ and then representing and partitioning numbers to 1,000. Times tables will be an ongoing feature, with the children completing a times table challenge each week.

In science this week, we will continue looking at Animals, including humans, investigating skeletons, joints and dietary requirements. We will also continue the ‘Time and Place’ unit about Stone Age. 

Mrs Banner will be teaching our RE on Friday, and will be continuing with the unit, People of God and what it is like to follow God, making links between the story of Noah and how we live in school and the wider community. Mrs Banner will also do a spelling test, computing and elements of the maths curriculum.

Maple class have PE on Mondays and swimming on Wednesday mornings. You will be aware that we were unable to swim last week, a situation completely out of our control! I was so impressed with how sensible the children were and how they overcame their disappointment so maturely. So, from this week, the children will start in their groups, depending on the result of the first week and guidance from parents/carers. A reminder that there will be lots of movement between groups in the first few weeks, partly as the children gain in confidence and partly due to advice from the swimming pool staff. Again, if you feel your child has been placed in the wrong group, or have any questions regarding this, please do email! Many thanks to those parents/carers who responded to the request for this information, it is not too late to let me know what stage your child is at in swimming. Each week. they will need swimming costume/trunks, a towel, swimming cap - this is required by the swimming pool, and goggles (although these are optional). There will also be occasions when we do additional PE sessions, so please can the children have their PE kit in school all week.

Reading Records have been sent home and these will generally be changed on a Monday and Thursday. We would ask however, that children bring their reading 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. The books coming home initially, will be based on advice from the Year 2 team. However, we do understand that children progress at different rates during the summer holidays, so pleased do contact me if you feel your child’s book is either too easy or too difficult. Homework will be sent home most Tuesdays and will need to be back in school by the following Monday.

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