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Dear Parents,

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you all back after the holidays and a warm welcome to our new parents to the school. I hope your children are enjoying their first few days in Class One and are not finding it too tiring. I am already very pleased with the way all the children are settling back into school life.

During the first term this year, we are starting to work on a theme about ourselves and buildings. This is to enable me to get to know your children and for them to get to know each other and their surroundings.  Some of the topics we will be learning about during this term will include:

Literacy

Children will be looking at a range of different texts such as poetry, familiar stories, and non fiction. It would be helpful to encourage children to sing nursery rhymes together and think of words that rhyme.  They will be learning about the special features of these texts and use them as a model for their writing. 

Children will develop their knowledge of sounds and look at ways of blending them together to make words. 

Numeracy

At first we will be focusing on number work.  Children will continue to work on their skills of addition and subtraction. 

We will also be looking at shape, length/weighing and time. It would be helpful if you could draw attention to the shape of containers when shopping or around the house such as toilet rolls or cereal boxes. Children can be encouraged to guess how many steps, strides or hand spans different objects or distances are. 

A fun weighing game to play

• Choose two tins or packets from your food cupboard

• Ask your child to hold one in each hand and tell you which is heavier, and which is lighter  

• If she/he is right, they keep the lighter one.  Then choose another item from the cupboard, trying to find one that is lighter still.  

• Carry on until your child has found the lightest item in the cupboard.

Asking children what day of the week it is and the times they wake up, have dinner and go to bed etc will reinforce the vocabulary they learn at school. 

Science

We will start by extending children’s knowledge about parts of the body and how they use their senses to investigate the world around them. During the second half of the term we will be learning about the properties of materials and why they have been used to make certain objects. i.e. - waterproof material for an umbrella.

Reading books will be changed once or twice a week in school. It is good for children to read a book more than once to help build up their confidence and so they can enjoy retelling the story. Therefore, children will bring these books home for you to hear.   

Children will continue to bring home some other scheme books with coloured stickers on. We would once again like to stress the importance of reading every day and encourage you to take your children to the infant library between 8.45 and 9.00 a.m. to help your child select these books, which can be changed daily. We would like to carry on with the good reading habits established in reception. Ten/fifteen minutes a day is much better than thirty minutes three times a week.

Please ensure that children have a bottle of water to put in our Class One drinks box. This is in addition to drinks they have with their packed lunch. Also please make sure that children have a coat in school every day.

All children will have the opportunity to take home ‘Brandon’ the class bear for a weekend.  ‘ Brandon ’ will be sent home with a journal and, with your support, it is hoped that children will be able to write, draw or photograph something that they did together.  This will then be shared with the rest of the class on Monday morning in order to encourage all children to talk to the rest of their class and care for a shared object. I look forward to hearing of Brandon’s adventures!

As part of our geography topic children will be studying the local area, this will include a walk around Kineton.  We/I would be very grateful for any help with supervising children on this visit.  Please could you let me know if you are available on the   of September.  We will also be visiting St John’s Museum in Warwick during the second half of term (date to be confirmed) as part of our history topic on homes in the past.  If any of you feel that you would like to come and help in the classroom or on visits we would value your continued support. Please let me know as soon as possible as it is a requirement that all our parent helpers are CRB checked.  Thank you.

If you have any concerns or queries, please do not hesitate to come and see me. I am quite willing to arrange an appointment should you need a longer chat.

I look forward to meeting you and working with you and your children.

Yours sincerely,  

Miss Samantha Ingram

 To see the letter from Autumn 2005 click here