Welcome to Dragon Class
Our Team
Miss Nyazika and Mrs Williams are our Class Teachers, alongside Mrs Doe and Mrs Smith our Teaching Assistants.
Equipment
Please ensure all equipment is labelled.
Please remember we are a nut free school, Miss Nyazika is particularly allergic to certain nuts. In addition, normally we like to encourage items from home to help your child settle in, unfortunately we cannot do that this term. Please do not bring in any toys, games, playing cards etc.
English
In English we will use pirate storybooks as the stimulus for our writing. After half term, our writing will be based around mini-beasts to tie in with our Science topic of 'Living Things and Exploring Habitats'.
Reading
Now is the time in year 2 where we shift our focus to ensure we are developing the children’s comprehension and wider understanding as well as decoding skills. We will have two whole class guided reading lessons each week where we will explore the story of Flat Stanley. In these lessons, the children will have the opportunity to discuss the plot, setting and characters as well as explore new vocabulary and the effectiveness of grammar and punctuation in narrative writing. This is a great opportunity for all children to deepen their understanding of a text.
Group guided reading sessions will still take place in rotation. Individual reading also takes place with adults in school and the children are given the opportunity to choose their own books from the library or class reading corner to read independently for short periods.
Reading – No school library visits yet
We are now allowed to change books once a week, this term our book change slot will be a Friday morning. When lining up to come in on a Friday morning, please ask your children to take out their books to be changed so we can speed the process up in class. Your child will receive a minimum of 2 books, which they will need to bring back each Friday so they can receive 2 more books. As usual, we highly recommend you read a wider variety of books at home e.g. from the local library, swap and borrow from each other in the safest way possible. Your child’s reading diet should never be limited to the material we are able to provide.
We are also introducing a new reading scheme with updated books, due to be rolled out before the end of September. You will receive more information about these Priority Reading Books closer to the time. Regarding Reading Records, please continue to use yours and add pages at the back if necessary. We will give out new records once the new reading scheme is introduced.
Reading at Home
We believe one of the best ways to support your child at home is to read with them on a daily basis. Research continues to show that learning to read is directly linked to children’s success at school and beyond. Experts in child literacy believe that the key to learning to read, and loving it, is borne through the positive effect of the power of the parent-child bond. This means the reading you do at home with your children has a huge impact on their attitude to reading.
We know that it takes time to read with your child and it can be difficult to know what questions to ask. To help with this, here are a few questions you might want to ask. These questions are designed to help your children reflect on what they have read and deepen their understanding. Please do not think that you have to ask every question every time you read, some questions are more relevant to the particular text you are reading:
Some children are reluctant readers and it can be a challenge to encourage them to pick up a book, so please try alternative texts to engage your child. Any reading they do at home can be recorded in their reading log – not just the books provided by school. Think what appeals to them: maybe comics, joke books, funny poetry, graphic novels, non-fiction which will appeal to their passion like craft making, cooking, scooter tricks, football skills etc. Books do not have to be read cover to cover, any reading is good, so help them choose a book or comic they are interested in to develop their love of reading.
Phonics
Phonics is taught every day to all the children. Where necessary, extra phonics lessons are provided.
Maths
In Maths the children will cover: multiplication, division, 3D shapes, length, height, statistics and fractions.
Times Tables
All the children are making great progress in their times table knowledge and are enjoying the weekly challenge in class where they can measure their own progress. Please continue to support your children’s learning by regularly asking questions or allowing them to play TT Rockstars to improve their instant recall of the multiplication and division facts of the 2, 5, and 10 times tables.
Science
In science, the children will be exploring 'Living Things and Exploring Habitats'.
History
This term we are using our Pirates topic to look at the world and develop map reading skills in Geography, research famous ships in computing and designing and creating their own deserted island.
R.E.
RE will focus on religious celebrations across faiths and why they are important to people.
P.E.
Badminton, attack and defence games and balls skills will be taught during PE with the class teacher and Sports4All PE specialists. We will continue to have their PE sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays but their full PE kit should be in school every day in case of extra lessons. We will also be having some PE lessons outside, so please ensure your child has tracksuit bottoms and trainers in their PE kit bag.
Homework
Homework and Spellings will be sent home on a Friday and are due in the following Wednesday. Most weeks the homework will be set online using Mathletics which your child will have their own login details for. Spellings will be tested every Wednesday, we will give out the list of spellings for each week at the beginning of each new term.
TT Rockstars
Your child has been given login details for TT Rockstars, an online tool for helping children learn their times tables and increase the speed at which they can recall their number facts. While this is not set as homework, we do encourage the children to practice this regularly to support them in our weekly times table challenge where the children can measure their own improvement at recalling multiplication facts for the two, five and ten times tables.
Show and Tell
There will be plenty to tell, we will continue to encourage this regularly in class. Unfortunately, we will not be doing the ‘show’ part of show and tell. We will let you know if/ when this changes.
Parent Partnership
We strongly believe in working closely with parents to ensure all children have a positive and successful experience in their education. We welcome any information you can share about your child and their individual learning experiences outside of school. This can be easily shared through the Class Dojo communication tool. To keep you informed on specific activities in the school, your teacher will also use the Class Dojo to share news and photos of school events. In the Dragon class, we welcome children into a stimulating, fun and creative classroom atmosphere. Our aim is for all children to be engaged, happy and enjoy their learning, allowing them to make progress and reach their potential.If you are interested in supporting the class, either regularly or adhoc, with your time for reading or a particular skill you have please contact the class teacher to see when would be a suitable time for you to visit the class. We are very grateful for any assistance.
Supporting Your Child at Home
Our experience has shown us that the support children get from home has a positive impact on their learning. Here are some websites which parents and carers may find useful:
www.phonicsplay.co.uk
www.letters-and-sounds.com
www.topmarks.co.uk
www.maths-games.org/times-tables-games.html
www.timestables.co.uk
Miss Nyazika and Mrs Williams are our Class Teachers, alongside Mrs Doe and Mrs Smith our Teaching Assistants.
Equipment
Please ensure all equipment is labelled.
- A coat, regardless of weather forecast; unfortunately, we not allowed to give out our own spare coats or jumpers anymore. Your child will keep this on the back of their chair and take it home each day.
- A lunchbox, unless they are signed up to school lunch.
- A water bottle, preferably one they can open, close and refill without any adult support.
- We provide a washed snack and will ask all children to wash their hands before they take any. However, if it makes you feel more comfortable, you are allowed to provide your own snack for your child. This should be a piece of fruit, not sandwiches, cakes etc. All we ask is that you remain consistent in your choice so your child does not get confused, we will not be checking their bags for them.
Please remember we are a nut free school, Miss Nyazika is particularly allergic to certain nuts. In addition, normally we like to encourage items from home to help your child settle in, unfortunately we cannot do that this term. Please do not bring in any toys, games, playing cards etc.
English
In English we will use pirate storybooks as the stimulus for our writing. After half term, our writing will be based around mini-beasts to tie in with our Science topic of 'Living Things and Exploring Habitats'.
Reading
Now is the time in year 2 where we shift our focus to ensure we are developing the children’s comprehension and wider understanding as well as decoding skills. We will have two whole class guided reading lessons each week where we will explore the story of Flat Stanley. In these lessons, the children will have the opportunity to discuss the plot, setting and characters as well as explore new vocabulary and the effectiveness of grammar and punctuation in narrative writing. This is a great opportunity for all children to deepen their understanding of a text.
Group guided reading sessions will still take place in rotation. Individual reading also takes place with adults in school and the children are given the opportunity to choose their own books from the library or class reading corner to read independently for short periods.
Reading – No school library visits yet
We are now allowed to change books once a week, this term our book change slot will be a Friday morning. When lining up to come in on a Friday morning, please ask your children to take out their books to be changed so we can speed the process up in class. Your child will receive a minimum of 2 books, which they will need to bring back each Friday so they can receive 2 more books. As usual, we highly recommend you read a wider variety of books at home e.g. from the local library, swap and borrow from each other in the safest way possible. Your child’s reading diet should never be limited to the material we are able to provide.
We are also introducing a new reading scheme with updated books, due to be rolled out before the end of September. You will receive more information about these Priority Reading Books closer to the time. Regarding Reading Records, please continue to use yours and add pages at the back if necessary. We will give out new records once the new reading scheme is introduced.
Reading at Home
We believe one of the best ways to support your child at home is to read with them on a daily basis. Research continues to show that learning to read is directly linked to children’s success at school and beyond. Experts in child literacy believe that the key to learning to read, and loving it, is borne through the positive effect of the power of the parent-child bond. This means the reading you do at home with your children has a huge impact on their attitude to reading.
We know that it takes time to read with your child and it can be difficult to know what questions to ask. To help with this, here are a few questions you might want to ask. These questions are designed to help your children reflect on what they have read and deepen their understanding. Please do not think that you have to ask every question every time you read, some questions are more relevant to the particular text you are reading:
- What is this character feeling at this point? How do you know?
- Can this word/phrase have more than one meaning?
- Which word told you that?
- Where else in the story did that happen?
- Find some words or phrases that tell you about the setting.
- Can you find a word which shows she is upset/naughty/being kind?
- What does this word mean? (use the context to help find the meaning of unfamiliar words)
- What other synonyms do we know for that word? Which is best for this sentence?
Some children are reluctant readers and it can be a challenge to encourage them to pick up a book, so please try alternative texts to engage your child. Any reading they do at home can be recorded in their reading log – not just the books provided by school. Think what appeals to them: maybe comics, joke books, funny poetry, graphic novels, non-fiction which will appeal to their passion like craft making, cooking, scooter tricks, football skills etc. Books do not have to be read cover to cover, any reading is good, so help them choose a book or comic they are interested in to develop their love of reading.
Phonics
Phonics is taught every day to all the children. Where necessary, extra phonics lessons are provided.
Maths
In Maths the children will cover: multiplication, division, 3D shapes, length, height, statistics and fractions.
Times Tables
All the children are making great progress in their times table knowledge and are enjoying the weekly challenge in class where they can measure their own progress. Please continue to support your children’s learning by regularly asking questions or allowing them to play TT Rockstars to improve their instant recall of the multiplication and division facts of the 2, 5, and 10 times tables.
Science
In science, the children will be exploring 'Living Things and Exploring Habitats'.
History
This term we are using our Pirates topic to look at the world and develop map reading skills in Geography, research famous ships in computing and designing and creating their own deserted island.
R.E.
RE will focus on religious celebrations across faiths and why they are important to people.
P.E.
Badminton, attack and defence games and balls skills will be taught during PE with the class teacher and Sports4All PE specialists. We will continue to have their PE sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays but their full PE kit should be in school every day in case of extra lessons. We will also be having some PE lessons outside, so please ensure your child has tracksuit bottoms and trainers in their PE kit bag.
Homework
Homework and Spellings will be sent home on a Friday and are due in the following Wednesday. Most weeks the homework will be set online using Mathletics which your child will have their own login details for. Spellings will be tested every Wednesday, we will give out the list of spellings for each week at the beginning of each new term.
TT Rockstars
Your child has been given login details for TT Rockstars, an online tool for helping children learn their times tables and increase the speed at which they can recall their number facts. While this is not set as homework, we do encourage the children to practice this regularly to support them in our weekly times table challenge where the children can measure their own improvement at recalling multiplication facts for the two, five and ten times tables.
Show and Tell
There will be plenty to tell, we will continue to encourage this regularly in class. Unfortunately, we will not be doing the ‘show’ part of show and tell. We will let you know if/ when this changes.
Parent Partnership
We strongly believe in working closely with parents to ensure all children have a positive and successful experience in their education. We welcome any information you can share about your child and their individual learning experiences outside of school. This can be easily shared through the Class Dojo communication tool. To keep you informed on specific activities in the school, your teacher will also use the Class Dojo to share news and photos of school events. In the Dragon class, we welcome children into a stimulating, fun and creative classroom atmosphere. Our aim is for all children to be engaged, happy and enjoy their learning, allowing them to make progress and reach their potential.If you are interested in supporting the class, either regularly or adhoc, with your time for reading or a particular skill you have please contact the class teacher to see when would be a suitable time for you to visit the class. We are very grateful for any assistance.
Supporting Your Child at Home
Our experience has shown us that the support children get from home has a positive impact on their learning. Here are some websites which parents and carers may find useful:
www.phonicsplay.co.uk
www.letters-and-sounds.com
www.topmarks.co.uk
www.maths-games.org/times-tables-games.html
www.timestables.co.uk
