Willow Newsletter Term 2 – “Winter Festivals: This Little Light of Mine”

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Welcome back we hope you had a lovely break, the children worked so hard last term and we hope you enjoyed sharing their learning with them before we broke up, it was great to see so many of you and see the children's enthusiasm when sharing their work. Our new topic is 'This little light of mine!'  In this topic, we will be looking at festivals from around the world including: Diwali, Chinese Moon Festival, Hanukkah and Christmas. Within this the children will engage in stories, traditions, artefacts and crafts of the different light festivals. Science will also continue along this theme focusing on light and sound.

Helping to enrich our topics

If anyone has artefacts or knows of anybody who would like to talk to the class about the festivals, please get in contact with us!

Reminders

Please make sure you read at least 3 times a week with your child and record it in their yellow reading record books. This helps us monitor their reading and keep track of any extra support they may need. The children are rewarded for every home reading session they do with monster points! Reading frequently encourages their fluency and enjoyment of reading and feeds their imagination for creative writing.

Home Learning

The children  worked hard on their homework last term and it has been great to see how they make links they make to it within their learning in the classroom. Homework is an expectation and a requirement for all children. For the whole school, all homework will be released and due in on the same day for each year group: new homework* will be given out on a Friday and due in on a Thursday. Homework club is run every week (at lunchtime) to allow children to have a space in school to complete their homework if they were unable to complete it at home.

Reading Please read with your child 3 times a week and record this in their reading record.  Reading records will be checked weekly.
Spellings* Spellings: Spelling words will focus on phonics sounds learned in class and words from the Y2 or Y3/4 spelling list. New spellings will be recorded in the front spelling books each Friday, those words will be tested on Thursday. The result of this test can be found in the back of the child’s spelling book.
Maths*

Maths homework will be given and is completed on Mathletics. Maths homework will be differentiated for your child. It should be completed independently.

Times Tables: All children should know 2s, 5s, 10, 3s, 4s and 8s and inverse rules by the end of Year 3 and should know all tables and their inverse by end of Year 4. Times tables challenges will occur in class weekly.
Grammar* Grammar and Punctuation: It will be sent home fortnightly on Fridays and due in on the Thursday a fortnight later.  Grammar and punctuation homework will be based on learning from the previous week/s.

Project Based Home Learning (optional)

  • Research about another light festival
  • Make a powerpoint about a festival of your choice
  • Make an artefact you are learning about from a festival
  • Using our creative writing sessions, write a powerful description of a festival
  • Make your own video showing stories and traditions of a festival
  • Make your own creative ideas based on festivals of light.

We will be sharing these during the week of the 20th November. We can’t wait to see how creative you are!

Many thanks for your continued support,

Miss Axell and Mrs Mackarness and Mrs Pattenden

Useful Websites

‘This Little Light of Mine' Learning Map