Parent information session and home learning

It is fantastic to see children bringing in objects to show and of course talking about their toys boost the children's language skills and confidence. At the moment I am allowing children to bring in their smaller less valuable toys to show as long as they have written about them (we do ask for no electronic or delicate toys). This is the perfect opportunity for the children to write with you at home. All of the children now have a phonics mat that were sent home at the beginning of the term. We would encourage you to sit with your child and get them to talk about what it is they are going to write. We would like to see writing that is more than one sentence and includes some details.
You could use the questions below to help:
-Where did they get the toy?
-What is it made out of?
-Why do they like it?
-Can they describe the toy?
-How does the toy work?
-What is the toys name?

Once they can say their sentence then they need to break down the words in to sounds to write. The Year 1 curriculum concentrates on cursive handwriting, finger spaces, capital letters and writing sentences. So with this in mind we are looking for this practice in home learning. I have spoken to the children about this today. We would love to see some more variety of home learning. Some ideas for this can be seen below

Maths- counting toys, foods, shapes around the home and the environment, adding and subtraction using money in their piggy banks or toys that they have.

Writing- recounts of special trips you have made, writing about their favourite books, instructions on how to play a game or something they have made.

Reading- at home with an adult or even to a sibling, book reviews, retelling well known stories.

And of course special drawings and objects the children have made will all be celebrated in class.

In all of the children's book bags today they have a computer card. On this they have the usernames and passwords for free educational websites that can be accessed from home. Purplemash, Reading eggs and Mathletics are excellent resources that the children all use at school. The children gain points once they have completed the activities. I will then print the certificates and praise these children in our weekly praise assemblies.

We understand that you all have busy lives and so do not expect pieces of work everyday but home learning definitely does have an impact on children's learning.

Thank you again for your continuous support and I will discuss this again in the parent information session on Tuesday morning. This will be in the Year 1 classroom once the children have changed for PE.

Mrs Thorpe