Term 1 In the deep dark woods

Term 1

Welcome Back!

We hope that you have all had a fantastic Summer and managed to rest and enjoy the sunshine that we had. We are really pleased to welcome everyone back to school and although some of you may be feeling a little worried, we are sure you will quickly settle into the new term.

In the Deep, Dark Woods

Our theme for Term 1 is 'In the Deep, Dark Woods'. We will be sharing traditional stories with woodland settings like Little Red Riding Hood whilst also allowing us to think about natural woodland animals and what it means to be nocturnal. We are also going to explore other well known fairy tales and alternative versions of them too. The Gruffalo are sure to make an appearance and with Playscape at our finger tips, we will have opportunity to go and down and use our imaginations as we roleplay with our friends. We will also be using this term to help children to settle in to school, re-establish new and existing expectations and carrying out assessments. What a busy term it will be for sure!

Homework Tasks and Expectations:

Reading

Please continue to read with your children as much as possible. We recommend short daily reading opportunities and regularly rereading familiar books. We do expect children re-reading the same book three times per week to help to build fluency and develop sight reading skills. It is also important to remember to ask simple questions as you go as this will help children's comprehension. These could be about what has just happened, how a character is feeling, why they choose to do something or what might happen next. It is also important to discuss new vocabulary with children.

Phonics

If your child finds phonics difficult, it is really important that they regularly recap the learnt phonemes from their phonic sessions in school (these will be shared on a regular basis). This helps children overlearn the phonemes and supports them in recognising the phoneme as graphemes which not only supports fluency in reading but is really important for writing too.

Useful Websites & Apps

Websites for additional learning opportunities:

Below is a list of useful websites that can support you and your family during this time:

Espresso Education

username: student5731

password: paulton

Websites that offer interactive games:

Websites for Reading Support:

Oxford Owls (Online Reading Books)

Children have individual log ins and passwords

Useful Youtube Channels:

Apps:

These are useful apps that we have used in school which we encourage you to use as required at home. Some of these are free but will need you to make an account whilst others are paid apps.

Teach your monster to read
Hairy Letters
Scratch Junior
Tux Paint
Beebot

If you discover something really useful that you think others might enjoy, please share with us so that we can share the links and information with our school community. Thank you for your continued support.