Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - 23rd October 2020

Happy Friday everybody! Well, half term is upon us and we are saying a fond farewell to many of the children in our classes. We have been so proud of how the children came back and quickly adapted to the very different set up to the classrooms and the timetable. We can but marvel at their resilience and the mature understanding in which they have approached school life in 2020! 

We wish all our children great success and happiness in their new classes - they will rise to the new challenges effortlessly! In the meantime, however, please enjoy a relaxing half term. There are no specific homework tasks for this week but if you want to help your child keep their hand in don't forget to use MyOn and revisit any of the maths tasks outlined in this half term's blogs.

Overview Meetings

In normal times, we would have held our Key Stage 1 Overview Meeting with parents during the summer term. Although we cannot meet up in person we have provided you all with a link to the slides that would have been presented. Bear in mind that some of these slides do not represent our normal approach (e.g. homework/reading) but please be assured we are constantly reviewing more effective procedures in what we do.

For children moving into Year 1 and 2:

KS1 Overview Meeting

For children moving into Year 3, visit the current Year 3/4 blog and follow the link to their slides.

We will give you a more detailed overview of next half term's project - "999 What's Your Emergency?" - in our first blog back after half term.

Thank you again for all your help and support this half term - we couldn't have done it without you! We will see you all on Monday 2nd November - don't forget this is a PE day for KS1!

Wishing you all a safe and restful holiday:)

Much love

Mr Jude, Mrs Yuille & Mrs O'Connor

Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - 16th October 2020

 Happy Friday everybody - we hope you have had a good week!

As mentioned in last Friday's newsletter, as a school we must offer immediate remote education if, for any reason, your child is not able to attend school for a prolonged period of time. As a school we will be using the DfE approved programme, The National Academy (https://www.thenational.academy/). Here there are daily lessons for each Year Group which cover a range of subjects. There are a number of other online sources that you can use to complement this site:

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/members-area/kids/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/primary

https://www.tate.org.uk/kids

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/

Multiplication - Arrays

This week we have been looking at the mathematical operation of multiplication. All children by the end of Year 4 are expected to know all their times tables to 12x12. For Key Stage 1, we focus on being able to recite and recall facts for the 2x, 5x and 10x tables. Being able to count on in steps of these amounts is very helpful for solving calculations such as 10x5=? (10, 20, 30, 40, 50). Counting in these steps whilst climbing the stairs is a way of regularly reinforcing this.

In Key Stage 1, one of the ways we further exemplify multiplication is by showing them as concrete arrays to help support this ability to count on in 2's, 5's and 10's.

4 x 3 =
Here we are being told to count in 4's.

How many times? 3

We can visualise this by drawing 4 dots, 3 times:


Try and keep the dots lined up with each other.
Count the total and you have your answer!

Try some out for yourself. 

Multiplication - Partitioning

Once numbers go above 10, arrays become too unwieldy and inefficient. It is good practice for the children entering Year 3 to try some partitioning to help solve these.


Here we split 15 into 10 and 5 and times these by 2 (use arrays if you cannot do this mentally).
This gives us the answers 10 (5x2) and 20 (10x2).
Add these 2 numbers together to find the answer.

Again, if you are confident with arrays and the 2, 5 and 10 times table, try some of these.
If you want to let us know how you are doing with these homework tasks, please send us an email but be assured that there is no compulsion to show what you have been doing - it is enough to just be doing!

Reading

Keep reading little and often - it is very important. Use Myon if you can and if your child finds this platform agreeable but we know some of you have been finding the following site very helpful so we are pointing this out to you again:

• Oxford Owl 

            You will need to register for this site but it is very easy (I tried it and it took less than 5 minutes).

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/user/sign_up.html

Incidentally, after confirming your email notification, if it says there is a problem, just log in as normal - it will work fine!

From here you can choose from a range of ebooks: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/free-ebooks/

From here you can choose a colour book band or search by phonic phase and browse the books.

Once you choose a book you can read it (or have it read to you) and there are even some activities related to the text at the top.

We hope you find some of these resources helpful. Please be assured we are currently continuing to review how we can further develop reading opportunities for your children after half term and fully understand how online reading is not for everyone.

Wishing you all very wonderful weekend:)

KS1 Team

Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - 9th October 2020

 Happy Friday everybody - I hope you have had a fab week!

Amazingly, we are entering the last 2 weeks before half term and the children transitioning into their new classes. It is with regret that we are unable to do many of the things that we would usually do at the end of the year due to Government guidance such as sending work or small gifts home with the children. However, we are planning on having a special "treat" afternoon for the children in our last week together.

If you have any concerns or questions about your child's new class or transition please send us an email and we will hopefully be able to put your mind at ease.

ks1@downhallprimary.com

Coats

Just a reminder that as the weather becomes more autumnal to ensure your child brings a coat to school each day. Due to our staggered lunches we get less time outside so unless the weather is very bad we will always endeavour to still go out at playtime and for our Daily Mile. 

Maths - Addition as the inverse of subtraction

This week in school we have been looking at how addition and subtraction are the opposite of each other or to use the mathematical term - the inverse of each other. 

The way we have shown this is through a triangle with 3 numbers, an add sign at the bottom and a take away sign at the top:




We use this to generate 4 calculations. You can create 2 addition calculations by starting at the bottom following it around, finishing at the top:

10 + 5 = 15

5 + 10 = 15

You can also create 2 subtraction calculations by starting at the top and following it around:

15 - 10 = 5

15 - 5 = 10

It is worth noting how the same three numbers are used and that the largest number is at the end in the addition calculations and at the beginning in the subtraction calculations.

In exploring this concept, it is the relationship/patterns between the numbers that are important, not calculating the expressions. 

The game "Number Fact Families" on Top Marks is good for exploring this:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/number-facts/number-fact-families

Choose + and - and then the range that your child is comfortable with. Start with choosing from the left hand column (1+2=3 not the reverse). Click on the numbers and signs for them to appear in the highlighted box to make 4 calculations like in the triangle example above. Note there will be 2 addition and 2 subtraction calculations and where the largest number should go for this.

You can record some of these, screen grab any work you have done on the computer or just send us an email about how you got on!

Reading & Phonics

Don't forget to keep using MyOn to do as much reading as possible. Send us an email if you need any advice on how to use this platform further. We are very lucky to have this resource and online access to thousands of books and regular reading will be imperative for your child's continuing development in all areas of the curriculum.

We would also strongly advise you to try the games on Phonics Play if you feel your child needs additional support in their reading. The whole website is still free for everyone until 21st October. To login visit https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ and enter the username march20 and the password home.

From here if you click on the Resources tab there are lots of games that will support your child's development in phonics and ability to blend sounds in order to read. Please take advantage of this freebie while you still can - enjoy!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend:)

KS1 Team

Amethyst, Diamond & Emerald Blog - 2nd October 2020

 Dear Parents

Thank you for all you and your children's heroic efforts for making it thorough another successful week - I hope this Friday sees you well!

Home/School Support

We currently live in strange times and those quick chats at the beginning and end of the day are not possible at the moment. All of you would have received reports in February about your child's progress and areas to focus upon for next steps in learning. Once new classes start next half term there will be some form of Parent/Teacher Consultation - we will let you know details nearer the time of how we can make this happen. However, in the meantime if you have any concerns or you would like to know how your child has settled back into school please send us an email via our normal email address and we will get back to you.

ks1@downhallprimary.com

Homework - Looking At Habitats

In our science work since coming back to school, we have been looking at the life processes of animals, the different diets that they have (carnivores, herbivores and omnivores) and the features of their habitats. We have used this website to help give us an introduction to habitats. 

Habitats and the environment - KS1 Science

As a homework task this week, we're asking you to choose one habitat to learn about and watch the video. Any of them will be fine - let your child choose one they are most interested in.

After we watched the video we made notes in the form of a mind map.

If you click on the link at the top of the page entitled "18 Class Clips", you can choose from the video clips that are most appropriate to your chosen habitat to add supplementary notes.

From here you can create a simple report showing what you have learnt about your habitat. This can be as simple as a picture with some labels to a piece of writing with sub-headings and lots of facts. Please send us an email to share anything that your child produces - we love seeing them!

Accelerated Reader

As mentioned last week, we have been placing the children on the Accelerated Reader system this week. This will enable the children to take an Accelerated Reader Quiz (AR Quiz) after they have read a book on MyOn. It is important to note that AR Quizzes test the children's understanding of a text as they do not have access to the text whilst undertaking the quiz. It may be beneficial to the children, therefore, to read the book more than once so that they have very good grasp of the book before taking a quiz.

To take a quiz, hover over the book you have just read, or click on "Info" and then click on "Take AR Quiz."

From here you will be prompted to enter your Accelerated Reader login and password. Don't panic - this is the same as their MyOn login.

Please encourage you child to attempt to read and answer the questions independently as this would mirror how we administer the test at school. Pick a book and give it a try! We will be monitoring MyOn for any potential Star Readers!

Again, any issues please contact us and we will endeavour to sort these as quickly as possible.

Have a wonderful weekend:)

KS1 Team