Happy Friday everybody, we hope that you are all keeping well. This week has been very busy in Key Stage 1 - we have been looking at "The Gruffalo" in English and thinking about how what the different characters say and think are very different. Understanding the motivations of characters is an important aspect of comprehension. In maths we have been exploring money and counting and totalling coins to find amounts. Whether in 20 years, coins will still be used is an interesting philosophical point but at the moment they are good for us to apply our addition and multiplication skills! Here are a couple of announcements before our homework tasks:
Denim For Dementia - Friday 21st May 2021
Next Friday we will be supporting the Alzheimer's Society Dementia Action Week. Many people living with dementia have had to isolate themselves during the past year from family, friends and others who support and care for them. To help raise money and awareness for this, on Friday 21st May we will be allowing the children to wear jeans or an item of clothing that is made from denim whilst bringing in a donation of £1 for this very worthy charity. Aside from this item, normal school uniform will need to be worn. Maybe a chance to raid the penny jar and practice counting money?!
SumDog National Competition
A message from Mrs Hurley
WHOLE SCHOOL NATIONAL NUMERACY SUMDOG CONTEST
Calling all of you amazing mathematicians!
You have been entered into the National Numeracy Sumdog Contest. It is taking place on 14 - 20 May
I will be monitoring how well each class is doing. The winning class will be announced in the school newsletter and will have the chance to be one of the first classes to use our new wild flower adventure playground!
Let's show our Down Hall community what great mathematicians we are!
Good luck.
Mrs Hurley 
Homework Tasks
Must Do
- Reading - please keep reading! Remember: 5-10 minutes everyday and then discuss the text afterwards, asking for opinions, favourite part or questioning what happened so as to ensure that your child is understanding the text as well as reading it. Please let us know if there is any aspect of your child's Big Cat book shelf that needs amending.
- Maths Homework Book - this week we would like you to complete page 51.
For Year 1, the page continues work on capacity and volume and Year 2 about money. Year 1's, continue to extend these ideas by finding what you can measure at home using measuring jugs to see how much your favourite mugs can hold and order these. Year 2's find some different coins around the house and find totals of different coins. Use coins to pay for amounts as efficiently as possible.
- Spelling and Reading Common Words - keep looking at these words often, doing a chunk at a time. The lists can be accessed from our Key Stage web page "Useful Information" tab - use the link below and scroll down to see the menu of word lists. Start with the Yr 1 High Frequency Word List 1 & 2 and then move on to the Yr 2 Next 200 Common Words A & B. If your child can read these words, begin practising how to spell them by looking at 5-10 words at a time.
- Phonics - please visit the Phonics Play website to practise key phonics skills if your child needs support in this area. Playing the different games often will help your child's blending and decoding skills and there are games that can be played without a subscription. There are similar games available to play on the Phonics Bloom site as well.
- Reading Extension Tasks - in the back of the Big Cat ebooks is a detailed break down of other tasks that can be completed using the book just read. These include vocabulary activities, comprehension questions and creative writing responses. If your child has particularly enjoyed a book, these tasks can be a good vehicle for further developing key skills.
- Comprehension Tasks -three more comprehension tasks for you in our Home Learning Folder. These will be labelled as A, B and C. Use the colour level books your child is reading as a guide to which one to attempt:
- PINK, RED, YELLOW books - try Task A;
- BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE books - try Task B;
- TURQUOISE, PURPLE, GOLD or higher - try Task C.
Here is a link to our Home Learning Folder:
- Project Task - this week we have been thinking about characters in stories - their actions, thoughts and motivations. These don't always match up! For example, in "The Gruffalo" the fox, owl and snake all invite the mouse to lunch. This, however, does not match their intentions! To further explore this concept, from a story you have read or know well, choose a character and draw a picture of them. Add some writing about what your character does, thinks and feels. Try to link reasons for why they do and say the things they do e.g. The Mouse tells Fox he is meeting a Gruffalo so he can scare the Fox away.
Don't forget, we are always available on our Key Stage 1 email. If you have any questions or concerns about homework or indeed about anything, please just ask and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
