Amethyst & Emerald Class Blog - Friday 30th September 2022

 Happy Friday, everybody! It has been a very exciting week with the arrival of the circus on Monday and seeing the Big Top rise up into place! On Wednesday afternoon, all the children in KS1 were able to visit the ring and watch the aerialists rehearse some of their moves - ever so exciting!

On a more prosaic note, there have been a number of jumpers with no names accumulating in KS1, so please ensure that all your child's clothing is clearly named - thank you!

NSPCC's Speak Out Stay Safe Programme

RRS Article 19: Children have the right to be safe

As a Rights Respecting School we are committed to keeping children safe and we are happy to be taking part in the NSPCC's safeguarding programme in school. This programme helps children to recognise abuse in  child friendly way and encourages them to speak out to a trusted Duty Bearer.

In school, children watch an assembly delivered by Ant and Dec and then take part in follow up discussions in class. Please read the full details on the NSPCC letter here where you will find further links and resources that you can use at home to educate and support your child. We urge you to take a look at these.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to pop in and see us.

Harvest Collection

This year we will continue to support Rochford Extended Services with our Harvest collection. Donations will be boxed up and distributed by them to the children and families that need them most within our own local community.

As a Gold Level Rights Respecting School, we do our best to advocate for Children's Rights and for sustainability. Articles 24 and 27 state that:

"Every child has the right to the best possible health and a good standard of living."

If you can send in any non-perishable items before Wednesday 19th October that would be fabulous and you can find a full list of suggested items  here. In school we will celebrate Harvest during the week of 17th October with some learning in class and by singing our favourite Harvest song in assembly. Please enjoy having a go at the Harvest Samba here and thanks for any contributions you feel able to make.

Whole School Essex Sumdog Competition

Calling all you amazing mathematicians!

You have been entered into the Essex Sumdog Competition. Taking place on 30th September until 7th October. We will be monitoring how well each class is doing. The winning class will be announced in the school newsletter.

Let's show our Down Hall community what great mathematicians we are!

Good luck!

Mrs Hurley

**If any Year 2 parents need a reminder of their child's Sumdog login, please come and see us and we will get this to you. Year 1's will be introduced to Sumdog during this half term and will be coming home with their logins this week.**

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 10 & 11.

For Year 1's this focuses on counting to 100. This will continue to build upon the work on tens and ones from last week. Remember - having a clear understanding of what digits represent in numbers is such an important aspect of our maths learning. Reinforce how 24 is represented by the digits 2 & 4 but 24 is actually a 20 and a 4. Explore the hundred square on page 10 and look for the patterns you can see there. There are also some games in the link below to help reinforce these ideas.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

For Year 2's this focuses counting on in different steps. It is worth pointing out that this is what we have been doing in class this week, so this is why it is important that you stick to one page per week. We have looked at the patterns that are present in counting on in steps of different amounts and looked at how even numbers always have even multiples but odd numbers alternate between odd and even multiples. The hundred square app below is really good for creating these steps and spotting patterns:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares

Don't forget to keep up all your fantastic efforts with your reading at home - it will make a huge impact on your child's reading development.

If you have any issues or questions, please, please come and see us at the end of the day. Just come down the steps to see us!

Have a superb weekend!

Best Wishes

Mr Jude & Mrs Yuille

Amethyst & Emerald Blog - Friday 23rd September 2022

 Happy Friday, everybody! We hope you have had a great week. We have been busy in KS1 looking at the features of non-fiction texts in English as well as working on the mathematical operations of addition and subtraction in maths. 

PTA Happy Circus - Wednesday 28th September

Message from our PTA:

The circus is coming to Down Hall NEXT WEEK! This was a huge hit when it visited last year and we cannot wait to welcome it back. Happy's Circus is a professional, all human touring circus and they bring their amazing Big Top and fill it with magic, acrobatics, aerialists and so much more! Plus, there will be hot food and refreshments on the night too, with both alcoholic and soft beverages available. So why not get there early and make a whole evening of it? (It will save you cooking dinner!)

By attending the circus, not only will you be getting an evening of entertainment for the whole family, you will also be helping to raise funds for your child's school. Tickets available on the door or in advance from the PTA.

Baby Photos - LAST CALL!!

Thank you to those who have sent in a baby photo for our learning on living things and their life cycles. If you haven't sent one in yet, there is still time! Please send in a photograph (not too big!) of your child as a baby with their name on the back and we will copy it and send the original back to you. Alternatively, if you would prefer to send it digitally then please do so using our KS1 email address below

ks1@downhallprimary.com

Maths Homework

This week, we would like you to look at pages 8 & 9.

For Year 1's this focuses on tens and ones. Understanding how 2-digit numbers are made up of tens and ones is fundamental to all the maths we do in Key Stage 1. Having a clear understanding of what digits represent in numbers is such an important aspect of our maths learning. Although we represent the number 12 with the digits 1 & 2, 12 is actually a 10 and a 2. Again, look at page 8 to understand the idea and then work through page 9. If you wish to extend your child's work in this, count objects and group these into tens so you can see how these larger numbers can be represented by tens and ones. There are also some games in the link below to help reinforce these ideas.

For Year 2's this focuses numbers to 100. Again, keep looking at these numbers in terms of their tens and ones - how is the number 24 different to 42? Look also at how each number can also be represented by words. When it comes to writing the words, encourage the children to be as accurate as possible in their spelling.

Place Value Games

Don't forget to keep up all your fantastic efforts with your reading at home - it will make a huge impact on your child's reading development.

If you have any issues or questions, please, please come and see us at the end of the day. Just come down the steps to see us!

Have a great weekend!

Much love

Mr Jude & Mrs Yuille

Amethyst & Emerald Blog - Friday 16th September 2022

 Happy Friday, everybody! We have had another busy week in Key Stage 1 and we have been exploring our project of "999! What's Your Emergency?" in more detail. We have been creating posters to show the qualities a good firefighter would have and presenting these as a persuasive text.

Overview Meeting

Thank you to all those who were able to attend on Monday. Please don't worry if you were unable to make the meeting as you should have got all the information now that we shared. If you have any questions about the notes from the meeting, please just pop and ask us.

There was unfortunately an error on one of the slides regarding the dates of our Christmas Production to parents. The dates should have read:

• Tuesday 13th December at 2:30pm
• Wednesday 14th December at 9:30am

Baby Photos

Thank you to those who have sent in a baby photo for our learning on living things and their life cycles. If you haven't sent one in yet, don't panic - it is not too late! Please send in a photograph (not too big!) of your child as a baby with their name on the back and we will copy it and send the original back to you. Alternatively, if you would prefer to send it digitally then please do so using our KS1 email address below

ks1@downhallprimary.com

Maths Homework

Today your child will be coming home with a maths homework book. This week, we would like you to look at pages 6 & 7.

For Year 1's this focuses on numbers 1-20. Look through page 6 together with your child and practice counting the apples in the picture. Look at how the numbers can be represented by digits and words - both are important! Then let your child work through page 7, supporting them as needed. There is also a quiz on pages 2-5 which your child can do if they are super eager! There are further counting games on the website below to further extend these ideas:

Counting Games

For Year 2's this focuses on place value. Understanding how numbers can be broken down into tens and ones underpins all our work on addition and subtraction during Year 2. It is important that the children understand that 45 is not 4 & 5 but 40 & 5 as the 4 represents 4 tens. Let your child work through page 7, supporting them as needed. There is also a quiz on pages 2-5 which your child can do if they are super eager! There are further place value games on the website below to further extend these ideas:

Place Value Games

Don't forget to keep up all your fantastic efforts with your reading at home - it will make a huge impact on your child's reading development.

If you have any issues or questions, please, please come and see us at the end of the day. Just come down the steps to see us!

Have a wonderful weekend and we will see you on Tuesday!

Best wishes

Mr Jude & Mrs Yuille

Amethyst & Emerald Blog - Friday 9th September 2022

 Happy Friday everybody - we have all had such a wonderful first week in Key Stage 1! All the children have settled in really well and have worked very hard! Our project this term is "999! What's Your Emergency?" and as a way into this we made a shocking discovery of a trophy theft from the hall!

We all went to the hall to investigate the crime scene...

Being great detectives, we quickly gathered clues...

This led us to some possible suspects...

We prepared some questions and interrogated the suspects before accusing them!

You will be glad to know, the trophies were all recovered thanks to the children deductive skills! It was lots of fun and a massive THANK YOU to Mrs O'Donoghue, Mr Cole and Mrs Branch for being such willing suspects!

Overview Meeting - Monday 12th September

Hopefully you will have received a text this week to give you a heads up for our Overview Meeting which will be at 2:30pm on Monday. If you arrive a bit before this time at the school office, we will let you into Amethyst Class to share with you some important information about life in Key Stage 1. The meeting will need to end at 3:00pm prompt so as to let the children back into class from PE ready to go home.

Please don't worry too much if you cannot attend this meeting as we will send home a copy of all the information shared in the week. We look forward to seeing you on Monday!

Baby Photos

In science we are learning about living things and their life cycles. We will be looking at growth and how we have changed since birth. If you could send in a photograph (not too big!) of your child as a baby for use in our lesson, it would be greatly appreciated.

Please name the photo on the back and we will copy it and send the original back to you. Alternatively, if you would prefer to send it digitally then please do so using our KS1 email address below

ks1@downhallprimary.com

Homework Books

We will be issuing your child with a maths homework book next Friday. We will explain the expectations of homework both at our Overview Meeting and in next week's blog.

In the meantime, don't forget to keep up all your fantastic efforts with your reading at home - it will make a huge impact on your child's reading development.

If you have any issues or questions, please, please come and see us at the end of the day. Just come down the steps to see us!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Best wishes

Mr Jude & Mrs Yuille