Butterflies
Dear Parents/Carers,
Happy New Year! Welcome back to the Spring Term in Butterfly Class. We are looking forward to a busy term with lots of exciting things happening.
Our overall topic this term is called ‘Where in the World? This will link to our geography work and one of our aims for this term to learn the names of the continents and oceans of the world, and the four countries of the United Kingdom and their capital cities. I am sure the children will rise to this challenge. Our key texts will be Dolphin Boy by Michael Morpurgo and The Last Polar Bears by Harry Horse. If you have any of these books at home and are willing to lend us them for this topic, this would be much appreciated.
In Science the children will be learning about materials and changes. We shall be continuing to use our Purple Mash accounts in Computing lessons and shall enjoy learning about coding. It would be really helpful if the children could practise logging on themselves and using their passwords, with your help at home to build up their independence. The E safety themes this term are being Internet Kind and Internet Brave.
In R.E. this term children will be exploring Jewish festivals before moving on to look cloesly at the Easter Story.
Our Treasure Box (Show and Tell) theme this half term will be Around the World so children can bring in items of interest from places around the globe such as a book, atlas, souvenir from a trip abroad or a postcard from another country.
Homework in Butterflies continues to take the form of reading. Year Two have their Champion Challenges that were given out at parent’s evening. Year One will be also receiving some additional words/sounds to read on a weekly basis in preparation for the phonics check that takes place in the Summer term. A letter will be going out shortly regarding this.
PE will be on Wednesdays and outdoor learning will continue to take place on Thursday afternoons for Year 1.
Year 2 children will continue to have their recorder lesson on Thursday afternoons so please make sure recorders and recorder books are in school every Thursday. We were delighted by their fantastic performance in the concert at the end of last term and we are looking forward to building on this!
We are very much looking forward to an exciting term and we hope your child will be too.
Thank you for your continuing support.
Victoria Hirst and Lucy How
We hope you have had a wonderful summer and we are so glad to be back. The children have settled in well. The Year Twos are enjoying their new responsibilities being the oldest in the class and the new Year Ones are learning routines quickly.
We are so lucky to have Mrs Walker as our Teaching Assistant this year. We shall also be joined later in the term by a volunteer who will be supporting us with the children's learning.
Our topic this term is Heroes and Heroines. We will be thinking about those from the past who made a difference to others with their actions and were true life heroes. We shall also be thinking about those heroes with superpowers! It is all top secret but we will reveal more soon!
Each child will have a given day for our Treasure Box (Show and Tell). We are going to have a theme for this half term which is Reading Rocks! The children can bring in something to do with books/reading that they can talk about to the rest of the class. When they come in they will put it in the Treasure Box until it is time to share.
Some examples:
- favourite book
- a drawing from a favourite book
- some writing copied from a favourite book
- a poem to perform/read
- a photo of reading at home
- a book on a topic that interests them
We do daily physical exercise such as Wake and Shake or the Daily Mile. We will also do PE once a week where they will need a full PE kit in school. Please ensure they have it with them everyday.
The Year 2 children will be learning to play the recorder this year. Their lesson is on Thursday afternoon so please make sure their recorder and music are both in school on this day. Please also make sure your child has time to practise during the week. Year 1 children will have their time in the Wildspace on Thursday afternoons.
We expect the children to read daily at home and please ensure they have their books in school as we will be wanting to hear them read too.
Thank you for your continued support.
Mrs How and Mrs Hirst
Dear Parents/Carers,
Welcome back to the summer term in Butterflies. We are very glad to be joined this term by Maria Rodriguez who is a trainee who will be working alongside us during this next term.
This term we shall be immersing ourselves in history, geography, art, design and technology and computing to learn about the Great Fire of London and our capital city. We are looking forward to our trip to St Paul’s Cathedral and more details will be following shortly. In R.E. we will be learning all about the Jewish faith, starting off by looking at the story of Moses and then thinking about Jewish family life.
Please can PE kits be in school on Tuesdays/Wednesdays and outdoor learning kits on Monday.
During June, all the children will be carrying out the Phonics Check and we shall be sending home packs of words for them to work on alongside their daily reading book in preparation for this.
All children will need to have a hat in school during the summer term and please could they also bring a water bottle.
Thank you for your support.
Victoria Hirst and Lucy How
Welcome back to the Spring term in Butterfly class.
As a whole school we have spent the first few days back thinking about the book - The Lost Words. The children have been thinking about nature words that are being lost. Throughout the term we shall be developing our own list of ‘found words’ to develop our vocabulary – hopefully you will get to hear some of them!
Our main learning this term will be centred around our topic of Africa. To set us off on this adventure, we are looking forward to our djembe drumming workshop on Monday the 14thof January. This workshop cost £9.77 for the day, please check that you have paid for this before the date of the activity. We have lots of other exciting activities planned for the term such as Lion week, smoothie making, Tinga Tinga art and Lion King dance. We are both looking forward to teaching this topic and we hope the children will love it too.
PE will take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Please check your child has their full PE kit in school everyday.
Please continue to hear your child read daily. Later on in the term, we shall also be sending home some phonic words to practise in preparation for the phonics check that takes place in the summer term.
The children now have their PurpleMash and Mathletics passwords to access these learning platforms at home. The web address of both these sites are on the password cards. Both these sites have many activities and opportunities for enrichment. Please come and chat to us if you are unsure of how to use them.
This term we shall be joined by Rebecca Rushbrook who will be supporting the class in the mornings.
We also would like to let you know – well in advance, that we are busy planning our Y1/2 trip for St Paul’s Cathedral for the summer term. Further detail will follow but the cost of the trip would be in the region of £20-£25.
Any questions do pop in to see us.
Mrs Hirst and Mrs How
Welcome back to the Autumn Term in Butterfly Class. We have had a busy start to the term and the children have been settling in and getting to grips with new routines and new classroom very quickly.
Our overall topic this term is called ‘Firsts’. We will be using this to learn about real life events and real people who achieved significant accomplishments for the first time. We will begin the term looking at the first moon landing and reading stories about the moon. We shall also be using our topic to look at many other firsts such as the First World War, the first bonfire night and the first flight.
In class, we will have a very special board for ‘Our Firsts’. Ifyour child has achieved something for the first time they will be able to come and put that achievement up on the board. It can be an achievement at school or something they have managed to do for the first time at home.
In Butterfly class we have a special All About Me bag which the children will take home and bring back to school with special items they wish to talk to the class about. A letter will go home in the bag to explain in more detail when it is your child’s turn. This is instead of a daily show and tell. The children will also bring home Max the Bear, and we look forward to hearing all about what he gets up to when he goes home with each child in turn! In Butterfly Class we also have a Table of Interest. This is for anything they would like to put on display for their friends to look at, and share in their interest, for example a special stone or an interesting leaf. Please do not bring in very valuable items.
The most important form of homework in Year 1 is daily reading at home. You will already be familiar with how the reading scheme works. Please do pop in and have a chat if you are concerned at all about anything to do with the reading books. The children will receive one book a night and we hope as much as possible they will read and have their book changed on a daily basis. At school, we will listen to readers individually throughout the week. It is important that your child’s book is in school every day so that we can hear them read in school. Your child will occasionally bring home common words to practise.
As part of our computing curriculum, we teach the children the basics of e-safety. In Year One, the children will already be thinking about how to stay safe online. If you would like any further advice about any aspects of e-safety there is a recommended website which has age related advice.
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents
Our RE this term will focus on Creation, with links to Harvest and Incarnation, with a focus on Christmas.
PE kits must be left in school. It is essential that your child has a pair of PE shoes in their kit. The children will be having daily short bursts of physical activity in the form of ‘Wake and Shake’, Go Noodle or the Daily Mile They will also have a designated PE lesson once a week. The children will need to be appropriately dressed on Mondays for their afternoon in the Wild Space.
As the children become increasingly independent, it is important that they are able to come into school by themselves and organise their belongings. Please help your child to do this by staying on the playground in the morning when they come in unless you have a message to pass on to one of us.
We try to update the class pages regularly with pictures of our work or activities. So do keep a look out on our webpage, www.thriplow.cambs.sch.uk
We are very much looking forward to an exciting term and we hope your child will be too.
Thank you for your continuing support.
Mrs Hirst and Mrs How
Dear Parents/Carers,
Happy New Year! Welcome back to the Spring Term in Butterfly Class. We are looking forward to a busy term with lots of exciting things happening.
Our overall topic this term is called ‘Where in the World are the Snail and the Whale?’ This will link to our geography work and one of our aims for this term to learn the names of the continents and oceans of the world, and the four countries of the United Kingdom and their capital cities. I am sure the children will rise to this challenge. We will be reading lots of different books about snails and whales. if you have any that your child would like to share please let us know.
In Science the children will be learning about materials and changes. We shall be continuing to use our Purple Mash accounts in Computing lessons and shall enjoy learning about coding. It would be really helpful if the children could practise logging on themselves and using their passwords, with your help at home to build up their independence.
In R.E. this term children will be exploring the question ‘Who made the World?’ before moving on to focus on lent and the Easter Story.
We now have in our classroom a table of interest. This is for children to share anything that interests them. For example a favourite book, a special leaf or stone they have. Please don’t bring in anything that is very delicate or could get broken. We will continue to have the All About Me bag and the take home Max but hopefully this will give them more opportunities to share interests they have.
One of our whole school themes this year is Growth Mindset. Your child will continue to talk about having a growth mindset and trying to put this in to practise.
Homework in Year One continues to take the form of reading. Year One will be also receiving some additional words/sounds to read on a weekly basis in preparation for the phonics check that takes place in the Summer term. A letter will be going out shortly regarding this.
PE will be on Wednesdays and outdoor learning will now take place on Monday afternoons.
We are very much looking forward to an exciting term and we hope your child will be too.
Thank you for your continuing support.
Victoria Hirst and Lucy How
SUMMER TERM 2017
This term we are so excited to be learning about The Great Fire of London. We are really enjoying learning facts about what happened in 1666 and have created some wonderful artwork already.
After half term, we be learning about our capital city, London. We will finish off our term with a mini topic on Paddington Bear. Hopefully we will make (and taste!) some marmalade sandwiches!
We are having so much fun during our outdoor learning sessions on Tuesday mornings. We have learnt so many new skills.
Mrs How continues to work on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. Mrs Symmons teaches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Welcome back to the Autumn Term in Butterfly Class.
Our overall topic this term is called ‘Firsts’. We will be using this to learn about real life events and real people who achieved significant accomplishments for the first time. We shall begin the term looking at the first moon landing and reading stories about the moon. We shall also be using our topic to look at many other firsts.
In class, we will have a very special board for ‘firsts’ so if your child has achieved something for the first time they will be able to come and put that achievement up on the board. It can be an achievement at school or something they have managed to do for the first time at home.
Treasure Box is a time in class when the children are able to bring in something from home to talk about in class. Each child will have a designated day. They will then have the chance to talk and ‘present’ their treasure to the class. The rest of the class will be able to ask questions. We hope this will help develop their speaking and listening skills as well as their questioning ability.
The most important form of homework in year one is daily reading at home. You will already be familiar with how the reading scheme works. Please do pop in and have a chat if you are concerned at all about anything to do with the reading books.
We are very much looking forward to an exciting term and we hope your child will be too.
Thank you for your continuing support.