Headteacher: Anna Moss

21.04.23

Hello Red Class Families,

Welcome to the summer term in Red Class. The children coped well with some changes this week including afternoon clubs, Forest School with older children and a shorter home time routine. I’ve visited the children, each day, in their afternoon clubs and they look happy and settled. Thank you to Mrs Edney, Mrs Birley and Mrs Thomas for all their hard work, in the spring term, to help Red Class make such a smooth transition.

During our first day, we used Dilemma-Based Learning to inspire the children’s talk around their new topic. The children used maps, paintings, diary entries and a film clip to find out about Julia and her life in Poland. We danced to traditional Polish music to experience one of her favourite hobbies.Throughout the morning, the children used each piece of evidence to form opinions, give reasons for their answers and debate ideas around Julia’s life and how her life might change. We will spend the rest of the topic finding out about Kraków and Birmingham as places Julia might like to live.

It's been a busy week, as we started to read and spell CVCC words e.g. tent, sand, belt, wind and introduced new tricky words too e.g. said, so, have, like. A list of tricky words, for this half term, can be found on the class newsletter. In Literacy, we shared the Polish folk tale, ‘The Woodcutter’s Duck’. We’re busy learning a retell of the story to share during the King’s Coronation Celebration. During this event, Friday 5^th May, the children will perform their retell and sing as part of a whole school choir.

In Maths, we used Base Ten equipment to make and understand teen numbers. We also used blank number lines to develop an understanding of number order. Try finding and reading teen numbers in the environment. Can you find a teen number on a front door or a price label?

In Geography (Understanding of the World) lessons, we discovered Poland on the map and talked about the continent of Europe. We described how we would travel to Poland and used Google Earth to find Poland and the city of Kraków. The children wanted to find their school too, so we zoomed into Blackwell.

You will find a homework book in your child’s book bag this afternoon. Topic homework is optional as reading remains the most important part of home learning. Guidance can be found on the inside cover and our class newsletter.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Webb and Team Red Class xxx