Welcome back!
Welcome back and Happy New Year to everyone! We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday and that you and your children had lots of quality family time, rest and relaxation and are ready for a busy Term 2.
Hats, Cardigans & Library Books
Hats and cardigans were sent home at the end of term to be washed. Please make sure your child has these items in his/her school bag on Monday. If you have bought new items, please ensure they are clearly labelled with your child’s name.
Please return any library books that were borrowed before the holiday.
Celebrating Achievements Board
Please do continue to send items in to school for our achievements board. It is always lovely to share things that the children do when they are not at school. Remember to include a photograph and caption about your child’s recent achievement. He/she will have the opportunity to share his/her experiences and successes with the class.
Writing Workshop
For the next six weeks, we will be doing a new writing unit called ‘All About’ books. The children will learn that ‘All About’ books teach us about something. They know from visits to the library that these kinds of books are also referred to as information or non-fiction books.
They will begin this unit by thinking of things about which they are knowledgeable, things they ‘know lots about’ and topics of interest. They will be the experts!
By looking at a wide selection of ‘All About’ books, we will identify some of the different features that can be found in these books: title, contents, chapters, headings, labels, photographs, drawings, fun facts, page numbers, glossary and index.
Each mini-lesson will focus on a feature of ‘All About’ books and give the children ideas as to what they can add to their books to make them even more like a real non-fiction book. The children will be encouraged to draw upon skills learned in other Writing Workshop units, such as adding labels, using capital letters for headings and proper names, and adding one more thing to a page.
It is a very exciting unit and we are very much looking forward to seeing the wide variety of topics that the children choose to write about.
Student-Led Conferences - Tuesday 13 January
Our Infant Student-Led Conferences will take place on Tuesday 13 January. A letter was enclosed with your child's report card detailing the times of your child’s conferences. The conference in the classroom will last for about 45 minutes, and then there are the Music and Chinese conferences, too.
Please appreciate that the logistics to coordinate those families with more than one child participating in Student-Led Conferences has proven to be a big undertaking. Therefore we ask for your cooperation in arriving promptly so that teachers and other families’ schedules will not be disrupted.
Whilst there are no classes for K1, K2 or G1 children on this day, the rest of the College is in session so the usual traffic congestion will occur during peak arrival and departure times. Parking may be difficult, so please allow yourself plenty of time to get here.
Supervision for siblings from other Infant classes will be available in an area of the Main Hall. We request that very young siblings are not brought to school as there will not be supervision for them.
We ask that you please do not take calls or send text messages on your hand phones during the conference. Not only will this break the rapport you have established with your child, but phones ringing, buzzing or vibrating will disturb other families who are in the classroom at the same time.
We hope you enjoy spending time with your child at school, and gain extra insight into children’s learning.
Maths
Whilst we continually revisit many different mathematical concepts during the course of a week, our main focus for the next few weeks will be on number. We will be looking specifically at addition and subtraction.
Key questions will be asked and explored through practical activities:
• How can I add numbers together?
• What strategies work best to add and subtract numbers?
• How many ways can I find to make 5 or 7 or 10?
Knowing number bonds (pairs of numbers that make a given total) and being able to recall them instantly, as opposed to having to work them out, will help your child’s confidence in Maths and increase the speed at which he/she can complete number problems.
For example, the number bonds for 6 are:
0 + 6
1 + 5
2 + 4
3 + 3
4 + 2
5 + 1
6 + 0
We will be spending time looking at number bonds for numbers up to 10 and exploring the number patterns. For those children who already have good recall, they will be applying their knowledge of number bonds to help with problems involving larger numbers e.g.
15 + 11 = ?
? + 14 = 20
18 + ? = 30
Literacy
Over the coming weeks, our main focus will be:
• Writing Workshop ‘All About’ books
• Handwriting – Curly Caterpillar letters: a, c, d, e, f, g, o, q, s
• Reading Workshop: independent reading, partner reading activities, shared reading, group reading
• Phonics – a few initial blends will be chosen each week from the following: sh, ch, th, br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl
