Welcome back everyone and I hope you all had a happy and restful holiday break.
Maths and Numeracy
During the month of March pupils have been learning all about Fractions. They have worked hard throughout the month and can name the numerator and denominator, can name equivalent fractions and calculate the fraction of quantity. The children participated in lots of practical activities to deepen their understanding in this area. They are then going to take this knowledge forward and apply it to Telling the Time. As always, mental maths skills are a focus throughout the year and we encourage children to access Sumdog as often as possible and continue to practise the 2,3,4,5 and 10 Times Tables.
Literacy
The Green Group have been developing their comprehension skills using the story of The Twelfth Floor Kids. Children have been applying the six main reading strategies of prior knowledge, metalinguistics, visualisation, inference, main ideas and summarising. Going forward children will continue to apply these skills to help make sense of increasingly complex themes and narratives. It is important that children spend time not only reading the texts but exploring and discussing the language and tools used by the author to enhance the reading experience.
The Red Group are making good progress and are enjoying the range of novels that they are reading. In Term 3, we are going to look at longer novels and continue to work on answering in more detail and full sentences.
Children have been working on the genre of explanation writing this month; they have been learning about extreme weather forces and have been researching and reading about a variety of extreme weather forces. Children were able to demonstrate their learning in this area by completing an independent piece of writing about a topic of their choice. Children have also prepared a presentation to deliver to the rest of the class with a focus on timing, presentation, volume, eye contact and information. We have really enjoyed listening to these.
Religious Education
The children who are making the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Communion attended and participated in a retreat in the Church Hall. This was a very special and reflective time for the children to come together to appreciate and consider the importance and relevance of this Sacrament in their lives. We have also been spending time with Mrs Celino and Mrs Le Blond during Lent learning all about the Stations of the Cross.
OTHER CURRICULAR AREAS
We have come to the end of our topic on Natural Disasters and the children have very much impressed me with their enthusiasm and ability to retain so much of the information that we have gathered.
During Science Week, we completed a number of fun experiments using a variety of materials and substances.
On World Book Day we dressed up as our favourite characters and had a wonderful ‘Booknic’ in the hall where we shared our favourite stories and books.
We sadly said goodbye to Miss Bradley who has been working with us over the last month. Miss Bradley was a great help to us and she helped us make healthy fruit smoothies, taught us all about inference and even taught us some sign language. We will miss her very much and wish her well with the rest of her studies.
Going forward we look forward to celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Tuesday 26th April and the Sacrament of Communion on the 14th May. We are also looking forward to deciding on our topic focus for the final Term, which will involve lots of fun, and Outdoor Learning.
It was lovely to get the chance to speak with you all on Parents Evening and I want to thank you once again for your continued support. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you need to discuss anything.
