Ladybird Class

Reception & Year 1

Mrs G Watkins and Mrs A Gilmour 

Ladybird Class Teachers

Welcome to Ladybird Class.

Our teachers are Mrs Watkins and Mrs Gilmour.

 Mrs Hamer, Mrs Watton, Mrs Williams, Miss Morris, Mrs Hughes and Mr Ben also help us to reach our full potential. 

PE in Ladybird class will be on a Tuesday and Thursday. We kindly ask that children come to school in their PE kit and stay in this for the remainder of the day. 

Tree Top Learning takes place on a Thursday this half term and we ask that the children come to school in their PE kits with their outdoor clothes in their bags ready for the afternoon's activities. 

Homework for the reception children will be to do their 'words / sounds I am learning' envelopes and read as often as possible. No additional homework will be set for them. 

Homework for the Year 1 children will be to learn their spellings and to read as often as possible. There will be times when extra homework is set, this could be a phonics activity, a maths activity, a writing activity or based on our topic work. I will send over detail of this via class dojo messenger when this is the case.

Here are the topics your children will be learning about this  term. As discussed at the parent's meeting before Christmas, these are the crucial knowledge for the topics. Please use these to help you know what your child will be learning and the knowledge they will have gained by the end of the term.

PSHE: Mental Health

History: Transport

Science: Light

KS1 Music

RE: Islam 

Art: Painting

Computing:

PE:

English:

Maths:

Please remember to read as much as possible at home and write it in your child's reading record to ensure they are moving along on our 'Reading Passport Scheme.' Dojos and prizes are awarded regularly! 

Dear Parents

As you know Reading is a life skill and we want to encourage you to read with your child as much as possible.  With this in mind, this year we are introducing a ‘Ladybird Class Reading Passport’ scheme, to motivate the children to read at home even more!

Your child will have an Oxford Reading Tree character passport stapled into the front of their reading record, each time they read to an adult at home and it is logged into their reading record, your child will receive a tick on their passport tick sheet (this will be kept in school.) Every 10 reads your child does at home they will move onto the next character on their passport.

For every 10 reads, your child will receive 10 dojos. After 30 reads they will receive a sweet and after 60 reads they will receive a prize from the prize box. After completing their passport (80 reads) they will receive a special prize which will be presented to them in assembly by Mrs Williams.

The staff in school will aim to keep up to date with your child’s reading passport, however if you think your child has read 10 times and needs moving up, please make a member of staff aware either at the beginning or at the end of the day. Please note, it doesn’t matter what is read (school reading book, story, information book, comic, newspaper etc) as long as it is for 5-15 minutes and it is with the child and adult together.  The time could also be spent talking about books and stories.

Here are some tips when reading with your child:

• Let him/her hold the book and turn the pages.
• You could read the whole book, your child could read the whole book (only if s/he feels comfortable, can and wants to), or you could take turns reading a page each.
• Make this an enjoyable and fun time, preferably at the same time each night (i.e. just before bed, after dinner, etc.)
• Draw your child’s attention to words on the page and/or individual letters
• If you are focusing on phonic sounds, choose one grapheme as a focus for the evening. Talk about the name of the letters and the sound that they make when used together.  Ask your child to find all of the phonic blends you are focusing on within the story.
• To help your child learn a story so s/he develops confidence in his/herself as a reader, read a sentence and have your child repeat after you. With repeated readings, your child will probably memorise the book.  Once the book is memorized, ask your child to find individual words such as “at”, “and”, “or” and “but”.  This will help your child develop reading readiness skills

The children have been told about the reading passports in class, and are keen to start. Please support your child and enjoy reading together.

Thank you for your support.

Mrs Watkins, Mrs Gilmour and the Ladybird Class Team.