Dear Parents,

Welcome back. This term the children ofSt Joseph’s class are studying the Great Fire of London and Plants and Animals.  This is an important term for your children’s learning as SATs are taking place.  Please ensure you give them every chance of succeeding by encouraging appropriate early bedtimes and daily reading support.

It would be very helpful if you could do any of the following with your child at home.

Maths

• Counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.
• Rapid recall of 2, 5 and 10x tables
• Rapid re-call of + and – to 20, including sums such as:  13 + ? = 20,    15 – ? = 11, ? – 6 = 4
• Counting and recognising numbers to 100, including the reading of number names (thirty four = 34)
• Working with money (looking at coins and identifying a given amount of money). Thinking about how much change you would get from a £1 if you spent less than this
• Using scales to weigh objects, using appropriate vocabulary, (heavy, light, balance)
• Use mathematical vocabulary for common 2D and 3D shape

English

Please set aside a QUIET TIME every evening when your child can read to you.  It is important that you use a range of questions to help develop your child’s understanding of the story.  When reading, please encourage your child to:

• predict what might happen next in the book
• sound out unfamiliar words or consider the pictures/context of the story in order to make a good ‘guess’ at the word
• build upon your child’s sight vocabulary in both the reading and spelling of common words (then, there, when, where, some etc)
• practise spelling and writing key words from word list sheet

Topic

The Great Fire of London.  We will be placing the events on a timeline showing periods of history inEngland. We will learn about the main events of the fire, and try to understand why the fire spread so far for so long. We will link this topic to art by appreciating the part played by artists in recording the Great Fire and by making our own representations.

Yours sincerely,

CHLOE WHITE

Class Teacher