A selection of ten budding gymnasts from year 3 attended a gymnastics competition on Tuesday, 25th February at Tribe Cheer and Fitness. These children have been training hard for this competition during their PE lessons and putting in extra practices at lunch times to perfect their routines with Mr Bordley, Miss Thompson and Mrs Howarth.
They represented the school wonderfully, showing all of their school values and we would have been proud of them whatever their scores. Their dedication certainly showed on the day and paid off, as they placed first! They will now represent Coventry Schools in the County Finals!
As part of Careers week, Anna Grainger (the MFL link governor) delivered a taster sign language lesson. She spoke to us about career opportunities using languages. We learnt the letters of the alphabet and how to say our name.
Year 5 visited Coundon Wedge after exploring the features of a river. They were able to study the River Sherbourne; soil erosion, meandering, a weir, manmade and natural features in Geography. They also collected water samples and collected litter to bring safely back to school so that it did not contaminate our local river. We love our local environment and really enjoyed seeing a real river in action.
This week we will continue with our topic of people who help us with a particular focus on dentists. We will be talking about the importance of oral hygiene and the children will learn how to brush their teeth correctly. We ask that you support this at home by helping your child brush their teeth both in the morning and before bed- it is recommend that an adult supports brushing until a child is at least 7 years of age. The children will learn about the impact that a high sugar diet has on our teeth and will learn about foods and drinks that are healthy for our teeth and will help to prevent tooth decay. This would be a good time to book a dental appointment for your child to have their teeth checked. In discussions last week a number of children said they had never been to the dentist! It is really important that you have your child’s teeth checked every 6 months.
The children all started in their new phonic groups last week. They will continue to recap on any gaps they may have with sounds and will learn new phonic sounds when ready. Once your child has learned all of the set one sounds with special friends they will be working on blending those sounds in 3 and 4 sound words such as sh-o-p, s-t-o-p etc. Use the letter sound flashcards that have been sent home with your child to make 3 then 4 sound words and see if they can do special friend i.e. sh, fred talk i.e. sh-o-p read the word i.e. shop. Those children who are competent with this are now learning set 2 sounds and these will be sent home with your child. Continue to read the book or ditty sheets that your child brings home on a Friday and don’t forget to log on to Oxford owl if your child has log in details on the front of their diary. There are some videos to watch for extra phonic practise.
This week, the children will consolidate their understanding of the composition of numbers by investigating the numbers within 7 and 8. Composing and de-composing numbers involves the children investigating part–part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 7 can be made of 5 and 2. The children will deepen their understanding of a whole being made up of smaller parts through games and practical experiences, such as investigating the number of ducks on a pond. They will begin to recognise that numbers can be made by combining parts in different ways, and will be encouraged to make links by considering similarities and differences in the various ways of making 7 and 8. A key focus will be on partitioning 7 and 8 (splitting it into parts) and thinking about the missing part.
It is world book day on Thursday 6th March. Children can come in dressed as a book character. Please do not go to additional expense for a costume. A blue dress and headband would make a Matilda costume, a blue T-Shirt and bandage around the head would make a good Mr Bump costume or children can just come in wearing pyjamas for the polar express or bring their favourite bedtime reading book. If struggling for a costume please speak to a member of the Reception team.
Welcome back from the half term break. We hope you had a lovely break and the children had the opportunity to rest. We have a busy half term ahead and will be moving the children’s learning forward. All of the rules should now be embedded and the children will be expected to show increased independence. Please encourage this at home so we are working together and have the same expectations. We will be reminding the children of our school values of Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and Kindness and will be expecting this in everything they do.
This week we are beginning our topic on People who help us. The children will be learning about different jobs in our community and what their role entails. We will be talking about how these people help us and how they are important to society. The children will act out roles and be involved in a range of activities to help support their learning. Talk to your child about the people that help them and discuss who they should speak to if they need help with different problems.
The children will move into their new phonics group this week following on from their assessments before the half term break. The children will either be learning new sounds or consolidating the sounds already taught with a focus on reading CCVC or CVCC words. With your sound cards at home practise reading these words e.g. stop, chimp etc. Your child will bring their new reading book or activity home on Friday. Remember if your child has log in details for Oxford owl then they can click on Fred Frog and reread any of their past books. Below are some more videos to help practise blending.
This week, the children will continue to engage with activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. The children will also revisit the concept of cardinality – the idea that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are altogether. They will continue to be provided with opportunities to hear, join in with and develop their knowledge of the counting sequence and to become secure enough with their counting skills to be able to count out a set of objects from a larger set, remembering the ‘stopping number’ and knowing that this means they have selected the correct number. A key focus this week will be to consolidate the ‘stable order principle’ – rehearsing the order of the first 10 numbers and understanding that the position that each number holds in our number sequence does not change. While working with numbers to 10, the children will develop their understanding of the ordinal aspect by consolidating their understanding that each number has a value of ‘1 more’ than the previous number
On Tuesday 11th February, a selection of children from the girl’s football club were chosen to take part in their second match day at the AT7 Centre. Here they competed in a girl’s football competition.
We played four matches, losing two and winning two. These included Broad Heath who we lost against 3-0, Finham who we beat 4-0 and then finally Christ the King, who we won 2-1 against. All the girls played really well and were a credit to our school. We look forward to playing more matches!
On Monday 3rd February, a group of children had the pleasure to take part in a Panathlon. This is a lovely event aimed at children who are not always the most confident at sports and it provides them with the opportunity to have a go in a relaxed, less competitive environment. The children had a fantastic time and were a real credit to Coundon Primary School.
On both Wednesday 29th January and Tuesday 4th February, a selection of Year 6 children took part in some indoor rowing events. Both events saw teams of 4 children complete in individual rows and a team relay. There was a mixed team, a girls team and a boys team. All of the children represented the school excellently and showed real resilience when the rowing became challenging. The boys showed particular determination and managed to secure 3rd place out of all of the Coventry schools that took place.
This week we are focusing on the story ‘Aliens Love Underpants’. We will read and sequence the story and will also identify the rhyming words in the story. We will design our own underpants and will write a letter to the aliens. Throughout the week we will do different challenges based around the story such as making our own rocket and naming an alien. We will also be doing some pants work where we talk about how our pants are private and we should not be silly with our pants. This would be a great time to talk to your child about keeping their pant area private.
This week the children will be assessed on all of the sounds they have been taught so far and how well they are doing with their blending of sounds to read words. The results will then be used to see if children are ready to move on to the next stage of the reading scheme or whether they need further consolidation on what they have already learned. Continue to practice the sounds and go through the activities sent home with your child. There are also some blending activities below to provide further practice.
The comparison of quantities is something that children begin to do as babies. When comparing, children notice attributes and begin to understand differences and similarities. The activities this week will focus on further developing this innate skill as the children are encouraged to focus exclusively on the numerosity of sets, without being diverted by colour, shape or size. They will then be encouraged to notice when quantities are equal or unequal, and will begin to consider how they can manipulate the number of objects in 2 sets to make them equal. Language is a key focus and adults will reinforce the language of ‘more than’, ‘fewer than’ and ‘an equal number’ to describe how many objects there are in each set. ‘Fewer than’ is used rather than ‘less than’, as the focus is on countable things.
Over the last few weeks we have had a few children using inappropriate language. The staff have spoken to all of the children explaining how these words shouldn’t be used by children and should never be used in school. Please talk to your child about the use of inappropriate words and how they need to make the right choice and not use language they know they should not use. Please also be mindful of the language that you use when around your child as they listen to everything that is said and like to emulate what their parents say. Your help would be greatly appreciated with this matter.
