Welcome to Blackbirds

Welcome to Blackbirds Class we are looking forward to learning, discovering and exploring together.

Me and You. How do you do?

We are very excited to get to know you and your family this year. We can’t wait to spend time with you in class or visiting you at home. We have been working hard to make the environment as stimulating and inviting as possible. We cannot wait for you to play, explore, investigate, discover and create in them! I wonder what you might do here.......

Thanks so much to all of you who have signed up and are already posting on Tapestry. It gives us a fantastic insight into you as a family unit and each child as a unique individual.

If you haven't already posted on Tapestry, please do have a go. Do ask if you need some help with this. We will be looking out for your posts and we are sure you will be looking out for ours too!

Here’s to a settled, happy start to a new school year.

Term One

Term 1: A place like home ( for Year 2 pupils)

We are very excited to welcome the children back and begin our very first topic... A place like home! We have lots of 'getting to know you' activities planned and lots of fun games to settle the children back into school. 

In English the children will begin writing short narratives about themselves and their families. We will share and promote good reading habits, the use of the library and class book corners. We will also be celebrating famous British children's authors as part of Roald Dahl Day. 

During Maths lessons we are going to be focusing on number and place value, completing lots of practical, hands on activities using different manipulatives to support us like, tens frames, numicon and unifix cubes. We will then move on to addition and subtraction. 

In Science we are going to be looking at living things and their habitats. The children will explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive. As well as identifying various habitats and why they are suitable. 

During Topic we are predominately focusing on Geography. We are going to be creating our own map of the school grounds and then looking at Sittingbourne town on Google maps. The children will be providing compass directions to a friend. They will then compare Sittingbourne to a town in Africa.

As you can see, we have got lots of great things planned for the children and we are so excited to begin! We hope you have all had a restful, fun summer and can't wait to see you in Year 2!

Home Learning

Check out these links to websites and suggestions of things you can do at home....

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/writingRepeater/

• Use this to model some handwriting patterns or letter formation for your child to watch and copy.

Oxford Owl

• Oxford Owl is a great website with a wide range of ideas for phonics and maths. Take a look at their free eBook library too.

https://abcdoes.com/home-learning/

• Alistair Bryce Clegg (who has inspired the Early Years ethos at The Oaks) has begun to gather some practical, fun activities to try at home.

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/storybooks-and-games/

• Share good quality online stories and enjoy fun Literacy and Numeracy activities.

https://numbots.com/

• Many of our pupils are already enjoying the Numbots resource at home. You should have received your child's login details (they went home in book bags) but please get in touch if there are any problems.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=37

(Select the 'Early Years' tab from the 'Popular Subjects' menu.)

• For mixed Literacy and Numeracy activities, and links to other sites.

Other websites to try.....

Phonics Play

This website provides lots of free phonics games to play.  This website provides games to help children to practise blending and segmenting skills and sight word recognition.

Please post anything you do on Tapestry, we would love to share it too.