Elm Class 2023 - 2024

WELCOME TO ELM

Mrs S Ross is the Class Teacher.

Mrs Turner teaches computing every Tuesday afternoon and Mr Parish teaches PE every Tuesday afternoon.

Mrs Oakes is our Teaching Assistant

In Elm class, we build on the firm foundations that have been laid in Acorns and continue to help all the children grow, not only academically, but also socially and emotionally. The children grow in wisdom through always striving to make wise choices, reflecting our Christian values and through accessing a broad and balanced curriculum. In Elm we have many opportunities to shine whether it be in our day to day learning, performances, class trips or welcoming visitors to our class.

Our focus in English is accurate letter formation, sequencing sentences to form short narratives with a beginning, middle and end, and reading back our sentences to make sure they make sense. We are also making our sentences interesting by using describing words in addition to extending our sentences by using 'and' as well as 'but'. Our first half term's text will be a humurous and alternative retelling of Rapunzel by Bethan Woolvin; using this text we will be writing our own traditional tale and instructions.

Reading continues to play a fundamental part in all areas of the curriculum. In class we have access to a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books which we are able to use, not only within our Guided Reading sessions, but also when appropriate in our curriculum lessons to support our learning. Throughout the year we engage in spotlight authors who have been chosen for their high-quality texts and will have to opportunity to listen to, read and learn more about these fantastic authors. Our current spotlight author is the award winning Rob Biddulph who is known for his picture books such as Blown Away and Odd Dog Out . Having this literacy-rich environment will encourage a positive culture of reading within our class and continue to promote the children's enjoyment of reading. If you can, please do take advantage of visiting your local library too.

Phonics is taught daily using our accredited Ready Steady Phonics scheme. This half term we will be revisiting identifying alternative graphemes for know phonemes as well as split-diagraphs.

Tricky words:

Phase 3 Phase 3 Tricky Words Song Say Hello To - YouTube

Phase 4 Tricky Words Song Sight Words Song for said, have, like, come, some, what, when - YouTube

How to pronounce pure sounds Phonics: How to pronounce pure sounds | Oxford Owl - YouTube

In Maths we continue developing our understanding of addition and subtraction but this time we will be working on number facts up to 20, explore the value of coins and notes as well as addition and subtraction with money, and learn how to tell the time including measuring time durations.

During our Science lessons we will be exploring the changes that take place in autumn, winter, spring and summer as well as investigating the amount of rainfall over this half term through making a rain gauge and recording and interpreting the data.

Our Religious Education focus will be about the importance of Baptism to Christians. Our PSHE lesson will continue to explore the topics of relationships, diversity and sharing our world through our No Outsiders text.

Through our History lessons, we will be continuing looking at how shops have changed in living memory, explore the many different types of shops and how we shop today. Through this we will make comparisons with shops from past to present and focus upon developing our chronological skills by sequencing photographs from 1930s onwards.

In Computing we continue to focus on E-safety, using technology safely and keeping personal information private.

In our creative subjects we will be exploring simple printmaking, colour, collage and drawing with inspiration taken from our geography theme, the weather. Finally, we will enjoy developing music appreciation coupled with movement through the theme of maypole dancing.

In PE we will be preparing for the annual Maypole dance and practising our althetic skills in preparation for Sports Day. Please note, PE will now be on Tuesdays and Thursdays and children are to come into school on these days already dressed in their PE kits.

Homework

Homework will be set each Friday and will be due in the following Thursday. Please ensure the children's homework books are returned on a Thursday so they can be marked and the children's new homework added. Homework will consist of a personalised spelling list and and Numbots, which really helps to support their basic skills in addition and subtraction.

Please also ensure that your child reads at home at least 4 times per week. In Elm, we expect the children to continue to be reading aloud to someone at home and for this to be recorded in their Home-School contact book.

If you would like any tips on how to support your child in reading you will find suggested strategies in the Home-School contact book.

Our door is always open, please come and see us with any concerns, no matter how small you feel they may be.

Mrs Ross

Below is an example timetable. Please note this is subject to change.

Elm Timetable - Summer 1.png