Welcome to Willow Class

I am excited to be teaching in Willow class again this year with the company of Mrs Tharby and Miss Lambert. We have lots of hard work to do this year, as well as looking forward to new ventures like forest school and some exciting enrichment activities.

Spellings

In Willow class, it is rare that I will send out homework, but what I do ask is that children practise their spellings on the sheet provided, five times a week. The idea is that they do one column a day rather than all five in one go as this recursive learning will help it stick! Every Friday the children will be tested, and they will receive their new spellings for the following week. Meaning they get an extra 2 days to practice!

Reading

Please make sure your child reads their Accelerated Reader book at home. Five days of reading is encouraged but even 3 days is beneficial. This can be reading to an adult, to themselves, or having a book read to them. To check a child has understood their book, they will complete an online quiz on it at school. I expect children to have that book at school with them before they do a test. In Year 3 and 4, it is the child’s responsibility to take their book home each day and bring it to class the next day but adults will give them reminders. When your child has read, please make a note of it in their reading journal as this is the evidence that they have done it.

In order to develop your child’s comprehension, you can ask some of the following questions:

What do you think about the character?

Can you find a few words or phrases that tell you about… (character, setting).

What does (specific word) mean? How do you know?

How do we know that the character is feeling… (emotion)?

Certificates

When a child completes five days in a row of reading and five days in a row of spellings, they receive a certificate for each. When they then reach 5 certificates (of one or the other, not mixed) they can exchange them for a treat!

Maths

In key stage 2, being able to quickly recall times tables facts is key. Every day in school we practice times tables. There are songs that the children love, in particular the ones by Scratch Garden and you can find any times tables done to pop songs!

To practise at home, the children can go to the website timestables.co.uk and it will allow them to practise individual times tables as well as play different games and do speed tests. They have been introduced to this at school and will probably know exactly how to use the website!

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to what the year has to bring.

Miss Gibbs and the Willow team.

2024/25 - Long-Term Plan

Autumn Term Knowledge Organisers