Friday 6th December 2024

 Happy Friday Everyone!

We hope that you have had a good week. Time is flying by and we are all beginning to think about the fast-approaching Christmas break. Next week is assessment week and the children will be completing assessments in Reading, GPS and maths.

A reminder that as the cold weather is upon us that as well as coats it would be great to see the children wearing a scarf and gloves to protect them from the chills.

Winter Reading Challenge

The Reading Agency is holding a Winter Reading Challenge and it would be great for some Down Hall children to take part!

Here is the link below to sign up for the event. 

Pre-school children and adults can get involved too! 

Just scroll down further and pick what’s best for you!

https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/ 

https://shop.readingagency.org.uk/collections/adults 

Pictures welcome of you and your children reading together

​​

Miss Harvey :)

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Tuesday 10th December- EYFS/KS1 Jack and the Beanstalk Pantomime, Towngate Theatre

Wednesday 11th December – Coffee Morning 9-10am

Thursday 12th December – Christmas Dinner Day

Friday 13th December - PTA Christmas Bazaar/Father Christmas

Monday 16th December - KS2 Jack and the Beanstalk Pantomime, Towngate Theatre

Tuesday 17th December - KS1 Nativity (pm)

Wednesday 18th December - KS1 Nativity (am)

Friday 20th December - Early Years Nativity (am)

Friday 20th December - Last Day of Term

Monday 23rd December - Friday 3rd January- Christmas Holidays

Spelling Frame Rule 11 - https://spellingframe.co.uk/

This week we would like the children to focus on: Spelling Rule 11
Your child has their login details glued into their reading diaries. They will be tested at the end of every week on these spellings so PLEASE practise at home. These have been stuck in your child's little blue book. If your child did not have theirs in school, they were given the spelling list.

Times Tables

This week we are looking at the 12x tables and the children will be tested and taking part in times table activities throughout the week. These have been stuck in your child's little blue book. If your child did not have theirs in school, they were given the spelling list.

Spelling and Times Table Books

The children will bring home a book with their weekly spellings and times table focus stuck in. Please initial these to say you have gone through them with your child. We will continue to practise these in class through testing and handwriting practice but extra practice at home is vital.

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks

Year 3 English - Pages 6 & 7 - Articles

Maths - Page 29 - Estimating & Checking

Year 4

English - Page 8 - Pronouns Maths - Page 15- Roman Numerals

Must Do

Reading: 

Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important but we understand this is not always manageable. Make sure you are reading as much as you can - at least 3x a week and recording what you read in your child's reading record. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly.  When you have finished your Accelerated Reader book, you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level.

Times table practice - Please log on to TTRS and complete your challenges.

Can Do
Continue logging on to TTRS and Sumdog -  your logins are stuck in the front cover of your reading records. 

Reading Skills

Every week we encourage you to keep up all your reading at home as this makes such a huge difference. We wanted to spend a little time this week speaking more about reading skills.

Understanding what they have read (or comprehension) is vital for the children  and we support this through our VIPERS reading skills. This stands for:

Vocabulary    Infer    Predict    Explain    Retrieve    Summarise

You can explore these ideas with your child after reading using some of the following question prompts:

Vocabulary - have a good range of vocabulary in order to understand the text

• What does the word _____ mean in this sentence?
• Find a word that means _____ on this page.

Infer - understanding reached through reasoning about what you have read

• Why was _____ feeling _____?
• Why did _____ happen?
• How do you know?

Predict - what you think will happen based on what you have read

• What do you think will happen next?
• How will this character's action affect what will happen next?

Explain - what your thoughts and opinions are about the book

• Who is your favourite character? Why?
• Would you like to live in this setting? Why?

Retrieve - discuss the characters, events and setting of the story

• Who did _____?
• Where did _____?

Summarise - pick out the key events

• Retell the story in your own words.
• Pick out the important parts.

We hope this helps you discuss the books your child reads at home as the more they practice these skills the more fluent in comprehension they will become.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Harvey and Mrs Devlin