Dear Parents, 

The children have been exploring Light and Dark this week after multiple questions over the last few weeks about ‘Why is it so dark now?’ Where are the leaves? Why do I get up in the dark and go to sleep in the dark?’  We have looked at how the Earth rotates (how we have day and night), which animals come out at night, what light sources are, light vs dark pictures, how we see in the dark and what reflection is.  Through stories such as Night Monkey Day Monkey, Owl Babies, The Very Lonely Firefly and The Owl Who was Afraid of the Dark; the children have learnt a lot about wildlife at night. They have enjoyed looking at the difference between nocturnal and diurnal animals; drawing shadows and shadow puppets, playing with light sources and investigating light-sensory objects in our ‘dark den’. The children have been using lots of investigative skills this week and have been practising using how, what and why questions in their play.

We ended our week making gingerbread man biscuits and linking it to our maths focus of sharing and grouping. Even though we won’t yet be using the division symbol, here is a useful video to show you and your child the difference between these two. 

Next we will be finding ways of making 5 and 10 in different ways and continuing with subitising by recognising the picture or pattern of numbers. 

In phonics, some children have been looking at  /qu/ /ng/ /nk/ and revising tricky sounds from set 1. We will be starting to reassess the children in Set 1 sounds and their blending skills next week, so any help at home to revise would be amazing. Please use the following videos to assist your child at home and note that not all children have been introduced to the digraphs below as we are still going over individual sounds.

/qu/ sound

/ng/ sound

/nk/ sound

Learning to blend- #10

Challenges: Can you attempt some sharing challenges at home this week? Please let us know what you have done for show and tell. 

Our Interhouse competition for Term 2 is to design a cake! Further information is provided here : Design Poster

Reminders: 

• Parent consultations  on Tuesday 3rd and 5th December- are virtual, please sign up when the link is provided by the office.
• Non-uniform day- 29th November 
• Book Fair 27- 29th November in KS2 playground
• Christmas Fair -30th November 12- 3 pm
• PTA Wreath-making evening on Thursday 5th December from 7:30pm
• Christmas Jumper Day- 13th December
• Kites Singing – 18th December 2:15 pm for a 2:30pm start 
• Christmas Carols (performed by KS2)- 19th December at 6pm
• End of Term- December 20th at 1:15pm

Have a great weekend, 

The Kites Team