Dear Parents,

Welcome back to term 2! What a fantastic start to the term we have had. Our theme of the week this week has been bonfire night and fire safety. The children have loved learning all about how to stay safe around fire, and creating their own fire engine to put out ‘fires’ in Kites Garden. The children have really impressed us with how they have approached the new learning this week, and have all come back to school with a positive attitude, showing us they are ready to learn.

As well as learning about fireworks, bonfire night, Guy Fawkes, and fire safety this week, we finished the week thinking about Remembrance Day; what it means, and who we might remember? On Tuesday in school, the children will be part of our whole school Remembrance celebrations, Kites will lay a wreath at the oak tree, and join the school in a silence at 11 o’clock. On the theme of Remembrance next week we will be experimenting with different ways to make poppies. On Thursday, we will be thinking about kindness in celebration of World Kindness Day. We will be recognising how we can be kind to others, and how we can show kindness wherever we are.

This week, we have loved hearing about a celebration that is important to the children, as well as any pets they have at home. We have not quite had time for everyone who wanted to, to do show and tell this week; therefore, next week we will continue sharing important celebrations and pets to ensure everyone who wants to share something gets the opportunity to.

This week in phonics, we have started to learn some digraph sounds, which are a combination of 2 letters that create 1 sound. In Read Write Inc. these are called ‘special friends’. Here are some videos you might like to use at home to practice with your children.

x sound

sh sound

th sound

In maths, we have been focusing on dice numbers, recognising numbers 1-6 in different forms. The children have impressed us with their ability to recognise and represent these numbers in different ways.

On Thursday, the children had a fantastic time making dark dens in the classroom. We drew all of the blinds and pulled the tables together and they worked together to make dens under the tables using blankets on top. They also experimented with lighting up their dark den using torches then put different films over the torches to change the colours! We also look at how a projector works, seeing what happened when we placed different objects on top! It was great fun.

Your questions answered

Nativity is approaching, what do I need to do?

You will have noticed today that the children came home with a letter in their bookbag, which explains which part they will play in this year’s nativity. On the bottom of the letter, there is an explanation about the costume your child will need. If there are any queries about this, or you need any help sourcing costumes, then please come and speak to me at the beginning or the end of the day, as we do have some costumes in school that we can use. Some of the children will have a line or two which they need to learn, these will come home next week. Thank you, in advance for all of your support with sourcing costumes and learning lines.

This term’s top tips!

Reading – reading with your child is one of the most powerful ways to support them to learn language. Reading anything from storybooks to articles, newspapers to audiobooks is a great way to support children’s development. Remember, it doesn’t always have to be sitting down and reading a book, listening to audiobooks, or reading a menu or a recipe is still fantastic to support children’s love of reading. If you’re stuck for ideas, on our Sonning Common Primary Instagram page, there is a fantastic video about reading activities you could do at home (you might need to scroll back a bit, as the post I am referring to is from the 25th April).

Reminders

Monday 25th November – Christingle

Friday 28th November – Non-uniform day – bring a donation for the Christmas Fair.

Tuesday 16th December – Kites Nativity performance, 2pm.

Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.

The Kites team