This week in Dexter Class

So, the mystery of the lost suitcase was solved when we found a penguin in the classroom, more on that in a minute!

We have a really busy week this week with our iSing Pop concerts coming up on Wednesday. We will be practising the songs and dance moves so that we can wow all the friends and family who come to see us!

We will be continuing to consolidate our learning by looking at digraphs from Phase 3 such as ai, ar, er, ur and or. Children will be encouraged to read and write words with these digraphs in them, add sound buttons and match/write short simple sentences in line with what has been taught. I know I say this every week (sorry!!) but please continue with daily reading at home so that children can become familiar and fluent with the sounds that are being taught . If they don't practise they will not be able to recognise the sounds readily and this can become frustrating for them in class.

Our maths journey 'Growing 6,7 and 8' will continue this week by looking at one less (subtraction) and composition of these numbers or amounts. We have been working on looking at how a number or whole amount is made up of smaller parts. This helps children to really understand and master maths. There are lots of games you can play to support this such as rolling a dice, looking at dominoes, putting spots on ladybirds. Counting steadily 1 by 1 is also crucial as children tend to get carried away and make mistakes when they speed up too much! Board games really help with accurate counting and we enjoy playing these at school.

In Literacy, language and communication our reading focus will be on Antarctic Penguins and we will be having a go at a simple comprehension. We will also be boxing up the story Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers now we are familiar with the order of events. A lost suitcase and a penguin turned up last week and we discovered the book told us all about what had happened. Last week the children wrote about who they thought the suitcase might belong to, questions they would like to ask the penguin and a list of things they would take to the South Pole.

So lots of fun to be had this week-this term seems to be whizzing by!