Download Dear Parents - Meare Village Primary School

Dear Parents/Carers,
Welcome back to the Summer Term! To help the children investigate and celebrate the London Olympics
our major topic for the term will be ‘Everyone’s a Winner’. Through this topic the children will learn about
the history of the Olympics as well as the modern day equivalent. We will be learning about the Ancient
Greeks and investigating Greek Gods and Goddesses and Greek myths and legends. To enhance the
children’s learning and imagination our role-play focus this term is to be a mystical Greek Temple where the
children could encounter the colossal Minotaur or the supernatural Medusa! Kingfisher class will begin the
term by taking the opportunity to commemorate the centenary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The
children will learn about the history of this magnificent ship, create a timeline of her tragic maiden voyage
whilst gaining an insight into the opulence and class system of the time. If you have any books or resources
which you feel will support your child’s learning and are happy for them to bring them to school to share, we
would appreciate any help in these areas. Please can you ensure that any resources are clearly marked with
your child’s name.
Literacy:
We are beginning the term with report writing and will be focusing on Newspapers. Through the sharing and
scrutiny of the sinking of the Titanic, the children will focus on the characteristics of reports whilst
improving their connectives, vocabulary and punctuation skills. Following on from this we will focus on
Narrative looking at Greek myths and legends. We will follow on from this with poetry and riddles. Finally
we will be investigating and creating instructional and explanation texts to support our learning in science.
Throughout the term the children will continue to have regular spelling and reading sessions.
How you can help your child
 Please try to read regularly with your child, even if your child is a free reader. Reading aloud
helps them to decompose new words and understand their meaning. It is also important for your
child to hear you read to them as you model good reading habits.
 Talk about the books they are reading: What was their favourite bit? Did they have a favourite
character? What do they think will happen next? Lots of discussion helps develop children’s
language and understanding of the text.
 Support your child with their spelling of key words. A list will be sent home.
 Play word games with your child. How many different words can they think of to describe an
everyday object?
Numeracy:
The children will be covering a range of topics; we will begin with place value, focussing on money and
decimals. We will be moving on to extend our understanding and knowledge in the four operations which we
will use to help solve problems using money. Next we will be gathering and presenting a range of data using
ICT to support the children’s learning. Through our Olympic focus we will be learning about length, height,
width, time, distance and speed. Finally we will be focusing on direction and position and learning about
angles. Throughout the term we will continue to work on our multiplication tables and corresponding
division facts.
How you can help your child:
 Encourage mental maths skills such as adding and subtracting differing amounts.
 Give them opportunities to tell the time both in analogue and digital time. This is an area of maths
that children can find tricky so it helps for them to have lots of practise.
 Give them experience of handling and identifying money, working out costs of items and change.
 Keep practising number bonds and times tables along with the related division facts. These will
help your child increase the speed of their mental maths and progress through the Olympic Times
Tables.
Science:
Learning in Science for first half of the term will focus on Moving and Growing. The children will describe
the main functions of their skeleton; explain the characteristics of bones and recognise that their skeletons
grow as they grow. They will describe how movement depends on both skeleton and muscles. They will be
asked to identify a question to be investigated and then consider how to collect and interpret reliable
evidence in order to answer their question.
In the second half of the term the children will focus their scientific learning on Keeping Healthy. They will
learn to identify the components of a healthy and varied diet and recognise that during exercise the heart
beats faster to take blood more rapidly to the muscles. They will make careful measurements of pulse rate
which they will represent in suitable graphs, explaining what they show.
Outdoor Learning:
Outdoor learning sessions will continue to take place on Wednesdays. These sessions will focus on practical
investigations linked to our science work. The children will also be taking part in planting in the school
grounds to help support our learning about our local environment.
Can I please take this opportunity to remind you to ensure that your child has the appropriate outdoor
clothing and footwear for these sessions as they will take place regardless of the weather.
Weekly Schedule:
Monday

Homework issued
Tuesday

Reading Books Changed
Wednesday

Outdoor Education (warm outdoor clothes and wellies required)
Thursday


Trumpets
Reading Books Changed
Friday

Homework due in.
Please continue to hear your child read regularly and fill in their reading record with the date and page that
they are on. Homework will continue to be issued on Mondays and will be due in on Fridays. Homework
will focus on our learning about the Olympics.
It has been so lovely to see the children return to school after the half term looking so smart in their
uniforms. Please can you help Kingfisher be the ‘smartest class’ at Meare by encouraging your child to come
to school wearing the correct uniform.
Please can you also ensure that your child knows who will be picking them up at the end of the day. We have
had some incidents where children have become quite upset as they are unsure as to who is meeting them or
where they are being picked up. If you let a member of the team know in the morning we can remind your
child of the arrangements at the end of the day.
Finally, your child will be bringing home their targets for maths, reading and writing today. The unhighlighted areas represent the next steps your child will be working towards.
Thank you for your ongoing support,
Mrs Fellows and the Kingfisher Team