Writing

This week we will be working on the Chinese folktale  ‘The Magic Paintbrush’. We will be working on the new vocabulary in the story, embedding the phrases and grammar from the text to help with our own writing and internalising the text using story maps.

Here is a version of The Magic Paintbrush

Once upon a time, there was a young man called Ma Liang. He was poor and kind and liked drawing so much that he drew pictures everywhere. One night, he dreamed that an old man gave him a magic paintbrush and asked him to use it to help poor people. When he woke up, he found the magic paintbrush on his desk.

From that day on, he used the paintbrush whenever poor people needed help. When he saw that people had no water to use in the fields, he drew a river and the river came to life. People could bring water from the river to the field to help their crops grow. When he saw the hard working farmers struggling to feed their families, he drew more food for them to eat.  Soon many people knew about the magic paintbrush and were very grateful to Ma Liang. 

But in the village, there lived a rich man who was mean and decided to steal the paint brush from the young man so that he could use it to become even richer. So he sent his servants to Ma Liang’s home to steal the magic paintbrush.  

Once he had the paintbrush, he felt very happy and he invited his friends to come to his home so that he could show them his new possession. He drew a lot of pictures, but none of them would come to life for him. He was very angry that the paintbrush would not work for him so he sent for Ma Liang. 

He said to the young man “If you draw some pictures for me and bring them to life, I will set you free.” Ma Liang did not want to help such a bad man, but he had an idea. He said to the bad man, “What would you like me to draw?” 

The rich man said, “I want a golden mountain. I will go there to gather gold.”  But the young man drew a sea first. The rich man was angry and said,” Why did you draw a sea? I want a golden mountain. Draw it quickly!” 

So the young man drew a golden mountain which was far away from the sea. The rich man said, “Draw a big ship quickly. I want to go there to gather gold.” The young man smiled quietly and drew a big ship. The rich man jumped into the ship and set off to find the gold but when the ship sailed to the middle of the sea, Ma Liang drew a large wave which destroyed the ship and the rich man was never seen in the village again. 

After that, the young man lived with his family happily and used the magic paintbrush to help the poor people as the the old man had asked him to do and the magic paintbrush was known and loved by everyone. 

Reading

We are starting a new class read: The Hodgeheg by Dick King-Smith

Phonics/ SPaG

We are continuing to recap phase 5 alternative graphemes and spelling patterns including alternative spellings e.g. the /m/ sound spelt in words such as lamb or the /ch/ sound as in words like picture or witch.

We will also be looking at how to spell high frequency words and improving simple sentences by adding adjectives and connectives.

Maths

We are  beginning to look at money.

This week will be recognising the value of coins and notes and making amounts using both. We will be thinking about how the same amount of money can be made in different ways e.g. 24p could be made with 20p+2p+2p or 10p+10p+1p+1p+1p+1p.

The children will need a strong understanding of place value (even over 100) for calculating with £’s and pence. They will also need to practice counting in 2’s, 5’s, 10’s and 20’s for more efficient strategies.

PSHE

We have started the Zippy’s Friends project which will run for most of the year. After each of the six modules we will send home an activity for your child to complete. This will give you an insight to what it is all about. Please speak to your child about these sessions as they are all very excited about the project! So far we have discussed things that make us feel happy/ sad and what we can do to help us feel better. In this module we will also be looking at anger, jealousy and embarrassment. I was extremely impressed with the maturity shown by the whole class.

P.E.

We are going to be continuing Pilates on a Monday and doing circuit training on Thursdays.

Science

We are starting to look at differences between plants and animals and variation between animals.

History

A focus on Florence Nightingale and the changes she implemented in healthcare.

Writing

This week we are starting a new text ‘The Magic Paintbrush’. We are going to be thinking about our wishes and dreams.

Reading

We are starting a new class read: The Hodgeheg by Dick King-Smith

Phonics/ SPaG

We are continuing to recap phase 5 alternative graphemes and spelling patterns including alternative spellings e.g. the /m/ sound spelt in words such as lamb or the /ch/ sound as in words like picture or witch.

We will also be looking at how to spell high frequency words and improving simple sentences by adding adjectives and connectives.

Maths

We are finishing addition and subtraction by recapping number bonds to 100 and adding 3 1-digit numbers.

Useful strategies for this are:

Number bonds to 100

I must know that the ones have to add up to 10 and the tens have to add up to 90 e.g.

73+27=10o or 36+64=100

Adding 3 1-digit numbers

Look for number bonds to 10 or doubles within the calculation and work these out first before adding the third number.

EXAMPLE:

6+6+3=

Work out 6+6=12

then… 12+3= 15

OR for 7+2+3=

7+3=10

then… 10+3= 13

PSHE

We have started the Zippy’s Friends project which will run for most of the year. After each of the six modules we will send home an activity for your child to complete. This will give you an insight to what it is all about. Please speak to your child about these sessions as they are all very excited about the project! So far we have discussed things that make us feel happy/ sad and what we can do to help us feel better. In this module we will also be looking at anger, jealousy and embarrassment. I was extremely impressed with the maturity shown by the whole class.

P.E.

We are going to be continuing Pilates on a Monday and doing circuit training on Thursdays.

Science

We are starting to look at differences between plants and animals and variation between animals.

History

A focus on Florence Nightingale and the changes she implemented in healthcare.