Delphinus - Reflect and Review

Dear Parents

This week 

Children have had a great Christmas week. Highlights include a screening of Polar Express with servings of hot chocolate; a house competition to junk model a catapult (to help Santa volley his presents across the roof tops and down the chimneys); the making of Christmas cards and the singing of carols; exploration of the stories: Piper (which ends with a dog finding his forever home); and Harvey Slumfenburger’s Christmas Present; list-writing using adjectives and nouns; reviewing of letters with descenders (long tails, going under the line) and ascenders (tall letters – l, h, t etc) and an introduction to the curly caterpillar letter family (c, a, o, q, g, f, s). Time ran out for making the Christmas tree decoration but I have sent children home with the paper and here is the link to the instructions. Please watch from 12.15, if you have a minute or two to spare! 

At home 

If your child wanted to do some writing over the festive period that would be great – it’s  a very complex activity and the more they do it the better they get! For children who are happiest practising single words rather than sentences, please encourage them to count the sounds in the word they are writing (and then pinch the sounds on their fingers) and then to use their phonics knowledge. If they are practising sentences here are some tips: 

• Pre-writing – your child should practise saying the sentence out loud. The reason for this is, that at this age, children can find it hard to hold the sentence in their head, so they start to write but can’t remember what they wanted to say. 
• Post-writing: this is the checklist that we use in class: 

• Capital letters
• Full stops 
• Fingerspaces 
• Have I used my phonicis knowledge to spell my words
• Does it make sense?  

Children have also come home with an important letter to support their phonics. You will see it has QR codes for the sound your child needs more practise with. 

Finally, thank you so much for your support this term and for sending your children in ready to learn – they are doing really well. Thank you too from all of us in Delphinus for your very kind gifts. They are much appreciated.  Happy Christmas to you all! 

Dates for your diary: 

5th January - Start of Spring Term

29th January - HSA Cake Sale after school (Delphinus and Pegasus Class)

3rd February - Parent Forum, 6pm

10th February - Safer Internet Day

13th February - HSA Mufti Day and last day of term 3

23rd February - Start of Term 4

25th February - Parents Evening

5th March - World Book Day 

11th March - Parents Evening 

12th March - HSA Cake Sale

26th March - Easter Service at SS Peter and Paul's Church 10am, (Start leaving school 9:15am)

27th March - End of Term 1pm