English

This week in English, we have begun exploring Julia Donaldson’s wonderful story The Gruffalo’s Child. The children were very excited to return to the deep, dark woods and meet some familiar characters from The Gruffalo. We have been focusing on developing our comprehension skills through a range of activities, including discussing the main events, predicting what might happen next, and answering questions about the characters’ thoughts and feelings. The children have also enjoyed looking closely at the language Julia Donaldson uses to create atmosphere and build suspense. Alongside our comprehension work, we have started using adjectives and expanded noun phrases to describe the snowy woodland setting and the mysterious “Big Bad Mouse.” It’s been fantastic to see the children engaging so thoughtfully with the story and using it as inspiration for their own descriptive writing.

Reading

Reading at 3: Every Friday at 3, our doors will open for you to come in and enjoy a quiet read with your child. This will be for the full 15 minutes, and we kindly ask that children are not taken home early during this time.

Reading folders: Some children are bringing home two books – one of these will be a Read Write Inc (RWI) home book, which we ask them to read three times throughout the week to help build fluency. These books will be changed by an adult.

The second book (with the coloured sticker) should be changed independently by your child – ideally first thing in the morning.

Some children have moved onto the Accelerated Reader programme and will be able to change their books once they’ve completed the quiz online.
AR login: Click here
Parent Guide: How to use Accelerated Reader

Please ensure reading folders are placed in the trays each morning so that we can read with your child and update their books when needed.

Chilton Heroes Reading Certificate – Each week, one child per class will be recognised for their fantastic reading in our Chilton Heroes assembly.

Maths

In Maths this week, we have been learning all about the properties of 2D shapes. The children have been naming and identifying a range of shapes, including circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, pentagons, and hexagons. We have focused on describing their features carefully, using mathematical vocabulary such as sides and vertices. The children have worked hard to recognise shapes in different orientations and to explain how they know which shape it is by looking closely at the number of sides and corners.

As part of our learning, we have also explored lines of symmetry. The children enjoyed using mirrors and folding paper shapes to find and check whether a shape is symmetrical. We discussed what it means for a shape to be “the same on both sides” and created some wonderful symmetrical patterns using colours, shapes, and pictures. The class showed fantastic teamwork and reasoning skills when explaining why some shapes have more than one line of symmetry, while others have none. It has been lovely to see how confident the children have become in using precise mathematical language and spotting shapes and symmetry all around them — even during playtime!

Thematic

This week in our Thematic lessons, we have begun our new topic all about The Great Fire of London. The children have really enjoyed finding out what our new theme will be and sharing what they already know. To help us think about the concept of time, we also discussed and created simple timelines of our own lives. The children loved reflecting on special memories and important events as we started to explore how we can order events from the past. Everyone is very excited to learn more about this fascinating period in history over the next few weeks!

 

Home Learning

This week for home learning we would like to find shapes around your house and identify their properties! This can include the number of sides, vertices and lines of symmetry, as always been as creative as you would like.

 

3rd November – Poppies on sale for following 2 weeks; children to bring in donations in named envelope and house captains to bring poppies round to classrooms

11th November – Service Uniform Day, children allowed to wear their service uniforms into school

12th November – Individual School Photos

14th November – Children in need – This year is a challenge yourself theme. We are challenging the children to come into school wearing as many spots as possible!

14th November - Year 1 and Year 6 Come Dine with me (Sky 11.30, Ocean 11.45, Cyan 12.30, Turquoise and Cobalt 12.40)

21st November – Reception Come Dine with me (Periwinkle 11.30 and Teal 11.40)

24th November – Book Fair on all week

28th November – Year 3 and 5 Come Dine with me (Azure 11.30, Peacock 11.45, Royal 12.30 and Indigo 12.40)

 

4th December – Year 5 Pegwell Bay Trip

5th December – Year 2 and 4 Come Dine with me (Sapphire 11.30, Cornflower 11.45, Team Aqua 12.30 and Team Topaz 12.40)

 

8th December – Year 3 to Royal Harbour

10th December – No swimming this week, Year 5 will have PE as usual

10th December – Christmas Fair 3.15pm-4.15pm

11th December – Year 4 to Maidstone Museum

12th December – Reception Nativity at 9am in the hall

15th December – No PE this week

15th December – Year 1 Nativity at 9am in hall

16th December – Year 3 and 4 Church Performance at 10am and Year 5 and 6 Church Performance at 2pm, both at St Laurence Church

16th December -Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 Christmas Parties – children to wear Party Clothes to school

17th December – Year 2 Nativity at 9am in School Hall

17th December – Year 3, 4, 5, and 6 Christmas Party Day – children to wear Party Clothes to school

17th December – Christmas Dinner Day

18th December – Year 2 and 3 to watch the Pantomime at St Lawrence College

18th December – Christmas Jumper Day

18th December – Final day at school; school finishes at 2pm and there will be no after school club

 

We wanted to take a moment to express our heartfelt thanks for your ongoing support in your child's learning. Your involvement makes a significant difference in our school community and in your child’s education.

We hope you have a lovely half term and we will see you again on Tuesday 28^th October!

 

The Year 2 Team

Miss Maddy Kennedy – Team Sapphire – maddy.kennedy@chiltonprimary.co.uk

Mr Josh Belsey - Team Cornflower - joshua.belsey@chiltonprimary.co.uk