What a fabulous week we have had! Take a look at what we have been up to!

A huge thank you to all parents and carers for your fabulous efforts in helping the children prepare for World Book Day. The costumes, creativity and enthusiasm were wonderful to see!

The children had a wonderful day celebrating their love of reading. We enjoyed sharing stories, talking about our favourite books and characters, and taking part in fun reading activities throughout the day.

Thank you again for your continued support in helping us make the day so special for the children.

Math

This week in Maths we have been practising our addition skills using different practical resources to help us understand how numbers work.

At the beginning of the week, we used ten frames and place value counters to practise adding two 1-digit numbers. The children selected a number sentence and then filled their ten frames with counters to represent the numbers. We then partitioned the smaller number so that we could make ten first, which helped us add the numbers more easily. This method helps children see how numbers can be broken apart and recombined.

Later in the week, we practised adding 2-digit numbers and 1-digit numbers using the regrouping into tens and ones strategy. The children used Base 10 resources to support their understanding. They added the ones first and, when needed, regrouped them into a new ten.

We also continued practising our number bonds to 20, helping the children become more confident in recognising different pairs of numbers that make 20.

​​​​Next week we will be looking at doubling numbers.

Each week, we will share a key maths fact. This week, we are learning:

Addition Facts:

• 2 + 0 = 2

• 0 + 2 = 2

Read, Write Inc. (RWI)

This week, the children have shown fantastic enthusiasm as we revisited previously taught sounds and continued to strengthen their phonics reading skills. It has been a joy to see their growing confidence and engagement in learning.

We have been focusing on several key areas, including recognising “special friends” — groups of letters that work together to make a single sound. The children are becoming increasingly confident at spotting these in words and using Fred Talk, blending, and segmenting to support their reading. They have also been practising reading green words and learning a range of red (tricky) words.

Alongside this, we have seen great progress in handwriting. The children are taking increasing care with letter formation, using capital letters appropriately, and remembering to add full stops to complete their sentences. Their handwriting is becoming clearer and more controlled each week, which is wonderful to see.

To support your child at home, you can help by spotting “special friends” in everyday words, blending sounds together to read full words, and encouraging regular practice for an extra boost. We are finding spotting chatty friends like; a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e and u-e a particular challenge, so any practise with spotting these would be great.

Reading at Home

• Children will bring home two books each week:

  1. RWI Home Book – should be read three times a week for fluency. Changed every Monday by an adult.

  2. Book with coloured sticker – children can change independently, ideally in the morning.

• Please ensure reading folders are placed in the trays at school.

• Encourage your child to read at home and record it in their reading record.

• Certificates are awarded weekly to celebrate reading achievements, and every 20 reads earns a special certificate!

If you have any questions, please speak to your child’s class teacher

Thematic

Science This Week – Grouping Animals

This week in science we have been learning about how animals can be grouped based on their characteristics. We used our prior knowledge from previous lessons to help us sort animals into the five main animal groups: mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish.

The children worked together to place different animals into the correct groups and discussed the features that helped them decide. We also talked about some tricky animals, such as whales and bats. The children learnt that whales are mammals, not fish, and bats are mammals, not birds. This is because mammals breathe air, are warm-blooded and give birth to live young. This helped us understand that scientists group animals by their characteristics, not simply by where they live or how they move.

As a challenge, the children were given mystery animal cards describing different animal characteristics. They had to decide which animal group the mystery animal belonged to, explain their reasoning using scientific vocabulary, and justify why it did not belong to the other groups.

Later in the week, we learnt that not all animals eat the same types of food. We discovered that animals can also be grouped by their diet.

• Carnivores eat other animals.

• Herbivores eat plants.

• Omnivores eat both plants and animals.

The children sorted different animals into these three diet groups and discussed what they like to eat. For example, a lion is a carnivore, a cow is a herbivore, and a bear is an omnivore. We also discussed what humans eat and learned that humans are omnivores because we eat both plants and meat.

For an additional challenge, the children sorted animals by both their diet and their animal group (for example, mammal herbivores or reptile carnivores).

It has been a fantastic week of scientific thinking, with lots of discussion and careful reasoning about how and why animals are grouped.

Next week we will be looking at animal x-rays in science.

Home Learning

This week in maths we have been exploring number bonds to 20. Number bonds help children understand how numbers work together to make a total. For this weeks love 2 learn, we would like the children to practise finding different pairs of numbers that add up to 20.

Your child can present their learning in any creative way they choose. This could include drawing, using objects from around the house, building with toys, or creating a colourful poster. The aim is to help children recognise and remember the different number combinations that make 20.

 

Young Artists’ Competition 2026

DEADLINE – Wednesday 1st April 2026

The Rotary Club of Margate have launched their Thanet schools’ art competition. Selected entries will be displayed at Sainsbury’s Westwood Cross in their annual art exhibition.

To enter, please create a piece of A4 artwork with a wildlife theme- artwork will need to be flat so it can fit into a frame. On the reverse, please write the following information:

Child’s Name

Year Group

Medium Used

Brief description of the artwork

Permission and Consent - By submitting your child’s artwork to the competition, you give permission for the artwork to be displayed in a public exhibition. You also consent to your child’s name, age, school name, and title of the artwork being shown alongside the piece. You understand that the exhibition may be visited by members of the public and that images of the display may be used by the organisers for promotional or reporting purposes, both in print and online. No other personal details will be shared.

If you have any questions – please feel free to contact Mrs Barlow.

Thank you, we look forward to receiving your competition entries!

Mrs Barlow and Mrs Howard

 

​Additional Information

Forest school is now on a Thursday afternoon, please can children bring in wellington boots for this and if they wish to play on the field they would also need wellingtons. Their wellingtons are kept in their locker and can get muddy so please provide a suitable bag for these to be put into their locker.

PE is on a Tuesday afternoon please can children wear a plain white t-shirt, or our new Chilton PE t-shirts, black or navy bottoms and a plain black or blue sweatshirt.

Read at 3! This is where we would love to invite you into our classrooms and read with your child for the full 15 minutes. This will happen every Friday there after this term.

Please can we ask your child has their name in1 their coats, cardigans, jumpers etc.

Key dates

Monday 9th March – Book fair in school this week

Friday 13th March – Chilton Speaker Final

Thursday 19th March – Team Sky to Quex Park Forest School

Friday 20th March – Team Ocean to Quex Park Forest School

Friday 20th March – Red Nose Day (Wear something funny for money)

Monday 23rd March – Rock your socks for Downs Syndrome Awareness (Wear bright or mismatching socks to school)

Monday 23rd March – Year 3 Roman Dress up day

Tuesday 24th March – Team Periwinkle to Quex Park

Thursday 26th March – Team Teal to Quex Park

Friday 27th March – Viking Speaker Final at Royal Harbour

Friday 27th March – Parents come into school to look at children’s books prior to Parent Teacher Consultations

Week Beginning 30th March – Parent Teacher consultation week

Wednesday 1st April at 9.05am– Easter Bonnet Parade for Team Periwinkle, Team Ocean and Team Cornflower

Wednesday 1st April at 2.45pm – Easter Bonnet Parade for Team Teal, Team Sky and Team Sapphire

Thursday 2nd April – Chilton Fundraisers Sponsored Eggscellent Event - Non-Uniform to be worn with further details to follow next term.

Thursday 2nd April - Last day of term. School to finish at 3.15pm

If you would like to contact us, please feel free to email, alternatively we are available to catch at the end of the day or the start of the day by the door.

Team Ocean - Eloise.hall@chiltonprimary.co.uk

Team Sky - Poppy.winchcombe@chiltonprimary.co.uk and Elaine.howard@chiltonprimary.co.uk ( On a Wednesday)

Have a restful weekend and we will see you all on Monday!

Miss Hall, Mrs Winchcombe and Mrs Howard