Sapphire Class - Year 1 and 2 - 'we shine brighter together..'
Welcome to Sapphire Class.
Currently we have 26 children in our class, 14 Year 2s and 12 Year 1s. The class is taught by Miss Davis.
We have three teaching assistants that work along side the class throughout the week - Mrs Marett, Mrs Hill and Mrs Hayman.
We enjoy learning through a topic based approach and use our Learning Powers to support this. These help us to become better learners through resilience, making others feel good about their learning and staying focused. We also use our Learning Partners to support each other in improving our work.
We have weekly spellings that are set on a Monday and then we are tested on them on Friday. We are also encouraged to read daily at home (even if it is only for 10 minutes!). Parents please remember to sign in the reading records when you hear your child read so that we can change the books regularly. Books are changed on Mondays and Thursdays. We have daily mental maths which helps us with our quick recall of number facts.
Topic Information: This gives parents a taster of what is to come for the children this term.
Curriculum Plans - Autumn Term 2021
Curriculum Plans- Spring Term 2022
Curriculum Plans - Summer Term 2022
Curriculum Plans - Autumn Term 2022
Curriculum Plans - Spring Term 2023
Curriculum Plans - Summer Term 2023
Curriculum Plans - Autumn Term 2024
Book Lists: These are some interesting reads if your child is feeling inspired. Please note that these are suggestions for sharing rather than to be used as home reading books.
Year 1 book list
Year 2 book list
Mathletics
Mathletics is an online learning resource, which is aligned to curriculum standards. Your child has take-home access to Mathletics – they simply sign in with their school username and password using any compatible computer or mobile device.
The extra maths practice at home can make all the difference to your child’s progress. We encourage children to complete weekly tasks set by the class teacher.
Sign in at: www.mathletics.com
Your logins are sent home at the start of the year following a teacher meeting and also attached in the front of reading records – Please keep them safe! If you forget / misplace your login, please feel free to ask Miss Davis for it again.
PLEASE NOTE: The mathletics password is the same as the reading eggs password so you can also access this site with your child too.
Here is a link to a video with more information about mathletics for parents.
Spellings
Children in Sapphire class have weekly spellings based on the phonics that they are learning. Each week your child's yellow spelling book will come home on a Monday with new spellings in. These will be tested on a Friday.
Please also have a look at and practice any corrections.
You can practice these spellings at home using some activities which can be found here. Alternatively, please ask Miss Davis for a paper copy.
Honeycomb Spelling Activities
Any questions, feel free to ask!
Miss Davis
Parents reading meeting 2023
Phonics
Phonics is a big focus in Sapphire Class. We are busy learning lots of new words. By the end of Year 1 your child should know 46 sounds to help them in learning to read and write. Please find below additional information regarding our phonics scheme – Little Wandle.
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Supporting your child with reading
Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home. Please give positive yet informative feedback in the home reading diary at least 3 times a week - this means that we can change the book when necessary.
There are two types of reading book that your child may bring home:
*A reading practice book. This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading. Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.
Sign in at: https://ops.collinsopenpage.com/sso/login?service=https%3A//ebooks.collinsopenpage.com/wr/index.html&eulogin=true
*A sharing book. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together. Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read this alone. Read it to or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!
Phase 2 sounds pronunciation (1)
Phase 2 sounds pronunciation (2)
Phase 3 sounds pronunciation
Quick guide to Alien words
How we teach tricky words
Handwriting and Pronunciation
At the end of Year 1 your child will undertake a phonics screening. If they do not pass, they will retake the test again. For more information visit this link.
To help your child with phonics, you can work on reading sounds and blending them together to read words. Use a mixture of real words and alien (nonsense) words, this is to hear if they are blending the sounds accurately. You could also have a go on this phonics games website.
Tricky Words List - This is a list of the tricky, common exception words that the children should be working towards learning to read and then write from memory.
October 2022 - Kandinsky inspired artwork
In art this term we have been studying colour and perfecting our painting techniques. We have identified the primary colours and mixed our very own secondary colours using primary colour paints. The final piece was an artwork inspired by "Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles" (1913) by Wassily Kandinsky.
Jubilee celebrations - June 2022
Oaksey celebrated Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee with a jubilee party hosted by a member of the community. We had cakes on the lawn and played in the grass! Thank you to our hosts and all the staff and parent helpers that came with us.
Exploring models of houses an homes from around the world - June 2022
Chance to Shine cricket - Spring 2022
Island watercolours - May 2022
Scilly Isles Talk by Mrs Scott - May 2022
May 2022 - Science Healthy Eating Home Learning
April 2022
This Spring Term we learnt about why Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole are important historical figures (our topic was 'Superheroes'). As well as writing a diary entry in character, we made Lady with the Lamp lanterns and acted out the story of Florence Nightingale tending to a wounded soldier.
In English we have been studying the book 'We Are Water Protectors' by Carole Lindstrom. We interpreted the language by drawing what we heard - 'the winged ones, the four-legged ones, the ones that crawl'.
In response to the crisis in Ukraine, we had a charity dress up to raise money for Ukraine. Some of us wore blue and yellow whilst others wore fancy dress!
Animal hand Puppets - February 2022
Our topic this term has been 'Animals'. In Design Technology we designed and sewed our own animal hand puppets. Can you guess what animals we have created?
School Guinea Pigs - January 2022
Oaksey just became home to three fluffy guinea pigs: Poppy, Nibbles and Hazel. In science, we are learning about what animals need to survive, so we investigated guinea pigs! We got a chance to pet the guinea pigs and discuss what food and care they need in order to be happy and healthy.
Queen's Tea Party - November 2021
Sapphire class have been studying London in Geography and History, so we invited the Queen up for some tea. We had to practice our bows and curtseys and showed the 'Queen' our best manners.
Dinosaur week - Autumn 2021
We hopped into our time machine and travelled back 70 million years to the age of the dinosaurs! In maths we counted 'dinosaur eggs' and created dinosaurs out of 2D shapes. We examined 'dinosaur poo' in science to work out if our dinosaur was a carnivore (bones inside the 'poo') or a herbivore (plants and seeds). With a trip to the school library we found dinosaur books to get stuck into - Harry and his bucket full of dinosaurs was a favourite. After researching our favourite dinosaurs we modelled our own out of junk.
A big thank you to our parent volunteers who helped us with our dinosaur themed baking this week.
