Dosbarth Bryn Garth
Years 2 and 3 – English Stream
Croeso i’r Dosbarth Bryn Garth! Welcome to Dosbarth Bryn Garth’s class page. We hope that you have had a lovely summer holiday and that your children are rested and ready to return to school.
Staffing
Mrs J. Davies will teach Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays with Mr P. Thompson teaching Thursdays and Fridays. Mrs C. Meadows will support the class on a fulltime basis. Unfortunately, Mrs Davies has not been able to return to work yet. As this is going to be longer than we initially expected, we have secured a long-term supply teacher, who will be taking over from Mrs R. Jones on Monday, 21st September. We are sure that you, as we do, all wish Mrs Davies a speedy recovery.
Topic
Our topic this term is all about health and wellbeing. The children will be learning about making healthy food and drink choices and how these can help us stay happy, healthy and active. Throughout the term, we will explore the importance of a balanced diet, regular exercise and healthy lifestyle habits, and look at how these can have a positive impact on both our physical and mental wellbeing.
As part of their learning, pupils will investigate how the choices we make every day can affect our health. They will use their knowledge and skills to create ideas and products, make thoughtful decisions, and consider how their actions can influence their own wellbeing and that of others.
We will begin our topic by thinking about what we already know about food, healthy eating and healthy lifestyle habits. The children will then learn about the Eatwell Guide and how it can help us make healthy choices. We will explore the different food groups and discuss why it is important to eat a variety of foods as part of a balanced diet. As part of our learning, we will investigate a range of foods and sort them into the five Eatwell Guide food groups. The children will then use their knowledge to plan and create a healthy meal and drink, choosing foods from across the different food groups.
After half term, our focus will move to a humanities topic. We will be exploring the history of food and food production in Wales, helping the children to develop an appreciation of our rich Welsh heritage while discovering how food and farming have changed over time.
In language lessons, our focus will be on developing the writing genres of instructions, reports and creative writing.
In maths lessons, we will be learning the skills of partitioning 2 and 3-digit numbers and calculating using money with amounts up to £10.
The digital skills that we will be focusing on this term are:
- Data collection – collecting, entering, organising and analysing data in tables, charts and databases.
- Producing – planning a digital task following success criteria to support the process.
- Creating, editing and organising multimedia components combining text, images and sound in Powerpoint/Adobe.
P.E.
During the first half term we will focus on invasion games. The children will learn how to pass, receive and travel with the ball in a range of different invasion game sports using a variety of different techniques. They will develop their understanding of the principles of attacking and defending in invasion games and learn skills such as marking and dodging. In the second half term we will focus on gymnastics; the children will make basic shapes/positions clearly in the air when taking off from the floor and some more complex shapes when taking off from low-level apparatus. After, they will create longer and more complex sequences with a partner and remember these actions with accuracy and consistency
Reading
Reading at home with your child is an excellent way to support your child’s learning. Spending 10-15 minutes reading together can have a high impact on your child’s reading fluency, confidence and understanding. Your support in helping your child with their reading is greatly appreciated, and it makes a significant difference in all areas of learning, particularly with helping your children to become an independent learner. We aim to read with all children as often as possible. This can be reading independently, as a group or as a whole class. It is essential that reading books and reading records/communication diaries are brought into school daily. Please remember that as a school, we still have a subscription to Oxford Reading Buddy as an alternative source of reading material. Usernames and passwords can be found on digital passports inside the back cover of your child’s reading record/communication diary.
Spelling and key words
This term, we are introducing a new scheme to teaching spelling across the school, called ‘Monster Phonics’. It helps children learn the sounds that letters make and teaches them how to blend these sounds together to read words. Using fun characters, colours and interactive activities, Monster Phonics makes learning to read and spell enjoyable and helps children build confidence in their reading and writing. More information about the Monster Phonics scheme will be shared in due course. However, we are sure that the children will be telling you all about it, once it is up and running in class.
SUMDOG / HWB / Nessy
All children in Dosbarth Bryn Garth have access to SUMDOG. This online app can be downloaded to a range of devices and can also be accessed via the SUMDOG website. It is an application that allow children to practise numeracy skills based on what we have taught in class.
The children’s SUMDOG login can also be found on their digital passport. Please support your child to practise logging in with these details so that they can use their usernames and passwords independently.
An alternative for learning times tables is J2Blast that can be found in HWB. It is in the Just 2 Easy section and allows the children to practise one multiplication table at a time. In addition, there are English spelling games to practise the high frequency words.
This year, the school purchased licenses for all Year 3 children to have access to Nessy. Nessy is a reading and spelling platform that is personalized to your child’s individual level of reading and spelling. There are different activities to support your child’s learning and lots of fun games. Nessy can be accessed at home and login information can be found on the digital passport.
Independent project books (Y3)
Independent project books will be introduced to Y3 learners this term. The contents of this project book should be linked to the topic for the term but still allow the children the freedom to explore areas of interest. A selection of suggested tasks for the new topic will be added to the book once the children have completed their pupil voice activities. Please ensure that the project book comes to school each day as sometimes the children are given opportunities to work on these projects in class too.
Water Bottles/Fruit
Children are encouraged to bring a water bottle into school each day that will be readily available during lesson time to keep them hydrated. At breaktime, the children sit together in class and have a snack and take part in Welsh enrichment activities. We would like to encourage all children to bring a piece of fruit to eat daily during this time.
Wellies and waterproofs
To help us make the most of our outdoor environment—whether on the field or around the school grounds—please could your child bring a pair of wellies or an alternative change of footwear/dry socks to keep in school on their peg. This will ensure that all pupils can take part in outdoor activities, whatever the weather. Please note that we ask that children do not bring boots, as they are not waterproof and may not be suitable for wet conditions. The Friends of the School have kindly donated waterproofs which each class can use when undertaking outdoor learning activities.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us using the email address below:
Diolch yn fawr,
Mrs Rachel Jones, on behalf of Mrs Jen Davies and Mr Paul Thompson
Dosbarth Bryn Garth class teachers