Granny and Grandpa watch swimming

General 

Elliott was very good after school and said he'd had a good day at school, apart from Adam taking over games at one point. He had meatballs for lunch.

Activities

After school it was swimming, after we picked up some Transformers in a bag from Natalie, and today Granny and Grandpa came to watch the lesson. He did really well in the lesson and then we all went to Tescos for tea. Elliott had a ham and cheese toastie. Afte tea Granny and Grandpa left and we went home and Elliott did the first 3 questions from his homework and showed Andrea and I how to use the tortoise / turtle technique to do adding and taking away. After this he played with his Transformers for a bit and then it was bath time. After a quick bath he read his school book "Sonny's Wonderful Wellies" and we talked about the pictures and the story and how Sonny made the most of it not raining and used his boots anyway and then it rained anyway. After reading we talked about his favourite book "Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy" by Lynley Dodd and we read about her on the iPad and looked at her other book covers. Then he played with Transformers a bit more before a smooth bed time.

Curriculum evening

General 

Elliott was good after I picked him up from Sarah's and said he'd had a good day at school.

Activities

After picking him up we dropped by Sainsburys on the way home and he was really good. Then we had toast and honey for tea before bath. Andrea finished off his bath and he read his school book "Camping" to her afterwards as I popped out to the Year 2 curriculum evening at the school. When I got home he was fast asleep and had been really good. The curriculum evening was really interesting / good and the main points were:

• He needs an art apron and some outdoor PE kit (jogging bottoms, sweatshirt and maybe outdoor trainers) as well as indoor PE kit
• To send notes in put them in his book bag but don't use his reading record for notes as it might not be checked every day
• If other people are picking him up to normal routine let his teacher know (using a note if not dropping off)
• They said home learning should be done at the weekend and is mostly discussion based each week (though may involve making things) as home learning supports topics for the week ahead
• They said homework will primarily be Maths and should be done by Thursday each week (so a bit longer to get that done)
• They said reading often is really important but doesn't have to be lots, could just be a few pages, and make notes in reading record as this year they'll get house points for reading at home if parents have written in reading records
• They said the key to Maths was getting them to understand how different techniques he's learning work not just about them using the technique - they then explained the "tortoise" technique for adding and subtracting as an example (also called "number lines") and gave us a hand out explaining it - I picked up extra copies of the handouts and will post them through your door tomorrow morning
• They also mentioned that when they do Maths homework they should know how to do it using the right technique and if they don't not to teach them a different technique from our childhood, but to make a note on the homework saying they didn't know how to do it and let them know early in the week if possible
• Other Maths techniques they mentioned that are ok are using fingers and using the "number square" (a square of numbers in 10s from 1 to 100, again have a handout for you)
• They suggested also doing 2, 5 and 10 times tables out loud sometimes
• They talked about SATs and said they aren't a big deal and teacher assessments are more important and more accurate often and that when they do SATs tests they don't even know their doing them
• However also said SATs tests are in May so no unauthorised holidays then please - and they also asked that there aren't any holidays during term time if possible because even missing 1 week of teaching can have a big effect - and apparently parents will be fined for unauthorised holidays
• They said we can log in to the LearnAnywhere section of the school website (link top right and login in reading record) and it'll have a copy of home learning each week and spellings - but please don't change login details as they use them at school and if they can't remember the changed details it can cause problems
• They also talked about school trips for Year 2 and planned trips are Joesph and Technicolour Dreamcoat (in High Wycombe in November), a travelling theatre coming in to do 2 shows at the appropriate them times (one about Great Fire of London and one about Florence Nightingale), a star lab in the school in April (recreates the night sky in the hall) and hopefully a trip to Windsor Castle in the summer - altogether they said these will cost about £50.00 and there are Joesph letters and forms in his book bag already (£21.50) so I'll pop those in with the other handouts
• Mr O'Shea also asked if everyone possible could have hot dinner next Thursday in particular as this is when a census of numbers will be taken and some funding is tied up with how many are having free hot school dinners
• Finally there's a questionnaire to fill in about his living arrangements, etc so again I've got an extra copy and will put it the bundle for you and will do one for here and put in his book bag

Those were the main points but the whole presentation will be on the school website as well so might be worth looking at. 

The bingo song

General 

Elliott was good again after school today and he said he'd been doing sewing at school - learning to make "Joesph's coat", although he mistakenly also seemed to think I was good at sewing.

Activities

After school we went straight to swimming. He seemed less keen on swimming today as we bought new goggles last week and I think they weren't quite adjusted right, so we spent some time organising them before the lesson and then his teacher helped as well. He then had a really good lesson, although it was with a different teacher to normal, and seemed to really enjoy it. After swimming we went home and he played with his Transformer cards and Transformers. Then he finished off his maths homework very quickly and got all 4 answers right before bath time. After bath he sang me a very cute song about bingo (after asking if I wanted to hear a song about bingo) and then he read his school book "Silly Billys" and we practiced spellings again, which he was really good at again. Then we watched some Transformer Bot Shot reviews as a treat after all his hard work.

Football training

General 

Elliott was good after school today. He'd had sausage and mash for lunch.

Activities

After school we went home and Elliott had crackers and toast with honey for tea. After tea he got changed for football and then he did 5 more maths homework questions really well and quickly. After the maths questions we labelled his shakers loud and soft with stickers to take to school tomorrow and then we did some football practice before football training - shooting at trees behind the flats. Football training went well and this week they split on to 2 pitches with the Leopards and Jaguars on 1 pitch and the Panthers and everyone else on the other. This worked well and Bertie took training on the pitch where Elliott was and they practiced marking / tackling and shooting. I think it worked better for Elliott and he got much more attention than when they're all together and enjoyed the training. After training we rushed home for a quick bath and bed time and he read his school book "Weather Around The World" all the way through and practiced a few quick spellings.

Making shakers

General 

Elliott was good today with no incidents. He did his homework without too much procrastination and he brushed his teeth without complaining. 

Activities

In the morning we played with Transformers, watched some episodes of "The Penguins of Madagascar" and he wrote his new spellings in his spelling book very quickly and well. Then just before lunch Granny arrived and we had spaghetti bolognese for lunch with Granny. 

After lunch Elliott did more of his maths homework with Granny and he did really - it's adding and subtracting 10s. Then we went to the park and Elliott rode his bike there and around the park as well as playing on the equipment. When we got home Granny left and we looked at his home learning which was talking about loud and soft sounds and making 2 shakers - one that's loud and one that's quiet. To make the shakers we used two empty small plastic Pepsi Max bottles and filled one with dried chick peas (loud) and one with hot chocolate powder and tea poured out of tea bags (quiet). He helped with this and had some fun shaking them. Next it was time for toast with honey for tea before a bath with lots of playing. After bath we read some more of "Mud Glorious Mud" and then practiced his spellings before he watched some Transformer toy review on the iPad and bed time.