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Homework

Reading 

We encourage all children and families to ‘Strive for Five’ – aiming for five home reading sessions a week. Developing a daily reading habit is the single most important thing you can do to help your child at home. Regular reading has a huge impact on every area of education, from vocabulary and writing skills to confidence in speaking and overall academic success. For our lovely Buzzard children, given that they are our oldest children, it would be lovely to see them taking ownership of their reading, developing regular reading habits and beginning to track and reflect upon their reading more independently.

Reading Diaries

Your child has been given a yellow reading diary to track their independent reading. There are two activities to complete in these each week. Reading records should be handed in each Monday to be looked over and signed by myself or Mrs Mochire. This means that children will have plenty of time on the weekend to reflect on their weekly reading.

Tracking

In the reading record, there is space for your child to record which dates they have read at home, what book they are reading and how many pages they have read. This can be completed each time they read, or all at once at the end of a week. If they prefer the ‘all at once’ option, please encourage your child to ‘Strive for Five’ and record how many times they have read – they could perhaps record this as a tally if they like.

Reflection

The comments section of the reading record is a space for your child to reflect on their reading in whatever way they choose. Children should complete a short comment about their reading at least once per week. The simplest way to reflect on reading is to summarise what they have read or to write about the best part, the funniest part, the saddest part etc. They could reflect on whether or not they are enjoying the book and why, how that particular part of the book made them feel, record any new vocabulary they have come across or make predictions about what might happen next. There are endless reading diary prompts on the internet if you’re stuck for inspiration!

If your child would like to write more than one comment per week, they are absolutely welcome to. These diaries are for your child to reflect on their reading in their own creative way. So long as they have completed the tasks above, individuality, colourful pens, illustrations etc. are all encouraged! If your child needs a little more structure, please see examples in the front of their reading diaries of how they might approach their own diary.

Spelling

Each Tuesday, your child will recieve a list of spelling words to practise at home. These will be tested the following Tuesday. The spelling lists will contain words related to a spelling rule that the children are learning in class as well as a few key words from the Year 5/6 Spelling List

Times Tables 

Confident times table recall is abolsutely crucial for mathematical fluency. If your child has not yet mastered their times tables, it's important for them to practise and learn these at home.

TT Rockstars and the Hit the Button App are great interactive resources for practising times tables.

Here is the recommended order for learning times tables: