Chestnut Class Y2/3
🌿 Welcome to Chestnut Class
Welcome to Chestnut, our bubbly and friendly mixed-age class for Year 2/3.
We provide a happy, caring and engaging environment where every child feels safe, valued and excited to learn.
👩🏫 Meet the Team
Teachers: Mrs Lemon and Mrs Bond
Teaching Assistant: Mrs Bray and Mrs Robins
We work closely with families to help every child grow, achieve and thrive.
If you have any questions, please speak to us at the classroom door. For a longer conversation, you can make an appointment or contact us through ClassDojo.
🌟 How We Learn
Our curriculum is based on four key principles:
- Every child is unique
- Positive relationships support confidence and wellbeing
- A stimulating learning environment encourages independence and ambition
- High-quality teaching enables all children to achieve their potential
Children learn through a combination of structured lessons, practical experiences, discussion, independent work and collaborative learning, supported by carefully planned teaching that builds knowledge and skills over time.
🍂 Autumn Term
📖 English
Our Focus Text: Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Lauren Child
This term, we will use Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Lauren Child as the basis of our Literacy Tree unit. Through carefully planned reading and writing lessons, children will immerse themselves in the text and use it as inspiration for a range of exciting learning opportunities, including:
- Exploring characters, settings and story structure
- Developing speaking and listening skills through drama and discussion
- Building vocabulary and understanding of language choices
- Writing for different purposes and audiences
- Retelling, adapting and innovating stories
📚 Author of the Half Term
Our author this half term is Alex T. Smith.
We will enjoy sharing some of his popular and imaginative stories, including:
- Claude series
- J.Algernon Pickle in The Mystery at Odd-Doings House
- Mr Penguin series
- How Winston Delivered a Christmas wish
- Astrid and the Space Cadets
🔤 Spellings
Progressing on from phonics, we focus on focus on spellings.
All children are taught specific sounds or rules relating to a spelling.
Children practise their spellings everyday in their handwriting session.
Children are expected to learn their spellings at home.
A weekly quiz to check spellings happens every Friday.
🔢 Maths
Maths in Chestnut is taught within their year groups and is taught using a range of manipulations and visual models. We follow White Rose Maths and ensure every lesson has a combination of fluency, reasoning and problem solving.
🏠 Helping with Maths at Home
There are lots of simple ways to support your child’s maths learning at home.
Try to:
Number Facts
- Practise number bonds to 10, 20 and 100.
- Learn and recall times tables (especially 2, 5, 10, 3 and 4 times tables).
- Play quick-fire mental maths games such as:
- "What is 7 more than 23?"
- "What is 10 less than 56?"
- "Double 8"
- "Half of 18"
Reading Numbers
- Spot numbers on houses, buses and car registrations.
- Read large numbers in books, newspapers or magazines.
- Count forwards and backwards from different starting points.
Games
- Card games involving addition and subtraction.
- Dominoes to practise number bonds.
- Board games that involve counting spaces.
- Dice games to practise quick mental calculations.
Maths in Everyday Life
- Count coins and work out totals.
- Help with shopping by estimating costs and finding change.
- Read prices and compare which items are more or less expensive.
- Measure ingredients when baking or cooking.
- Tell the time throughout the day and discuss how long activities take.
Most importantly, keep maths fun, practical and part of everyday life!
📕 Reading at Home
Reading together at home makes a huge difference to your child’s confidence and progress.
Your child may bring home two types of book:
📗 Reading Practice Book
This book is carefully matched to your child’s current reading level.
Your child should be able to read it with increasing confidence, fluency and independence.
📘 Sharing Book
This is a book chosen for you to enjoy together.
Your child is not expected to read this book independently. The aim is to develop a love of stories and reading for pleasure.
💡 Top Tips for Reading Together
Listen to your child read regularly
Give lots of praise and encouragement
Encourage them to use their phonics
Help them with a word if they become stuck
Talk about the pictures, story and characters
Encourage your child to tell you their favourite part
Keep reading relaxed, positive and fun
You could ask:
What happened in the story?
Who was your favourite character?
How do you think they are feeling?
Why do you think that happened?
What do you think might happen next?
❤️ Enjoying Sharing Books
Sharing books are all about having fun with books together.
Try:
Reading the story aloud
Using funny voices for different characters
Looking closely at the pictures
Predicting what might happen next
Talking about new or interesting words
Exploring facts together in non-fiction books
Most importantly, enjoy the time together.
🎒 Books & Reading Records
A few important reminders:
Reading books are changed regularly when a child has finished their book.
Children on phonic level books - These are given out on a Thursday and need to be in on the Monday.
Please return books before new ones can be issued
Keep reading scheme books safely in your child’s reading wallet
Lost or damaged books incur a £5 replacement charge
Your child has a yellow reading record
Please record the book title when you listen to your child read and add a short comment where appropriate.
🌈 Thank You for Your Support
Thank you for supporting your child’s learning at home.
Little and often makes a big difference.
Reading together, counting, playing games and talking about your child’s learning will all help to build their confidence.
By working together, we can help our children become happy, confident and independent learners.