School Days – reading levels and Red lunchtime

N is definitely on countdown to half term, despite him getting on well so far in year 1.  He never seems particularly tired apart from the odd day (usually when he’s woken up ridiculously early), and enjoys school, but the draw of being off and able to go on the farm for 3 or 4 days is too much.

This week’s School Days for us was mostly about reading, with a bit f running thrown in for fun.

Reading books

Whoop.  N has finally moved up a level in reading books. Wait, not one but two reading levels.  I’m hoping if he can get on ok with level 5 that means he’s catching up with the children in his year who moved up to be with the year 2s. I think it’s just a trial at the moment.  He’s given his book a good go (this tile me only 1 book at a time given it’s not only doubled in length pages wise, but also the number of words on each page), although he did say ‘it’s too hard mummy’.  There are a lot of words he does know but a lot that can’t really be sounded out.  But I’m hoping that he remembers that every level and book started out being hard. But that practice means you learn and can read them well over time.

Spellings

N has a spelling book, and he’s usually keen to get it out regularly and practice his spellings.  But there was some confusion over the day they were being sent home and when the tests were.  Originally a letter about homework said it would be sent home on Wednesdays for Thursdays! Then the first time it came on a Monday. So I had no idea.  All was fine until on Monday morning as I dropped N off at morning club, he unzipped the pocket in his bookbag and pulled out his spelling book. Uh oh. Thankfully on checking with his teacher, his spellings run Thursday to Thursday, phew.

So the first test was this week and he got all of them right.  What I’m also surprised about is how well N can write on lines in a book.  After spending reception year writing not much more than his first name, only 5 weeks in and he’s trying to join up some letters, and writing much neater within the lines. Mind you, his actual letter formation could still do with some work.

Cross Country

N isn’t really a child who is bothered about joining in things.  Sometimes he amazes me by being really keen and joining in straight away, but most of the time he’ll hold back until he decides all is fine and worth doing.

He sometimes does cross country club at lunchtime (obviously no child of mine, I’m presuming it’s because his friend does it). This week we got a letter home about a partnership schools cross country race next week.  The wording was that N had been chosen to run, but really it was the whole of year 1 and 2.  However N refused to do it.

I checked with the office to see what would happen if children didn’t do it, but was told it was a year event.  So he didn’t have much choice.  But then after telling him that, he was happy and looking forward to it.  Such a change around, he’s been counting down the days.

Of course, we still need to work out how I can get him to the secondary school it’s at.  Because a 9-9.30 drop off doesn’t work when you start work at 8.30 in the morning and would usually drop your child off at morning club at 8.  N isn’t the only child who’s in that situation so it sounds like they’ll have a volunteer able to take them.

Red at lunchtimes

Apart from being a VIP, N’s favourite part of lunchtime at school is on a Friday when the children can choose to sit where they want. The rest of the week they sit in their houses.

This Friday morning N announced to me that they were currently on ‘red’ for too much noise across the week’s lunch times which meant they had to stay at their usual tables.  The red, orange and green was the first I’d heard of it, but it didn’t seem to bother him too much they were on red.