Autumn Week 8
What a great first half term we’ve had in Reception! We’re so proud of how well the children have settled and how much they have learnt in just eight weeks. It was lovely to share their progress with you at our parent-teacher consultation meetings. Mrs Long will rearrange her appointments after half term once her voice has fully returned!
Please refer to our previous swimming post for the dates of our upcoming sessions. The children are really excited and have loved visiting the pool over the last few weeks.
This week, we’ve enjoyed reading Room on the Broom and had great fun painting pumpkins and investigating what was inside.
The children also put their phonics skills to the test by completing a spooky phonics trail, spotting sounds along the way and playing a game of Pass the Pumpkin! When the music stopped, we had to write words to match the objects, such as hat, cat and bat.
Please check your child’s book bag for a phonics sheet showing some sounds and tricky words to practise over half term. Remember, little and often is best!
Finally, we hope you all have a wonderful, restful half term. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing everyone again in November!
History Debate: Should the Elgin Marbles Return to Greece?
PE – hockey
This half term, in PE, the children have played hockey.
They practised:
- holding the hockey stick correctly
- dribbling the ball
- passing the ball in different ways
- shooting accurately
- defending
- playing small games that use all of skills they have learned
Fantastic Food
Year 5 and 6 have spent the week being chefs as it was that time of the term where we put our culinary skills to the test. Mushroom and chickpea curry was on the menu this time. The children used a range of ingredients from chickpeas, mushrooms, curry paste and coconut milk. The children began by chopping the onions and mushrooms using the bridge and claw method of cutting. This kept the children safe whilst using the sharp knives. They fried these off along with the garlic before adding the coconut milk, curry paste and chickpeas. This was then cooked for 20 minutes.
The children enjoyed the curry along with some traditional naan bread. The children talked about what they liked about it and how they might improve or add to the recipe if they made it again at home.
Help at home: Have a go at making the recipe at home. Maybe add some meat or chilli to spice it up a bit!
Room on the Broom
Our story of the week, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, has inspired lots of fantastic story retelling! The children have loved joining in with the repeated refrain in our story corner:
“The witch tapped her broomstick and whoosh they were gone!”
It has been lovely to hear the children joining in so enthusiastically. Next week, we will continue to enjoy this favourite story and begin adding our own actions to different parts of the tale. We will also be getting our hands busy with some magical potion-making!
A big thank you for supporting our autumn bag activity. We have enjoyed sharing the children’s wonderful collections. This week, we used magnifying glasses to look closely at the leaves, noticing their colours, shapes and details. We are developing our curiosity and observation skills as we explore the world around us.
In maths, we have been investigating the properties of shapes. We have been thinking carefully about whether shapes have flat or curved sides and exploring which shapes are best for different purposes. Which shape would make the best tower? Which shape would roll down a ramp?
More of this weeks learning rolling conkers to make patterns and exploring an autumn sensory tray.
Next Week
As we approach the end of our very first half term, we will be practising the nursery rhymes we have learnt so far. We are sure the children would love to share their favourites with you at home!
Our rhymes are:
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Humpty Dumpty
Incy Wincy Spider
Why not sing them together at home?
Reminders
Parent–Teacher Consultations: I am looking forward to meeting with you all next week for our first parent–teacher consultations. If you have not yet booked an appointment, please contact the school office.
Half-Term Holiday: Nursery closes on Thursday 22 October.
Return to Nursery: We look forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday 2 November.
Have a happy and healthy weekend, everyone.
Writing: discussion
This week, Class 3/4C have been preparing to write their discussion texts by taking part in a debate about which of the ancient Greek city-states, Athens or Sparta, should be taught in history from now on. The children did a fantastic job of sharing their opinions, giving reasons to support their choices and practising how to use formal language to put their points across. They also had to listen carefully to different viewpoints and think about how to persuade others that their chosen city-state was the better one. This has given them a great starting point for writing their discussion texts this week.
Help at home: talk about Athens and Sparta together. Which city-state do you think would be the better one to learn about in history, and why? Think about what made each city-state different, including their way of life, education, government and military. Can you come up with a few strong reasons to support your choice?
Science: animals in our local area study
This week, chidren in year 3/4 have been surveying which vertebrates and non-vertebrates live in our local area. They produced bar charts to show what they managed to spot in a ten minute period.
Help at home: take time to enjoy this fantastic autumn. Go for a nature walk and see if you can spot anymore animals.
Maths
This week in Maths, we’ve been comparing groups of up to 6 objects using the language of more than and fewer than. Sometimes, the objects were the same, while other times they differed in size, colour or type. We’ve been practising looking carefully at each group to decide who has more and who has fewer!
Help at home: using different objects play the who has more than/fewer than game using the language more than and fewer than.
Living and learning: democracy (JLT speeches)
Each child in key stage 1 had the opportunity to put themselves forward for the JLT (Junior Leadership Team) this week. They each did a little speech saying why we should vote for them.
Who would you choose?
I want to help school be healthy and happy.
I am kind and want to help people.
I want to help make money for other people.
I want to help school be happy and safe for everyone.
Help at home by talking about how democracy and voting is fair and ensures everyone can contribute.
Living and learning – I take part in democratic decisions.
Today, we had great pleasure in listening to some children read aloud their JLT speeches. Our living and learning statement this week is all about democracy and letting children have a voice within our school. It’s that time of year again where we create our new Junior Leadership Team and the children put themselves forward for nomination. They prepared some amazing speeches that talked about their personal qualities and what ideas they have to make our school an even more happy and healthy place to learn.
They spoke clearly and with prosody in front of the class and they’ve definitely made our decision of who to vote for, very difficult.
Good luck to all our candidates.