The Everywhere Bear
Phonics
This week the children have learnt the phonemes (the sound a letter makes) o,g,c and k. The children have been listening to and saying words that begin with these phonemes (the sound a letter makes). They have also been practicing writing the graphemes (the written letter).
You may choose to play an I Spy game at home using these new phonemes (the sound a letter makes).
Maths
This week we have been focussing on our counting skills – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are.
We have explored how all sorts of things can be counted, including sounds. By singing rhymes, we have enjoyed developing our knowledge of the counting sequence.
The Everywhere Bear
We have loved listening to the story – The Everywhere Bear.
We have created our own story maps using key events from the story.
Swimming
Rainbow class have had their first swimming lesson this week. They have had lots of fun!
Poetry Picnic
Each week, we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line.
Our first poem is Chop Chop.
Check out our other learning…
Learn at home phonics sheet
Today, your child has come home with a new ‘learn at home’ phonics sheet. The sheets link to our current learning in phonics and will be sent home each Friday. Please support your child by practising their new sounds and reading skills at home.
Home-Link
Autumn is here and the children have enjoyed exploring acorns and conkers.
Go on an autumn walk and collect, draw or discuss all the signs of autumn. You may choose to collect items to bring into school or email pictures.
Sorting, threading and making friends
We’ve had a great week; there’s a lovely atmosphere in Nursery when everyone is busy and engaged in their play. Children are beginning to make friends and are chatting to staff and their peers as they play.
In our maths area, children have been exploring sorting objects in different ways. Some children sorted them by colour and others grouped them according to the size or type of object.
Have a go at sorting some toys together at home. How could you sort the cars or buttons?
The ‘Fiddly fingers’ area of the Rainbow Room has been popular this week, too. Children have enjoyed making chains out of the linking shapes and carefully threading beads onto a lace. These activities are great for strengthening children’s fingers and developing their fine motor skills.
Outside, in the garden, children are beginning to notice some signs of autumn. They’ve been collecting conkers and talking about where they found them. Next week, we’ll be learning all about autumn. Look out a brown paper bag coming home with your child this week.
Please enjoy going on a walk together over the next few days and see what ‘autumn treasure’ you can find. When you’ve filled your bag, please return it to Nursery for us to share and talk about with our friends next week.
Here are a few other photos from our fun in the September sunshine. See if you can spot what we found jumping at the bottom of the garden!
Reminders
- Please remember to send us a family photograph photo to display in our Home corner.
- Whilst we’re still enjoying the sunny afternoons, the weather is chillier in the morning and we’ve had a few showers. Please make sure your child has a warm, waterproof coat at Nursery every day.
3/4A Topic
Topic (History): Ancient Greece
As part of our learning about Ancient Greece, we had a debate about which was the best city state: Athens or Sparta. We discussed good techniques for a debate such as projecting our voices, giving evidence and listening respectfully to other people’s opinions.
3/4C Science
Science: Living things and their habitats.
We’ve been doing some fantastic learning in Science all about classifying data and how to use classification keys.
Over the past couple of weeks, the children have built up their classifying skills by asking and answering questions about what living things look like, and other features they may have, e.g., how many legs? does it have wings? how many parts in its body?
Today, the questions asked were linked to whether or not the animals were invertebrate or vertebrate. Watch this video to help.
Ask your child the difference between these animals.
Interpreting characters
We have been reading some extracts from ‘Fireborn’, a children’s novel written by Aisling Fowler. This book is set in a snowy forest in a prehistoric world and we meet the character, Twelve. The children read the extracts and highlighted key points that they thought identified what the characters were like. What are their personalities like? How do we know? The children then focused on a character called Weaponmaster Victory – a fierce, strict character that we decided we wouldn’t really like to meet!
They commented in their books, their thoughts.
” I think she is scary because she is strict with her class and they are afraid that she will punish them.’
“I think she is scary and I wouldn’t like her teaching me!”
We are getting the exciting opportunity to meet Aisling Fowler later this term as part of an author interview on Zoom. We are really looking forward to this.
Minibeast trail
This week our KS1 children have been exploring the playground on the hunt for minibeasts. In Science we are learning about habitats and micro-habitats. We searched high and low for small creatures, using magnifying glasses to understand the conditions each minibeast lives in.
Family photograph
As we’re getting to know everyone, we like to talk about our families and home life. To encourage children to tell us more about their family life, please e-mail or bring a photograph of your child with their family to Nursery next week. These will be displayed in our home corner for children to look at and talk about with staff and their friends. scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Where has that week gone?
It’s hard to imagine we are at the end of our third week of term, time is flying by so fast at the moment! Another superb week of learning in Class 5/6A. Year 5 started the week by reading the Hilaire Belloc poem “Matilda” and using our inference reading skills to determine how certain characters acted when experiencing particular emotions. In Maths, Y5 have been using Gattegno charts to answer place value questions, and partitioning numbers up to 1,000,000!
I am immensely proud of all of Class 5/6A for their efforts in Writing this week. All week we have been building up towards writing a passage to depict how we would open the package if we were in Lil’s shoes in our class novel; “Secrets of a Sun King”. Using a variety of sentence starters, similes, metaphors and adverbials, they have produced some superb pieces which will be adorning the walls of the classroom next week. Our Y5 class ended the week practising our debating skills; using structured sentence openers to put their point across whilst respecting the opinions of others. We had some entertaining debates over how fun poetry can be, and if tomato ketchup was the best accompaniment for chips.
If your child comes home tonight shouting “Salve!” (Pronounced ‘sal-way’), then they are greeting you in Latin. We have had a lot of fun today greeting each other and beginning our journey for this year into Latin.
Finally to this week’s winners ………
For great learning…
Sadie – consistently working hard in all lessons, showing a significant improvement in her arithmetic test score, and producing an excellent piece of writing to depict a character’s dilemma on opening a parcel which didn’t belong to her.
For sport and physical activity…
Elisa– Raring to go after injury, she has given 110% in P.E this week. Displaying great teamworking skills in our warm-up games, and excellent hand-eye coordination in our volleyball passing.
For living and learning…
Travis– Our focus this week has been using good manners and throughout school you are always showing this; warm greetings for friends and teachers, using please and thank you, and asking questions in a respectful manner. Great job!
Have a great weekend!
Lunches & exploring outside!
This week, many children have stayed for their first lunch time and full day; we’re really proud of how well they did. Everyone happily sat down in the Nursery dining area and tried some delicious school meals or tucked into the contents of their packed lunch box.
Is your child having a school dinner? Have a look at the current menu here so you know what options are available to choose from each day. If you’ve opted to send your child with a packed lunch and need a few extra ideas of what to include, please have a look at our Healthy Packed Lunch Guidance.
As children have become more settled in Nursery, we’ve gradually been introducing them to our Nursery routines. We know that when we hear “3,2,1, Stop!” that we need to empty our hands, have a silent voice and to stop and look at the person who is speaking. Children have been learning how to use all of our labels, pictures and templates to help tidy toys away into the right places and we’re beginning to form a line when going to play outside.
Here are a few photos of our learning and playing this week. Favourite activities have included:
- collecting conkers
- using the tools to ‘cut’ outside
- chalking patterns and pictures
- singing and playing instruments to accompany nursery rhymes
- developing our climbing and balancing skills
- making cookies in the dough
- creating collages using craft materials
1,2B conker collecting for counting
We have started a conker collection to help with counting. Counting carefully, counting big numbers and counting in tens and ones will all be done using these lovely shiny conkers. If you have any to add, send them in or help at home by starting your own collection and get counting!
