Living and Learning : manners
We have been particularly talking about manners this week in our Living and Learning lessons, but we are always referring to good manners. Manners cost nothing but make a big difference and make our school a happy and healthy place to be!
A fantastic start to Reception!
What a fantastic week we have had in Reception. For a lot of children this will be their first full week at school – we are very proud of their learning!
Phonics
This week the children have learnt the phonemes (the sound a letter makes) i, n, m and d. 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).
Your child could write the letters at home using a letter formation sheet.
Super subitising
This week we have been practicing our subitising skills. This means, we have been looking and saying how many objects we can see – without counting one by one! Ask your child how many spots they can see by subitising.
Families
Thank you to all of the parents who have emailed photographs of their child’s family. The children have really enjoyed sharing their home experiences with their friends! We have been reading ‘the big book of families’ where we have talked about how different families can look.
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s along the play bar) and turn off auto play – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.
Swimming
Sunshine class have had their first swimming lesson this week. They have had lots of fun and the swimming teacher (Miss Joicey) was very impressed with their listening skills.
Learn at home phonics sheet
Today, your child has come home with a ‘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.
Reminders
Remarkable readers!
5/6 B have been working tremendously hard at home on their learning. We set the expectation that reading should be taking place at home on a daily basis. Some children have made sure that reading is a priority for them and have read regularly – well done. Their aim has been to make it onto the class podium – gold, silver or bronze position. If you check your child’s reading journal, you might spot a coloured star. This will tell you if they’ve made it onto the podium that week. One amazing child, Noah, read so much that I’ve put his name on the class ceiling as he aimed so high with his reading – he read seven times last week.
Thank you to those parents who are supporting reading at home – it will really benefit your child. Please continue to get your child to complete the weekly task – this will be recorded in their journal every Friday along with a target page. Thanks again to the parents who are signing the journals too.
Class novel
In the 5/6 phase, we have begun our new class novel – Secrets of the Sun King by Emma Carroll. This is a historical text that links well with our topic learning about Ancient Egypt. Emma Carroll is an author who the children will meet again later in the year when they learn about World War II and they read Letters from the Lighthouse.
This current book is set in 1922 when the world was waiting for news about the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt. Lil (the main character) finds a mysterious package on her grandad’s doorstep, just as he becomes very ill.
The parcel was sent by a famous Egytologist who has just been found dead. Ask your child about this part of the book! Lil decides, with the help of her new friends, that the only way to help her grandad is to return the package to its rightful resting place in Egypt. The children are already enjoying the twists and turns of this exciting adventure.
Super swimming
We are so proud of our fantastic KS1 children for jumping feet first into their swimming lessons… and the pool.
Swimming is such an important and sometimes life-saving skill. We are extremely privileged to have our own swimming pool within the school grounds which means we are able to offer all pupils swimming lessons from a young age.
Swimming helps children’s development, confidence and stamina.
Well done super swimmers!
Maths: Year 6 arithmetic checks
Children in year 6 have gone home today with their first arithmetic check. These checks will happen most weeks throughout the year. Each week, in class, we focus on two or three specfic questions. This should result in their checks being two or three marks higher each week. This is a marathon rather than a sprint. Don’t expect 40/40 in the first few weeks.
This week we’re focusing on three areas for development:
- lining up the digits
- multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000
- dividing by 10, 100 and 1000
Support your child at home by practising similar questions to the ones in the arithmetic booklet.
Line up the digits e.g. 3.521 + 2.1 = 5.621 rather than 3.541. Top tip: the decimal place stays in the same place (because he’s rather lazy).
Multiply by 10, 100, 1000 – Ask your chidren to show you how to “move all the digits to the left to the left.” What does it mean by “Show the jumps?”
As with all learning, little and often is the key to success.
Reading: Book Club
Year 6 children in Mr Lindsay’s reading group have been showing off their drawing skills in this week’s reading activity. Children recreated scences from their reading book with fantastic results.
Thank you for supporting your child at home. All children had signed reading records and talked with enthusiasm about their chosen books. Reading for 15 minutes each night with your child has a dramatic impact on on their learning across the curriculum.
This week’s reading activity is a comic strip. In addition to this, children should find out a bit about the author of their book:
- How many books have they written?
- What inspires them to write?
- Do they have any common themes in their books?
The week that was
It’s been a very busy week in Class 5/6A. Let’s look back on what the pupils have been getting up to …
This week has really seen our pupils demonstrate their 8Rs of Learning across all subjects. Monday saw our pupils ready to tackle our new Maths topic of Place Value for numbers up to 1 million. They demonstrated their resourcefulness and resilience through use of Place Value charts and counters to complete their work this week. In Writing, we were risk takers in scripting a short dialogue to perform in front of our classmates to show the moral dilemma Lil would face in opening her grandfather’s package, from our class novel Secrets of a Sun King. The pupils were fantastic and showcased some very thought-provoking dilemmas.
Our Topic work focused on the innovations seen within the Stone Age, and the pupils then took responsibility for their own learning in creating posters and presentations to show facts which they had found themselves about the Bronze Age. Our Living and Learning session allowed us to remember our school and class rules, reflect on the good choices we make and create our own Classroom Charter for learning.
Finally, our certificate winners for this week are…
For great learning…
Sam Webb– consistently working hard in all lessons and demonstrating a real positive attitude. I was particularly impressed by your recognition of different sentence starters.
For sport and physical activity…
Freya– A real team player. You took part enthusiastically in our P.E lessons this week; showing real determination and respect to your teammates.
For living and learning…
Arthur– You contributed fantastically to our discussion on the 8Rs of Learning and helped create some great rules for our Classroom Charter.
Have a great weekend!
Settling into Nursery
It was lovely to welcome everybody to Nursery for our ‘stay and play’ sessions and we couldn’t believe how much our older children have grown over the holidays!
During our first week, we’ve been busy helping children to settle into their new environment. We’re really lucky to have so much space to play in at Nursery, but it can take children a little bit of time to familiarise themselves with where everything is. We’ve also been working hard to get to know everybody’s names and find out where everyone enjoys playing.
There were lots of happy faces as children waved good-bye to parents and carers for their first session alone at Nursery (with just a few wobbles!). Try not to worry too much if your child has a little wobble or struggles to say goodbye in the morning. We often find that a quick hug, a big smile and waving good bye works best and children usually settle very quickly once you’ve gone. We will always give you a call if your child continues to be upset, so if you don’t hear from us, you can presume that your child is happy and busy playing!
As you can see in the photographs, children are already very busy and engrossed in play!
We’ll continue the really important process of helping children to ‘settle in’ over the next few weeks so that everyone feels safe, secure and happy in Nursery. Please speak to a member of the Nursery team if you have any questions.
Reminders
- Please collect your child promptly at the end of their session. It can be very upsetting if you’re the last child to be collected when others have already gone home.
- Make sure your child has a water bottle every day and that their NAME is clearly marked on it.
Welcome to Reception- week 2
Reception have had another fantastic week of settling into the classroom and getting to know eachother. We’re doing so well at remembering our morning routines and classroom rules, such as ‘3,2,1,stop’
We’ve particularly enjoyed outdoor explorations, planting some flowers and finding vegetables that have grown in our garden planters. We have some real nature lovers in Reception, who have been carefully handling worms, wood lice and spiders and sharing facts about them.
We’ve been using our artistic skills to paint and draw self-portraits and have been having a go at writing our name every day.
We also started our phonics lessons this week. The children have shown great listening and were proud to learn their first four sounds (s,a,t,p) We’ve been having a go at writing them too!
In music, the children made their very own marching band with Mrs Myers and had so much fun marching around the classrooms and outdoor area.
Take a peek at even more learning from this week:
Learn at home phonics sheet…
Today, your child has come home with a ‘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…
Next week, we’ll be talking about our families and using the book The Great Big Book of Families by Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith, as our talking point. To help the children in our discussions, please send in a photograph of your child with their family. You can send the photos to the Reception email address.
Reminders…
- PE lessons start on Wednesday. Don’t forget to come to school in PE kits on Wednesday and Friday. If you’re in Sunshine Class, you’ll also need your swimming kit on Wednesday. Thank you.