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!
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.