Living and learning – democracy
In Living and Learning, we have been learning about democracy. We try to be democratic about lots of decisions at school so children feel they have ownership and a ‘say’ in what happens.
We have voted on which book to read at storytime, which PE game to play, which Go Noodle dance to do and which maths game to play.
Help at home by maybe voting on things as a family – which movie to watch or what to have for dinner?
Learning Journey – Drop in sessions
Now that Covid-19 restrictions have eased, we are pleased to be able to give you the opportunity to view at your child’s learning journey and look at what they have been learning this year. You are welcome to visit Nursery on one of the following dates:
- Monday 09 May– 2.30pm – 3.30pm
- Wednesday 18 May – 4.15pm – 5pm
Spiders
This week, we have been very busy in the garden. Children helped to prepare the planters, adding in some new compost before helping to sow some vegetable seeds. Once they’d planted the seeds, children remembered that they needed to water them to help them grow.
As we were out in the garden, we found lots of insects and bugs, including some big spiders hiding in the tyres. Children loved developing their gross motor skills as they climbed carefully through our giant spider web!
We listened to a story by Eric Carle called ‘The Very Busy Spider‘ and children joined in with the repeated refrains such as, “The spider didn’t answer. She was very busy spinning her web.” We have also been learning about the different parts of a book, including the title, front and back cover and the blurb. As we read the story, we pointed to some of the words so that children start to learn that the words have meaning and are read from left to right and from top to bottom. Understanding these key concepts of print are part of our literacy curriculum.
Next time you read a book, see if your child is aware of these five key concepts:
- print has meaning
- print can have different purposes
- we read English text from left to right and from top to bottom
- the names of the different parts of a book
- page sequencing
To extend children’s interest in bugs, we have a new ‘minibeast’ themed small world area in the Sunshine Room. In the playdough area, we practised rolling ‘sausage’ shapes like we do in dough disco; we used them to make legs for our spiders. At the beginning of the week, we spotted a fly had got trapped in a spider’s web. We looked at it closely, and used the illustrations from the story to help us draw some spiders webs using chalk.
During group times, we’ve been practising our mark making skills by drawing spiders. Children drew circles for the head and body and lines for hairy legs. Some children remembered that spiders had eight legs and they counted them carefully as they drew each one. We learnt all about the number 5 and we know that when a five frame is full, there must be five objects.
Next week, we’re going to read another story written by Eric Carle. Can you guess which one? We’ll give you a clue… some caterpillars arrived in Nursery this week!
The Bad Tempered Ladybird
This week, we’ve been reading The Bad-Tempered Ladybird by Eric Carle.
We spotted lots of new features the author had used in the book, when comparing it to another of Eric Carle’s books we have recently read. We used the book to practise our reading skills and came up with alternative words for parts of the story. It sparked a discussion of time (clocks on each page) and size comparison, as the animals (and text) got increasingly larger throughout the story.
Clay sculptures…
We have started a minibeast art project. This week we’ve been creating minibeasts out of clay and collage materials. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be painting our sculptures and creating habitats for them to live in!
Doubles…
This week, our maths saw us return to doubling. We are becoming experts at adding “the same amount” and recalling our doubles number facts! We’ve also been spotting patterns of six, to support our number composition.
Writing…
We are developing independence in our writing, with additional morning challenges. We’re ensuring that our sentences feature capital letters, a full stop and finger spaces. We have special actions to remind us of these.
Skipping…
In PE, along with the rest of our school, we’ve been developing our skipping rope skills. We look forward to seeing how the children progress over the next few weeks.
More photos of our learning this week…
Home link…
Continue your minibeast hunts in the garden, or out on a walk. This week, have a go at writing a list of any that you find, to share with your class. You might want to extend your writing by adding a description to make a sentence, for example:
I see a black ant with six short legs.
The worm is long and thin.
Don’t forget those sentence features shown in the ‘Writing’ section of this post!
May Bank Holiday…
School will be closed on Monday 2 May 2022, for the early May Bank Holiday. We look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday. Enjoy your long weekend together!
Living and Learning – Democracy
Living and Learning: I can take part in democratic decisions.
This week, we have been learning about democracy as part of our Living and Learning.
In class, we voted for who we thought was a Champion Reader. We talked about the importance of reading regularly and reading a variety of different texts.
The candidates were voted for anonymously by the members of each class.
The winners were:
3,4 A – Jimmy
3,4 B – Jessica
3,4 C – Archie
Well done to everyone who took part. A great example of democracy in the classroom!
The day Y3,4 met a real poet!
Yesterday, we were lucky enough to welcome Andy Tooze into our school.
We watched him perform some of his poems and had a go at writing our own (in just seven minutes!). The children had a lot of fun and felt inspired. Today, each class read their poems aloud and published them in a book.
If your child would like one of Andy’s books, please let your child’s class teacher know. They cost £5 each when ordered through school.
Living and learning: I take part in democratic decisions.
The School Library Service is holding a competition to celebrate reading for key stage 2 children in Leeds. The children have the opportunity to be shortlisted and go to an awards ceremony and be crowned Leeds School Librarian 2022.
As a class, we discussed which children are good role models when it comes to reading. Some children never have their heads out of a book, whilst others always complete their reading journals and tasks at home. We came up with a shortlist of seven candidates and as a class we took a democratic vote. This nominated person’s name will be passed to the Junior Leadership Team and their job will be to select an overall candidate to represent our school. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we have a winner among us!
Outdoor PE
We have been able to use the field for some PE lessons this week. It is great to be able to use all the space to work on our movement and coordination. The sun was shining too!
Easter egg rolling competition
We had great fun on Friday belatedly celebrating Easter by having an egg rolling competition. Thank you to everyone who sent in a hard-boiled decorated egg.
Learning Update – Targets and support at home
We’ve had lots of emails this week to let us know about how your child has been working towards the targets that we discussed during our parent teacher consultation meetings. Thank you for working with us to support your child. We know that parents/carers are a child’s first educator so support at home has a significant impact on future learning.
If you haven’t had a chance to work on them yet after the busy Easter holidays, have another look and see what you can do towards them this week. Lots of the activities will fit into day to day life and your child’s play time.
As some children had similar targets for some areas, we’ve put together a few ideas to help you further support your child at home. Check which targets your child was given and have a look at the corresponding activities.
Reading – Spot rhyming words in stories.
- You could visit the library and choose some new books to share together. Julia Donaldson stories are great for spotting rhymes, as well as the ‘Oi Frog‘ series of books by Kes Grey.
- Listen to a bed time story every night, the more children hear rhyming stories, the more confident they will become at spotting rhymes.
- As you read a story, pause at the end of the line where there is a rhyming word. Can your child suggest the missing rhyming word? Challenge them to think of another word that might rhyme and see how many you can think of.
- Make up silly rhymes with real or non-sense rhyming words. Children usually find these very funny!
- Sing nursery rhymes and replace the rhyming word with one that doesn’t rhyme. You could make up your own rhyme, adapting words from their favourite nursery rhyme. “Twinkle, twinkle chocolate bar, my friend drives a rusty car…”
- Listen to this rhyming song and see if you can add in your own rhyming words.
- Watch this video and play the rhyming game at home.
Writing – Encourage children to write some of their name using correct letter formation.
- Start with just the first letter of your child’s name. Gradually add in the next letters as they master each one.
- You could write letters outside using chalks or an old paintbrush dipped in water.
- If you have a shallow tray, add a thin layer of sand/shaving foam/sugar and get children to write the letter with their finger or a stick.
- Write the letter for them to trace over. Use a green dot at the point where they need to start writing the letter and put a red dot where they need to stop. Make sure that you watch them carefully to ensure that they form them correctly.
Writing – Encourage your child to pretend write such as making shopping lists or writing messages.
- Ask your child to help you make a list of things that you need from the supermarket. What sound does it start with? apples – do they have an a in their name? Can they remember how to write it? If you are baking, ask them to help write a list of ingredients that you will need.
- Role play going to a café. Ask your child to take your order and encourage them to write any sounds that they can hear, especially at the start of the word such as writing a letter m for ‘milkshake’. Praise their attempts and at this stage, it doesn’t matter if the letter is incorrect or not formed as it should be – children are still learning and may only know a limited number of letters. They may also write symbols that resemble letters, this is a great start to early writing.
- Encourage them to make cards or write messages to you or family and friends.
Maths – Counting objects 1:1 to 5
- Count anything and everything in everyday life! Birds on the fence, coins, biscuits on a plate, apples in the bowl…
- It is often easier to count objects accurately if they are in a line so encourage children to touch/move each object as they count it.
- Ensure that they only say one number for each object as they point to it/touch it.
Maths – Sing number songs to help show ‘finger numbers’ to 5
- Here are a few number rhymes for you to sing at home together. Ask children to show the number on their fingers for each verse.
- When you’re out and about, or at home, ask children to show you ‘how many’ on their fingers. At lunch time, you could ask, how many carrot sticks have you got on your plate? If you see a numeral 3 on a door, ask them to show you 3.
Maths – Subitising – How many objects are there without counting? (up to 3)
- What is subitising? Watch this short video to find out more.
- Go on a subitising walk, look out for groups of 1, 2 and 3 objects. You might look for similar objects such as dandelions in the grass that are growing close together in a group of 3 or 2 pebbles on the path. Encourage your child to notice how many there are without counting them.
- Having peas for dinner? Look at how the peas are arranged on your plate. You’ll see that some are on their own, some might be next to another pea in a group of 2 and some might be in groups of 3. Spot 1,2 and 3 peas in a group without counting them.
- Don’t go out and buy new games, but have a look in the back of your cupboards, you might already have a game that requires your child to subitise, such as ‘Spotty Dogs’ or ‘The game of Ladybirds‘ by Orchard Toys.
Have fun working with your child on their target, and remember, please let us know how you’re getting on and if you need any further help.