3,4 Class News – Topic
This half-term, our art topic is focused on architecture! We have learnt that architecture is about the design of buildings and will be focusing on two architects in particular: Sir Christopher Wren and Dame Zaha Hadid.
We have started the topic by looking at features of different buildings and using these to help us put them in chronological order. We are also going to be using different practical art skills throughout the half-term, starting with collage.
Help at home by talking with your child about different buildings they see when out and about. What do they notice?
KS1 Michael Rosen Day
This week we were lucky enough to connect with other schools all over the country to meet with Michael Rosen online. This was to celebrate Michael Rosen Day. He performed some of his poetry for us all and he talked about where some of his inspiration comes from. His main inspiration comes from memories from his childhood and many of his poems feature family members.
Help at home: You could share some of Michael Rosen’s books or poetry with your child. There are hundreds to choose from and so many of them are easily found online. I wonder which will be your favourite?
Reading: Michael Rosen
This week, Year 5/6 had an exciting virtual session with the amazing Michael Rosen! He shared some brilliant tips on how to write poems and even invited us to join in as he read some of his funniest ones.
Help at home: You can try writing a poem too! Michael suggested a few fun topics to help get you started, like family, school, food, or even silly rhyming jokes, like the one below!
Odd socks day!
Today is Odd Socks Day. We do this as part of anti-bullying week. As a school, we define bullying as hurting somebody physically or emotionally (including online) several times on purpose. This spells STOP.
We drew our own odd socks and discussed why we wear odd socks. The odd socks represent everybody being different. We should never treat others in an unkind way, because they are different to us.
We also made some posters that could be used in school to stop bullying.
Living and Learning – Anti-bullying and Odd Socks Day
This year, the focus of Anti-bullying Day has been respect. We watched the CBBC online assembly to start the day.
We have discussed:
- being respectful
- how to respond respectfully to other children
- that sometimes people have a difference of opinion
- the definition of bullying
- the impact on a person’s feelings if they have been bullied
- how to STOP bullying (Start Telling Other People)
In addition to this, we have been wearing odd socks today to represent how we’re the same and we’re different.
Help at home by asking your child how we know the difference between being rude, mean and bullying.
Living and learning: Odd Socks Day
Today is Anti-bullying day and to show our support of this, we’ve been wearing odd socks. This is to celebrate that we are all different and that we should stand up for discrimination and bullying. We discussed the different types of bullying including cyberbullying.
“Bullying is when you hurt someone physically or emotionally (including online) several times on purpose.” Junior Leadership Team
We talked about how bullying might make a person feel and how it is important that you Start Telling Other People.
Anti-bullying Day
This year’s Anti-bullying Day theme is ‘Choose Respect’. During our live lesson from BBC Teach we were asked to think about how we feel when some is disrespectful towards you. As a class we generated a list of words/ terms to describe our feelings.
This led to a discussion about choosing our words carefully when we speak to or about other people. Choosing to be respectful is a positive choice that we can all make.
Help at home: discuss how our words have meaning. How can we make up after a fight? What is the difference between having an argument and bullying?
Community Week – a discussion with children at Moortown Primary School
As part of Community Week, the children had the chance to connect with another school community – Moortown Primary School. The children were able to ask the students at Moortown about daily life at their school. Similarly, the children at Scholes had the opportunity to answer any questions from the children at Moortown. We discussed different religions, the setting of each school (whether they are based in a village or town), the school community and, of course, school dinners!
The children at both Scholes and Moortown found this experience really useful and enriching. It was great to get to know another happy and healthy school community.
Help at Home: Ask your child what they learnt about the community at Moortown Primary School.
Colours in the sky.
The children were very excited when they returned to Nursery, sharing their experiences of Halloween with their friends. There was a lot of talk about witches, bat costumes and skeletons.
We began the week finding out about Diwali, the festival of lights. We watched some short video clips to find out about how some people prepare for Diwali and enjoy celebrating with family. We learnt about rangoli patterns and diva lamps.
In the dough area, we decided to make own Diva lamps by rolling a ball and pushing our thumbs into it to make a ‘thumb pot’. We added patterns with the tools and put a candle inside. We created some rangoli patterns too by following patterns with jewels and gems.
Wednesday was Bonfire Night, the children played with the bonfire themed small world area adding the sounds of the fireworks to their play. “whoosh, bang, zoom, whizz”
Along with hearing lots of different sounds the children had seen lots of bright colours in the night sky. They used spinners to make firework pictures, the faster it spun the bigger the splash ! At group time we used chalks to create the Bonfire Night sky.
As part of our phonics learning, we’ve introduced the letter ‘s’ this week. We took turns to pull some objects out of a bag that all started with the letter ‘s’ We talked about the ‘s’ sound that we could hear at the start of each word. In Nursery, we focus on our listening skills. We’re not learning about letter formation just yet.
We show the children this picture card and use this pronunciation phrase. You could try this at home.
Show your teeth and let the s hiss out sssssss sssssss
Help at home: What can you find at home that begins with the letter ‘s’? Go on a sound hunt together and look for some. Let us know what you find.
Reminders
- It’s “Odd Socks Day” on Tuesday so wear odd socks to Nursery for the day
- It’s Children in Need on Friday and it’s a non-uniform day. Please remember it will be a usual Nursery day, so please dress your child in clothes that are appropriate for outdoor and messy play.
Next week
It’s World Nursery Rhyme Week so instead of our usual Nursery Rhyme of the week our provision will be Nursery Rhyme themed. We’ll be singing lots of our favourite rhymes. If you’d like to send us an email with your child’s favourite rhyme and we’ll try to sing it at Nursery next week. scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
Sound of the week – Aa for astronaut and apple
Open your mouth wide and make the a sound at the back of your mouth a a a
Living and learning : Community Week – A Polish Visitor
All the Year 1 and 2 classes welcomed a visitor this week. Carolina, who was born and lived in Poland until she was 19, came to talk to us about living and working in a different country. It was really interesting to see and hear about the differences and similarities between her life in Poland and England. The children were very respectful, asking questions and listening intently.
