Fee Fi Fo Fum!
We loved listening to the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ this week and children are really excited about growing their own beanstalks. We’ll be looking after them and watching them grow over the next two weeks. Ask your child to talk to you about their seed and tell you about any changes that they notice.
Lots of our learning activities have been linked to ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ this week. Here are few that children have really enjoyed.
- In the story corner, we practised our story telling skills. Children enjoyed using the props to re-tell the story with their friends. Lots of children remembered the key events in the story and some could remember the Giant’s favourite phrases too.
- ‘Eughhhh!’ could be heard quite a few times in our sensory corner as children explored the textures and smells of different types of beans. We had kidney beans, butter beans and even baked beans! Despite the initial texture and feel of the beans, many children enjoyed investigating what happened when you ‘popped’ the beans and removed the outer shell.
- During group time, we practised our subitising skills. We had to say how many beans there were (1,2 or 3) without counting. We continued this in the maths area, as well as using the tweezers to fill each pot with the correct number of beans. It was very tricky!
- In the creative area, children enjoyed sitting together and talking as they created their own beanstalks and drew Jack climbing up to the top.
As well as the ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ themed activities, we also enjoyed lots of other games and followed some of the children’s own interests -all of which helped to develop important skills such as turn taking and sharing, building friendships and balancing.
Finally, to end the week, children loved joining in with some Red Nose Day fundraising Friday fun by playing a special game of ‘Red Nose Day’ musical statues.
Next week, we will be talking about seasons and looking for signs of spring in our Nursery garden. Talk to your child about springtime and see what you can spot on your walk to Nursery. Send us a picture or let us know what you spotted. Email – scholesf1@spherefederation.org
We’ll also be talking about healthy eating and finding out about where vegetables come from as we read ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’.
Reminders
- Many children are still arriving over 10 minutes before their group’s drop off time. Please stick to your child’s allocated time as it helps to ease congestion outside Nursery and allows staff time to welcome each child and help them with their coat and handwashing. Thank you for your support.
- Does your child’s water bottle have their name on? Please check and write it on if not. Thank you
This Week…
Our busy week began with a large pair of legs hanging from the ceiling!
I wonder who it could be?
Many children were inspired to write and draw about the unexpected visitor up in the clouds.
In Maths, we have been measuring the giant’s footprints and ordering beanstalks.
Using laptops, we have created pictures based on the story – Jack and the Beanstalk.
We have loved enjoying the sunshine and getting out in our outdoor area to create our own fairy world and for some birdwatching too.
Another amazing week in Sunshine and Rainbow!
5/6 Certificate Celebration
This weeks certificate winners are…
For great learning…
Sonny – you have returned to school with a brilliant attitude and put 100% into your learning. Keep it up!
For sport and physical activity…
Charlie H – for demonstrating hard work and a mature attitude during cricket this week. You were great at demonstrating your skills. Well done.
For living and learning…
Ellie – you contributed so well to the discussion about where to find help. You were sensible and mature. Thank you.
Well done everyone!
Homework Heroes!
We have had a great response to the creative homework this week about Biology. The children were asked to show their own knowledge of the digestive and circulatory system. They could present this how they liked: a diagram, a model or even just a written explanation. It has been lovely that so many parents have emailed the homework in. This means we can celebrate their work in the homework review and enjoy seeing what each other have done at home – so thank you.
Help at home: reading
Reading is super important. In fact, we think it’s one of the most important things you can do to support your child at home.
Some studies have found that children who read regularly are more likely to be happy in adulthood, more likely to earn more money and more likely to do well in all school subjects.
Whilst we understand life is busy, we’d love it if you could read with your child every day (ideally for about 20 minutes but anything is better than not reading at all).
This article has a handy reading for parents guide if you’d like any more information or tips.
Our Reading Activities leaflet will provide lots of activities to make reading an even more enjoyable and active experience for all. Check out the ‘Help Your Child‘ section of our website for a range of guides and tips for helping your child across a range of subjects.
Some common questions about reading:
When should my child have their reading book and reading diary in school?
If your child is in 3,4O or 3,4N they should have their reading book and reading diary in school every Friday. If your child is in 3,4E they should have their reading book and reading diary in school every Monday.
Now my child is in Year 3 or 4, should I still sign their reading diary?
Yes. We’d love it if you could sign their reading diary and leave a comment at least once a week. We think it’s a really important link between school and home.
My child can read fluently. Should they still read aloud to me?
Ideally, yes. They can spend time reading on their own, too – we encourage this. However, it’s really important that children still practise the skill of reading aloud. It helps improve their confidence and improves their ability to read with expression. Being read to is really important, too – so don’t underestimate the power of a bedtime story!
The book my child has brought home is too easy / hard. What should I do?
This will rarely happen but if you do think your child’s book isn’t the right level please get in touch with their class teacher (our email addresses are at the bottom of this post).
If you have any other questions, comments or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your child’s class teacher. While we don’t encourage you to do this on the playground (to reduce numbers and enhance social distancing), we encourage you to email us instead.
3,4O – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org
3,4E – emmamccormick@spherefederation.org
3,4N – nicolawadsworth@spherefederation.org
Design and Technology
As our Leeds West Indian Carnival topic continues, we are learning more about costume designs and the designers who made them .
Arthur France and Hughbon Condor have designed many winning carnival Queen costumes. Hughbon Condor is actually an engineer and has always enjoyed bringing his ideas to life.
So, we had a go at the design process by researching a theme, sketching ideas and asking our troupe about our ideas.
Here are some…
Electricity
Year 5/6 have begun their new science unit ‘Electricity.’ The children have been learning about the scientific symbols for the components that make up an electrical circuit. They confidently used vocabulary such as: cell, switch, wire, buzzer and motor. They had to test different circuits using equipment to see if they would work. They did an excellent job with their predictions. Here are some photographs of the investigation…
New History Topic – vocabulary
This week, we have started our new history topic – The Leeds West Indian Carnival. It’s a new topic for children and teachers, and we’re loving the learning so far.
As a class, we looked at programmes and videos from the carnival, dating back to 1977. We’ve learned alot about how life has changed over time and how these primary resources can help us learn about life in the past.
We’ve studied the location of the West Indies in the Caribbean sea and the human and physical geography of the islands.
Also, many questions were answered:
- What is a carnival?
- What is a procession?
- What is immigration?
Some of these words are in our vocabulary list. We found that drawing pictures on our whiteboards helped us to understand the meaning of the words. It was fascinating to see the different creations and how we all have our own way of ‘seeing’ words. It was good to share our drawings in the class and learn from one another.
Here are some photos…
All together again!
We’ve had a fabulous first week back all together again; tiring but fun! It’s been lovely to see everyone back in Nursery, learning and playing together with friends.
This week, we’ve also welcomed some new families to Nursery. Our new green group members are settling in really well and are already becoming familiar with our routines and beginning to form friendships.
Here are a few photos so that you can see just how happy and busy everyone has been!
Next week, we will continue to help children to settle back into Nursery life and we will also read ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and plant our own beans.
Reminders
- Make sure that you are prompt for your child’s drop off and collection times. Please don’t arrive too early or collect later than your group’s time. Thank you for your support with this.
- Please respect social distancing and wear a face mask on school premises (unless you can’t for medical reasons).
- Is your child’s water bottle NAMED? We have lots of bottles without names which makes it very tricky to give them out and make sure duplicate bottles aren’t mixed up.
- Does your child have wellies in Nursery? We play out in the rain and mud, so all children need to have a pair at Nursery.
3,4NV class news
3,4 NV
Well done for a fabulous first week back! It has been wonderful to have everyone back in school. You have settled in quickly and have worked really hard all week – you must feel very proud!
This week, we have enjoyed reading ‘The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse’. We have discussed some of the messages within the book and how these relate to everyday life.
Here is one of our sketches based on the ideas from the book:
Today, we have enjoyed reading and sharing books during Book Club.
Yesterday, Mrs Richardson gave our class some plants to look after. We can’t wait to water them regularly and watch them grow. We will keep posting pictures of them.
The certificate winners for this week are:
Living and Learning – Aurora
- For being confident at school and having a positive attitude. Well done.
For great learning – Darcey
- Well done for neat handwriting and taking pride and care with your work.
For Sports and physical activity – Olive and Bethenny
- Thanks for showing everyone the dance moves in WUSU!
Our TT Rockstar for the week is Harry Y4! Well done.
Finally, here are a couple of pieces of writing from Home Learning activities that I promised to post. Great writing!
Well done for a fantastic week everyone. Enjoy the weekend.
Mrs Wadsworth, Miss McAleer and Mrs Richardson