Class News

Amazing Writing!

It’s lovely when people send in their learning – as teachers, we really want to see it!

Thanks to these superstars who have sent in their writing recently. There’s lots of things I love about these pieces – pay particular attention to the impactful vocabulary and the varied sentence starters. Well done, everyone!

Home learning superstars

Thank you for the emails showing us what amazing home learning you are all doing. Well done and keep going as much as you can!

Try to email your teacher (addresses below) or bring learning to show at your daily Zoom meetings at 2pm. Email your class teacher if you need the invite re-sending.

1KN Miss Lowry/Mrs Lake : kaylowry@spherefederation.org and natalielake@spherefederation.org

1,2V Mrs Latham : vickylatham@spherefederation.org

2C Mr Gathercole : carlgathercole@spherefederation.org

3,4 NV Class News

Hi everyone,

I hope that you are all keeping happy, healthy and safe. It has been great to hear from so many of you through our zoom chats and phone calls home. Well done to those of you who have emailed me your work. I know you are all working really hard at home – keep going, you’re doing an amazing job!

Keep up with the fabulous efforts on TTrockstars and Numbots. I am checking weekly to see who is using it! Why not have a go on it today?

Here are a few pictures from some of our home learners over the last couple of weeks.

Take care,

Mrs Wadsworth

Message from Boris

I hope everyone managed to see the message from Boris yesterday. It was the introduction to the writing texts learning for the week. Even if you don’t do all the lessons, the message is worth watching!

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM BORIS JOHNSON

Newsworthy writing

From Mr Catherall, who is leading the Y3,4 home learning writing sessions…

Hi everyone

I hope you’re all happy, healthy and safe. I wanted to share with you – and celebrate – some of the awesome writing that’s been sent in by children across our federation. Home learning is tough. There are many challenges, for children and adults, but these superstars have been ready, resourceful and resilient learners. (Can you remember the other 8Rs for learning?)

In the Y3,4 phase, we spent last week building up to writing our own news report about a (made-up) volcanic eruption. This links to our geography and science learning.

Here are a small selection of the wonderful examples we’ve been sent in from all three schools. If you’d like to send yours in, I’d love to see it (send me an email – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org).

From my class at Scholes (Elmet)… I love the varied sentence starts in this one (Late on Friday night, On Saturday, In the escape).

We’ve got a budding journalist at St James’ CE… I really like the news report structure here.

Back to Scholes (Elmet) for some another great piece… This time, I really like the main news section (the first paragraph in bold) because it’s exactly like you’d read in a newspaper or online.

Some amazing writing from Moortown… I love the expanded noun phrase (the orange, glowing liquid) and the vocabulary (predicted, nightfall, terrified) in this one.

Another super piece of writing from my class at Scholes (can you tell I’m proud?!)… There’s a lot to celebrate here – particularly the vocabulary (menacing, catastrophic, awoke, ear-splitting, historic)…

Back at Moortown for another great example of journalistic writing… I particularly enjoyed the use of questions to engage the reader and the way this writer has presented their news report in the style of a newspaper.

Another impressive report from Scholes… In this one, I love the vocabulary (citizens, fled on foot, vast amount).

Whatever writing you’ve managed to do at home, well done! After the last lockdown, writing was one of the few areas that we noticed children hadn’t progressed in. Try to help by completing at least one of the writing lessons each day (and always keep a focus on handwriting).

Three Peaks in eight weeks – walking challenge!

The Sphere Year 3/4 Team would absolutely love you to be part of this awesome challenge this February and March. We want to get you walking or running (or scooting!) as much as you can over the next two months.

Every time you do a walk or run, add the distance completed (and your time taken to complete this) in your chart. We will be adding up everyone’s distances each week to see how many of us can ‘climb’ the National three peaks. In topic this week and next, we will be learning about some mountains in the UK, so what could be better than a virtual mountain climbing challenge!

The three mountains in the challenge are the highest in each country in the UK:

• Snowdon, in Wales (1085m) Distance: 7 miles / 11.75 km

• Scafell Pike, in England (978m) Distance: 5.5 miles / 9 km

• Ben Nevis, in Scotland (1345m) Distance: 10.75 miles / 17km

You can record your steps taken (paces). The whole route is 37.75 kilometres long, and the average human step (or pace) is 0.75 metres. So you have to take 50,333 steps in total to complete the Three Peaks. Recording steps (paces) taken is easy – you can use a Fitbit, pedometer or just count your steps. A phone can track how many steps you take and how far you walk all by itself, if you walk with an adult who has a phone.

The idea is to make this as much fun as possible, to motivate you to get outdoors and maybe encourage as many of your family and your friends to do the same thing.

You don’t have to do the whole route. Maybe you can choose to ‘walk’ just one mountain, or two – it’s up to you and what you can achieve.

Throughout the month, we will share photos and graphics of the distances you’ve travelled. From this, we can show who has travelled up the peaks and what location we can reach together. Hopefully, we can find ways to help you during this challenge and through this you can share stories, pictures and videos with those joining in this challenge. All ‘Three peaks in eight weeks’ challenge walkers will receive certificates for effort and participation:-

Mountain 1 = Bronze; Mountain 2 = Silver; Mountain 3 = Gold.

recording steps chart

Children’s Mental Health Week

Children’s Mental Health Week is taking place on 1-7 February 2021. This year’s theme is Express Yourself.

Here are some activities and ideas for you and your child(ren) to complete at home together.  You can also download it here.

Expressing yourself is about finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity. It is about finding a way to show who you are, and how you see the world, that can help you feel good about yourself.

As parents and carers, you play an important role in your child’s mental health. Check out the free resources.  

Don’t forget to email your teachers with any photos or messages of your activities about Children’s Mental Health Week.

Thank you!

Week Commencing 01.02.20: Home Learning

Story Link activities to select throughout the week

Literacy

1. In class, use Talk4Writing actions to help us retell and act out the stories we learn. After listening to the story, see if you can come up with some actions. You could get an adult to record you and send it to your class teacher!
   To help you get started, click here to watch an example.
2. Dear Zoo is a ‘lift-the-flap’ book. Make your own ‘lift-the-flap’ book. You could choose your favourite animals to be underneath each of the flaps. Then, write a sentence underneath each flap. For each sentence try to write the name of the animal and a describing word.

A writing reminder…
How did your child find the writing activity? Remember, it’s okay for things to be spelt phonetically. It is important that your child grows into an independent learner. Encouraging your child to write the words as they sound rather than always spelling them correctly. We encourage the children to use their own skills, rather than copying an adult.

Understanding the World

Choose an animal from the book. With the help of an adult, research and find out information about that animal.
Where is its natural habitat? What does it eat? What does it like to do? When the animal lives in a zoo, what does a zookeeper need to do to look after it?
You could use this website or find one of your own.

Maths
1. Choose two or three animal toys. Go on a hunt around your house for different containers. Explore which containers your animals will fit in. Can you explain why they fit in some containers but not others?

2.Patterns are everywhere! Can you recognise any of these animal patterns? Draw your own animal pattern on a piece of paper.

Expressive Arts and Design
Make a lion mask.

Resources:
Paper plate
1 sheet of yellow and orange paper
Scissors
Glue
Instructions:
1. Cut out the inside of a paper plate, leaving only the outside circle.
2. Cut strips of yellow and orange paper.
3. Glue the yellow and orange paper to the paper plate circle, creating a lion’s mane.
4. Make sure they give a loud ROAR!

 Physical Development

1. Get moving and dance along to these songs!

Animal Boogie

Let’s go to the Zoo

2. Make a paper chain snake. This is a great funky fingers activity!
   Resources:
   Paper (any colours you’d like to use)
   Scissors
   Stapler
   Glue
   Googly eyes
   Instructions:
   1. First, decide on which colours you want to use. You could use two or three colours and try to make your snake a repeating pattern, for example, red, orange, red, orange.
   2. Cut strips of each colour.
   3. With an adult, use a stapler or glue to connect the chains.
   4. Add a head by cutting out a triangle and gluing it to the first chain. You could also add a tail!
   5. Glue googly eyes on the head and add a red tongue, then you’re done!

Zoom

Remote learning 01.02 – Dear Zoo

We hope that you enjoyed the weekend (as much as we can at the moment!) and enjoyed a break from screens and work responsibilities. We love to see your photos and read your emails so please make sure you send us one each week. scholesf1@spherefederation.org

This week, our learning is going to be based on a book that lots of families will already be familiar with, ‘Dear Zoo’ written by Rod Campbell. We’ve saved all of this week’s remote learning ideas to a pdf – we thought that this might be an easier way for some people to view them.

Reading

• Before you read the book, ask the children if they are familiar with it. Have they read it before? Can they remember what the story is about?
• If you have a copy of the book, as you’re reading, pause each time for children to guess what animal is next.
• Listen to the story a few times and encourage your child to join in with the words that are repeated. Once they’re familiar with the book, use the pictures to have a go at retelling the story using the repeated pattern of words. “So they sent me a_____. He was too ____. I sent him back.”
• What do you think would be a good pet to have? Why? Can you think of any animals that wouldn’t make a good pet?

Phonics

Listening to rhymes and being able to keep a simple beat are all important elements of our Phase One phonics teaching in Nursery. Here’s a new rhyme to learn all about going to the Zoo. Watch this video and join in with drumming the beat at home. You’ll need something to bang like a drum so see what you can find at home, a pan/box and wooden spoon work well!

1,2 We’re going to the zoo. 

3,4 crocodiles by the door.

5,6 Monkeys doing tricks!

7,8 Lions at the gate.

9,10 Elephant’s stomping in his pen.

Do you remember our ‘Guess the animal’ Key Worker game? Here’s another one for you to try; we need to keep practising our listening skills!

 Mark-Making

• Have a go at drawing your own pet or an animal that you would like to have as a pet. Think carefully about what it looks like. Does it have big, floppy ears? Does it have legs?
• In the Key Worker video this week, some of the teachers have drawn patterns on a snake. Draw a snake outline yourself, or ask a grown up to help, and have a go at adding your own patterns. Will it be a spotty or stripy snake?
• You could have a go at making your own ‘Dear Zoo’ book. Draw some pictures of different animals (or print some pictures if you prefer and have a printer) and then cut out some flaps to stick over them. Have a go at telling your own version of the story! We’d love to see it – send us a photo or video of you reading your book.

Mathematics

Do you remember learning about shapes during our ‘Zog’ themed week? This week, we’re going to continue learning about shapes. First, watch this shape video to remind yourself of the names and properties (such as the number of sides and corners) of the basic 2D shapes (circle, square, rectangle and triangle).  Then, draw one of each of the shapes on a piece of paper and go on a shape hunt around your house.

• Can you find each of the shapes? If you find more than one, you could put a tick or tally on your sheet. Which shape did you find the most of? We’d love to see some photographs of the shapes that you find.
• Next time you go for a walk, try and spot some shapes along the way. What shape are the road signs?

Extension ideas

– Have a go at feeding the ‘shape monsters’ on this Topmarks game.

– Do you remember creating a repeating colour pattern? Ask a grown up to help cut out some different shapes. Have a go at creating a repeating shape pattern with just 2 shapes. Circle, square, circle, square, circle…. What would come next?

– In Nursery, we often use different objects to investigate what shape they make when we dip them in paint and print with them. Find some objects (eg. a tin, Duplo brick, a small cardboard box – like a toothpaste box) and pour a bit of paint onto a plate. Dip the object in and then print with it! What shape can you see?  (You could use these to print a repeating pattern, too.)   Are there any shapes that are tricky to find?

Creative

• What is your favourite animal from the story? Have a go at making it using boxes and other recycling materials that you may have.
• In the story, each of the animals was delivered in a different shaped box or container. Find your favourite animal toy and have a go at making it a home. What would it need to be comfortable? What size and shape would it need to be?
• If you have some toy animals, you could make your own small world area. You might use Duplo bricks or you could go outside and collect some leaves, sticks and pebbles to add to a tray or an empty shoebox.

https://entertainyourtoddler.com/safari-small-world-play/ – Photo credit

• Here’s another of the songs that we enjoy listening to before lunch time – Walking through the jungle.

 Understanding the World

• Have you ever been to a safari park or zoo? What did you see? Whilst it’s not possible to visit animals at the moment, you could watch some snippets from the virtual tours on Chester Zoo’s website and find out about meerkats and giraffes. (The information from the Keeper is quite tricky for Nursery children, but your child may enjoy just watching and talking to you about the animals they can see in the video). In Nursery, we often talk to children about why some animals are looked after in wildlife parks and where the animals would normally live, in their natural habitats.
• In the ‘Dear Zoo’ story, the boy wanted a pet. Do you have a pet? If you have a pet, talk about how you look after it and what it needs to be healthy. If you don’t have a pet, which animal would be a good pet for your family? Would you be able to look after a pet and give it everything that it needs?
• Are you ready for some quiet time? Find out about different pets in an episode of My Pet and Me.

 Physical Development

Fiddly Fingers

We’re going to make our own snakes in this activity, so you’ll need some small strips of paper and some glue.  Show your child the picture and talk about how to make the snake. Look carefully at how the body is made. They might remember making paper chain decorations in Nursery before Christmas.

Make a paper chain, linking each strip of paper together and then make a head to add on at the end. How long will your snake be?  Linking the paper strips is a great way to get your child moving their fingers and hands to increase dexterity.

Movement

We love to have a good boogie at Nursery and dancing is a great way to get us all moving in different ways! Join in with the Animal Boogie at home and have a go at some of the actions.

Movement play is really important in Early Years; it helps children to develop and strengthen connections between their body and brain. These connections lay important foundations for children’s future learning and development. We encourage all kinds of movement in Nursery, including crawling like animals and laying on the floor to slither like snakes – just as this song encourages children to do!

 Independence skills

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been trying to encourage you to help your child to become more independent, ready for their return to Nursery. We’ve been practising getting our coats on and fastening zips, putting on our own gloves and how to blow our own nose.  This week, we’d like you to have a go at putting on and taking off your own shoes. This is where Velcro or elasticated fastenings make it much easier!

If your child is already confident at doing this, can they put their own socks on? Have a go and see!

Key Worker activity and videos

For this week’s Key Worker activity, you’ll need some paper to draw your own snake or a snake outline and some crayons or colouring pencils/pens.  Watch the video to see how each of the teachers draws a different pattern onto the snake’s body. When you’ve finished watching, have a go at your own.

Key Worker video – Snake patterns

Here’s another activity for you to join in with – you’ll need two wooden spoons or utensils. It’s a song you might already know, all about ‘Going to the zoo’ and afterwards, you can learn some signs for some of the animals that you might see if you went on a trip to the zoo!

Key Worker song- Going to the zoo

Video –  Zoo animal signs

Friday Story Time

This week’s story time is with Mrs Gosper. She’s going to read ‘What a Mess!’ by Adria Meserve. Find a comfy spot to sit and enjoy the story!

Story – What a Mess!

Zoom sessions (for children learning at home)

This week, we’re going to do a ‘Scavenger hunt’ with the children. They’ll need to listen carefully to what they have to find and may need a bit of support to go and find the item and to return to the camera to show us.

Home learning in different ways

We have had some lovely pictures of children learning in different ways this week like refining problem solving skills, being aware of environmental issues, working on fine and gross motor skills and measuring. There has been word searching, litter picking, baking, bike riding, painting,  mosaic making and operating a digger!