Poems
This week in Year 3/4 reading sessions, we have been reading a range of poetry. There have been some good discussions about what they mean, the themes and the effect on the reader (us!).
Here is one which is linked to our topic book, Here We Are.
It’s called …
‘A Love Letter to the Stars’
We enjoyed spotting rhyming words- can you spot the rhyming pattern?
One of our pupils felt inspired to write her own poem. It’s wonderful! Thank you for sharing it, Tallulah!
Hi! My name is June
and I love the moon,
I love how it is so big
That I can never dig it,
I love how the stars can move to each place,
Like they are so close to space.
By Tallulah
Happy Historians!
Year 5 and 6 began their new History topic this week – Stone Age to Iron Age and Ancient Egypt. The children used photographs of historical objects to learn more about the past. They specifically looked at images of tools from the Stone Age, Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They discussed the advancements in the making of tools, such as the use of metal. Some children were also able to identify which time period an unknown tool was from and they applied what they’d learnt very well. They placed it in the Bronze Age.
Certificate stars!
My super certificate winners from last week were:
For great learning…
Ava – for a fabulous learning attitude and working hard across all subjects.
For sport and physical activity…
Hope – for showing great team work and skills in PE.
For living and learning…
Sam – well done for showing resilience in Maths.
Well done!
Phonics and the phonic screen check
The phonics screening check determines how well a child can use the phonics skills they have learned in year 1, ensuring that they are on track to become fluent readers.
Next half term, the phonics screening check will be taken by all children in year 2. Year 2 pupils who do not meet the expected standard in the autumn check will take the statutory check in June 2021, alongside year 1 pupils.
The phonics screening check contains 40 words divided into two sections. Both sections contain a mixture of real words and alien words.
The children are encouraged to add sound buttons or use phoneme fingers to read a word. Here is a video showing how we do this.
You can help your child at home by reading anything and everything!
School photographs
Children that attend Nursery on Wednesday 14 October will have their individual photograph taken.
Unfortunately, due to the current circumstances with Covid-19, school has had to make a few changes to how we normally organise the day. Sadly, this year, we’re unable to invite children that attend on other days.
Reading Meeting….
Good Morning!
Using the link below, you will find our virtual ‘Reading Meeting’
This gives insight into phonics and reading in school and how you can support your child’s reading at home.
The video is around 14 minutes long. Please click here to watch.
If you have any questions about anything you hear, please just ask us in person or send us an email: scholesf2@spherefederation.org
We will shortly be sending home your child’s reading pack. If you have not done so already, please send a book bag into school.
Thank you.
Phonics
This week in reception, we have begun to learn our red phase 2 sounds.
We have focused on our pronunciation and correct letter formations to form s,a,t,p.
We have enjoyed listening to the Jolly Phonics jingles and joining in with the actions.
Saying these letter rhymes helps us to form our letters correctly.
Can your child find any objects around the house or outside that have these sounds?
Celebration certificates – 1,2V
It’s Friday again…another learning-packed week.
As we can’t have our usual celebration assembly on a Friday at the moment, we will be posting the certificate winners on here each week for each class.
For great learning…
Georgia – for great learning in writing. You wrote some super sentences this week!
For sport and physical activity…
Lani – for super enthusiasm in PE and WUSU (Wake Up Shake Up).
For living and learning…
Kyan – for being an active learner. You often have your hand up and like to contribute in lessons. Well done!
Run, run as fast as you can…
In literacy, we have had a brilliant week rehearsing and retelling the story of The Gingerbread Man. Please ask your child to retell it to you complete with actions. Can they use the story map to help them?
In Maths, the children have enjoyed matching numerals to quantities of buttons to decorate the gingerbread men. We have also concentrated on the number two and forming this correctly.
We created ginger dough to role play making and baking our own gingerbread men.
Conkers galore!
You’ll have no doubt found a few conkers in your child’s pockets this week! We’ve enjoyed talking about Autumn time and exploring all of the different Autumn treasures that you can find whilst out and about on a walk at the moment.
In our maths area, we have a selection of open ended resources including apples, conkers, acorns and sticks. Children enjoyed weighing the apples, ordering the sticks by length and counting conkers. There were lots of great opportunities to develop and extend children’s vocabulary.
We also enjoyed rolling conkers down tubes and through paint! Children loved dipping the conkers in paint and getting their fingers messy.
And here are a few other highlights from the week…
- Re-telling ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ and looking for the bear outside and listening to the ‘Owl Babies’ story.
- Lots of singing, dancing and playing musical instruments.
- Playing with our new small world playground and jumping along a hopscotch track.
- Drawing ‘big’ pictures on the floor (and hiding inside giant boxes!), building train tracks and creating Duplo safari parks and peg patterns. What a busy week!
EYFS – Communication and Language
You may wonder what children are ‘learning’ at Nursery each day. We learn through play in Early Years and there are lots of areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) that we focus on during the Autumn term. One of our main focuses at the moment, is the ‘Communication and Language’ area of the curriculum. This is a Prime area and is divided into 3 important strands which includes listening and attention, speaking and understanding. Every child’s development is different, but listed below are some of the typical things that we’d expect to see in a child aged between 22-36 months. If you’d like to find out more, the ‘What to Expect When‘ document may be of interest to you.
Listening and attention
- I join in with singing songs and rhymes.
- I stop what I am doing, look at you and listen to you when you say my name.
- I listen to stories when you make different noises or use different voices as you read to me.
Speaking
- I can use simple sentences with 3-4 words to talk about what I am doing or what is happening.
- When I am talking with you, I talk about lots of different things – what I am doing, what I like or what I have done.
- I can ask questions such as “what”, “where” and “who” when I am sharing a book or playing with toys.
- I am beginning to use word endings, such as “I am going” instead of “I go” and plurals, such as “babies” when talking about more than one object or person.
Understanding
- I understand longer instructions or questions such as “Put the bricks away and then we’ll read a book”.
- I can show you that I understand “who”, “what” and “where” when you use short questions such as “Who’s that?”, “What’s that?” or “Where is?” as we look at pictures in a book or play with toys.
Reminders
- All children have an extra snack time (eg toast) each morning. As this snack is in addition to the free fruit that the government provides, there is a charge for each child. If you would like your child to enjoy this snack and haven’t paid yet, please send payment to the office this week.
- Everyone should have received an email with details about Nursery Parent/Carer consultation appointments. Please book your slot and contact the office if you haven’t received the email.