Sharing a Shell
We’ve continued our learning on coastal habitats this week, by taking a closer look at rockpools and some of the sea creatures you may find in them.
Sharing a Shell
We enjoyed reading Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson.
We looked at the characters, events and settings and matched them with real images and text in a non-fiction book. In our writing, we wrote about what you might find in a rockpool.
The book also had some great messages about sharing and how to treat others. Linked to this, our word of the week was thoughtful.
Maths; counting and recognising the pattern of the counting system
This week, we’ve revisited our some of our key counting skills. Here are some of the skills that we have practised:
- tagging each object in a group of up to 10 objects (1-to-1 correspondence)
- knowing number names to 10 and their order (stable order principle)
- knowing that the last number counted gives the total in the set (cardinal principle)
- counting up to 10 things that can’t be seen or tagged, such as jumps, hops, sounds, etc. (abstraction principle)
- understanding that the quantity remains the same when (up to 10) objects are counted in a different order (order irrelevance principle)
- developing strategies to keep track of what has and has not been counted (e.g. rearranging objects into a line, moving objects as they’re counted.
Holidays in the past
We’ve been looking at the way people enjoyed a seaside holiday in the past, specifically in Victorian times. We’ve talked about the similarities and differences with seaside holidays in the present day.
Home Learning – Ask your child what they can remember about seaside holidays in the past.
Phonics
Summer 2 week 3 has focused on:
Phase 4 words ending –s /s/
Phase 4 words ending –s /z/
Phase 4 words ending –es
Longer words
Please continue to use the Little Wandle sheets, sent home with your child each week.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we learn a new poem and recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers.
This week’s poem is the traditional rhyming song- The Big Ship Sails.
The big ship sails on the ally ally oh,
The alley ally oh,
The alley ally oh.
The big ship sails on the ally ally oh,
On the last day of September.
The captain said, ‘It will never, never do,
Never, never do,
Never, never do.’
The captain said, ‘It will never, never do,’
On the last day of September.
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea,
The bottom of the sea,
The bottom of the sea.
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea,
On the last day of September.
More of our learning this week…
Reminders and Dates
Wednesday 2 July, 10.00-11.30am- Meet your new teacher. Your child will visit their new teacher this morning.
Thursday 03 July- Class trip to Nell Bank.
Friday 04 July, 3.15-4.15pm- Rec/KS1 FOSP summer disco.
Tuesday 08 and Thursday 10 July – 8.35am or 3.15pm – Learning journey drop-in.
Friday 11 July, 9.15-10.30am- Sports Day.
Swimming
Rainbow- 25 June, 09 July
Sunshine- 02 July
Temple Newsam Trip 2C
KS1 have had a wonderful day today visiting Temple Newsam Farm!
We started off the day with a fun 15 minutes on the playground before having a snack and visiting the animals on the farm.
We then did a workshop about the Three Little Pigs. We went to visit ‘Katie’ the pig in her pen. She had recently given birth to lots of little piglets. They were very sweet! We learnt that despite their stereotype, pigs are one of the cleanest farmyard animals. They make nests to live in, so we decided to make some structures, much like the houses in the Three Little Pigs. We made these out of sticks and putty!
We saw some more lambs, guinea pigs and chicks before having lunch and getting back on the coach.
WE HAVE HAD AN AWESOME DAY!!
Thank you to all adults at home, we wouldn’t be able to do these trips without your support. A HUGE thank you to all of our volunteers. We wouldn’t be able to go on these trips without you.
Year 3,4 Design and Technology and Reading
Design and Technology
What is TechCard?
This week, the children have explored using TechCard to make bridges. We had great fun!
We learned that a bridge needs a sturdy base to hold weight and that by layering the card, the bridge becomes stronger.
We can’t wait to design a prototype of a go-kart and use TechCard to make it.
Reading Records
Well done to everyone who remembered their reading record today! We celebrated some great examples of the reading record challenges completed.
Help at home by continuing to listen to your child read regularly. Please remind your child to bring their reading record in each week.
Circle Time
This week in Circle Time, we talked about changes, especially the upcoming move to a new year group. We shared some of the things we’re excited about, like new classrooms, teachers, and learning topics, as well as a few things we’re feeling a bit worried about.
We also talked about how important it is to share our feelings. We reminded ourselves of the different people and tools we can turn to for help, including trusted adults, our classmates, our class worry box, and of course our class Worry Monster, Winnie! It was a great chance to support each other and remember that it’s okay to feel a mix of emotions during times of change.
Help at home: Talk to your child about what they’re looking forward to and any worries they may have.
Sun safety
As the weather gets warmer this week, here are a few reminders from our previous communications.
Sun safe reminders
- Bring a named sunhat every day.
- Ensure your child has a full water bottle (named) at nursery every day.
- Parents and carers must apply cream before nursery.
- Please put your child’s name on their sun cream.
- Put sun cream in your child’s group basket if you want it applying at lunchtime. Please don’t leave it in their bag.
- Collect your child’s sun cream at the end of the day.
- Help us out by using ‘All day’ cream and applying at home
Thankyou for your continued support.
1A – Topic – cylinder silliness
During the last lesson of Topic, we learnt that the cylinder was the strongest 3D shape because it doesn’t have any corners. We laid books on top of a paper cylinder and counted 12 books before it collapsed. We had such a fun filled afternoon this afternoon experimenting further with the strength of the cylinder shape.
Everyone made their own cylinders using paper and masking tape. The children displayed such awesome team work and everybody was so willing to help one another. It was lovely!
Once all our cylinders were made, we taped all of our groups cylinders together to find out whether adding more cylinders weakens the structure or strengthens it. We laid books on top of our super-structures and counted to see whether they could hold more or fewer books than one single cylinder. We found that amazingly, our super-structures weren’t just a little bit stronger… they were MUCH stronger!
After that, we went one step further still – we used the super-structures we had made and created a super-duper structure by taping all of them together. It was buzzing in the classroom! Everyone was so excited that we were going to try and see if the super-duper structure would hold the weight of a person! We had a brave volunteer who stepped up. We could hardly believe it – the super-duper structure worked!!!
Help at home: Why don’t you try the experiment at home? You could tape paper cylinders together to find out how many you need to hold the weight of different members of the family.
Design & Technology: Go-karts!
In DT this half term, we’re designing and making our own go-kart prototypes using a resource called TechCard.
To get familiar with the resource, we enjoyed using some spare pieces to practise skills like folding and scoring.
Help at home: see if your child can tell you the definitions for: designing, prototypes, folding and scoring.
A lovely day for a game of cricket!
The sun was shining down on our PE lesson today as we got to work improving our cricket skills. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working on our batting skills – accurately holding the bat and hitting with accuracy. Today, we were improving our bowling skills using the hit and point technique. The children worked in small groups and created a game with a scoring system depending on whether they managed to hit the wicket or some cones when bowling. The children then developed this further to include batting. All the children ended the session with a game of Kwik cricket.
Help at home: Can your child explain some of the bowling and batting techniques they’ve been working on over this half term?
Transport
We continued our interest in transport this week using the ramps inside. The children used ramps and tubes to see how far their cars could go. We used a number track to check which car went the furthest, first to 5 and then to 10.
We learnt how to fold paper to create our own paper aeroplanes. It was quite difficult but we kept trying and were really pleased that we did. Outside we tested out our planes from various places. We wondered if they would go further if we set them off from the top of the slide?
Outside this week we practised our throwing, we aimed for some number on a target with the bean bags. We recorded our scores with tally marks on paper.
We used team work skills and our fiddly fingers to create some bridges, balancing the lolly sticks on the paper cups. We then tried to balance small figures on top. It was really tricky but we got better at it each time we tried.
Help at home
This weeks maths focus has been talking about our daily activities and using words to describe when things happen such day, night, morning or afternoon. We looked at our daily routines and tried to sequence the events. Try to use some of this language at home, too. What happens in your house in the morning? What do you do as part of your bedtime routine? What comes first, next, last? What day is it today? Do you go to Nursery tomorrow?
Reminders
- Our Nursery registration closes at 9.10am. Please ensure that you arrive to Nursery between 9-9.10am to allow us to begin our learning activities on time. Thank you.
- Please send your child with a rain coat to Nursery everyday; the weather is very changeable at the moment.
- We have lots of water bottles that don’t have children’s names on – remember to check that your child’s hasn’t worn off. You may also want to check cardigans and jumpers, too.
- Please ensure that your child’s sun cream is in their group basket if you would like it applying at lunchtime.
Living and learning : relationships
We have be learning about healthy relationships and boundaries in our Living and Learning sessions over the last few weeks.
We read a story called ‘More than one friend’. It made us think about leaving people out, having more than one best friend and being ourselves in friendships.
Friendships should make us feel happy and safe. If children have worries about friends, we encourage them to Start Telling Other People. Talking to an adult they trust – at home, outside the family, or at school.
