Homework email addresses
Please use the email addresses below for any photos, videos or presentations that are part of homework tasks.
Y1scholeshomework@spherefederation.org
Y2scholeshomework@spherefederation.org
Living and learning : assessing risks and staying safe
We had some great homework his week about staying safe and managing risks.
Living and Learning : staying safe online
Watch this to learn how to stay safe online. Photos or videos that are oart of homework tasks can be sent to our email addresses : Y1scholeshomework@spherefederation.org or
Y2scholeshomework@spherefederation.org
Hearts
It’s hard to avoid all of the Valentine’s Day cards, chocolates and flowers in the shops at the moment and children often notice these seasonal changes in the supermarket too. This week, we added a few heart themed enhancements to Nursery. In the malleable area, we had strawberry scented dough and we added different sizes of heart cutters . Children experimented with the sizes and different ways of stacking them.
There’s always a lot of learning associated with each photograph in Early Years. Here, you can see a tray of 3 identical playdough ‘biscuits’. This took time, some thought/planning and a great deal of concentration to complete. During the process, the dough needed to be manipulated in different ways; it needed to be rolled flat with a rolling pin and then cut out using different tools. All of which requires lots of fine motor coordination and skill. In order to make these biscuits, two different sizes of heart needed selecting and stacking on top of the other, in size order. Before this photograph was taken, there were only two biscuits on the tray. At this point, we talked about how many biscuits we thought we could fit onto the tray (estimating) and how many more we would need to make. There were so many different areas of mathematics covered in one simple activity. So, the next time you see a photograph of us ‘playing’, remember to think about all of the learning that was taking place during our play.
In maths, we used the pictures on heart playing cards to help us count out the correct number of heart beads to match the number shown on the card. Our sensory area was full of red items and some children managed to find extra red things from around Nursery to add to the tray.
The ‘Fiddly Fingers’ (fine motor) area was really popular this week. Children practised using their pincer grip to pick up the tiny pegs and enjoyed creating different patterns in the peg boards.
Home Link – Holidays
February half term
Please bring in a leaflet from somewhere that you visit or send us one or two photographs of your adventures and activities during the holidays. We will share these throughout the week when we return to Nursery. They’re always a great way of starting conversations and children love to show their friends.
Please email scholesf1@spherefederation.org
Wonderful homework!
Year 5/6S produced some amazing homework this week based on our Living and Learning statement: I can show different ways to stay safe, including online. We enjoyed looking at colourful posters, comic strips and even some quizzes. I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at all these creative ideas- keep it up!
Pride in progress awards
Well done to the children who were awarded our Pride in Progress awards this half term. The teachers chose children who have shown great improvements this academic year. They will get to choose a book as their prize. Well done!
Golden star
Well done to our most recent Golden Star.
Non-chronological report writing.
Year 5/6 have used their computing topic as a stimulus for their current piece of writing. The have written non-chronological reports to explain all the different elements of their Scratch games. They included sections such as ‘Meet the team’ and ‘Testimonials.’ They had to structure their reports well and include varied sentences, dashes, semi-colons and commas. They were very keen to promote their games and their vocabulary choices were effective and persuasive.
Is your child in Year 4?
The government is introducing a new assessment for Year 4 pupils. In June, each child in Year 4 is set to complete an online multiplication tables check (MTC). Read more about this new assessment.
There will be 25 questions covering the full range of facts children are expected to know, which means questions going up to 12 x 12. However, there’s slightly more weighting towards multiplication facts involving 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12 due to these being the most difficult to learn. For example, there will be between 2 and 4 questions involving multiplying by 6.
For each question, children are presented with a multiplication fact and an empty box. This may be written as __ x 6 or as 6 x __ .
If you’d like to practise at home, our own website has lots of spreadsheets you can download.
There are also lots of websites that you can use. This one is very similar to the MTC. It’s possible to alter the settings on this website to focus on particular times tables.
Another exciting way to practise times tables is through the ‘Times Tables Rockstars’ website. Every child has their own individual login details that enables them to access their account at school and at home. Feedback so far is that this is proving an enjoyable way to practise times tables facts at home!