Living and learning
5/6 SK discussed telling the truth this week. They talked about how they felt when someone isn’t honest with them.
“I’d feel let down.”
“I’d be upset.”
They looked at different scenarios and discussed whether telling the truth would be easy or hard in these situations. They decided that telling lies weakens a friendship and saying sorry, and showing we are sorry we’re both important in repairing a relationship.
Living and Learning: Relationships and Sex Education
This week is the second week of our RSE learning.
We had a mature discussion about the differences between male and female.
We realised that males and females have more similarities than we have differences.
Incy Wincy Spider
It was lovely to be outside more at the beginning of the week and enjoy some more summery weather. Children enjoyed creating obstacle courses; they worked together to create a path through the ‘lava’ and helped each other to balance along the beams. It was great to see lots of children challenging themselves and working as a team. Balancing, climbing, jumping and moving in different ways are all important aspects of the Physical Development part of the curriculum; this is one of the prime areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage. We also enjoyed finding out all about spiders. Outside, we created a giant web that we could climb through and in our maths area, we carefully counted 8 legs onto our spiders.
Over the last few weeks, we have been looking closely at the insects on our willow arch. Children have found caterpillars, aphids, beetles and ladybirds. One particular insect caught their attention – it was black and spiky and had orange/red marks on its back. We’ve discovered that the little creatures are ladybird larvae. This week, we will learn all about the life cycle of ladybirds.
Transition into Foundation One
Our older children have enjoyed various activities over the last few weeks to aid their transition into Foundation Two. They’ve been visiting the classrooms to play and have enjoyed listening to a story with Mrs Palmer and Mrs Turner in Nursery. In the mornings, children have visited the ‘big playground’ and this week, they’ll enjoy joining in with ‘Wake Up Shake Up’ too.
On Tuesday 18th, many children enjoyed staying for a school dinner. They ate in the main school hall where they got to collect their own cutlery and use a tray. All the children coped very well with this new experience – they even managed to keep their trays flat so that no lunches escaped onto the floor!
Living and Learning-I know the difference between laughing with someone and laughing at them.
What a great thing to discuss and be mindful of! KS1 are very impressive to talk to about their Living and Learning skills. Maybe you could ask them their views on this statement. Here are a few shining stars who can be relied upon to model exemplary behaviour and attitudes towards others.
Temple Newsam Farm
On Tuesday, we were very excited to finally be going on our first school trip. Luckily, the rain stopped and the sun was shining as we set off on the coach.
When we arrived at Temple Newsam Farm we split into two groups. The Rainbow children spent the morning on a Gruffalo Hunt whist the Sunshine children spent their morning on the farm. At lunch time we came back together and enjoyed a picnic on the field. Then we swapped over for the afternoon.
The Gruffalo Hunt
Before we went on a Gruffalo hunt we listened to the story. After, we went on our hunt and looked for signs of animals along the way. We discovered lots of clues that told us a variety of animals/minibeasts had been about. We found animal footprints, animal poo, we noticed that lots of leaves had been nibbled at, we found some trails in the long grass where animals had created a path and we also found lots of mole holes – which we enjoyed digging to find the tunnel entrance!
The Farm
On the farm we saw a variety of animals. Some of our favourites were the piglets, bulls and geese. Our farm tour guide told us that a female sheep is called a Ewe, a male sheep is called a Ram and a baby goat is called a Kid. We also looked at some old machinery that the horses used to pull along the fields before the vehicles became motorised. We also had a look in a Blacksmiths workshop.
The Park
We also enjoyed having some time on the play park. We took turns to go on the equipment. We also nipped down to see Andy (the beekeeper that came to visit us in school a few weeks ago). He wasn’t there but we managed to find the queen bee in the hive by looking for her green spot.
We would like to say a huge thank you to the parent volunteers who supported us on the trip. We hope you had a great day out!
Challenge – 3 bricks
Can your child tell you something that we did to make sure that they all stayed safe during the trip? e.g. they all wore hi-vis jackets, we split them into small groups with an adult, lots and lots of counting of the children.
Please email any quotes from your child. This will support us in our assessment by providing evidence towards the Health and Self-care strand of the EYFS.
Children talk about ways to keep safe.
Year 6 Enterprise
Year 6 would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents and carers, who attended their mini summer fair yesterday. Although the money is still to be counted, the event was a big success with plenty of smiles all round.
Wiggly worms
There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden… and there are also lots of worms wriggling around in our new Nursery wormery! Children were fascinated watching the worms wiggle their way to the bottom of the tank. We enjoyed creating string ‘worm’ paintings and picking wriggly worms out of the mud in our sensory area. Despite the miserable, cold and wet weather this week, we have still ventured outside and children have been busy hunting for minibeasts. They found many different types and have been learning all about their habitats.
Some children have also shown an interest in unicorns and mythical creatures; they love the new fantasy small world area in our book corner. We’re hoping that it will be a great stimulus for some fantastic story telling.
We were also very excited to see that some more of our tadpoles have grown legs. Using our Exploroscope and iPad, we were able to zoom in and look at them more closely. It was quite tricky to do as they move so quickly but Miss McKechnie managed to take this screenshot of one of them. What can you see?
Living and Learning – Staying Safe Near Water
It’s Drowning Prevention Week so we have been looking at ways to stay safe near water.
We looked at the DO’s, DON’Ts and DANGERS of open water.
Here is a snapshot of our learning:
A busy week in Foundation 2
We’ve had a busy week in Foundation 2. The children wanted to change the Rainbow home corner and between them all they had lots of ideas. Such as a garden centre, a theatre, a circus or a cafe. To make it a fair process we had a vote. The children all had one vote each and the circus won.
In the modelling area some children made Fathers Day cards. During circle time we shared ideas on why we love our dads, grandads, brothers or uncles. Below are a few examples of what the children said.
- “I love you because you are really handsome.”
- “I love you because you are kind and help me.”
- “I love you because you play with me.”
We looked at instructional writing. We read some instructions on how to make a jam or cucumber sandwich. They children carefully followed them to make their own sandwich. After, some children had a go at writing their own set of instructions.
Finally, on Friday we made a womery. We read a non-fiction book which told us what we would need and we carefully followed the instructions to set it up. The children worked as a team to layer the soil, sand and compost into the tank. The children particularly enjoyed placing the worms into the wormery.
- “It’s slimy.”
- “It’s wiggling about.”
- “We need to put water in so the soil isn’t dry.”
- “The leaves make the worms grow bigger.”
Challenge – 3 cubes
Please keep reading the word rocket words at home. These are a selection of tricky and high frequency words which will build your child’s confidence and fluency in reading.
We are really proud to see that lots of children have completed the word rockets and recognise the tricky and high frequency words by sight. Please now start to practise writing the rocket words.
Living and Learning – RSE (PANTS)
As part of our school’s RSE (Relationship and Sex Education) curriculum, the Year 1 and 2 children have revisited our learning about the Underwear (PANTS) rule. The NSPCC have developed a friendly dinosaur, Pantosaurus, who talks about PANTS. It is a simple way to teach children about how to stay safe from abuse.