World Nursery Rhyme Week
The week commencing 18 November 2019 is World Nursery Rhyme Week. Nursery rhymes play an important role in early childhood development and education. They aid language and communication, assist with learning early maths and support the development of children’s social, physical and emotional skills.
As part of World Nursery Rhyme Week we will be theming our teaching and classroom provision around well-known nursery rhymes.
These are the rhymes we will be looking at each day:
Monday – Baa Baa Black Sheep
Tuesday – Down in the Jungle
Wednesday – Incy Wincy Spider
Thursday – Row Row Row your Boat
Friday – Two Little Dickie Birds
Home-link
To further engage the children, we would like them to tell us about their favourite nursery rhyme. For example, they could bring in a book to share, a picture of their favourite rhyme or even a prop. We would also love to know what your favourite nursery rhyme was whilst you were growing up. Please could these be brought into school ready to share on Tuesday 19 November.
Children in Need
The children have really enjoyed dressing up for Children in Need today. We talked about why we were dressed up and why we had bought in £1. We then talked about those children who may be less fortunate than us. This then encouraged us to talk about what we are thankful for. Those children who had done their homelink were then able to share their drawings of what they are thankful for.
“I’m thankful for my house. It keeps me warm.”
“I’m thankful for my toys.”
“I’m thankful for my wendy house in my garden.”
Living and Learning: I know how to stop bullying.
Scholes is proud to be a happy and healthy place to learn. This week has been Anti-bullying week. We have used the ‘STOP’ acronym to make sure we are clear on what bullying is and how we can solve issues if they arise.
We discussed the meaning of the acronym:
- Several
- Times
- On
- Purpose
If bullying ever did happen, we agreed that we would:
- Start
- Telling
- Other
- People
Some children designed posters with this key information on to be displayed around school.
Home Link – World Nursery Rhyme week
We’re joining in with the celebrations for World Nursery Rhyme Week (w/c 18.11.19).
What’s your child’s favourite nursery rhyme?
Please bring in an item linked to this rhyme and practise singing/saying it together.
For example, you could bring in a sheep toy for Baa Baa Black Sheep, make a spider for Incy Wincy Spider or paint a star for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Rockets and magnets
Thank you to everybody for working on our Home Link activity for the week; we’ve seen lots of children trying to put on their own coats and some have also managed to fasten their zips too. Keep going! We’ll continue to work on this next week and you’ll find certificates in their folders. If your child has already mastered it, try something else that they need help with, for example putting on their own hat or gloves.
Our new ‘magnetism’ Discovery Zone has been very popular with children. They have been fascinated by the magnets and have spent extended periods of time investigating which objects would ‘stick’ to the magnets. We talked about the different objects and what type of material they were made from. With support, children began to make links in their experiences, noticing which materials were magnetic. We predicted and tested their ideas. Whilst exploring, children demonstrated lots of the ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning’ including finding out and exploring, being involved and concentrating and thinking critically.
Following on from Bonfire Night celebrations, some children have shown an interest in rockets. We’ve been re-telling the story of Baby Bear’s adventures to the moon in ‘Whatever Next‘ and building our own rockets outside. Children loved taking part in some space themed role play; they fastened their seat belts and put on space boots before blasting off to the moon and mars!
Fire Talk
Year 5 had a visit from West Yorkshire Fire Service. They talked about how to stay safe at home in the event of a fire. They explained the importance of smoke alarms and having a fire plan to get you and your family out of the house if a fire occurred. Do you have a fire plan for your house? This could be a good activity to do at home as a family.
Fiddly Fingers Stay and Play
Thank you to all those that came along to the fiddly fingers stay and play. We hope you enjoyed the session and came away with lots of ideas on how to support your child’s physical development in terms of their fine motor skills at home.
The next stay and learn will be Marvellous Maths on Tuesday 14 January 2020
Watch Us While We Work
Thank you to the parents who came to visit our classes on Tuesday – we fully appreciate that many parents would have been unable to attend due to work, etc. It was great to see so many faces and hopefully you found the session useful.
For those that couldn’t make it, here’s a few tips for helping your child at home.
Maths
Make sure you child is confident with their x tables up to 12 x 12. Rapid recall means being able to reply to a question accurately in just a few seconds. Once we’re confident with our tables, we can start to use this information to help us tackle trickier questions. At home, practise like this…
If we know that 3 x 4 = 12
we also know that…
30 x 4 = 120 0.3 x 4 = 1.2
30 x 40 = 1,200 0.3 x 0.4 = 0.12
300 x 40 = 1,200 0.03 x 0.4 = 0.012
300 x 40 = 12, 000
Here we are using the fact but making it 10, 100, 1000 times bigger or smaller.
Make it even harder by asking your child questions that involve using this skill:
7 x 90 =
600 x 3 =
12, 000 x 2 =
Reading
Here’s a few top tips for reading at home:
- give opportunities for your child to read in their head
- give opportunities for your child to read aloud
- model reading aloud with expression to your child
- ask your child to tell you things they know (facts), think (inferences) and wonder (inferences)
- challenge your child to come up with their own fact finding questions
- pretend to be two characters from the book they are reading and have a conversation (use things you’ve learnt about the character to get across their personality
It would be great if children were reading daily. If they’re a reluctant reader, let them read whatever they enjoy – reading is reading after all. If they love reading, try and encourage them to read a broader range of things.
Finally, it really helps our discussions as a class if your child has read to their target page – this is set every Friday.
If you have any questions or concerns about helping your child at home, please do not hesitate to come and speak to your child’s class teacher.
PE
The children have really enjoyed climbing and balancing on the climbing equipment.
First, we talked about why it is important to exercise in order to keep fit and healthy. Then, we talked about how to keep safe on the climbing equipment. Whilst exercising we talked about the changes in our bodies. For example, our heart beat was slow at the beginning but was beating fast at the end of the PE lesson!
Reminder: Please ensure your child has a PE kit every Tuesday. It is not safe for your child to climb on the climbing equipment in their school uniform.
Light investigation
Year 5/6 S have been investigating the idea that light travels in straight lines and thinking about how shadows are made. They predicted what would happen to the size of a shadow if the light source was brought closer or further away from an object. The children measured changes in shadow size and recorded the data in a table and in graph form. At home, ask your child what they found out.