Sharing our learning – Topic Review session
Thank you to all our parents and carers who came to the Topic Review session this afternoon. The children love sharing their learning with adults and enjoyed showing what they have learnt in our Topic Review Quiz.
If you were unable to attend this afternoon, why not try the quiz at home?
RSPB Wild Words Workshop
This week we had fun exploring the outdoors and using wild words during the RSPB workshop.
Who has left that glistening trail and how would it get up there? Is it raining today and where would an animal shelter? The session encouraged the use of wonderful wild words and aimed to develop language and vocabulary as we travelled around the outdoor area, considering our walk from the perspective of an animal. We collected the natural objects that we found to become prompts for sequencing a story to retell our outdoor experience.
While out exploring, the children were encouraged to use adventurous words. For example, instead of using the word big the children came up with some more exciting words to describe what they had found.
- ginormous
- massive
- gigantic
- enormous
Home link – 3 challenge cubes
Can you go on a bug hunt? Can you use your imagination to think of adventurous words to describe what you find?
Please email us any quotes from your child. This will support us in our assessment by providing evidence towards the communication and language and understanding the world strands of the EYFS.
Children express themselves effectively and develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas and events.
Children make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes.
Living and learning : I recognise my talents
What a wonderful homework review we enjoyed this week! We were treated to gymnastics, dance, bike riding, athletics, basketball, football, fitness skills, dog training, art, music, singing, book-making and skating – to name just a few. The children were excited to show off their talents in our usual homework review session. Thank you for the video emails and music CDs. We cannot access memory sticks on school computers. Please use the email addresses below for any future digital homework.
Y1scholeshomework@spherefederation.org
Y2scholeshomework@spherefederation.org
Living and learning – democracy in action
We have recently finished reading Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton, which the children all enjoyed immensely. We have been enjoying picture books and poetry at storytime recently but several children have asked when we are starting our next class novel.
I like a chapter book because then you can look forward to hearing the next part every day!
To ensure the book was chosen democratically, every child could vote for the one they would like next. We have ordered the books and will be starting Dear Teddy Robinson after the Easter holidays.
Year 5/6 SK Homework
There have been some amazing talents demonstrated this week. We enjoyed dance routines, guitar music, craft, fashion design and art amongst others. It was great to hear children speaking confidently about themselves and peers being supportive.
E-saftey in Scholes.
As part of our internet safety learning, we have been looking at the different types of websites and their uses.
First, the children discussed their understanding of website addresses, URLs and what they stand for.
https://www.ready.gov/volcanoes
http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/mountains/volcanoes.htm
In particular, we looked at the difference between ‘safe’ websites with encrypted security and those which are not secure.
We did this by checking the padlock on websites and those which have https and not just http. The ‘s’ shows us how this is secure.
We also looked at different domain names and what they are short for, like .com, .co.uk, .org, .gov, .net.
Then, we searched different website types and discussed what we found out.
New email address for homework
We have had lots of enquiries about emailing homework. The office email address is on the website but, from now on, any specific homework for year 1s or year 2s should be sent to the following addresses –
Y2scholeshomework@spherefederation.org
Year 6 Real Friends performance
The Real Friends performance by Leap One and Bright Sparks Theatre Arts was a fantastic opportunity for Year 6 to learn about hate crimes and mate crimes.
During the performance, the actors asked children what manipulation means:
‘Manipulation is where someone is being controlled beyond their own will.’ – Seth
At home, you might want to follow up this performance by asking your children some questions:
- Which part was the most powerful / emotional?
- What do you know about the word ‘vulnerable’?
- What are protected characteristics?
Living and learning: Brexit
After watching a newsround report, children in 56M had a discussion about Brexit. Many children contributed their views on Britain’s current relationship with the EU and what they thought might happen after the Brexit deadline. They also asked many questions. At home, you might want to discuss these questions and share your own views.
RSPB visit
This afternoon, we had a special visitor from the RSPB. We listened to a story all about a baby hedgehog. Everything in the hedgehog’s nest and little world was brown. The walls were brown, the floor was brown, Mummy hedgehog was brown – brown was everywhere! One dark night, Mummy hedgehog decided it was time to leave the nest. A whole host of sights, smells, sounds, tastes and textures awaited the little hedgehog. He enjoyed crunching a beetle in the garden; it tasted yummy. He saw colourful flowers and felt the prickles of a bramble bush on his nose. Ouch!
We talked about using our senses to explore our environment, just like the baby hedgehog had done on his adventures outside his nest. Next, the children worked in groups to explore the Nursery garden using all of their senses. They listened to the special call that robins use to ‘talk’ to each other and looked for different coloured flowers and plants. We enjoyed finding ‘smelly’ plants to make a special hedgehog soup.
What a great afternoon of learning in the sunshine! We’d like to thank the RSPB for joining us and running this session; we had a great time.
