Living and Learning-We respect and understand the differences between people. (SRE)
We have had some wonderful discussions about the differences between boys and girls! We have been challenging stereotypes and questioning many things.
Do only girls have long hair? Do all boys enjoy football? Why do we dress baby boys in blue and not pink? Are girls or boys better at gymnastics? Do only girls like fashion?
We were fascinated that girls can have babies. We linked this to our previous Topic work on mammals feeding their young.
In the end, the children summarised their learning to this: the main differences between boys and girls are their bodies. 
Maths-Measures
We have been comparing and ordering length and mass. In particular, we focused on mm, cm, m and Km. The children have enjoyed using a trundle wheel in the playground to measure our playground markings.
Year 6 investigation
Children in year 6 have been investigating triangular numbers. Can you find a pattern? What is the rule?
Pupil power
Year 5 and 6 School Councillors have had a fabulous day attending the Youth Voice Summit at the Leeds Civic Hall. The purpose of the day was to learn what a campaign was and how to implement one within school.
During the day, we created a campaign – IF THE SEA CAN’T PROTEST, WE WILL! The campaign was all about using less plastic.
We made our own placards and shared our campaign aims with School Councillors from other schools. We even met the Lord Mayor and learned how the 99 council members of Leeds vote.
It was fun quizzing the Lord Mayor.
I really liked going into the council chambers.
Library visit – we need you!
We’re hoping to visit Scholes Library on Tuesday 17th July. However, we need your help to be able to visit.
Are you available on Tuesday 17th July at 10.45-12.00pm?
If so, please speak to your child’s class teacher about volunteering to help take Foundation to Scholes Library.
Living and Learning – What makes a boy or a girl?
Last week we talked about what attributes make a boy or girl. There were lots of stereotypical comments.
Girls have long hair but boys have short hair.
Boys play football and rugby but girls do dancing and gymnastics.
When we talked more about these comments the children were quick to give examples about girls with short hair or boys that dance. When we looked through the comments and talked about them we found that the facts were about body parts and functions.
Girls can have babies when they grow up.
Girls and boys have different private parts.
Help at home by challenging gender stereotypes and encouraging children to think about the person, rather than protected characteristics. It is, “one of the easiest ways to create a culture free of prejudice, and support children to develop a true sense of self, by actively celebrate difference. This helps children to understand that no two people are the same, and in turn makes all children feel happier and more secure.” stonewall.org.uk
Active Playtimes
We encourage children to be active at playtimes, ensuring that they have at least 30 minutes of physical activity during the school day. There is the adventure playground, the new playground markings, a variety of play equipment and skipping to choose from.
Golden Star
Well done to our most recent Golden Star!
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Week 3 – The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Children loved listening to ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ last week; they especially enjoyed re-telling the story using story props in the puppet theatre. We have been monitoring our chrysalis closely, watching for signs of movement. So far, the majority are still hanging safely. On Friday, we saw that one butterfly had already emerged, but sadly, it had a damaged wing. Once we’d looked at it carefully, we decided the best place to let it go would be into the sunshine near some red flowers. Children were really thoughtful and suggested ways that we could try to help it. We decided that we’d become ‘butterfly vets’ and we tried to make it a new wing. Children experimented with mixing blue and yellow powder paints to make different shades of green and used the caterpillar outlines to carefully paint strip caterpillars.
Week 4 – What are we learning this week?
We’re going to continue learning about ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ as this has been really popular. This week, we will talk about the food that the caterpillar ate and decide whether they are healthy or unhealthy. We will sort foods into categories, try some different types of fruit and find out about how to keep our teeth healthy when we do eat sugary foods. Look out for a brown paper bag in your child’s going home folder this week – there are some ‘teeth’ related goodies inside.These have been kindly donated by a member of Nursery – thank you.
Our letter for this week is… ‘f’ for food. Please sing along to the Jolly Phonics song at home and find things that begin with ‘f’ at home.
Home Link – Healthy eating
This week we are going to talk about the different foods that the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate.
– Which foods are healthy?
– Which have lots of sugar in?
We’d love children to be able to try some more unusual fruits, especially ones that we don’t get for snack time in Nursery. If you are able to, please bring in a different fruit for us to taste. For example: plums, kiwi, mango, berries etc..
If you don’t want your child to take part, please speak to Nursery staff.
This week’s letter is ‘f’ for food. What can you find at home that begins with ‘f’? Children love to add their items to our sound shelf, so please feel free to bring them in to Nursery.