Minibeast madness!
Week 1 – Minibeast madness!
Welcome back to nursery. We hope that you all enjoyed the half term break. It was lovely to see everyone’s smiling faces on Monday morning; there was a real ‘buzz’ in nursery as children enjoyed chatting and playing with their friends again. This week, we enjoyed looking in the garden for minibeasts. Children spotted lots of different types of bugs. We made a list outside every time we found a new one and used the digital microscope to have a closer look.
Some children had remembered finding some tiny eggs and insects on the leaves before the holidays and went back to see if they could find them. They couldn’t see them, but they did find some ladybirds, including a black one, and lots of aphids. We talked about the lifecycle of a ladybird and how they change when they grow, just like the tadpoles did.
Week 2 – What are we learning this week?
Following on from our children’s interest in ladybirds, we will continue with this theme this week. In maths, we will count the spots on ladybirds and find ladybirds that have one more or one less number of spots. We’ll enjoy playing this ladybird counting game on the Smartboard.
Children have also been asking lots of questions about bees when they’ve seen them flying between flowers in the garden. We’ll enjoy finding out about how bees make honey; at snack time, we’re going to make toast and enjoy sampling some honey. If you don’t want your child to take part, please speak to a member of staff.
In the creative areas, we’ll experiment with different printing and drawing techniques to create spotty and stripy patterns. Can you make some spotty or stripy pictures at home? Please remember to encourage your child to mark make (draw) in lots of different ways. Children will enjoy listening to ‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’ – we’ll talk about what the music reminds us of.
In literacy, we’re going to read ‘The Bad Tempered Ladybird’ and use pictures and props to re-tell the story. Please continue to play eye-spy games with your child to help them to hear the initial sounds in words. This week’s letter sound will be ‘Ll’ for ladybirds. Click on the link to hear the Jolly Phonics song. What can you find around your house that begins with l?
Golden Star
Well done to our most recent golden star!
Celebration assembly
Congratulations to all the children who received a certificate this afternoon. We’ve seen some fantastic progress, ideas and attitudes in our learning this week.
3d Shapes
This week, we have been looking at a selection of 3d shapes: cylinder, sphere, cube, cuboid, cone and triangular prism. The children have learnt the names of these 3d shapes and how to describe them by talking about the number and the shape of the faces. They went on a 3d shape hunt to find them in the environment.
When shown a dice they were able to identify it as a cube. When asked how they knew it was a cube and not a cuboid, a child answered “because it has 6 square faces”. Another child later commented “…our head is like a sphere”.
Challenge
Can your child go on a 3d shape hunt at home? Are they able to find all the 3d shapes we have looked at this week? Can your child name the 3d shapes? Take a picture or bring in some objects for your child to share with the class.
Your child can earn 3 challenge cubes for taking part in the 3d shape challenge.
Maths and PE
We have been using the newly painted 100 square on our playground to warm up for PE lessons and reinforce our maths learning. 2KL can be seen here doing the ‘2s stride’. They were counting in 2s and linking it to the 2 times tables facts. Help at home by testing each other on counting in 2s, division and multiplication facts.
Read and Sing
What a fun way to hone your reading skills – through reading new songs! We’re going to be doing more of this.
Funky Street Dance at Scholes!
Year 3/4 children really showed off their dance moves this week in an afternoon of Street-dance. Led by Rhinestone Dance leader, Rebecca, the children oozed confidence, energy and rhythm.
For the next 6 weeks, the children will learn individual and group routines, with a group performance (including all 3 classes) by the end of the block.
Remember your dancing kit everyone!
The Enormous Crocodile
We will be reading and using Roald Dahl’s The Enormous Crocodile as a focus for our learning over the next 2 weeks. If you have a copy, you could read it at home or watch a video of the story.
Living and Learning – Friends and Family
This week we have been talking about relationships, families and friends. We quickly learnt that everyone’s are different! We enjoyed talking about who is in our family and what makes a good friend. We drew our family – there were mums, dads, dogs, fish and grumpy grampys! Help at home by talking about how everyone’s family is different.
The Greatest Story Ever Told
Yesterday, the Hobgoblin Theatre Company performed a play for us. There was trouble in Fairytale Land. The Evil Queen was doing away with all of the handsome Princes and it was up to the 3 Little Pigs to stop her!
During the production we recognised lots of characters from many fairytales but they were all mixed up into different stories. We saw the Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, Goldilocks, Sleeping Beauty, The Seven Dwarfs, Red Riding Hood and her grandma, the Magic Mirror and many more…
