Scholes swimming lessons
Most of the Year 1 and 2 children are working on or towards their ASA Learn to Swim Stage 2 Awards in school swimming lessons this half term. Nicole (our swimming instructor) is pleased with their progress and will assess the children at the end of term. If your child achieves the award, a slip will be sent home. There has been a focus on breaststroke, water confidence (including swimming 5m under water), swimming through a hoop and picking up sinker rings. The next award will be 10m badge which requires breaststroke, backstroke and front crawl. The strokes will be a big focus next half term.
Children in Reception class (F2) are working on their Duckling 1 badge and will also be assessed soon. Their water confidence and ability to get changed independently has also improved since they started swimming lessons in school.
Here are some comments from children about their swimming lessons…
- ‘I can now do backstroke.’
- ‘I have enjoyed doing different strokes.’
- ‘We do frog legs. Bend, out, together!’
- ‘When I first went under the water, it was a bit scary. I enjoy going under the water now!’
- ‘I like going under the water to fetch the mermaid toy.’
Super Skippers
The whole school enjoyed sessions delivered by Jodi Corcoran from Skipping School this week. The primary aim is fitness through fun and she includes every child in the sessions, regardless of their skills. There is a clear pathway through the skills to ensure all children make progress. After all the sessions, there was a celebration assembly for the whole school. Lots of children demonstrated their achievements.
Please bring skipping ropes into school after half term so the children can continue to improve their skills.
See children demonstrating the skills below for more skipping ideas. Which ones can you do?
Pupil voice
Your child will be coming home with a pupil feedback form. Please talk to your child about the questions and record their answers. Your child’s voice matters and we would like to know their feelings and opinions about their learning at school.
Reading Workshop
Thank you to all the parents who attended the reading workshop during parents’ evening last night. Don’t worry if you missed it because the workshop will be running again during the parents’ evening on Wednesday 07 February between 5pm and 7pm.
The workshop provides tips and advice on how to support your child’s reading at home. The year 6 children running the workshop demonstrate games and activities to encourage a love of reading. If you have five minutes after visiting your child’s class teacher, then pop in and see what the children have to offer.
Below are some comments from parents who attended the workshop:
- “This was a useful and informative workshop. Useful for our two younger children.”
- “Good descriptive information to support at home.”
- “Really fun and enjoyable. I’d recommend coming.”
Home Link – Half term adventures
Please remember to complete the Dinosaur Home Link if you haven’t already. Children love to see their pictures on display and enjoy sharing their favourite story books from home with their friends.
There are lots of dinosaur related games and activities on-line. You could listen to a story all about a dinosaur on CBeebies bedtime stories.
Holiday fun
We always like to find out what the children have been doing in half term, but their usual response is, “I can’t remember!”
Please can you help them! Send us some photographs, save a leaflet from somewhere you visit or draw a picture together of something that you do. It usually opens up a great conversation and other children will often then join in. Thank you – we look forward to hearing all about your holiday activities.
Here come the dinosaurs… STOMP, STOMP, STOMP!
Week 5 – Dinosaurs
It was great to see the excitement and interest in our new dinosaur enhancements last week. Children were particularly drawn to the maths area where they lined up the mini dinosaurs to count them and to sort them according to various categories including size, type and colour. We began to find out lots of facts about dinosaurs; we talked about their body shapes and what type of food they ate. Children enjoyed learning some new big words, including herbivore and carnivore. We wonder if they can remember what they mean? Many children became interested in volcanoes and lava throughout the week. We watched some videos of volcanoes erupting and the children were set a challenge… Could they make their own erupting volcanoes using the Duplo bricks? There was a lot of team work as the children created a volcano shape using the bricks and with a bit of vinegar and bicarbonate of soda magic, they enjoyed watching the fizzing and bubbling as their volcano erupted!
Mark making was a popular activity outside last week. Children used the giant chalks to draw lines, circles and crosses on the playground. (Great for developing their gross motor skills!)
Week 6 – What are we learning this week?
Wow! The final week of half term already. As the children are still keen to find out more about dinosaurs, we’ll continue to see where this interest leads us this week. In group time, we’re learning to hear the initial sounds in words and we’ll be learning a new letter. It’s the first sound in one of our favourite dinosaurs… stegosaurus. We’ll play eye spy with objects beginning with ‘s’ and will sort objects into those beginning with ‘d’ and ‘s’ sounds.
You can listen to the ‘s’ Jolly Phonics song that we will be listening to here. Children don’t need to be able to write the letter ‘s’ just yet, we will focus on the ‘s’ sound that it makes and will identify words that begin with this sound. What can you find at home that begins with ‘s’? If you notice your child becoming more aware of sounds, remember to e-mail us their Wow moments.
Letter Formation
This week, the children have been practising their letter formation in lots of different ways – with paint, sand, white boards, the interactive board and chalk.
Can your child practise their letter formation at home? You could get creative and use other materials to write letters such as shaving foam, sand or paint in zip-lock bags. It’s also really important to practise holding a pencil with a tripod grip and practising letter formation with a pencil will support your child’s writing journey.
Please send us an email to share how your child has been practising their letter formation at home. Your child will receive two challenge bricks for practising at home!
Amazingly atmospheric writing!
We’re thrilled to share two amazingly atmospheric examples of writing with you by Reece and Jacob in Year 6.
The children used one of the Year 5 and 6 Learning Objectives to develop the skills of using other writing as a model for their own writing. This isn’t simply copying another writer; instead, it’s using their work as inspiration, a model, for their own ideas and style. The original text was the wonderful ‘The Nowhere Emporium’ by Ross MacKenzie.
LO: To use other similar writing as a model
The shop was made of midnight black stone, embedded in little specks of silver and gold. The iron gate sat there in front of the grand oak door, guarding the entrance like a soldier. It had wooden beams which reached sky high which loomed ominously over the dusty street. Although the giant beams and the great gate looked quite foreboding, there was something calming and also quite mesmerising about the strange building. Just above a black, tinted, barred window were some letters that spelled out the name: The Midnight Mall.
Inside it seemed almost completely normal. The darkness ate at the light in the corners but that was all. Or at least it seemed like that was all. But if you focused a bit more you’d notice a green aura of light around all of the objects. The walls had cracks in them, the plants whacked each other with their branches even though the air was still. Small and very distant screeches could be heard if you stayed quiet. The place seemed quite intriguing yet kind of scary all at the same time, if you notice all those things. The shop with all this stuff that is quite mysterious can only appear at midnight.
Afterwards, it will be gone.
LO: To use similar writing as a model
The Master led Vindictus through the abandoned worn-out factory. The derelict building stood lifeless. Its crumbling chimneys and hanging gutters were clogged with moist, rotting leaves and the walls were pitted, as if they had been gnawed by hundreds of starving rats. Vindictus followed the Master through to the decrepit, ancient office. The Master snatched a worn key from a battered safe. They passed conveyor belts that hadn’t been used for a decade or two.
“Argh!” screamed the Master as a nightmare-ish, blood curdling wail erupted from a larger-than- life bat. Whilst the Master was hyper-ventilating, Vindictus asked, “Is this where you keep him?” pointing to a weather-worn prison cell. “I’m afraid we had no choice,” sighed the Master. “He was violent to the other boys but he is well fed.” The prison cell was dark and dreary. Boxes were scattered around the room. They contained unknown items. Although the entrance was damaged from constant usage, it was still firm. The boy inside was dreary, lonesome and unexcitable. However, there was something intriguing about him.
I’m sure you’ll agree that these are very accomplished! Well done to all our children. We could have chosen lots of their writing to publish!
Golden Star
Well done to our Golden Star this week.
3 2 1 DODGEBALL!
A huge well done to our Year 5 Dodgeball team. They entered their first competition organised by PE Partner at John Smeaton Leisure Centre today and they WON! They will now represent Scholes at the Leeds finals in June.
