Spectacular Science
We’ve been focusing on working scientifically for the last few weeks – even learning a song about it.
All the children in Year 1 and 2 have enjoyed predicting, testing and recording results – especially when it involves smashing eggs! Ask your child to tell you what we found out.
Well done to our Golden Star this week.
Homework review
Each week, we share our homework within our classes.
This week, in 1K we each had an opportunity to discuss our creative and spelling homework. After our discussion, we looked at each piece of homework and voted for our favourite. The children decided to vote based on effort, use of colour, neat handwriting and ideas.
These pieces of homework will be on our display within the class.
We LOVE reading!
All the Year 1 and 2 classes visited Scholes Library again this week. It’s really fostering our love of books and reading. We hope you agree that when children choose their own books to read (as we do from the school library each week) they’re more engaged and motivated to read. Below are some lovely quotes from children after their library visit this week.
“I chose my book because it is cute. I like cute things.”
“I chose my book because it is like Christmas.”
“I chose my book because I like it when they hug.”
“I love my book because it is snowy.”
Times tables success!
Each term we carry out a screening check for times tables (out of 25).
In the Autumn term, the average score for Year 5 was 22.3. This has risen from the Summer term when the average score was 17.7.
85% of Year 5 children scored 20 or more. This is a huge improvement compared to 45% last year.
Results in Year 6 improved from an average score of 20.9 to 23.6. 90% of children in Year 6 scored 20 or more compared to 69% in the Summer term.
Congratulations! The homework each week is having a fantastic impact. Thank you for helping your child learn their tables at home.
Christmas Sing-a-long!
The children are really looking forward to performing their Christmas Sing-a-long for you. We’ve been practising the songs each day and we’ve been into the hall to practise. The children are becoming really confident with the songs.
Please remember to bring your child’s costume in by Friday 01 December so we can do a dress rehearsal next week!
Community Week 20-24 November 2017
As part of our themed week, Scholes In Bloom spoke to children about their work and awards they have received for making the village look so beautiful. They recently planted 3,000 crocus bulbs outside the library. They are hoping to plant more outside school. If anyone would like to donate any Spring bulbs, please leave them at the school office.
We had a visit from the Elmete Elderberries. They are a local group of older people who meet weekly to socialise and take part in various activities. Key Stage 1 enjoyed dominoes, jigsaws, card making, drawing and refreshments. We’re hoping to take some children to visit the group in the near future.
Beyond Inspired also provided a gentle fitness class, replicating what happens at the Elmete Elderberries.
Key Stage 2 enjoyed the ‘Zines’ workshop, using magazines, newspapers and comics to create collages linked to the community and identity theme.
In Scholes, the Posada is passed around families in the community to mimic the journey of Mary and Joseph in the Christmas story. It was brought to school by the Bliss family and will continue its journey around the village throughout December.
The School Council met to decide the charity that we will support throughout the next year. Each class discussed which charity they wanted to put forward following Talk Time homework and then the School Council made a final decision in a meeting this week. They wanted both an animal and human charity. They decided that The Donkey Sanctuary fitted this perfectly as they help animals but also humans, specifically young people with a focus on self-esteem, coping mechanisms, conflict management and empathy. We look forward to raising money for this worthwhile cause.
5/6M gymnastics
Children in 5/6M have been building on their gymnastics skills from last year. They focused on control and balance.
Home Link – What can you see in the sky at night?
Can you make your own night time picture?
You can print, stick, paint or draw a picture for our home link gallery. Be as creative as you can!
From the moon to the stars…
From the moon to the stars…
It was lovely to meet with all parents and carers last week at our parents’ meetings. We hope you found them informative and reassuring. As ever, the door is always open and we absolutely value your feedback. We’re very proud of all the children who have settled in beautifully and amaze us every day with their increasing skills and independence.
Following on from our discussions, please remember to:
- Let us know when you have completed a Home Link activity. They are really important and help your child to make links between learning at home and nursery.
- Share those ‘Wow’ moments with us! Grab a WOW observation sheet or simply e-mail us if it’s easier. We love to hear about how your child is progressing at home, too, and we use the information to help us plan your child’s next steps.
- Have a look at the ‘What to expect, when’ document if you’d like to find out more about the Early Years Foundation Stage.
The children have really enjoyed all of the ‘Whatever Next’ activities and as usual, initiate their own learning opportunities as they play. There has been some fantastic collaborative play in the small world and large construction as the children became ‘Rocket fixers’ when their rockets broke down leaving baby bear stuck on the moon. We’ve been thinking about what might happen if we were on the moon and the other things we might see on our journeys. After using tin foil to make shiny moon rocks, we thought about other ‘shiny’ things we might see in the sky and, of course, we remembered the stars.
We found playing a selection of games and puzzles with key workers to be a real success in learning to take turns and share. Once the adults moved away, many children continued to play and organise the games and were sharing independently. Despite the changeable weather, we’ve had lots of fun outdoors. The grass can be especially muddy so we have been transporting wheel barrows full of bark chippings to the bottom of the garden to help create an extra, ‘mud free’, area where children can play. If your child has any waterproof trousers, these are a great idea for them to play out in. It saves several changes of clothes in one day!
With Christmas fast approaching we have begun to sing our Christmas songs in preparation for the ‘Sing-a-long’. Every child should have received a costume letter. Please let us know if you’re having difficulty sourcing any item of clothing.
What are we learning this week?
We’re going to use the story ‘Laura’s star’ as a stimulus for our learning and playing this week. The book has a lovely message about caring and friendship. Using the ‘star’ theme, there will be lots of opportunities to practise our counting as we find hidden stars in the areas of provision and fish for stars in the water. Each child will make a salt dough Christmas star to decorate at the ‘Stay and Decorate’ sessions. Please look in your child’s folder for further information. Each time we cook or bake, we do of course use it as an opportunity to talk about counting, measuring and weighing the ingredients. We’ll also be exploring the ‘cold’ by adding coloured ice cubes to the water tray and investigating what happens. How long will it take for our ice to melt and what might be hidden inside the ice?
If you’d like to listen to the story, you can watch it here.
Highlights this week
We’ve started our Transport mini topic this week. We’re focusing around a book called Naughty Bus by Jan and Jerry Oke. We have enjoyed reading it and noticed how they use real photos and text effects.
We’ve also been finding, reading and writing contractions. You could help your child by pointing out contractions in their reading books.
Well done to our Golden Star this week.
