Living and Learning – Year 3,4

Our Living and Learning statements over the last couple of weeks have been:

I know what a drug is.

I know that some drugs can be harmful.

We have discussed:

• definition of a drug: a substance that changes the way the mind or body works
• how to use medicines safely
• how household chemicals and products can be used and stored safely
• that adults, over the age of 18, may decide to smoke, vape or drink alcohol
• some of the risks associated with smoking, vaping and drinking alcohol
• who to talk to if children were ever concerned about any of the above points – children know they can talk to trusted adults in school or contact other means of help such as Childline.

1,2B Lotherton Hall Trip

We’ve had a fabulous day at Lotherton Hall today. We visited the Wildlife World and learnt all about different animals and their habitats. We saw penguins, wart pigs, so many birds, bats, rats and wallabies.

We also had fun on the adventure playground and of course, eating our snacks and lunch!

Science: light

Children in 5/6 have been investigating shadows. They found out what happens to a shadow when an object is moved closer to the light source. We also looked at what happened to shadows throughout the day. Thank goodness for sunny days in January!

Help at home: create your own shadow puppet show. How can you change the shape of a shadow?

1A Geography Topic

Our new topic is well and truly underway and this half term we are practising being Geographers. To begin our topic we discussed the difference between the land and the water on our planet. We used atlases to find land and water on different maps.

We have also been learning about the United Kingdom and we now know which four countries make up the UK. We have also learnt the four capital cities and the seas that surround the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom Song has been a great tool to help us remember all the new information we have learnt.

Help at home: You could listen to the United Kingdom Song with your child. You might want to learn some of the words and the sign language featured in the video. Look at Google Maps, other maps or atlases to find the UK and the seas that surround it.

Reading- Inference Skills!

This week in reading we’ve been using our inference skills to answer questions about our new class novel, The Firework-Maker’s Daughter.

Inference is a reading skill that is all about looking for hints! The text might not tell us the exact answer but we can read around the words.

We started to explore the first chapter and discuss what we know and what we think about the characters so far.

We played a classroom classic called hot seating! This is where we step into the characters shoes and we ask them questions. We paused at a part in our class novel and inferred what each character was thinking and feeling.

Our success criteria for inference is:

• What do we know?

• What does it make you think?

• What can you infer?

Help at home: read with your child regulary at home. Pause to ask inference questions (What do we know? What does it make you think? What can you infer?) You could even play a game of hot seating!

Topic: What are the causes of climate change?

The children have been really enjoying their geography topic this week, focusing on the causes of climate change.

They have read articles and done some great learning about how factors such as increased food waste, deforestation, and the burning of fossil fuels contribute to the rise in global temperatures. The primary gases responsible for damaging the ozone layer are methane and carbon dioxide.

Help at home: Ask your child about the causes of climate change. Do they know the key vocabulary for this topic?

Physical Education-dance

This half term, in PE, we are looking at dance! Last week, the whole of KS1 watched a dance pro video to help us understand the different levels in dance. We then went into the hall to recreate the levels and begin our own dance motif. The freedom of space and the connection with our bodies was enjoyed by everyone! We even put our moves to music: ‘Running up that hill’ by Kate Bush was our selected track.

Help at home:

Here’s a link to the levels video. Why not have a go at home? Make up a dance that includes all 3 different levels. You could dance to your favourite track.

Living and learning: I know what a drug is

Our living and learning statement this week allowed us to explore our understanding of what a drug is. A drug is something that can alter the way you feel and think. The children were able to identify harmful drugs including alcohol and tobacco but also recognise that some drugs can help us, such as medicines. They also knew that medicines needed to be  prescribed by a doctor and taken appropriately. We then discussed how we might experience peer pressure into taking drugs. The children discussed strategies to cope in such situations. They were able to confidently talk about how they would resist peer pressure, remove themselves from difficult situations and be assertive in their choices and actions. The children always know they can talk to trusted adults in school about any of these issues and are able to also contact other means of help such as Childline.

Welcome back!

After a very snowy start, it was lovely to see everyone back this week and we enjoyed hearing all about your Christmas holidays.

Our main topic focus will be geography this half term. As geographers we will be exploring the environment and natural disasters. In this topic, we’ll look at the effects of global warming and discuss the use of fossil fuels and renewable energy. We’ll be using digital resources to look at how erosion has taken place over the last 100 years and how sea defences, such as groynes, help to minimise the effects.

In science, we’ll be brightening things up (not literally) as we explore the properties of light.

Our Living and Learning theme this half term is being safe. In the next two weeks, we’ll be discussing some influences associated with drugs and alcohol.

PE days:

56A Monday
56B Monday
56C Wednesday
All year 5 and 6 Thursday
Please read the uniform policy carefully. Children should come to school wearing their PE kit on their PE days

Reading records:

Just a reminder, children in 5/6 are expected to read on a daily basis. They have a reading record to record their responses to each text and a space for parents to sign and add a comment. It is still vital that children read aloud at home. Please continue to make this part of your daily routine.

Run, run, as fast as you can

Happy New Year and welcome back to Nursery! We hope that you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed a break over the festive period. We were expecting to welcome everyone back on Monday morning but the weather had other ideas ! It was lovely, however, to see everyone on Tuesday morning and hear about your holiday adventures and presents from Santa. Thank you for sending in your photos of your Christmas celebrations.

This week, we’ve been reading ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and children have been retelling the story in our small world area.  If you have a copy of the story at home, please enjoy reading it together. If not, you might like to listen to Mr Tumble reading it.

We have enjoyed joining in with the repeated refrain  “Run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.”

This week we have been learning our new sound is ‘m’ for mouse.  We pronounce it as  ‘mmmmm’.

Help at home: In group time, our sound bag had lots of ‘m’ objects including a marble, a mouse, a map and a mirror.  What can you find around the house that begins with the ‘m’ sound?  What other ‘m’ objects could we have put in our sound bag?

As the snow froze solid in our Nursery garden it was too dangerous for us to play outside. This led to lots of discussions about keeping safe.

” We could slip and fall” 

” I might bump my head” 

“We can’t run on the snow, like we can’t run inside” 

Well done everyone!

We couldn’t to go out in the snow, but we could bring the snow inside to explore.

We added snow to our water tray to create an arctic landscape.

The snow and ice felt

” very cold”  “wet”   “freezing”

We painted the snow and it looked amazing!

We used frozen paint to create our pictures.

Next week  – 13 January 2025

We look forward to welcoming our new families and children to Nursery for their first sessions on Tuesday 14 January. Our new ‘yellow group’ children will join red group as they come into Nursery through the main door each morning so it may feel a little bit busier than usual. Please be patient as we help to settle the new children into Nursery. We’re looking forward to getting to know everybody and making some new friends.

Next week’s learning: 

‘Dinosaur Roar’  by Paul and Henrietta Stickland is our story next week.  If you don’t have a copy of the book at home, you might enjoy watching the first 3 minutes of this clip together.

Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s along the play bar) and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip

Letter next week – ‘d’ for duck

Nursery rhyme next week – The Grand Old Duke of York

Have a happy and healthy weekend and thank you as always for your support.

The Nursery Team