Class News

3,4A Class News

This week, we finished writing our promotions about York. We created leaflets and made sure to use rhetorical questions, commands and alliteration. We then worked with our partners to check through our sentences. The children did an amazing job and it’s been lovely hearing them confidently reading out their favourite section to the class.

In Geography, we’ve been also been learning about York but from the point of view of comparing it to Venice. We’ve looked at the locations of both cities, learnt about their scale and are now thinking about why tourists want to visit them, before we move on to considering the issues raised by overtourism.

In PE this half term, we are developing ball skills by learning about the sport of basketball. This week was all about fitness for basketball and so we did a carousel of activities around the playground, including skipping, shuttle runs and ladder runs.

Help at home by asking us why it’s important to exercise regularly.

Living and Learning – Healthy eating

This week and next, Year 3,4 are looking at all things healthy eating!

So far, we have discussed what is meant by a ‘balanced diet’ and used the ‘Eatwell Guide ‘ to talk about the different food groups and roughly how much of each of the food groups constitutes a balanced meal.

Next week we will move on to explore what people should eat more or less of and consider the issue of hidden sugars. We will also learn about simple food swaps and ideas to develop healthy eating habits. 

Help at home by asking us what the main food groups are!

3,4B Class News

This week we have learnt lots of information about York and Venice across the curriculum!

In writing, we have produced our own promotional piece on either Venice or York – explaining lots of varied information about our chosen city whilst using persuasive devices such as alliteration, commands and rhetorical questions to encourage our audience to visit!

In geography, we have produced fact files on York and Venice – this time focusing on three geographical concepts – location, scale and place. This included using atlases to establish the direction from Leeds and the latitude and research online to find out facts such as population and size.

This term, our new class novel in Y3/4 is ‘The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane’. We are all really enjoying the story so far and can’t wait to find out what happens to Edward next!

Help at home by continuing to listen to your child read and asking them questions as they go to help develop their understanding.

Geography: What is a rainforest?

We have been exploring the Amazon Rainforest this week. The children have a secure understanding of the location and climate of this region now. They studied the four different layers of the forest and how this offers up a huge variety of plant and animal species. Discussions took place about how the rainforest is different to the forests we have in the UK. Earlier in the week, the children researched the Dalby Forest and understood its location and uses. These are two very contrasting locations.

Help at home: Can your child remember the name of the four layers of the rainforest? Can they describe the vegetation and animals that exist within each layer?

Apostrophes

For the past two weeks, Year 2 have been learning all about apostrophes and how to use them. We have been learning to make and write contractions (where we push two words together, lose a letter or two and replace with an apostrophe). We’ve also been learning to show possession using apostrophes.

See some of our fantastic work!

A visit to Scholes Library

On Tuesday, KS1 visited Scholes Library where Madeleine welcomed us with open arms. She talked about the library, how it works and how you can join. The children were given time to explore the library and to look for books to bring back to school to support our learning. Everyone had a lovely time and we’re looking forward to our next visit. Thank you to Madeleine and to all the volunteers who helped us on the day.

Help at home: Talk to your child about the library and let them show you where Scholes Library is. Perhaps you would even consider joining the library?

We Are Explorers!

Over the last two weeks in KS1, we have begun the journey on this half term’s topic ‘Explorers.’ We have learnt the names of the 7 continents and the names of the five oceans by using catchy songs to help us (links below.) We have located them on maps and globes and in atlases too.

We talked about how different countries can have very different temperatures and we thought about why this could be. The ‘Arctic/North Pole’ and ‘Antarctic/South Pole’ have very different temperatures to those countries that sit on the equator. We plotted them on a map and we noticed that the further away from the equator you go, the colder the temperature. We talked about this being because the Arctic and the Antarctic are further away from the Sun than the equator.

Help at home:

• Discuss different countries and their temperatures with your child. Perhaps you or someone you know have been on holiday to somewhere hotter than the UK. Why was that country hotter than England? Can you find different countries on a map (including Google maps)? Which country would be the colder one? Why?
• You could also sing the Seven Continents Geography Song and the Five Oceans Song with your child:

Seven Continents Geography Song – YouTube

Five Oceans Song (youtube.com)

Superworm

Whilst the sun did shine a little bit more this week, it was still quite chilly in the nursery garden.  We didn’t let that stop us from exploring; we hunted for wriggly worms, slimy slugs and other bugs and we loved being able to access the music area and wobbly bridge now that the ground is a bit drier.

Our story this week was ‘Superworm’ by Julia Donaldson. We looked at some real worms that we found in the garden and talked about where they live. In the maths area, we compared the length of different worms and counted how many long and short ones there were. We continued this learning in the sensory area, counting spaghetti worms that we caught with tongs. In the dough area, children loved rolling dough to make a very long Superworm!

Help at home – Counting objects to 5

We’re working really hard on our counting skills. Here are a few things to remember when your counting together at home.

• Count anything and everything in everyday life!  Birds on the fence, coins, biscuits on a plate, apples in the bowl… 
• It is often easier to count objects accurately if they are in a line so encourage children to touch/move each object as they count it.
• Ensure that they only say one number for each object as they point to it/touch it.

We also found a snail outside and looked at the spiral patterns on the shell. In the creative area, we drew spirals and circles and made swirly snails in the dough, too.

Our other learning and interests this week have included:

– Using a straw construction set to make masks, flowers and fireworks.

– Working together to create a new Pizza shop role play area. Children drew their favourite pizzas to add to the menu and helped to gather the items that they would need, including making a pizza oven! We’ll share some more photos of our creations next week.

Next week’s learning:

We’ll find out about spiders and enjoy reading ‘Spider Sandwiches’. We’re still watching our caterpillars closely and have noticed how much bigger they are. We may even have some more wriggly visitors coming to Nursery… Can you guess what they could be?

Letter sound of the week – V for volcano

Nursery rhyme of the week – Incy Wincy Spider

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This week, we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. As a class, we created a story map to help retell the story. We used time connectives to develop our story language.

First,   Next,   After that,   Finally,  

In our writing, we have been composing sentences to retell main events of the story. Some children chose to adapt the story by changing the main character and food.

The reading challenge this week was to create a story map.

Maths

This week, we have continued to develop our subitising skills (see the quantity without counting) in complex arrangements.

We have explored creating arrangements of 6. The children explained how they could see 6.

Phonics

This week, we have continued to learn phase 4 words such as frog, shift, chimp and drum.

We’ve also learnt more phase 4 tricky words; some, come, love and do

Help at home- Please continue to work through the weekly learn at home phonics sheets, throughout the Summer term. We’ll continue to send these home each Friday.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Under a Stone. Watch here.

Living and Learning

I know the importance of sleep.

The children thought about different reasons we need sleep and how to get a good night’s sleep.

It can sometimes make your eyes sting. (screens)

It wont help her brain. If she’s distracted she wont go to sleep. (iPad)

You shouldn’t have any screen one hour before bed.

If you put a calming song on your might go to sleep.

Science

The children have been amazed at the rapid growth of the caterpillars. Each day, we have observed how they have changed and recorded what we noticed

They are massive now!

They have got too big for their skin.

They are moulting.

Reminders and Dates

SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1

Rainbow Class-  1 May, 15 May

Sunshine Class- 8 May, 22  May

Living and learning – dental health

Our Living and Learning lessons have all been about dental health this week. We talked about why we need to brush our teeth, who can help us take care of our teeth and how we can take care of our teeth.

We used these pictures to talk about who and how we can take care of our teeth.

Help at home by making sure your child brushes their teeth regularly and properly.