Sharing a Shell
During story time this week, we read ‘Sharing a Shell‘ by Julia Donadlson. We talked about trips to the seaside and some of the things that we’d found on the beach.
Seaside photographs
Thank you to everyone that has sent in a seaside photograph so far. It’s not too late if you’d like to email us one photograph of your child at the seaside – we’ll look at them during snack time and talk about our favourite things to do on the beach.
Children have enjoyed exploring shells and sorting them into different shapes and sizes. We painted some large scallop shells and also used wax crayons to rub over paper placed over the top of shells. Children noticed the patterns and stripes of the shell as they rubbed over the shell.
In maths, we’ve been learning about capacity. We’ve been talking about when something is ‘full’ or ’empty’.
Help at home: Use these words together at home when you’re playing, in the bath or cooking. Is it full or empty? How do you know?
Next week’s learning
We’ll continue with our sea side theme and will listen to ‘Commotion in the Ocean‘ at story time to find out about different sea creatures.
Nursery rhyme of the week – Ring a ring a roses
Phonics – Children in Red, Blue and Green group are re-visiting all of the sounds they have learnt this year and will be playing games to practise some key phonics skills including:
- identifying initial sounds in words (playing I-Spy type games)
- segmenting and blending words orally (e.g. h-a-t and b-u-s)
- spotting rhyming words
Class News
In our topic lessons, we have been sewing! We practised running stitch and over stitch. Today, we have designed a pouch with a specific function – to hold money, pencils or cards. We are looking forward to making our pouches next week.
Over the last three weeks in PE, we have had great fun developing our tennis skills. Some of us managed over 100 hits to keep the ball in the air!
Help at home by encouraging your child to practise their times tables and to read regularly! Why not have a game of tennis in the sunshine?
Playtime on the FIELD!
If you leave nearby, you might’ve heard the scream when we announced the field was dry enough for playtime yesterday!
The year 1 and 2 children we so happy to enjoy some time playing on our lovely field.
Let’s hope this really is the start of summer.
Sharing a shell
We’ve continued our learning on coastal habitats this week, by taking a closer look at rockpools and some of the sea creatures you may find in them.
Sharing a Shell
We’ve been reading Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson.
We looked at the characters, events and settings and matched them with real images and text in a non-fiction book.
The book also had some great messages about sharing and how to treat others. Linked to this, our word of the week was thoughtful.
Holidays in the past
We’ve been looking at the way people enjoyed a seaside holiday in the past, specifically in Victorian times. We’ve been looking at similarities and differences with seaside holidays in present day.
Ask your child what they can remember about seaside holidays in the past.
Phonics
Summer 2 week 3 has focused on:
Phase 4 words ending –s /s/
Phase 4 words ending –s /z/
Phase 4 words ending –es
longer words
Please continue to use the Little Wandle sheets, sent home with your child each week.
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 the traditional rhyming song- The Big Ship Sails
More of our learning this week…
Reminders and Dates
Friday 5th July, 2024 NELL BANK SCHOOL TRIP
A reminder that children will need to be in school uniform with a named backpack including; water bottle and lunch. Children will be outside all day and will need weather appropriate clothing. Please see below a suggested clothing list from Nell Bank.
Learning journey drop-ins- week beginning Monday 8 July
An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them. We would like to welcome you into the classroom on one of the following sessions:
8.45 – 9.15 Tuesday 9 July
3.15 – 3.45 Tuesday 9 July
8.45 – 9.15 Thursday 11 July
3.15 – 3.45 Thursday 11 July
Swimming
Rainbow- 26 June, 10 July,
Sunshine- 3 July, 17 July
Living & Learning – Health & Relationships Education
This half term, in Living and Learning, we have been learning all about relationships. We have thought about our own network and the different relationships that we have with people in our lives. We focused on on what makes a relationship healthy and what to do if a relationship is making us feel unhappy or uncomfortable. This led on to us learning about friendships and how we can maintain and nurture friendships and solve conflicts amongst ourselves and peers.
The sessions this week have covered the biological terms for the male and female body parts and the lifecycle of humans – developing from babies to children to adults. We also looked closely at information provided by the NSPCC regarding the PANTS rule. 
Help at home: Ask your child if they can recall what the PANTS acronym stands for. What can they recall? Do they have any questions?
Relationship and sex education
Year 5 have begun their learning on RSE this week. These are really useful, purposeful lessons in which the children learn about the changes they will go through during puberty. We begin by setting some really clear rules to create a safe, respectful place in which all the children feel comfortable. The sessions this week have covered the biological terms for the female and male body parts and then we moved onto learning about puberty. We talked about the changes girls and boys will go through physically and emotionally.
Help at home: Ask your child about their RSE learning. What can they recall? Do they have any questions?
That’s a wrap!
After a morning of SATs tests, 2C thoroughly enjoyed making some wraps in Food Technology this afternoon.
We made sure that before we went into the Hub, we tied long hair back and washed our hands.
Each child was given half a wrap and the option to add their own spread, salad and protein. We thoroughly enjoyed eating our wraps at the end of the lesson!
Hot and Cold countries
Following on from our discussions about journeys and holidays, this week, we looked at some photographs of hot and cold countries. We talked about the weather and thought about which animals live in hot places and which live in colder areas.
We used the animal stencils in the mark making area; it was quite tricky to hold them and trace around the edge but we persevered! We also enjoyed practising our cutting skills as we cut around different items of clothing to choose which we’d need to pack if we were going to visit a hot or cold place.
In the dough, we rolled long and short snakes and compared their lengths with our friends. In the Creative area, we mixed different shades of blues and thought about which colours remind us of hot and cold things. Finally, in the sensory area, children loved playing with the penguins and polar bears in the ice.
Next week’s learning
We’ll read ‘Sharing a Shell‘ and talk about our trips to the seaside. If you’ve been to the beach recently, please email us a photograph to share at snack time over the next few weeks. Thank you.
Nursery rhyme of the week – Row, row, row your boat
Phonics – We continue to learn about rhyming words. Can you think of any words that rhyme with cat?
Seaside Poems and environments
This week, we’ve explored differences and similarities between cities and the seaside.
Literacy
We’ve been reading Seaside Poems– collected by Jill Bennett. We used the poems to explore features of coastal environments- the seaside.
Later in the week, we were introduced to our word of the week: city.
We sorted pictures of cities and the seaside.
We revisited the name of the city we live in and some features that Leeds has, that makes it a city.
In our writing, we also compared the environments of the city and seaside. We wrote about what we would see in each.
Maths
We have focused on deepening our understanding of numbers to 10, including the composition of each number.
Phonics
This week, we’ve continued to focus on phase 4 words with long vowel sounds.
In provision, we’ve been reading words on boats and matching them to the correct picture.
Art; Watercolour landscapes
We’ve been painting coastal landscapes, using famous existing paintings as our inspiration!
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 I Have a Little Frog.
click here to watch Reception recite this week’s poem
Check out our other learning…
Transition to year 1- Zoom meeting
As the weather becomes brighter and we near the end of the academic year you may be thinking about your child’s next steps as they journey into Year 1. Moving to Year 1 is perhaps a less significant change for children, and that’s because we’re a happy and healthy place to learn where we all know each other.
A zoom meeting for parent’s starts our transition process, here you will meet the Key Stage 1 staff and find out about the Year 1 curriculum.
The zoom meeting is on Monday 17 June at 6pm please follow the link that will be emailed to you.
The next step is for your child to spend some time in the Year 1 classrooms. They’ll meet the teachers and join in with the learning, they’ll get a taste of what it’s like to be in Year 1. The whole-school transition, later in July, completes the process, by spending a morning with their new class teacher.
This is a really exciting time of year, moving on and taking those next steps whilst continuing to strengthen the effective learning behaviours they have established in Reception.
Reminders and Dates
-A little reminder to please encourage children to come into class on their own each morning, in preparation for transition to year one. There is a more detailed explanation of why we encourage this on a previous post. Thank you for your support.
Swimming
Rainbow- 26 June, 10 July
Sunshine- 19 June, 3 July, 17 July
Design and technology – running stitch
In Years 3 and 4 we are learning about design and technology this half term, with a focus on sewing. We have been learning about the design process and how a product comes into being, before now moving onto the more practical side of things. We are practising the skill of using a needle and thread first with a binka (a firm piece of fabric with holes in to help beginners learn to sew). We’ve found that this takes some resilience! We’ve done really well though and were able to sew a ‘running stitch’.
Help at home: why not have a go at mending that hole or missing button? 