Jack and the Beanstalk
It’s been another busy week in reception!
Jack and the Beanstalk
This week, we’ve been reading the traditional story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.
We discussed how this story has been re-told many times and some versions of the story are different. Just by looking at the front covers, we could spot similarities and differences.
This week, our word of the week was gigantic.
Planting a (magic) bean
After listening to the story, the children all agreed that we should plant our own bean.
We then wrote instructions to explain to others how they could plant a bean too!
Music
Each week in music, the children listen to a piece of music and respond to it; what it reminds them of, or what they notice. This week’s piece was non-vocal music, Frog’s legs and dragon’s teeth by Bellowhead:
“it’s faster” (than last week’s music)- Finlay
“It goes fast, then slow, then fast”- Harry
“I like sandstorm…that has no voices in too. It’s on my playlist”- Oliver Gr
The children then watched a video of the band performing and named the instruments.
Maths
In Maths, we’ve been exploring the composition of number 7.
We’ve also used our magic bean machine to combine two numbers.
Class Assembly
Thank you to parents and carers who were able to join us for our class assembly on Thursday. We hope you enjoyed the journey through our day in Reception! If you’d like to see the slideshow of photos shown in the assembly, please click here
Comic Relief; Red Nose Day
Thank you to everyone for participating in our non-uniform day for Comic Relief and for your kind donations.
Phonics
Spring 2 week 4 has focused on longer phase 3 words, words ending in –ing and compound words (words made of two words i.e. rooftop/farmyard) We review tricky words daily.
In provision, we’ve been making beanstalks by reading tricky words!
Tricky words can be just that-tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try.
Tricky Word Jigsaw
A game to help the spelling of tricky words
- Write 5 tricky words on paper.
- Chop the words into individual graphemes.
- Ask your child to reconstruct the tricky words, by calling them out one at a time.
It doesn’t need to be as fancy as the picture above, a plain piece of paper and hand-writing the words will work just as well!
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 Spring Wind.
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
click here to watch Reception recite this week’s poem
Reminders and Dates
Easter Disco 22.03.24 – 3.15 -4.15
The Friends of Scholes have arranged the Easter Disco after school. If you would like your child to attend the disco, payment should be made on the Gateway app. Collection as usual from the classroom door.
Year 6 Football Tournament
Last night, our year 6 footballers went to Wetherby High School to take part in a tournament against other local schools. It was the first opportunity that our girls team have had to play against other teams. Everybody played fantastically and it was great to see Scholes embrace mixed gender football teams. Whilst we didn’t win any trophies, there were lots of goals scored and loads of great teamwork. Harry worked hard throughout, to the point where he was exhausted and Lily saved some great shots in goal.
A fantastic effort by everyone! Thanks also to the parents who transported the children and stood in the drizzle for 2 hours – you are amazing too!
Computing
Our Topic this half term is computing. We are learning about what a computer is and the functions and abilities that computers have.
Each Topic, we learn different vocabulary.
In class, we are using Beebots. These are robots that have the appearance of a bee. They can move around when programmed with an algorithm. The children have experimented over the past few weeks, using the Beebots. They know how to get them to move in the way that they want (after lots of trial and error).
First we must press ‘CLEAR’ to ensure that the Beebot does not follow any prior instructions.
Then we command an algorithm into the Beebot and press ‘GO’.
We have also been designing our own games. We have practised working out the correct algorithms needed to complete our games. We’ve also set our peers challenges whereby they need to ‘debug’ an algorithm to complete our games. So far, we have planned and designed our games in our books.
We can’t wait for next week, where we can see our games come to life, using the Beebots!
Topic: computing
This week in topic we have been powering up the laptops again. Our current learning is all about computing and how to create programs. Using the Scratch platform we have been creating our own chat bot games. These are interactive games that allow a player to answer questions. This children needed to use selection to choose the correct blocks and build the algorithm for their game. The children also needed to select a background and a sprite (character). We will continue to work on our projects and we will debug any issues with our games.
Help at home: Can you help your child learn our computing vocabulary?
I Asked The River by Valerie Bloom
In this week’s reading skills lessons, we are reading the poem: I Asked the River by Valerie Bloom.
So far, we’ve enjoyed the poem and discussed:
– the rhyming sequence
– how it makes us feel
– the links it has to global issues
– any questions we have about it
– any vocabulary we’re curious about
– our likes and dislikes
– what connections we have to it (things we’ve previously read, seen or done)
Enjoy the poem below!
Help at home: Practise reading this poem with your child and make up some retrieval or interpret questions to check your child’s understanding. Some examples could be:
Who did the river have to meet?
When did the river have lunch with the sea?
Why does the river only foam and seethe from stanza eight?
Writing
Year 5/6 have been writing their own tension building texts this week. We used a video called Francis as inspiration. We talked about the use of figurative language, short snappy sentences and repetition to help put the reader on the edge of their seat.
Help at home: Use your child’s favourite TV show or film as a stimulus. Can they write in the same style? What language has been used? How does this help create the world of the show?
World Book Day 2024
Thank you for your participation whether it was dressing up (everyone looked amazing!) sharing books at our stay and read or reading books with your child at home.
Hundred Decker Bus
A fantastic trip to the Railway Museum!
On Monday, the children had a fantastic time at the Railway museum. They were very excited to go on their first ever school trip – especially travelling there by coach! A few members of the public commented on how well-behaved the children were. Well done, Reception class!
The children enjoyed looking at different trains and making comparisons of old and new. They had lots of fun watching the miniature railway and it led to lots of great discussions about trains, tunnels and transport. The children enjoyed sitting on the Japanese Bullet train – they particularly liked the fact it goes very fast (150-200mph).
To end our fantastic trip, we sat in the upper gallery and viewed the trains across the museum. We then sketched the trains we had seen – the children drew some fantastic sketches!
The Hundred Decker Bus
This week, we’ve been reading another ‘Hundred Decker’ story by Mike Smith. The Hundred Decker Bus
In this story, a driver who is bored of his daily routine decides to take himself and his passengers on a long ‘adventure’. As more people get on the bus, more decks need to be built!
Linked to the story, we’ve been comparing cities/towns to the countryside, discussing similarities and differences. Countryside is our ‘word of the week’.
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog 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.
Computing
This week, we’ve been using Bee-bots. Bee-bots are an early coding resource. Children have to program the bee using directional and ‘GO’ buttons. They have to pre-plan the algorithm they need to enter, to successfully get the bee to its intended location.
Maths
In Maths, we’ve been comparing numbers and noticing whether change creates a number that is more or less than another.
In provision, we used the ‘bus stop’ number story to explore subtraction (creating less) and recorded our number stories.
Phonics
Spring 2 week 3 has been a review of phase 3 sounds, reading words with two or more digraphs (2 letters that make 1 sound). We review tricky words (a word you can’t sound out – you just have to know it) daily.
Tricky words can be just that-tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try…
Tricky word stick person (a modified version of the ‘hangman’ game)
We often play this game in class. Write the correct number of dashes for your chosen tricky word and let your child make guesses. Encourage your child to use letter names rather than sounds for spelling tricky words. Draw a part of the stick man for each incorrect guess- you can give extra chances by adding a hat, shoes, gloves etc. to the stick person!
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 nursery rhyme Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake.
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Music
This week, the children have been listening to Gustav Holst – Mars. We switched off the lights, laid in the dark with our eyes closed and listened to the music. The children really enjoyed the time to stay still and reflect on the music they were listening to.
“It’s like a movie” Kitson.
“It’s like a storm” Sienna.
“When it was the end I was curling up because it sounded scary” Eli.
“It made me happy because of the little bits and loud bits together” Myla.
“The quiet bits made me tired” Liezah.
“I heard trumpets” Harry.
Reading reminder
Children should be reading fluently by the time their book is issued home on Thursday. Your child will have read their book at least 4 times at school – this is where the teaching of reading happens. The aim of reading sessions at home is to celebrate their reading. To showcase what they have learnt that week and for your child to recognise themselves as a ‘reader’.
If you believe your child is reading from memory you can ‘spot check’ particular words in a sentence or play games with the e-book (such as spotting tricky words).
Remember to encourage reading for pleasure through sharing library books, magazines and other texts at home.
Reminders and Dates
Reception’s Class Assembly- 14.03.23 2.45pm You are invited to our class assembly, where we’d love to share our learning with you.
Living and Learning
This week’s whole school Living and Learning statement is, ‘I know that friends and family are important.’
Our in-class learning objective however, has been ‘I know when my friends are happy.’
This week, KS1 have been discussing how important it is to have relationships with people we can trust, whether that is friends or family. This is not only for our own happiness, but if something goes wrong it means we always have someone we can talk to. Somebody we can trust.
It is therefore important that we know when we are feeling happy and in turn, when others are feeling happy. This can give us the social skills we need to help ourselves and others.
‘There has never been a stronger focus on the health and wellbeing of our young children as there is today and we have an important and valuable part to play in this.’
In class, we watched a clip about Elmer the elephant, a story by David McKee. In the story, Elmer became sad as other Elephants did not understand her.
We used the words from the story and looked at Elmers’ body language, to recognise why she was feeling sad.
We then discussed how the other Elephants could help Elmer and make her happy again. Then we spoke about how this can link to our own lives and situations in school.
Finally, the children designed their own Elmer the Elephant, using ‘happy’ and vibrant colours.
World Book Day
We LOVE reading in Nursery and we’re always excited to join in with celebrations for World Book Day.
Thank you for bringing some of your favourite stories for us to share together in Nursery.
Here are a few photos from today- Can you name the characters and match them to the book?
