Living and Learning
Our Living and Learning statement this week is ‘I can assess my own risks.’ This week, KS1 went on a Geography trip into Scholes. We did some fieldwork and collected data about our local area. Before we went on the walk the children discussed what risks we might come across and how we could stay safe.
One of the risks we talked about what cars coming past us. We could stay safe by wearing a high visibility jacket (so that we could be seen), stick with our partner and watch where we are walking (on the path).
We assess our risks every day. Another risk we assess regularly is the safety of our school playground when it has been raining. We know it can be quite slippery after it has rained. To keep safe, we walk and don’t run and we stay off the equipment.
Help at home by discussing what risks children might face and how they can be avoided in order to keep safe.
Lotherton Hall trip
We had a fantastic time at Lotherton Hall on Friday! 2C started off over in the Deer Park. We had a snack and discussed the local woodland and how this is well suited to the deer and their needs.
We then headed over to the Wildlife park and spotted lots of fantastic animals including penguins, capybara, flamingos and wallaby.
After lunch, we looked at the bats, armadillo and cloud rats before enjoying a workshop all about animals and their habitats.
Thank you to the brilliant adults that took time out of their days to join us on our school trip. We wouldn’t have been able to go without you!
We can’t wait for our next school trip already!
Making new friends
We have had a busy week settling yellow group into Nursery and helping them to explore their new environment. They’re all doing really well and are gradually getting to know us and beginning to make some new friends. They have already stayed for lunch and next week will stay for their first full day, what a fantastic start!
This week, in Maths, we have been finding out about number 1. We have been representing 1 in lots of different ways with our fingers, on a five frame and with marks.
Next week we will start some new learning about weight. We will be using words such as heavy, light, heavier and lighter to compare different objects.
Help at home: You could continue this learning at home by asking questions during everyday activities. Which bag from the supermarket is heaviest/ lightest? Which toy is lighter? Can you find something that is lighter than the bottle of milk? Can you find something that is heavier than a packet of crisps?
Our sound next week is Gg
Our nursery rhyme of the week – Ring-a-ring-a-roses
Can you join in with the rhyme and the actions at home?
We will continue reading Dinosaur Roar next week. Can you remember all of the different types of dinosaurs in the story?
“Dinosaur weak, dinosaur strong, dinosaur short or dinosaur very, very long”
We look forward to finding out more about dinosaurs.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and thank you as always for your continued support.
The Nursery Team
Lotherton Hall- 1A
1 A and the whole of KS1 have had a tremendous time at Lotherton Hall today! We all enjoyed our Science workshop, learning about animals and their different habitats. We especially enjoyed finding the animals on our scavenger hunt list.
We saw every single one of the animals on the above list. We were thrilled to find each one.
The children’s behaviour was exemplary. We are so proud of them all. The highlights for the children were: the animals, eating lunch and the park!
A HUGE thank-you to the adults who came with us on the trip. We could not have done it without you.
Spring 1, Week 2
Spring 1 is our Fire and Ice theme. Over the past 2 weeks, nature has provided us with so many opportunities to explore freezing and melting! Take a look at our snow-filled tray, with snow collected from our garden:
“the snow has turned to ice- it’s rock hard!”- J.A
““the snow feels so freezing when I pour it on my hands!… now it’s melting”
Lost and Found
We’ve continued to focus on the book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.
We’ve been linking the story to topic work. We looked at a world map to see how the boy and penguin would travel from where we live (The United Kingdom) to The South Pole in Antarctica. We recalled what we know about the world map from our previous learning.
We’ve also been comparing our weather to that in the continent of Antarctica. Our word of the week is: climate.
We’ve been writing ‘Missing’ posters, describing the penguin from our story.
Penguin observations
We’ve been zoologists this week- observing the livestream of the penguins at Edinburgh Zoo
We’ve been making notes on how the penguins move and interact with each other.
We noticed that the penguins were busier on the colder days of the week and discussed why this might be.
Ice painting
We made ice paintings by freezing paint mixed with water and creating art tools with them.
We noticed the difference in how well the tools painted, as the ice began to melt.
Charanga Music; Lullabies
“Mummy sings ‘You Are My Sunshine’ – Miley“My Mummy sings ‘Twinkle Twinkle” – Mila“When I was a baby my Mummy cuddled me and sang to me”- Harlow“My Mummy lets my baby go to sleep with a light that changes colour”- Olivia“It’s where you rock someone to sleep” (a lullaby)- Mila“We tell stories with Daddy at bedtime”- Grace“He needs a drink” (what does the baby need at bedtime)- Charlie
Phonics Phase 3 Stay and Learn
Thank you to the parents and carers who were able to join us for another Stay and Learn session this week.
We hope you enjoyed watching a lesson, getting to spend time in the classroom and hopefully getting some more ideas and information for the next steps in our phonics journey.
As always, we would love to hear your feedback. Scan the QR code to leave your views!
Maths; the staircase pattern
In Maths, we’ve been looking at counting and ordinality- specifically, the ‘one more’ relationship that creates ‘the staircase pattern’.
We were introduced to the concept by the Numberblocks, before moving on to create our own staircase patterns in small groups.
In provision, we’ve been using Frayer models to explore numbers- counting the corresponding amount of cubes/teddies, finding the Numicon and representing it on a tens frame.
Phonics
Spring 1 week 2 has focused on the digraphs oo, oo, ar, or
We’ve learnt the tricky words; was, you, they
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
In provision, we’ve been playing roll and read.
Help at home; Tricky words
Each week, we’d like to give you an idea of a game you could play at home to make reading even more exciting.
This week’s game is: Tricky Word Bingo
- Enter the list of tricky words you want to focus on into an online ‘picker’ (pickerwheel.com is an easy to use option) or write them down onto strips of paper, to be picked at random.
- Ask your child to choose 4-6 tricky words and write them down (they can copy these from a list), you should do the same and you could even ask a sibling to play along too!
- Pick the tricky words at random or by clicking the wheel- who will be the first to cross off all of their words and shout BINGO?!!
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 can build a snowman
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Reminders/ Dates for your diary
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:
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What do we know?
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What does it make you think?
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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!