Living and Learning-needs and wants
This week has been such a great time to focus on money. We have had so many insightful conversations about the differences between needing and wanting something.
I really want sweets sometimes but I don’t need them.
We all need food and water.
I want computer games but I do already have some.
I already have lots of clothes. I don’t really need any more, unless I grow!
We played a sorting game to help us identify further items that we may ‘need’ or ‘want’.
1A have thoroughly enjoyed our Maths lessons that have focused on recognising different coins. We have been getting to grips with the fact that 2p+1p=3p and that it doesn’t just make 2p because there are 2 coins. Similarly 5p+1p doesn’t equal 2p just because we have 2 coins!
Please see our photos of participating in the money trail too.
The whole of KS1 have had a brilliant start to a new half term. It has been great to be back together.
Bonfire Night celebrations
Everyone has quickly settled back into Nursery after the break and children were very excited to tell us all about their half term adventures and Bonfire Night celebrations.
We began the week talking about children’s experiences of Bonfire Night. Children enjoyed launching the rocket into the sky in our Bonfire themed small world area. Whooooosh!
We watched firework videos and talked about the colours, patterns and noises that we saw and heard. Outside, we listened to some firework sounds and pretended to be fireworks, dancing with ribbons.
What noise did the firework make? Pop! Bang! Whizz! Crackle, crackle! Fizz!
In the shallow sand tray, we looked carefully at the firework cards to try and create different patterns and shapes. There were crosses, zig-zags, spirals and wavy patterns.
Children also talked about the bright colours that they’d seen in the sky and enjoyed using chalks and brightly coloured paints, to make firework prints and pictures.
As part of our phonics learning, we’ve introduced the letter ‘s’ this week. At this point in Nursery, children are learning to HEAR the sounds in words. We took turns to pull some objects out of a bag that all started with the letter ‘s’. There was… a star, stick, snowman, sock, spoon, snake and even a sloth! We talked about the ‘s’ sound that we could hear at the start of each word. In Nursery, we focus on our listening skills. We’re not learning about letter formation just yet, that will come later in your child’s phonics journey.
Here is a link to a video to show you how we pronounce the letter sounds that we will be learning over the next half term. (The video is to help show how to pronounce each letter clearly, using the pure sound. Children don’t need to be able to recognise the grapheme (letter) yet, although they might begin to.)
Help at home: What can you find at home that begins with the letter ‘s’? Go on a sound hunt together and look for some…. ssssssocks, ssssssslippers, sssssssoap. We often exaggerate the sound at the beginning of the word when we’re first learning to listen for initial sounds and then we repeat the word afterwards, saying it as it should be. Sssssocks, socks.
What’s happening next week?
- It’s ‘Odd Socks Day‘ on Monday so your child might like to wear odd socks for the day to celebrate what makes us all unique and spread kindness!
- Looking for a school place for September 2024? There is an Open session in school on Thursday 16th November at 1.30pm, so please come along to find out more and visit some classrooms.
- Friday is a non-uniform day as we’ll be taking part in some spotty Children in Need fun!
- It’s been much colder outside this week and some children have been a bit chilly whilst playing outside. As we spend lots of time in our outdoor area, please make sure that your child has a warm coat, a hat and some gloves to wear. Don’t forget to add names!
Nursery rhyme of the week – We’ll be singing lots of popular rhymes as it’s World Nursery Rhyme week! If you’d like to send us an email with your child’s favourite rhyme and we’ll try to sing it at Nursery next week.
Sound of the week – T for tiger and teapot!
Festivals of light
Welcome to Autumn 2! This half term, our theme is light and dark.
We’ve covered lots of important events and topics this week…
Bonfire Night
We’ve been learning about why we celebrate Bonfire Night, with an introduction to The Gunpowder Plot. The children enjoyed sharing their experiences of Bonfire Night and how they celebrated at home or out and about.
In the construction area, we’ve been building replicas of The Houses of Parliament. We explored casting shadows of our models with torches and used colour paddles to make the shadows look like fire!
Diwali
We found out about the Hindu festival of lights, that will be celebrated this weekend- Diwali.
Our focus book was Binny’s Diwali by Thrity Umrigar
We also found out about the festival through sharing non-fiction texts and watching cbeebies- My first festivals
Take a look at some of the activities we explored, when learning about Diwali.
Our word of the week is: festival
Remembrance Day
We discussed when and why we have Remembrance Day. We learnt about the meaning behind different coloured poppies. Lots of children wore a poppy to school and could speak about its meaning. We made poppies in class and poppy art using small parts outside.
Me and my money week
For Me and my money week, Reception were introduced to coins by paying for snack at the market stall! Each item cost 1p and the children had to decide whether they needed 1p or 2p. They could also decide to pay for 2 items using a 2p coin or 2x 1p coins. We counted the amount each day to say how many ‘pence’ the market stall had made.
On Friday, we used all of your kind donations (thank you!) to create our charity penny trail. Can you see what we made using the coins?
During philosphy Friday, we asked the children What would you do with your last £1?
Keep it, otherwise I’d have no money!- Reggie
Take it to charity- Liezah
Get it on an amazing toy- Finlay
Keep my money because I want £20. Then I can buy things for Mummy, Ellie and me!- Albie T
Get a real duck!- Ryan
Maths; identifying and composing 5
In Maths, we’ve been using our fingers to identify 5. We ‘grew our fingers’ using the peas in a pod song-
Five little peas in a pea pod pressed,
One grew, two grew, so did all the rest,
They grew and they grew and they did not stop,
Until one day the pod went pop!
Later in the week, we used 5 frames and 5-die frames to explore the different ways to compose 5.
Phonics
Autumn 2 week 1 has focused on the new digraphs ff, ll, ss and the single letter phoneme j
We’ve also learnt the tricky word; as
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’. In as, the ‘s’ is tricky because it makes the /z/ sound.
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 A Cup of Tea
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.
Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!
Help at home; World Nursery Rhyme Week
Next week, we’ll be celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week
If your child would like to, we’d love to share a recording of them telling their favourite nursery rhyme in class. Please send your videos to the email address below.
Dates for your diary
Odd Socks Day- 13.11.23 To support anti-bullying week, please send your child to school wearing a pair of odd socks (Monday only)
Maths Stay and Learn – 15.11.23 – 09.00 – 10.00 Please join us in the classroom to watch a short maths session and enjoy some maths activities with your child.
Swimming
Year 3,4 Living and Learning Money Week
Me and My Money Week
This week we have been learning all about money! The staff have been truly impressed by the mature discussions the children have engaged in about:
- making spending choice based on priorities, needs and wants
- developing an awareness of the price of some everyday products
- the different types of coins, their value and how to count money
- different methods of payment
- different types of bank accounts
- that sometimes people borrow money
- that sometimes people donate to charity and why they might decide to
- the range of jobs available – paid and unpaid
- the themes in the book ‘It’s a no-money day’
Well done year 3,4. At home, tell your adults what you have been learning.
Key Stage 2 Coin Trail
Thank you to everyone who donated money towards the penny trail to raise funds for Cancer Research UK. The Key Stage 2 classes had a lot of fun as you can tell from the pictures. We are still counting the money raised so we will let you know the grand total next week!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU – charity collection coin trail
Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 created this amazing coin trail with all the coins you kindly donated. Counting is still in progress and we’ll let you know how much we raise for Cancer Research when we have finished counting all the coins.
THANK YOU!
School Gateway App
Make sure you keep up to date with the latest school information and news using the School Gateway App. You can select alerts on your app to ensure that you are reminded of key dates and important information.
If you haven’t logged on to the School Gateway App yet, look out for an email next week with more details or please contact the school office for further information.
3,4 B Class News
Another busy week of learning in 3, 4 B this week!
In maths we have been working hard on adding and subtracting 4 digit numbers using the column method. We are now really confident with this skill and can even apply it to solve reasoning and problem-solving questions!
In writing we have been identifying and using prepositions and prepositional phrases. These are two of the skills we will be using in the coming weeks when we write our narrative based on ‘The Dreamgiver’.
Please remember to being books and reading records on Wednesday. At home, you can listen to your child read and encourage them to play on Times Tables Rock Stars. Please let us know if you have any problems logging on.
Have a great weekend!
Living and learning: Wetherby Food Bank
We were really lucky to have a representative join us from Wetherby Food Bank this week. This gave us a real insight into how the food bank works, where they get their supplies from and other support that they get. She gave the children the opportunity to budget for a week on a very low income and the children recognised how difficult this was and why some people might need to access different forms of support. We felt really proud that our Harvest collection contributed to our local food bank.
2C money, money, money
This week is money week at Scholes Primary School, so we thought that we would take the opportunity to learn about money and it’s value in Maths. In 2C we have learnt to recognise coins and their value. We have also been practising making the same amount using different coins.
We know that the only coins to exist are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2. We are careful not to confuse our number bonds with money and make sure we only use the coins that exist, in our calculations.
See what we’ve been getting up to in our Maths lessons this week!
Help at home: by using this link and getting children used to using different coins to make an amount or how to select the correct change.
Toy Shop Money Game (GBP) – Topmarks
