What a Knight!
This week, children in Year 6 have started rehearsals for this year’s production – What a Knight! Thank you parents for helping your child learn their lines. It makes a big difference.
Our chorus, Year 5, have started rehearsals for the songs. Mr Welch assures me that they sound great!
Help at home: Continue to support your child in learning their lines.
Reading
This week in reading, the children have been exploring a non-fiction text linked to our current Design and Technology topic, with a focus on Women in Design. The text introduced them to several pioneering female designers, including Charlotte Perriand, Ray Eames, and Nanna Ditzel, who helped shape the world of modern design despite facing many challenges and barriers. The children really enjoyed learning about their achievements and the impact they’ve had on everyday objects we often take for granted!
Alongside developing their understanding of the content, we focused on key reading skills such as retrieving information, inference and thinking about the author’s language choices. The children were also encouraged to consider why the writer included particular details and how they should be critical users of online material. It was fantastic to see such thoughtful discussions and engaged reading throughout the week – well done, everyone!
English – Michael Recycle
We have been reading Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel. It is teaching us all about recycling and looking after our planet.
We have also used it to spot rhyming words and write rhyming sentences.
The sky and the river are smelly and brown.
Soon fifty-foot bugs will take over over your town.
Help at home by involving your child in recycling your household rubbish.
1A’s target treat
We have been working hard on following the target ‘standing smartly in the line with a silent voice’ and we have earned the last healthy pizza topping on our chart. Well done 1A! As a reward for all of our efforts we watched an episode of Bluey today.
Our next target is ‘to be ready at carpet time.’
Wetherby taster day
The Year 5’s had the opportunity to visit Wetherby High School and experience what it is like to be a high school pupil. They were thrown in at the deep end and completed a whole day of lessons just like a Year 7! The day began with PE. The children were able to use their basket ball skills that they had learnt earlier in the year. They had a go at different skills and even did some races!
Art was a great lesson in which the children learnt about a New York graffiti artist called Jean-Michel Basquiat. They looked at some of his artwork and discussed colour, shape, line and form. They then had a go of creating some art in the same style. They used pastels to add colour and shape to their own images.
The last lesson of the day was cooking. The children all made their own pizza rolls. They did a great job of following instructions and the recipe, although some of them looked like a ghost by the end of the lesson due to excessive use of flour! They also did a great job of tidying and washing up. It was spotless!
The children had a great day and behaved so well, remembering to use their manners at all times.
s! 
Reception to Year 1 information 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 16 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.
Off we go!
The children returned to Nursery happily on Monday with lots of chatter about their half term adventures. Some children had been on trains and some on long car rides to various destinations. This talk led us to think about lots of different types of transport – cars, trains, planes and boats.
We sorted and counted lots of different types of vehicles in the Maths area, counting some really high numbers as we lined up the vehicles.
During story time, we’ve enjoyed listening to The Train Ride. We noticed that the rhythm of the story makes us think about the train going along the track. We drew some maps of the journey, passing the sheep in the meadow and the lighthouse at the seaside.
Outside in the Nursery garden, we got a wonderful surprise to see that our strawberries, beans, peas and carrots were growing so well. We can’t wait to start harvesting them once they’re ready. How are your beanstalks growing at home? Don’t forget to let us know.
In group time, we talked about night and day and next week, we’ll move on to ordering key events in our daily routines .
Some more learning from this week.
Help at home: Talk to your child about day and night time. What activities do people do in the day and at night? What do they do in the morning/afternoon/evening?
Next week’s learning:
For the final half term, we’ll revisit all of the sounds we have learnt and we will focus on key phonics skills such as identifying initial sounds, spotting rhymes and segmenting and blending words.
Over the next few weeks, our focus will be on oral ‘segmenting and blending’ skills. This is when we segment words into sounds and learn how to blend them together. Segmenting and blending orally is an important skill for children to acquire before they begin the more formal teaching of phonics in Reception.
We practise segmenting and blending sounds that we can hear in words. This skill is quite tricky and can take children some time to grasp; it will continue to be taught throughout the Foundation Stage.
To segment ‘bus’, we would say ‘b – u – s’ . We always use pure sounds and try to avoid putting ‘uh’ on the end of a sound, for example ‘ssss’ not ‘suh’.
So for example, you may ask your child if they would like some ‘j – a – m ‘ on their toast at breakfast.
Please don’t hesitate to ask Nursery staff for any further information with how to support your child
Next week’s story of the week
Duck in the Truck
And finally…
The children watched a video this week of our butterflies being set free. They decided to arrive a little later than expected, during the half term holidays. We are sure that they will find their way to our Nursery garden, so we’re keeping a look out for them everyday.
Year 3, 4 – Writing and Maths
Well done, everyone! What a great start to this half term.
This week in Writing, we’ve been using our imaginations to explore an abandoned house! Our purpose is to describe the eerie setting in detail so that an illustrator can bring it to life through artwork.
We’ve been focusing on using Expanded Noun Phrases (ENPs) to add depth and detail to our writing. You need a determiner, adjective and noun for it to be an ENP.
Think “a crumbling, ivy-covered wall” or “a broken window with jagged glass.” Our goal is to paint a picture with words!
The classes have loved getting creative and spooky with their ideas. We can’t wait to see how our setting descriptions inspire some fantastic illustrations!
In Maths, we have been counting money and converting money from pence into pounds. At home, why not count up the change that you have? You could also explore how to make different amounts of money. For example, how many ways can you make 85p?
Cities and Seasides
Ahoy there!
We’ve ‘sailed’ into our last half-term of Reception and are ‘diving’ into our new topic- Cities and seasides.
Think maps, coastal environments and trips to the seaside. Of course, where there’s the sea, there’s pirate fun to be had!…
The Night Pirates
We’ve been reading The Night Pirates by Peter Harris.
(Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off auto play – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)
This is a story about a group of ‘Rough, tough little girl pirates‘ who take a little boy called Tom, on an adventure.
We looked at some repeated phrases in the story and how the author had chosen to end the story exactly as it had begun.
We had a go at imagining what different characters in the story were thinking, based on their pictures and the events that had occurred in the story.
In our writing, we transcribed our rehearsed sentence (He is looking at the moon.) and then had a go at writing either a repeated phrase from the story or something we could see in an illustration from the book.
Understanding the world; Identifying land and sea on a map
Our ‘Word of the week’ is country. We know that we live in the country of England.
We’ve been looking closely at maps and atlases, both of the United Kingdom and across the world. We’ve been discussing how we can identify which parts are the land and which is the sea.
Maths; Rekenreks
We’ve been subitising, using a special maths resource this week- the Rekenrek.
We learnt to “pause, place, push” the amount we need to represent, moving the full amount in one go (that’s where our subitising skills were put into action!)
We replicated some pictoral representations of number onto the Rekenreks.
In provision, we’ve been practising our maths skills by playing a pirate-y track game.
Music; Being conductors and responding to music
Our music lesson this week saw us responding to music using our bodies- waving our arms like a conductor’s baton, in time to what we heard.
We then had an opportunity to respond to what we heard through art and drawing.
Art; Making maps and observational drawing
We’ve been making our own ‘treasure maps’ in the art area, using some real symbols you might find on a map.
In the discovery area, we’ve been looking closely at some special shells and making some observational drawings, using charcoal.
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 The Fox
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.
We always look at two words in the poem and share the definition. This week, we looked at the following words.
sly – having or showing a cunning and sneaky nature
trunk – the main woody stem of a tree
Click here to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!
Rainy day play
The weather has been out to trick us this week. We haven’t let those summer showers dampen our mood! We play and explore in all weathers. Take a look at our rainy day fun!…
Help at home; Seaside photos
(sent in a text message earlier in the week)
Next week, we’re learning about the seaside. If you’d like to email or send in a photo of your child at the coast, they’ll be able to use it for their writing challenge. Thank you.
Dates and Reminders
Monday 16 June, 6.00-6.30pm- Zoom: Reception to Year 1 information meeting. This remote meeting is an opportunity for you to meet the Year 1 teachers and to find out a little more about Key Stage 1.
Wednesday 18 June- Class photos.
Wednesday 2 July, 10.00-11.30am- Meet your new teacher. Your child will visit their new teacher this morning.
Thursday 3 July- Class trip to Nell Bank.
Friday 4 July, 3.15-4.15pm- Rec/KS1 FOSP summer disco.
Tues 8/ Thurs 10 July, 8.35am or 3.15pm- Learning journey drop-in.
Friday 11 July, 9.15-10.30am- Sports Day.
Day 2 in the residential house!
After a good nights sleep, we all woke up feeling refreshed and ready for a fun packed day. We began by eating a delicious cooked breakfast to get us ready for the day ahead.
Today, the children had a go at canoeing. This involved learning how to use an oar and then learning how to soak each other with it! Mr Goodwin manage to drench most of his group. They were not happy!
The zip-line featured again today with lots of children conquering their fear of heights. We all looked very fashionable in our harnesses as we flew through the air. Mrs Hogarth’s team competed against the Year 6’s from St James’ at a zip-line race. We won’t let you know the result but just know that we were very annoyed!
At lunchtime, the children filled their tummies with fruit, chicken burgers, hot dogs and sandwiches. There was also a cheeky do-nut for everyone.
As we dodged the rain showers in the afternoon, some groups managed to make it through the piranha pool challenge without being gobbled up by these vicious creatures! It was pretty close though and their panicked screams could be heard for miles around.
The children are exhausted now and ready for a good night’s sleep. We are looking forward to our final morning of activities before heading home tomorrow.
