Class News

Creating Music

Children in 5/6 have been composing their own music using tuned and percussion instruments.

At home: discuss some of the musical elements that children have learned this year. This might include timbre – the particular sound that an instrument makes; pitch – how high or low a note is; tempo – how fast or slow music is played; and dynamics – how loud or quiet a piece of music is played. 

Living and Learning – balanced diet

This week’s Living and Learning statement is ‘I know the importance of a healthy diet’.

This week we discussed what a healthy diet might look like and what sort of things we should try to eat. We talked about how we need to have a good balance of different food groups to keep our bodies healthy.

We also discussed how we should aim to eat more of one food group and less of another. For example we should eat more foods like fruit and vegetables,  and less of sugary foods like sweets and cakes.

Why not watch this clip at home and see how you can have an even more healthy, balanced diet at home? Keeping my body healthy – BBC Teach

Science – growing plants

This half term we are looking at plants and what they need to survive.

We have planted seeds, bulbs and peas and put some of them into different conditions. We started off by planting bulbs (see below).

We kept watering two of our bulbs and they started to grow! See our 3 week progress picture below. We noticed that these bulbs started to grow roots, and several green shoots started to grow from the top.

The bulbs that were not watered did not grow at all and have started to turn brown.

We also planted 6 different types of seeds. Our sunflowers have been the most successful so far. We decided to move them to their own pots to grow the best that they can.

Once the plants grow a little bigger, we are hoping to plant them outside, around our KS1 playground.

It has been brilliant to see how engaged the children have been with the Science topic this half term. We can’t wait to see how our plants grow and what will happen next.

Help at home by encouraging children to plant some seeds, bulbs or peas of their own!

Times Table Rockstars!

A massive well done to 5,6B who have won the TTR tournament two weeks in a row. They have worked super hard at home to make sure they are learning their times tables and have worked hard as a team to continue their winning streak. I wonder if it will be three weeks in a row?!

Wiggly worms!

We’ve loved searching for worms in the garden this week and learning about where they live.  In the maths area, we compared the length of different worms and sorted them into short worms and long worms.

We continued sorting worms in the sensory area; children enjoyed using the tongs to try and pick the longest worm that they could find!

Here are a few other photos from this week, including making perfumes with flowers in the water area, exploring spirals in the creative area and using paper clips to help develop our fine motor skills in the Fiddly Fingers area.

We’ve been watching our caterpillars getting bigger and bigger. We’re waiting to see what happens next. In the book corner, children have been retelling the story of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ using the props and the puppet theatre.

Help at home: If you have a copy of the story at home, use the illustrations  to help your child retell the story in their own words. Can they use some of the repeated language from the story? For example…He was still hungry!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This week, we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Using story props and sequencing cards, we have been able to retell the story.

In our writing, we have been composing sentences to retell main events of the story.

Maths

This week, we have continued to develop our subitising skills (see the quantity without counting) in complex arrangements.

We have explored creating arrangements of 6.

Phonics

This week, we have continued to learn phase 4 words such as frog, shift, chimp and drum.

We’ve also learnt more phase 4 tricky words; some, come, love and do

Help at home- Please continue to work through the weekly learn at home phonics sheets, throughout the Summer term. We’ll continue to send these home each Friday.

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 Under a Stone.

Other learning areas

The children have loved creating their own bug houses in the model area as well as building a bug hotel outside for real minibeasts.

The children have been amazed at the rapid growth of the caterpillars. Each day, we have observed how they have changed and recorded what we noticed.

They have got bigger!

One has a white stripe now.

They look spiky.

Reminders and Dates

Friday 5 May – Non-uniform day with everyone invited to dress in red, white and blue to mark the coronation of King Charles.

Friday 19 May – Mini Bug Ball

Please don’t go to the expense of buying anything new – creative adaptations of something you’ve already got will be fantastic.  Outfits need to be suitable for school, safe and warm enough to be worn all day.

SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1

Rainbow Class- 19 Apr, 3 May, 17 May

Sunshine Class- 26 Apr, 10 May, 24 May

We know that Rainbow class missed a swimming session in Spring 2 due to the pool closure. This should be made up in Summer 2, which is a 7 week term.

Living and Learning – I know the importance of sleep

Last week in Living and Learning, Ks1 discussed how we can stay safe in the sun. 2C had a brilliant group discussion where many of the children came up with ways that they could stay safe in the sun including –

• wearing sun cream
• wearing a hat
• staying in the shade
• drinking lots of water
• wearing lose clothing
• wearing sunglasses

We then went onto the playground where we spent some time in the sun. The children identified the best shaded areas on our playground. We also acted out how we would get ready for school and what we would need to bring if it was a hot day.

Help at home by encouraging children to apply sun cream regularly, drink lots of liquids and come appropriately dressed for school.

Maths-shape

Over the last two weeks we have been looking at 2D and 3D shapes.

We have been identifying their features  (including edges, faces and verticies), naming the shapes and sorting them.

The children were also able to sort the shapes in a variety of ways.

They also enjoyed  creating patterns using both 2D and 3D shapes.

Help at home by looking for shapes in the local environment.

Science – planting seeds and watching them grow

We have been busy planting on our science topic. We have bulbs that we are observing in different conditions and this week, we planted some seeds. We looked carefully at the packet to interpret when to plant and when to expect flowers. We also talked about how to be safe around plants, seeds and berries. We must never eat any without checking with a grown up as some can be toxic.

Help at home by planting some seeds or bulbs and watching how they grow. Talk about how some plants are food, measure their growth or try growing in different conditions.

Living and learning

Our living and learning statement this week has been about recognising the importance of sleep. The children talked about what sleep does for our bodies and emotions and how it impacts on our lives. They were able to recognise that sleep helps our memory, helps us to concentrate, keeps our immune systems healthy, it repairs our bodies and it keeps our mental health positive. They could identify how a lack of sleep could impact them at school and how it would make them feel. They generated lots of ideas of how to get a good nights sleep: having a bath, listening to some music, reading and even a bit of drawing.

Help at home: Is your child getting enough sleep? The recommended amount of sleep for primary school children is between 9 and 12 hours. How could you improve your child’s sleep? Encourage your child to read before bed rather than depending on screen time.