We’re going on a Bear Hunt
We’re going on a Bear hunt
The well loved story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen was the focus story for our learning this week. Both classes enjoyed joining in with the story and retelling it in our reading areas.
We used the story as a prompt to go on our own hunt in the school grounds. With an areal map of school in hand, we went on a sound hunt. We searched for some of the graphemes we have learnt so far.
The map’s telling us to go to the gazebo!
Understanding the World
Thank you to everyone who sent in photographs of their front doors. We used them to draw our houses and other types of homes too.
This one’s my house. It has two handles and white all around.
Mine has windows.
My house has a blue door.
Phonics
Autumn 1, week 4 has focused on the new phonemes: /ck/, /e/, /u/ and /r/.
/ck/ is our first diagraph and the children have been great at remembering that two letters can work together to make one sound. We also learnt the new tricky word: the.
The children are doing ever such a good job at blending orally using all their known sounds (phonemes) and they have begun to blend to read independently in our phonics sessions too. Keep it up Reception!
Poem Of The Week
This week’s poem of the week is Falling Apples.
Help at home: you could set up a stage at home (a sofa or chair would be fine) and let your child perform the poem to you using the actions we learnt in class.
Maths
This week we have learnt that numbers can be composed of ones. We joined in with the STEM sentence “one and one and one make three” and made collections of three things for Baby Bear.
Help at home: You could make different collections of three things at home. You could look at how three can be made of one and one and one or from two and one.
Stay and Learn
Our first stay and learn session will be on Monday 6th October.
This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about phonics and watch your child learning in school. There will also be a coffee morning and a Phonics information presentation before the session. We look forward to welcoming you then 🙂
Writing: non-chronological reports
Year 5/6 have been using our geography knowledge to write a report about a fictitious city. They have included knowledge about the importance of urban green spaces and city expansion.
Help at home: discuss the benefits of urban green spaces. Why might they be important for both our physical and mental wellbeing?
Living and Learning: I respect others.
This week in our Living and Learning session, Year 5/6 explored an important and powerful topic – discrimination. We began by unpicking what the word really means and discovered that discrimination is when someone is treated unfairly because of who they are or because of a particular characteristic they have. Through thoughtful discussion, we looked at real-life examples and reflected on the impact discrimination can have on people’s lives.
We also learned about the Equality Act 2010, which helps protect everyone from discrimination and ensures that certain characteristics are recognised and respected. To help us remember these, we used the brilliant mnemonic DR S GRAMPS:
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Disability
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Race
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Sex
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Gender reassignment
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Religion or beliefs
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Age
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Marriage or civil partnership
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Pregnancy and maternity
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Sexual orientation
The children listened, reflected and spoke maturely about a sensitive topic _ and we were really proud of the respect they showed throughout the lesson.
Help at Home: Can your child list the protected characteristics without peeking? Who do they think is responsible for making sure these are upheld and respected?
Phase 3/4 Poetry
The children across the phase have been working hard to learn the poem ‘Let No One Steal Your Dreams’ by Paul Cookson.
On Thursday, they will perform this poem together in a special assembly to celebrate National Poetry Day.
We have focused on voice projection and adding expression as we read.
In reading lessons, the children have explored the meaning of the poem and words they’re curious about.
Help at home by encouraging your child to recite the poem, adding expression and projecting their voice.
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills continue to be really important in Year 1 and 2. We are trying to refine and improve our handwriting and presentation in our books. Using playdough, colouring carefully and cutting out are so useful to help us do this!
Help at home by doing jigsaws, colouring in and letting your child cut out.
Topic – urban green spaces
This week, we’ve been thinking about how Leeds has developed and expanded over time. We considered the importance of green spaces in cities and how these are decreasing due to city expansion. The children were able to identify the benefits of green spaces, such as carbon stores, reducing pollution and lowering global temperatures. They also looked at the impact green spaces have on humans such as improved physical health and improved mental health. The children created posters to show all the benefits.
Living and Learning: Protected Characteristics
Over the next couple of weeks, we’re learning all about respect.
We’ll be revisiting what the protected characteristics are. These are characteristics that are protected by law to stop discrimination.
disability, race, gender reassignment, religion or belief, age, marital status, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation
We can use this useful mnemonic to help us remember: DRGRAMPSS.
As well as reminding ourselves what the protected characteristics are, we’ll be exploring themes around them such as…
- Why are they protected?
- What would society be like if they weren’t protected?
- How do they link to the British Values?
We’ll also look at different scenarios where the characteristics aren’t being protected and see if we can identify the problem and the characteristic.
Help at home: Have a chat with your child about why we have protected characteristics and the importance of them.
Goodbye conkers!
In 1,2B we’ve loved using the conkers we collected to count, organise and play with. We collected 1281 in total. Today, as part of our science learning, we returned them to nature. We threw them into the bushes and trees for the animals or to grow into trees one day. There was even a squirrel busy on the field when we were there.
Living and Learning: rights and responsibilities
This week, our L&L statement was: I know that rights come with responsibilities. This week, our Living and Learning statement is I know that rights come with responsibilities.
We have been learning that rights are the things that everyone deserves (like being safe, cared for and listened to) and responsibilities are the things we should do to make sure we and others can enjoy those rights (like following rules, showing respect and helping others).
We’ve had brilliant discussions about how we all have rights, however these come with certain responsibilities. We came up with some rights we have within school and the responsibilities that come with these:
- We have the right to learn and go to school. We have the responsibility to help others learn while at school and be good learners.
- We have a right to eat lunch but a responsibility to be respectful and polite to the lunchtime staff.
- We have a right to use the classroom equipment but a responsibility to look after it.
- We have a right to playtime but a responsibility to play safely and respectfully.
- We have the right to feel safe and a responsibility to make others feel safe.
We watched this video https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zqgm7yc#zmghp4j and discussed what rights and responsibilities that we have at school and at home.
Help at Home: Talk to your child about their rights and responsibilities at home. For example, they might have the right to play with toys but the responsibility to tidy them away afterwards. Sharing examples together will help to strengthen their understanding.
Dinosaurs
As the children continue to explore the provision lots of different interests have been emerging, this week it has been dinosaurs. We’ve developed a small world dinosaur land to encourage creative play and communication.
“This dinosaurs says roar”
” my dinosaur has sharp teeth”
We enjoyed using the ramps last week. This week we used them to roll some of the apples and conkers that we found in the nursery garden. We counted them as they reached the bottom.
We experimented with other things that roll too. In the paint this week we tried our hand at painting with rollers. This up and down motion will help us later when it comes to developing our skills as a writer.
Next week, we’ll talk about the changes that we are noticing outside. Look out for a brown bag in your child’s folder – we’d like you to fill it with autumn treasure that you find and return it to Nursery.
Our focus story is the popular story “We’re Going on a bear Hunt” We will be exploring this story using our own puppets and props.
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – watch the story hear told by Michael Rosen.
Our Nursery Rhyme of the week will be Baa Baa Black Sheep. Listen to the rhyme together here
Reminders:
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- Please don’t forget to send a family photograph for our home corner display Please send it to scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
- We play outside in all weather – please remember to send your child with a waterproof coat every day.