Would you have a dragon as a pet? (English – new class novel)
We always have a ‘class novel’ that we read at story time and use to enhance our writing and reading lessons. They have mostly been picture books so far. This term, we are reading a short chapter book – The Boy Who Grew Dragons by Andy Shepherd.
All the classes are reading this book and we are loving it so far! Who wouldn’t want a dragon as a pet?
Help at home by asking what has happened in the book so far. You could borrow a copy from your local library (or buy one if you’d like) to read alongside at home (don’t tell us the ending too soon though). You could also find other books to read by the same author.
Living and learning: I know we’re all the same and we’re all different.
Our circle time has been all about being the same and recognising differences in each other. The children linked up with someone in the class who they felt they didn’t know much about. They spent a few minutes swapping fun facts about each other. They then had to report back what they’d found out. We found out some brilliant facts – who was scared of spiders, who had brothers and sisters, favourite foods and favourite sports. Even I learnt a few things that I didn’t know!
We then discussed how these differences between us are really important and they make us who we are. Wouldn’t it be boring if we were all the same?
At the end of each circle time, we have an open forum in which the children can discuss, in confidence, any worries that might be bothering them. We listen without judgement and offer advice using the sentence stems ‘Would it help if you…’ or ‘Would it help if I…’ The class feel really comfortable in discussing any issues and are brilliantly empathetic towards each other – a really mature group of children.
Help at home by asking your child about circle time. Do they enjoy it? Does it help them?
World Book Day in 3,4B
Books are magical! We enjoyed sharing our favourite books from home and choosing an interesting one to read with a nursery child. We may have made a new bookmark and completed a famous authors word search too. What a wonderful day!
Jack and the Beanstalk
Fee Fi Fo Fum! We loved reading Jack and the Beanstalk this week and re-telling the story using the props in the book corner. Outside, we listened to an audio book of the story, too. We painted beanstalks, explored differed types of beans in the sensory area and we even rolled long ‘sausages’ using dough to make beanstalks in the play dough.
In the maths area, we counted the correct number of bean seeds into the pots and we also practised our subitising skills, saying how many beans (1-3) we could see without counting them.
Your child might have also told you all about planting their own magic bean; we’ve planted some bean seeds and are hoping that our bean stalks will soon start to grow.
Thanks to everyone who has sent in a baby and toddler photograph for our learning next week. If you haven’t had a chance to yet, please see our previous post and e-mail us one if you can.
The Hundred Decker Rocket
This week, we have continued to explore our topic ‘Let go’.
We have been reading the book The Hundred Decker Rocket.
This story is about a girl called Ivy who sets off on a mission to space. On the way, she meets some very messy aliens. When her rocket breaks down, all the aliens help to fix it and make their own deck.
We decided to create our own class rocket. Everyone enjoyed designing their own deck.
Mine is going to have a swimming pool.
Look! It’s got a ball pit.
I’m going to have a slide on my deck.
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s 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.
Word of the week
Every week, we look at a new adventurous word. We call this our ‘word of the week’. This week our word of the week was ‘expedition’ – linked to the story ‘The Hundred Decker Rocket’. We looked at the definition ‘ A journey with a plan’.
It was like an expedition when I went to London.
I went on an expedition to Lego Land in Denmark.
You might follow signs on an expedition.
Maths
This week, we have focused on consolidating our number sense by rehearsing the order of the first 10 numbers and understanding that the position that each number holds in our number sequence does not change.
By doing this, we were able to explore ‘one more’ and ‘one less’.
I know 3 is one more than 2 because 3 comes after 2.
It goes 4, 5 so 4 is one less than 5.
Phonics
This week, the children have reviewed er, air and longer words that contain double letters.
Write these words on paper and ask your child to underline the double letters before reading.
hammer shimmer cannot chatter muffin
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 Popcorn.
When reading, we focused on the rhythm of the poem and using short, sharp voices.
Science
We had lots of fun exploring magnetic and non-magnetic objects.
We tried scissors and it worked!
Look it’s picking the metal up!
World Book Day
We had such a fabulous day! We started the morning with lots of wonderful stories with our grown-ups. Then, we were visited by children from Year 3,4 and 6. It was lovely to see everyone sharing their favourite books. In our classroom, we engaged in lots of traditional tale themed activities.
3,4 A Class News – World Book Day
Yesterday it was great to hear the children read aloud extracts from their favourite books using their fantastic oracy skills. Mr Goodwin and I read an extract from our favourite childhood books too: Fantastic Mr Fox and The Lottie Project. We also went to visit Miss Lowry’s class and read with some of the Year 1s. 
KS1 – Topic
This half term KS1 are studying Computing in Topic. Last week, we discussed what a computer is and what sort of devices we might have at home that have a computer built-in.
This week, we have been looking at algorithms. We have been learning all about the program ‘Scratch Jr’ and how to create an algorithm. We know how to set a sequence so that our Sprites (characters) move, shrink, grow and turn.
We also learnt how to debug an algorithm that does not work and how to alter a sequence.
We’ve had a lot of fun using Scratch and learning about all of the buttons and how they work. We are really looking forward to using the program again next week and learning more!
World Book Day!
Yesterday we celebrated World Book Day by visiting the younger classes to enjoy a good book. Year 5 headed to Mrs Latham’s class where we were met by some very enthusiastic readers. Some year 5’s read to the younger children, whilst some of Mrs Latham’s class showed off their amazing fluent reading to their older peers. I even enjoyed Mahli reading ‘Funnybones’ to me – my favourite book when I was little. What an awesome reader she was!
World Book Day
This morning, year 6 children took a trip over to nursery. They read stories and talked about their favourite characters.
World Book Day
One of the ways we have celebrated World Book Day is by shared reading. The year 5/6 children visited KS1 this morning to read our favourite books to us. The children enjoyed being read to and sharing why they liked their books.
The adults have also been sharing their favouirte books with the children.