Class 5/6A News
A big welcome back to all of our pupils following the half-term break. I hope you are all relaxed and refreshed and ready for the new half-term. Already a jam packed week of learning is behind us. Let’s catch up with what Class 5/6A have been up to.
In Maths we are revisiting fractions, looking at multiplying an integer by a unit and non-unit fraction. Using our existing fractions and times table knowledge, our Year 5 pupils have made an excellent start to the half-term. How to help: continue to support your child’s maths learning at home by encouraging daily use of Times Table Rockstars.
In Writing, we are working towards writing a spooky narrative and setting description. This week we have watched an animation of Whitby Abbey to help us generate some vocabulary which we can use in our piece. We have also brainstormed figurative language to describe a number of spooky scenes such as darkened forests, lightning and moonlight skies. Our pupils have come up with some excellent description, and I can’t wait to see the pieces they produced.
The spooky theme has also appeared in our Reading work. We have been reading passages from Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ and using descriptive language from them to recreate drawings of the lead character and his surroundings.
Also in Reading we have our Friday Book Club. This half-term pupils have been given a selection of texts to choose from, which they can take home to read alongside their classmates. On Fridays we will get together to share our thoughts on what we have read so far, identify similarities between texts, and share our opinions.
We are Chemists this half-term in Science. Our work this week has seen us mixing bicarbonate of soda with vinegar and using balloons to test how much carbon dioxide can be created to inflate a balloon. Once a test experiment had been established, pupils then changed some of the variables of the experiment to see how this would affect the outcome.
Being able to recognise both positive and negative feelings and understand how to deal with them has been focus in Living and Learning. Our circle time discussion has seen us look at a wider range of vocabulary to describe feelings we experience every day, how we can express these, and what to do if we experience a feeling we are not sure of. Pupils discussed how they would support a peer who was struggling to deal with a particular scenario, and turn it into a positive.
Mr Wolf’s Pancakes
It was lovely to see everyone return to nursery this week and to hear all about your half term adventures.
On Tuesday, we talked about ‘pancake day’ and the reasons why some people celebrate Shrove Tuesday. We read ‘Mr Wolf’s Pancakes’ and found out how to make our own pancakes. We enjoyed smelling them as they cooked and we enjoyed eating them even more! During snack time, there was lots of excited conversation about our favourite toppings.
Mmmmmmm lemon with sugar sprinkled on top! Delicious!
Outside, children have started to notice some changes in our garden; they spotted snowdrops, crocuses and other plants and flowers starting to grow.
Next week, we’ll learn more about this and will read Jack and the Beanstalk. If you have a copy at home, enjoy reading it together at bedtime to help familiarise your child with the story. If not, there are lots of versions online that you could watch together.
Reminders
- Please join us if you can for our Nursery Coffee Morning – straight after drop off on Tuesday.
- It’s World Book Day on Thursday and children are invited to bring their favourite book to school to share with their friends. Parents/carers are also invited to stay for a while to share a story with your child. Please see previous post for more details.
- Please ensure that your child’s water bottle is marked clearly with their NAME. (Lunch boxes, too!)
World Book Day
World Book Day is on Thursday 02 March.
This year, we will celebrate by bringing our favourite book to nursery to share with our friends. Please make sure that your child’s name is in their book.
If you can stay a little bit longer at drop off on Thursday morning, we’d love for you to share a book with your child or to join in with some of the World Book Day activities that will be in provision.
It’s always a day that we really enjoy at nursery, so please join in if you can.
Let’s Go!
We’ve sprung into Spring 2 with great excitement for the term ahead! Outside, the sun has been shining and we’ve been noticing the first signs of the new season.
Pancake Day
On Shrove Tuesday, the children made pancakes. They learnt how to follow the steps of a recipe and check a list of ingredients. They followed the kitchen hygiene and safety rules. They had lots of fun mixing the ingredients and of course, tasting their creation!
The Train Ride
This half term is called Let’s Go! We’re starting with a focus on transport. This week, we’ve been reading The Train Ride by June Crebbin.
This story is about things that are seen out of the window, on a train journey. We noticed that the rhythm of the book’s repeated/rhyming lines start fast and repetitive (much like the sound of a train chugging along a track) and then as the train approaches the station, the lines become longer and the pace slows down until the train reaches is destination. Destination is our ‘word of the week’.
We’ve been discussing journeys that we have been on, either on trains or other modes of transport and what destinations we were going to. We’ve been writing about what we might see out of the train window.
Historical links
We looked at pictures of the early steam locomotive- Robert Stephenson’s Rocket. We compared it to the trains we use today.
In the discovery area, we’ve been ordering images of trains from oldest to newest. We’ve also been looking at historical pictures of Scholes Train Station.
Maths: Comparison
We’ve been comparing groups of objects and toys, saying which has more and which has fewer. We’ve been using our mathematical reasoning to explain why size, colour and other factors do not matter when comparing ‘how many’. Here is an example of a conversation from a maths lesson this week:
The teacher had asked a child to share some toys with them, from a basket. In this instance, both the teacher and child had 4 toys each.
Child 1: Oh, you both have the same…it’s equal!
Teacher: Actually, this toy is my favourite. This toy means so much more to me than any of those others because I really like it, so I think I have more.
Child 2: No, it doesn’t matter about any of that! It doesn’t matter how much you love it or if it’s bigger, it just matters about how many.
Child 3: The quantity!
In the classroom, children have been making 6 using Numicon frames.
Phonics
Spring 2 week 1 has been a review of phase 3 sounds: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, oo, ow, oi, ear, in words and sentences. We review tricky words daily.
Tricky words can be just that-tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try.
Roll and Read
You will need a die for this game. You may wish to print the boards or display them on a screen.
- Roll the die
- Count the spots, match to the correct row
- Choose a word to read on the row
- Cover the word when read correctly
- Repeat
Who will be the first to complete a row?
PE
We are excited to continue having both swimming and Foot-Tech on Wednesdays this half term. If it is your child’s swimming week, they may have both swimming and a Foot-tech session that afternoon. Please ensure that they are wearing PE kit, rather than school uniform. This must include suitable PE footwear.
Here is another reminder of the swimming dates:
Rainbow Class- 22 Feb, 8 Mar, 22 Mar
Sunshine Class- 1 Mar, 15 Mar, 29 Mar
These dates are also stuck to your child’s classroom door or window to view whenever needed.
We will also continue to have PE on Fridays. This half term we are developing ball skills and counter-balancing in pairs.
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 Pancakes by Christina Rossetti
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. Can your child re-tell this week’s poem to you?
Reminders and Messages
Shoe Box: Please send a named, empty shoe box into school from Monday 27 February. This is for a special creative activity in the classroom.
World Book Day 2023: Relax and Read – Thursday 02 March Please join us in the classroom for an extended drop-off time (8.40-9.20) where you can relax and read books with your child. Throughout the day, we’ll have World Book Day themed activities. We’d also like your child to share their favourite book with their friends. Please send your child into school with their favourite book and please ensure the book is named. As stated on the school calendar, this is not a dressing-up year. Thank you.
Half-term sponsored maths challenge: Please remember to return your sponsored maths challenge forms by Friday 03 March 2023.
Science: we are chemists
The children have been focusing on scientific enquiry this week – looking at fair and comparative tests. They got the opportunity to see that when you mix baking powder with vinegar, it causes a chemical reaction. This reaction produces carbon dioxide. The children created this chemical reaction within a plastic bottle with a balloon attached to the top. The carbon dioxide caused the balloon to inflate. The children were able to alter the variables in the experiment and compare results. For example, some children increased the amount of baking powder, whilst others increased the amount of vinegar. We had great fun observing the results. They were able to recognise that this chemical reaction was irreversible. They also applied some previously learnt vocabulary to their explanations, such as solute and solution.
Luckily, we all survived the experiment without any big explosions!
Help at home: Can yo help your child learn the science vocabulary for this half term?
Maths – dividing by 2
Our current Maths focus in Year 2 is multiplication and division. This week in 2C, we have been practising dividing by 2 by using sharing and grouping methods.
‘We know that dividing by two also means halving.’
Today, we worked in small groups to divide even numbers equally into two groups.
Help at home by collecting objects in the house such as fruit, coins or beads and dividing them equally into 2 groups. Make sure that you collect an equal number of objects! Challenge your child by asking them to explain why you have chosen an even number to divide into 2!
Geography topic and thanks to Scholes in Bloom
We really enjoyed our Geography topic last half term. We discovered an issue with pollution (litter) in our school grounds after doing a survey. So, we decided to sort it out! We made posters to remind ourselves to recycle and bin our rubbish and also did a litter pick with pickers borrowed from Scholes in Bloom.
Nursery Coffee Morning
After dropping your child off at Nursery on Tuesday 28 February, why not join us for a cup of tea or coffee and an informal chat with Miss Hague and Mrs Beesley. It’s also a great way to get to know other parents and carers. We hope that you can join us, even if it’s just for a quick drink and hello, before you go to work!
Poem of the week performed by 1,2B – Ice Lolly
We’re loving reading and learning a poem (or song) each week. This week, we read Ice Lolly by Pie Corbett. You can watch it here. It helps with our remembering, fluency and prosody skills.
Dinosaur footprints
In the last week of half term, children continued to enjoy learning about dinosaurs.
We drew giant dinosaur footprints to jump/hop between outside and we made dinosaur footprints in paint and playdough.
Children loved using rollers to paint large dinosaurs from the story we’ve been reading, Dinosaur Roar. We talked about the features of the dinosaurs; some had long necks and tails and others had spikes and lumpy skin. When we were painting them, children noticed that some of the colours changed when they mixed together. Look out for our giant dinosaurs in the Sunshine Room, soon!
We hope that you all have a lovely half term break and look forward to seeing you on Monday 20 February.