Let’s Get Active!
As part of our commitment to being a happy and healthy school, we’re continually looking at ways to increase the physical activity undertaken within school. The UK Chief Medical Officers found that, “the latest evidence shows there is a clear link between physical activity and chronic disease.” We want to reduce this risk by ensuring that our children can achieve the recommended 60 minutes, or more, of physical activity per day. The government wants schools to provide 30 minutes of this.
In response to this we have launched the 30:30 Wristband Challenge.
Y1-6 children should have brought a recording sheet home. We’ll be taking part in the challenge in school and are encouraging children to continue this at home as well. We already do 10 minutes of Wake Up, Shake Up per day (join in here). We are now striving for 10 minutes of running per day and a further 10 minutes using interactive online resources. The Change for Life website has fun ideas how you can achieve 30 active minutes at home, too.
Movie Makers
We learnt so much reading Naughty Bus last half term: retelling the story orally and with props, writing it, writing our own naughty vehicle stories and making movies! We really enjoyed thinking of naughty ideas and using iPads to capture images to make videos in iMovie.
Spring Term Learning
‘What’s the matter?’ is our first mini-topic in the new year and is science-based. Children will learn about materials and their properties. We will explore what objects are made from and why, using One Snowy Night as a stimulus. We’ll be designing and making a waterproof shelter for an animal. You can help your child learn more about this topic when choosing which clothes to wear and talking about which materials everyday objects are made from and why. Children will also ask ‘What’s the matter?’ from a social and emotional point of view, thinking about how they can solve problems.
Life forces is our big topic for the new year (lasting eight weeks).
Life is all around us, in plants and animals, and comes in all shapes and sizes – it’s amazing! In this biology-based topic, we find out how our body works, what all living things have in common and the differences we might notice. Amongst other things, we’ll think about why animals choose particular habitats, and why a healthy diet is important and how drugs can be dangerous. Help your child at home by naming body parts, including the parts inside that you can’t see, discussing why you breathe hard after exercise and what plants you can see when you’re out and about.
Story with Santa and Golden Star
We enjoyed our second meeting with Santa this week. Year 1 and 2 experienced a story with Santa and each received a present. Thank you to FOSP for organising this. The grotto looked amazing!
Well done to our Golden Star this week.
Steam Train and Santa!
We had a fabulous time at Middleton Railway this week. All the children were a fantastic advert for our school. We learnt about fireboxes, pistons and crankshafts. Ask you child how a steam train works!
Spectacular Science
We’ve been focusing on working scientifically for the last few weeks – even learning a song about it.
All the children in Year 1 and 2 have enjoyed predicting, testing and recording results – especially when it involves smashing eggs! Ask your child to tell you what we found out.
Well done to our Golden Star this week.
Homework review
Each week, we share our homework within our classes.
This week, in 1K we each had an opportunity to discuss our creative and spelling homework. After our discussion, we looked at each piece of homework and voted for our favourite. The children decided to vote based on effort, use of colour, neat handwriting and ideas.
These pieces of homework will be on our display within the class.
We LOVE reading!
All the Year 1 and 2 classes visited Scholes Library again this week. It’s really fostering our love of books and reading. We hope you agree that when children choose their own books to read (as we do from the school library each week) they’re more engaged and motivated to read. Below are some lovely quotes from children after their library visit this week.
“I chose my book because it is cute. I like cute things.”
“I chose my book because it is like Christmas.”
“I chose my book because I like it when they hug.”
“I love my book because it is snowy.”
Community Week 20-24 November 2017
As part of our themed week, Scholes In Bloom spoke to children about their work and awards they have received for making the village look so beautiful. They recently planted 3,000 crocus bulbs outside the library. They are hoping to plant more outside school. If anyone would like to donate any Spring bulbs, please leave them at the school office.
We had a visit from the Elmete Elderberries. They are a local group of older people who meet weekly to socialise and take part in various activities. Key Stage 1 enjoyed dominoes, jigsaws, card making, drawing and refreshments. We’re hoping to take some children to visit the group in the near future.
Beyond Inspired also provided a gentle fitness class, replicating what happens at the Elmete Elderberries.
Key Stage 2 enjoyed the ‘Zines’ workshop, using magazines, newspapers and comics to create collages linked to the community and identity theme.
In Scholes, the Posada is passed around families in the community to mimic the journey of Mary and Joseph in the Christmas story. It was brought to school by the Bliss family and will continue its journey around the village throughout December.
The School Council met to decide the charity that we will support throughout the next year. Each class discussed which charity they wanted to put forward following Talk Time homework and then the School Council made a final decision in a meeting this week. They wanted both an animal and human charity. They decided that The Donkey Sanctuary fitted this perfectly as they help animals but also humans, specifically young people with a focus on self-esteem, coping mechanisms, conflict management and empathy. We look forward to raising money for this worthwhile cause.
Highlights this week
We’ve started our Transport mini topic this week. We’re focusing around a book called Naughty Bus by Jan and Jerry Oke. We have enjoyed reading it and noticed how they use real photos and text effects.
We’ve also been finding, reading and writing contractions. You could help your child by pointing out contractions in their reading books.
Well done to our Golden Star this week.
