Year 1-Fun, fun, fun!
The whole of Year 1 were together every morning this week. (The Year 2’s had some very important work to do so we made the most of Year 1 only time). We had a carousel of learning activities that we all completed by Friday. These included practical work on capacity, shape and measures whilst also refining our writing and computing skills. The behaviour of all pupils was exemplary and it was such a treat to have 40 superstars together! A few snapshots of our learning.
Living and Learning and Science visitors in KS1
This half term we have been very fortunate to welcome some visitors into school.
A Living and Learning visitor
A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of hosting Lindsey from Diversity Role Models. She came to deliver a workshop on how important diversity is in all of our lives.
She read the story Odd Dog Out (which we all loved!) and then handed out coloured stickers. We needed to make groups by finding all the people who had the same colour as us before creating long ‘sausage dogs’ by linking together.
In each class, the teachers had been left in a group all on their own. They described how that made them feel.
It was so lovely how the children instantly offered for them to join their groups and we all decided that it was far better to create a rainbow dog where everyone could join in and be included.
Science visitor
Today we welcomed James from Solar For Schools into our classes. Firstly, he talked to us about what electricity is and how it can travel. We saw how, when we are connected, a circuit is created and electricity can travel through us. When we let go of a hand, the circuit broke and the electricity didn’t work.
He gave us wires, mini solar panels, mini lights, mini motors and mini buzzers. He showed us how to make a circuit to make them all work and we learned that if we covered up the solar panel, the circuit wouldn’t have any power and therefore, it wouldn’t work.
What fun we’ve had… And the half term isn’t even over yet!
Help at home: by talking to your child about differences and how people’s differences make our world an interesting and diverse place. You could also talk to your child about all the things that use electricity in your home. What are the things that use electricity? How do they work?
Living and learning: solving problems
This week in our Living and Learning lessons, we have been talking about solving problems (like when we fall out with friends) and also about being resilient (not giving up and keeping on trying).
We watched this song about not quitting.
PE and outdoor maths in 1,2B
We have enjoyed a bit of nice weather this week and taken some of our maths learning outside – counting in 5s.
Our PE lessons this half term are also going well. We have been playing ‘lions and hyenas’, first a whole class game and now mini-games. We can really feel the difference in our bodies when we exercise – increased heart rate, breathing harder and feeling warm!
Help at home by ensuring your child gets at least 60 minutes exercise per day (we do at least 30 mins in school each day).
2C Living and Learning fun!
This week in our living and learning lesson we were talking about resilience, which is one of our ‘Eight R’s’ in school. We know that resilience means not giving up, and trying even if at first we don’t succeed. We always try our best in our learning!
During circle time we each discussed something we are not good at, or have struggled with in the past.
One child said ‘I wasn’t very good at riding a bike when I was younger. But I kept on practising and now I can ride a bike without stabilisers.
The children know it isn’t possible to be good at every skill straight away, but with resilience we can overcome challenges.
During the second part of the session, we worked as a team to build a tower. The children had 8 minutes to work in a team and build the tallest tower. They were not allowed to use sellotape or glue but could use materials in the classroom to build.
See how they got on below!
The team that won took their time to find strong materials.
SK: ‘I realised the heavy things couldn’t go on top so I moved them to the bottom and then the tower was strong.’
Help at home: by discussing resilience regularly and that as long as we try our best, that’s the most important thing!
World Book Day – shared reading with 1,2B and 3,4C
We had a lovely time yesterday afternoon sharing books with children from different classes. 3,4C visited 1,2B and we partnered up to read to each other. There were lots of lovely conversations and some new friendships made whilst reading together.
World Book Day in 1A
Wow-what a day! 1A have set themselves the challenge of reading every Julia Donaldson book that we can find and we think that we have found a lot! The class have read one of their favourite JD books and created their own front cover for it. We took our JD book and school reading book to join up with 3/4A and read with them. Such a pleasure to enjoy books together!
1A have joined in a live web chat with the author Laura Baker in which we got to listen to her book ‘The full stop that got away’. In the session we even go to join in an art session to create her main character. We did this with 2C which was great!
Lots of reading, lots of fun and lots of sunshine! A perfect world book day.
Reading – Ollie’s magic bunny
We are using Ollie’s Magic Bunny by Nicola Killen as a focus for our reading and writing this half term. It’s helped us use our retrieval skills (answering questions about what happens in the book) and inference skills (thinking about character’s thoughts and feelings).
You can listen to the story here.
(This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)
Y2 Maths – divide
Our focus in Maths at the moment is divide. Divide means to share equally. Equal means the same.
This week we are dividing by 5. We have been looking at lots of number stories and discussing exactly what each number in our equations represent.
‘The 15 represents all of the eggs.”
”The 5 represents the eggs in each nest.”
”The three represents the number of nests.”
We drew part-whole models to show how many fives make up a number. When we are thinking about multiples of 5, we know that the ones column must have either a 0 or a 5 in it.
”54 is not a multiple of 5 because even though it has a 5 in it, it is in the tens column. It needs to be in the ones column to be a multiple of 5.” (BC, 2C)
Help at home: by writing out dividing equations and really discussing what each number represents!
Remember – We always put the ‘big’ number at the start of a divide equations. This is the number we are dividing/ sharing.
Living and learning : strong emotions
We watched this story called Beegu. It is all about an alien who
(This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)
