PE – basketball skills
This half term in PE we are focussing on attacking skills.
Here’s what we’ve been learning:
Attack is offense in Basketball. On offense, there are many different tools available to your team. The goal of the attack is to break through the opponent’s defence and set up an uncontested shot. For this you will need strong fundamentals: dribbling, passing and shooting.
Maths: multiplication
This week in Year 2 we have been exploring multiplication. We are able to recognise equal groups, count how many objects are in each group and how many groups there are. We then use this knowledge to find the total.
We started by writing our equations out using repeated addition. We then wrote the equation as a multiplication.
(E.g. – 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 is the same as 2 x 4)
Help at home by arranging equal groups in the home for your child. You could use socks, coins or any other object that can be counted in 2s, 5s or 10s!
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s 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.
The Magic Paintbrush
The Magic Paintbrush
This week, we have focused on the story The Magic Paintbrush. We began by listening to the story for enjoyment. After becoming familiar with the story, we were then able to discuss the main events and characters.
The children then explored what they would do if they had a magic paintbrush.
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.
Maths
This week, we have consolidated our understanding of the composition of 5. We used the nursery rhyme 5 little speckled frogs to investigate different ways of making 5. By using part whole models and 10 frames, the children were able to represent their understanding in a range of ways.
Use the sentence 5 is made of __ and ___ to describe these images.
Phonics
This week, the children have learnt some new digraphs and trigraphs – a digraph/trigraph consists of ‘two/three letters that make one sound’. Ask your child to tell you the sounds the digraphs/trigraphs below make.
ur ow oi ear
Before reading a word we always look for any digraphs/trigraphs (two/three letters that make one sound). Then, we say the sound the digraph makes. Finally, we sound out the word and blend it together – using our phoneme (the sound a letter makes) fingers! This helps your child identify the digraphs/trigraphs (two/three letters that make one sound) before reading a word.
Find the diagraphs/trigraphs before reading these words.
hurt how coin fear
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. This week’s poem is ‘Jack and Jill’.
PE
This week, reception has continued to develop their balancing skills in a Foot Tech session and on the equipment.
Stay and Play – Funky Phonics
Thank you to all the adults that were able to join our stay and play sessions this week.
Learning in our areas
This week, we have explored Lunar New year. The children were able to compare the celebration to their own experiences.
I’ve seen fireworks before. We had them on New Years Eve.
I saw them (fireworks) on bonfire night.
I had new clothes on Christmas day.
Reminders
Swimming/Football
Spring 1 – swimming
Rainbow Class- 4 Jan, 18 Jan, 1 Feb
Sunshine Class- 11 Jan, 25 Jan, 8 Feb
When your child is not swimming, they will be taking part in Foot Tech Football sessions. Please ensure your child comes in PE kit every Wednesday, including suitable trainers.
Reading
Reading Records – return to school each Friday
Library books – return on Thursdays
Geography and reading
This week, we have been using our geography and reading skills to edit a Jamboard of our local environment- school. We have been matching photographs from our local environment with the correct captions.
Winter
Winter
This week, we’ve been talking about typical signs of winter. We’ve been reading a range of winter themed fiction and non-fiction books. We have also been discussing animals that live in a cold climate. Climate is our word of the week!
Rainbow class have been writing about typical signs of winter.
Sunshine class have been writing about Arctic animals.
In Literacy, we’ve also been discussing the features of fiction and non-fiction books, sorting them into groups. Here are some thoughts that children shared during the activity.
Fiction books
“They’re fun to read and they can make you laugh”- Sonny
“Some books can be scary”- Mollie G
“They’re good for your brain because they make you feel good”- Maddison
Non-fiction books
“If you don’t know about something, you can read about it and find out”- Georgie
“I got a non-fiction book from the library because I wanted to find out about pyramids”- Keira
Maths: The staircase pattern
We’ve been counting to find ‘how many’.
With the help of our Numberblocks friends, we’ve revisited the ‘stable order’ principle of counting (Understanding that number names are said in order)
We’ve been learning about the ‘one more’ relationship between consecutive numbers. We discovered that when you represent numbers in order using cubes, it makes a ‘staircase’ pattern!
Phonics
This week, the children have learnt some new digraphs – a digraph consists of ‘two letters that make one sound’. Ask your child to tell you the sounds the digraphs below make.
oo oo ar or
You may have noticed that one of our digraphs is repeated. That’s because the ‘oo’ digraph makes two different sounds! It might take a bit of investigating in our reading to see which one fits the word. Please support your child with this when practising their ‘learn at home’ phonics sheet.
Before reading a word, we always look for any digraphs (two letters that make one sound). Then, we say the sound the digraph makes. Finally, we sound out the word and blend it together – using our phoneme (the sound a letter makes) fingers! This helps your child identify the digraphs (two letters that make one sound) before reading a word.
Penguin observations
Over the past two weeks, the children have loved observing the ‘penguin cam’ at Edinburgh Zoo. They’ve been watching closely, making notes about what they look like, how they move and what they have in their enclosures to keep them happy. We discussed how this is not their natural habitat and what their environment would be like in the Antarctic.
Living and Learning
This week’s Living and Learning statement is: I know that some drugs are harmful.
In Reception, we’ve focused on our PSED (Personal, Social, Emotional Development) statement “I know that I must only take medicines when an adult is with me”
The children shared some fantastic knowledge of why they must be with a trusted adult when using medicines.
“To make sure it’s not out of date”- Jack
“To look at the label to see how much you need”- Olivia
“If you get the wrong one, it could make you more poorly”- Skyla
“You might take too much”- Alfie
PE
On Wednesday, Rainbow class enjoyed their first fun-filled PE session led by Foot-Tech Academy
This half term, our PE skill focus is dynamic (moving) balance and static balance.
In Friday sessions, we’ll be using a variety of apparatus in the hall to develop these skills.
Inspiration on a rainy day
It’s been a very dreary, soggy week outside but, as ever, the children’s curiosity led to some fantastic exploration. After a conversation about rain, flooding and potentially needing a boat to get around (ha!) the talk soon turned to types of boat and learning about canal boats. The children watched some short clips of ‘Rosie and Jim’ and a group were inspired to build their own canal boat in the outside area. They showed great team work and story-telling. This spontaneous, child-led interest and construction carried on throughout the week.
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. This week’s poem is ‘I can build a snowman ’.
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 tell you if this week’s poem is fast or slow? We know that learning to recite poems, helps our reading in lots of ways.
Click here to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!
Celebration assembly
Reception have started attending Friday celebration assemblies with KS1. Each week, we’ll be awarding sports, living and learning and great learning certificates. If your child receives a certificate or award outside of school, they can also bring this in to share with everyone in the assembly.
Reminders
- Reading- Please remember to bring in library books on Thursdays and reading records on Fridays.
- Funky phonics Phase 3 stay and play- Monday 16 January/ Wednesday 18 January 9.00-9.30am Please only attend the session you have signed up for and please remember that we have space for only one parent/carer at this session. We’ve taken on board your feedback from previous stay and play events and have split the session over 2 days, to lower numbers and ensure a calmer learning environment for all.
We are looking forward to welcoming you all back into the classroom and showing you how much our phonics has developed!
Class 5/6A News
Phew! What a week that has been. Not only have the pupils crammed in a huge amount of learning, we’ve also been cheering England and Wales to World Cup glory! Let’s catch up on the goings on in Mr. Robson’s class this week.
In Maths, Year 5 have been getting to grips with mixed numbers and improper fractions, and being able to convert one into the other. One of the key skills to success in this is sold times table knowledge, which we have reinforced this week with Times Table Rockstars sessions at every opportunity. Having that solid times table knowledge helps to unlock a whole host of mathematical understanding.
Ever wondered what it’s like to interview a snowman? Well we managed to put one in the hot seat this week along with their friend Lily. Our Reading focus has been on the heart-warming Christmas tale of “Lily and the Snowman”, where a snowman magically comes to life in Lily’s garden, the two build up a strong bond only for Lily to grow up and the pair drift apart (all while the snowman lived in Lily’s fridge). Our pupils took turns to be the main characters, whilst the rest of the class used their inference skills to ask questions about how they might have felt at certain parts of the story.
Water resistance was the focus of our Science experiments this week. Tasked with investigating how changing the shape of an object affected the amount of water resistance it was subjected to, the class took part in a competition to see who could create a shape which would reach the bottom of the tank the quickest. Some very creative designs were on show, but congratulations to Amelie whose effort reached the surface in 0.38 seconds.
The class have been under strict instructions to follow instructions this week, as creating a clear and concise set of instructions is our Writing focus at present. Eary in the week they got to grips with tying a necktie, drawing a house and creating origami. We will build on this further in the coming week and identify the key language and layout that makes a good set of instructions.
There’s just time to see who our lucky certificate winners were this week:
P.E – Sam Wilkinson: Always on task, gives 110% effort in every game.
Learning – Harry: A Strong week all round for Harry, but he has particularly shone on his fractions work in Maths.
Living & Learning: Millie – A mature, confident student who is always demonstrating the best version of herself.
Enjoy the weekend!
Mr. Robson
How to catch a star
This week, we’ve been reading the book How to catch a star by Oliver Jeffers.
We’ve been retelling the story in sequence and adding actions to our retelling.
Maths
In maths, we’ve been extending our understanding of the parts that make a whole, through number composition games. The children were introduced to the part-whole model, as a way of investigating the smaller numbers (parts) that make a whole number.
Three is a part, one is a part. Four is the whole number.
We watched the ‘Stampolines’ episode of Numberblocks, linked to this week’s learning. The children have represented different patterns of four, using multilink cubes and stamping paint squares.
Phonics
This week, we learnt the digraphs (two letters that make one sound) sh, th, ng, nk. These phonemes are some of the most challenging to learn and it’s really important that we pronounce them correctly (‘th’ even has two different pronunciations; voiced and unvoiced!) The children have been superstars working on this daily, both in our phonics sessions and at other times too.
To help your child with the correct pronunciation at home, the Little Wandle website has some fantastic resources for parents. This includes videos on how to say each phoneme. Click here to find out more.
We’ve also learnt three new tricky words this week: she, he, of.
A new ‘learn at home’ phonics sheet was sent home today. Please use this and previously issued sheets, for continued learning at home.
Poetry Picnic
Each week, we will be learning a new poem. We’ll recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line.
This week’s poem is Mice
Ask your child to say the poem to you at home! The words were sent home with your child on Friday. Can they remember it?
Music/ Christmas Production Preparations!
The children are enjoying our Christmas production rehearsals; learning songs and getting to know their parts. We’re looking forward to rehearsing on the big stage next week. We’re sure many of you will have been treated to a few songs at home too! Everyone is doing brilliantly. Please continue to say lines at home if your child has a speaking part. This will give them that little extra confidence, when it’s their time to shine!
Take a look at more learning from this week!
Reminders
-Swimming Dates
Please send swimming kits on the following dates:
Autumn 2
Rainbow Class- 2 Nov, 16 Nov, 30 Nov
Sunshine Class- 9 Nov, 23 Nov, 7 Dec
There will be no swimming 14 Dec
Spring 1
Rainbow Class- 4 Jan, 18 Jan, 1 Feb
Sunshine Class- 11 Jan, 25 Jan, 8 Feb
-Reception Christmas performances. 08.12.22 10am, 09.12.22 1.30pm
Please return slips for tickets to our Christmas performance, if you haven’t done so already.
– Learning Journey Drop in.
- Monday 12.12.22, 9.00-9.30am
- Tuesday 13.12.22, 9.00-9.30am
- Thursday 15.12.22, 3.30-4.00pm
An invitation for parents/carers to come into the classroom and take a look at your child’s learning journey.
-Reception Christmas Party day. 16.12.22
Your child can come to school in party clothes on this day.
3,4B: writing
We’ve been enjoying our writing in 3,4B recently. During our history topic, we wrote some recounts. We imagined we were an Ancient Greek warrior returning to our homeland (Athens) after a long battle.
Check out these examples…
Throughout all our writing, we’ve been learning lots of grammar. In particular, we’ve been focussing on securing our knowledge of word classes.
We’ve learnt about lots of word classes:
nouns – a person, place or thing
proper nouns – the specific name of a person, place or thing
verbs – a doing or being word
adjectives – a word that describes a noun
It’s important to remember that the word class of a word can change. A word isn’t just a noun all of the time. It depends what it’s job is in that particular sentence.
In this sentence, walked (from the verb ‘to walk’) is a verb because it’s the action that’s been done by the dog.
The dog walked to the park.
In this sentence, walk is a noun because it’s the thing that’s being done. The verb would be ‘went’ coming from the verb ‘to be’.
The dog went for a walk.
Help at home by…
- asking your child about their writing learning
- asking them to spot nouns around the house
- practising their spellings
- reading with, and to, them (ideally, every day)
Nursery Rhyme Week
This week in literacy we have been reading the book Each Peach Pear Plum with a focus on rhyming words. We enjoyed spotting the characters on each page.
I spy the witch in the sky. Ellie
I spy Jill behind the tree. Hattie
I spy the man in the tree. Eddy
I spy Bo Peep on the hill. Lenny
Listen to the story. Can your child hear any rhyming words?
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.
Maths
This week, we have been exploring the concept of ‘wholes’ and ‘parts’. We investigated this using our own bodies and toys to understand that whole things are often made up of smaller parts and that a whole is, therefore, bigger than it’s parts.
My legs are a part. My body is the whole.
My head is a part. My body is the whole.
Using the stem sentence, can your child say what parts make the whole?
The ____ is/are a part. The cat is the whole.
___ is a part. Three is the whole.
This week’s maths challenge was to explore one less using familiar nursery rhymes – 10 green bottles and 10 in a bed.
Phonics
This week, the children have learnt the phonemes z, qu, ch. (the sound a letter makes) . They’ve also been practicing writing the graphemes (the written letters). We have been challenging the children by asking them to spell words using the letters that they know. This week your child has been spelling the words; can, back, run, had and sun. Can your child tell you what phonemes (the sound a letter makes) they can hear in these words?
quick chip zip chop quit zap
This week, your child has learnt the tricky words; go no to and into. A tricky word is a word you cannot sound out – you just have to know it by sight!
Poetry Picnic
This week, Poetry Picnic was a little bit different as it was Nursery Rhyme week. Each day we have sung a new or familiar nursery rhyme.
Music
We were joined my Mr Nash and his guitar for some singing! Using our knowledge of rhyming words we sang lots of wonderful and funny songs.
Our favourite was Down By the Bay as it had lots of funny rhyming parts, such as a ghost eating toast.
Maths Stay and Play
Thank you for all the grown-up that were able to attended our stay and play on Thursday. It was wonderful to see the children proudly showing off their learning.
If you haven’t done so already, please remember to bring back your feedback form as this helps us to develop our sessions in the future.
Home link
As the weather has taken a turn, it is a great opportunity for your child to become more independent in their own self care by learning to zip their coat up and put on hats, gloves and scarves.
Please support your child to zip their own coat up independently if they are not able to do so yet.
Art: monoprint
Year 5/6 have been inspired by William Morris.
This week, we have been creating monoprints from a leaf template.
At home, look at the work of William Morris and discuss your favourite designs.
