Author: Mrs Wood

We said goodbye to the chicks on Thursday. The children have loved watching them hatch and grow. The caterpillars are finally growing and nearly ready to start building their cocoons- I think the cold weather has slowed them down this year!

Literacy

This week we will read the story, ‘Superworm’ by Julia Donaldson. After retelling the story, the children will make their own super minibeast story. We are encouraging the children to write a simple sentence remembering full stops, capital letters and finger spaces.

Phonics

We will begin Phase 4 of the ‘Letters and Sounds’ phonics programme. In this phase children will use the phonemes learnt in Phase 2 and Phase 3 to read and spell words with four phonemes.

Children will continue to practise previously learned graphemes and phonemes and learn how to read and write:

CVCC words: tent, damp, toast, chimp

For example, in the word ‘toast’, t = consonant, oa = vowel,  s = consonant,  t = consonant

CCVC words: swim, plum, sport, cream, spoon

For example, in the word ‘cream’, c = consonant, r = consonant, ea = vowel, m = consonant

They will be learning more tricky words and continuing to read and write sentences together.

Tricky words

said, so, do, have, like, some, come, were, there, little, one, when, out, what

Please help your child to learn the phonemes from the previous phases.

We will continue to send words and books home which your child will be able to blend. Please make sure your child’s reading book is in their bookbag everyday as we read often.

Maths

This week the children will begin to realise that a group of objects can be changed by taking away. They will solve problems involving addition and subtraction and tell maths stories using the language, first, then and now.

Please keep sending those ‘wow moments’ and any questions to

moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org

 

 

 

 

The children have enjoyed our visitors! They have watched them hatch, held them and helped to feed them.

Phonics

This week we will recap all the phonemes we have learnt in Phase 3 before moving on to Phase 4 next week. In the next phase the children will learn to blend and segment longer words.

Please continue to help them learn the phonemes and read the words we have sent home. If you have any questions or concerns please email.

moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org

Maths

In maths we will learn about addition and that a group of objects can be changed by adding more.

The children enjoyed learning about 100 and completing their Captain Tom challenge.

We hope you enjoyed the Bank Holiday!

On Friday the Junior Leadership team chose Dogs Trust as our school charity.

Our first fundraising event will be on Tuesday 04 May when all children will be taking part in the Captain Tom 100 challenge. There will be a bucket at the gate for donations of at least £1.

Reception are going to paint 100 handprints!

Phonics

This week we are learning the phonemes air, ure and er.

Maths

We have been investigating bigger numbers and this week will look at 100! We will paint our 100 handprints and use 10 frames to further develop the children’s understanding of 10.

This term, we are taking part in the West Yorkshire Skip into Summer project with Skipping School. We are excited to be part of the 136 schools and almost 33,000 children taking part!

If your child would like to buy a rope, to keep learning their new skills at home, they will be on sale, outside the Year 1 classroom in the middle playground, 3:10-3:30pm on Thursdays and Fridays.

Our ‘very hungry’ caterpillars arrived this morning and we are looking forward to observing them grow and change over the next few weeks.

We read and retold the story, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and have been making caterpillar and butterfly art.

Maths

We are learning all about numbers from 11-20 and using a variety of resources to represent them.

We are also learning the days of the week and thinking about what happens on each day.

Phonics

This week’s phonemes are ur, oi and ear and the ‘tricky’ words are they and are.

Please can you make sure your child’s reading book is in their bag everyday as we will be changing and sending books on different days and more frequently this term.

We are encouraging the children to write independently using their phonic knowledge. Remember, it doesn’t matter about spelling every word correctly at this stage. It’s more important for children to ‘have a go’ and use their phonic knowledge.

Thank you for sending photos of the sunflowers-I’m so glad some survived!

www.moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org

 

We hope you’ve all had a great break and enjoyed the sunshine!

The children have returned to school happy and ready to learn!

They enjoyed playing in our new playground, especially when the diggers arrived!

This half term we will continue with our ‘Growing’ topic and will have some caterpillars and chicks to observe in the classroom.

Phonics

We are continuing to recap the Phase 3 phonemes; ar, or, ow, ur, oi, ear, air, ure and er.

The tricky words for this phase are; he, she, we, me, be, was, are, they, you, all, her and my.

Maths

We will be learning about numbers to 20 and beyond. The children will know that teen numbers are made up of one ten and some more. They will practise counting on and back from different numbers and represent numbers using a variety of materials.

You can help your child at home to say, read, write and order teen numbers.

PE

Our PE days are Wednesday and Friday. Please can you label all items of clothing.

Writing

The children are really enjoying writing at the moment and it is nice to see so many choose to write independently. We are encouraging them to hold their pencil with the correct tripod grip. This will help them write more efficiently and comfortably.

Please refer to the school’s handwriting style which you can find on the website or ask us for a copy. It is far easier for children to adopt this handwriting style now as they begin to write than try to change it later. Encourage your child to write at home. They could write a shopping list, letters to friends and grandparents or write about what they have seen and done.

If you need advice or information on this please ask.

Please continue to let us know about those ‘wow’ moments.

moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org

 

We have reached the end of this very strange term! The class have been amazing and we’ve been really impressed with how they have all returned to school.

This week we have been learning to skip and observing our sunflowers and beans grow. The sunshine has definitely helped.

The children will be taking their sunflower home. It would be great if you could send us photos of them as they grow. Ask your child to keep measuring them.

moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org

Junior Leadership Elections

We were really impressed with all the children who prepared and presented their speech.

Well done to Aaniyah and Ralph who were elected to represent their class-I know they will do a good job.

Have a fantastic Easter break -hopefully the sun will come back!

 

Next week we are holding elections for the Junior Leadership Team(formerly School Council). Two representatives from each class are chosen democratically by their peers.

It’s time for children to consider if they would like to stand for election for our new Junior Leadership Team(JLT)

Elections will take place on Thursday 1 March. Candidates will have the opportunity to give their election speech to their class on Tuesday 30 March and Wednesday 31 March.

If your child would like to be a junior leader, please help them to prepare a short speech.

What makes a good junior leader has been considered by our current school council.

• ‘use all the 8 Rs for learning’
• ‘be respectful’
• ‘help others’
• ‘be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)’
• ‘tell the truth’
• ‘be confident with your ideas’
• ‘accept the views of others even if you don’t agree’
• ‘be friendly and approachable’
• ‘make good choices in class and around school’

Hints for your speech include:

• What skills and abilities would a good school councillor have?
• What are you particularly good at that would help you to be a great school councillor?
• What do you think would make the school better?
• What could you do that people would really like?
• Think of things that are realistic, maybe that you could do yourself, rather than having to ask other people to do

 

Good luck to all children who decide to stand in the elections.

We have been very busy thinking about Spring and our topic ‘Growing’.

The children planted beans and we will measure how much they grow over the coming weeks.

In maths we have been learning about addition in our roleplay flower shop and making board games.

We read and retold the traditional story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and designed and built the giant’s castle.

Next week’s learning

Phonics

We will be recapping the digraphs ng, ai and ee and the tricky words we, me and be.

Maths

We will be investigating the number 10 and continuing to do simple addition and subtraction through play and number rhymes and stories.

We will be reading the story, ‘The Tiny Seed’ by Eric Carle and growing our own sunflowers.

Please keep sending those ‘wow’ moments.

moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org

Focus children

Due to the lockdown, focus children observations were put on hold. We will begin these again and will contact you when we have observed your child.

If you have any concerns or questions, please contact me.

We have had a fantastic week and been really impressed with how well all the children have settled. It feels like they’ve never been away!

Topic

For the rest of this half-term we will be learning about plants and growing. We will be planting herbs and vegetables outside and growing sunflowers inside. We will read and retell the stories- Jack and the Beanstalk and The Tiny Seed.

Phonics

Over the next few weeks  we will recap all the sounds from phase 3 of Letters and Sounds.

Set 6: j, v, w, x

Set 7: y, z, zz, qu.

Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng.

Vowel digraphs and trigraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er.

Don’t forget there are some really good games to support this learning on Phonicsplay

username: sphere

password: spher3

Maths

We will recap the learning of 6, 7 and 8 next week and begin to talk about addition and subtraction.  The children will have opportunities in their play to compare sets of objects saying which set has more and which has fewer.

PE

Next week, we will be having PE on Wednesday and Friday.  Please send your child to school in their PE kit and remove earrings.

Keep sending those ‘wow’moments.

moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org

 

We are very excited to welcome everyone back next week. We have lots of exciting things planned around our topic of ‘Growing’.

I wonder how much you have grown?

See you very soon!

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