Autumn 2: Week 2
We’ve had lots of fun celebrating Nursery Rhyme Week! This week, all of our Rainbow Challenges have been inspired by some of our favourite nursery rhymes.
We’ve loved singing Incy Wincy Spider and making our very own spiders and carefully remembering to give them 8 legs!
We’ve also been singing The Wheels on the Bus and playing our Busy Bus maths game with our friends. We’ve been rolling the dice, subitising the spots and then placing the correct number of passengers onto our ten-frame bus.
We’ve been using Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed to explore early subtraction within 5, working out how many monkeys are left as they fall off the bed. We’ve also been acting out Five Speckled Frogs’to help us explore addition, counting how many frogs are sitting on the log and how many there are altogether.
Our busy builders have been busy creating walls to protect Humpty Dumpty from having a great fall!
Outside, we’ve been enjoying lots of imaginative play in our mud kitchen! We’ve been using little teapots to make cups of tea for our friends and singing I’m a Little Teapot. We’ve also been catching fish and singing along to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive.
Help at home: Sharing nursery rhymes with your child might seem like simple fun, but it is actually one of the best ways to help them thrive in their Reception year. Singing together builds essential skills that prepare your child for reading, writing, and classroom life.
Remembrance
At the beginning of the week, we also used our fine motor skills to create our own Remembrance poppies. On Wednesday, we took some time to talk about why we have Remembrance Day and why people wear poppies.
Phonics stay & learn
We look forward to seeing you all at our next stay & learn on Wednesday at 9am.
Adjectives and expanded noun phrases
This week, the children have been using adjectives for impact in their writing to create a spooky setting. Using a determiner, adjective(s) and a noun, the children have created expanded noun phrases.
Here are some examples:
In the distance, I could see an abandoned, spooky house.
The eerie mansion was covered in creeping ivy.
An odd figure appeared from behind the twisted branches.
Click the links to find out more about adjectives and expanded noun phrases.
Help at home by asking your child to use adjectives to describe what they can see.
Maths: Mental and Written Methods
This week in maths, Year 6 have been discussing how to be efficient mathematicians. A misconception we spoke about is that people think if you calculate an answer in your head, you are a better mathematician. We now know this is incorrect. A good mathematician can decide which method of working will be the quickest and easiest: mental, written or same difference.
We use same difference when there are a lot of place holders in our calculation – this means we don’t have to do lots of exchanges.
Today, the children applied their knowledge from the week to answer addition and subtraction questions in groups. They decided which method would be best to use.
Help at home: What method would you use for the following calculations? Why?
3,633,631 – 467,236 =
2,500,000 – 750,000 =
6,000,000 – 2,345,105 =
Reading: Little Red
Our new class novel is…
Little Red by Bethan Woollvin.
This week, we’ve sorted books between fiction and non-fiction. The children decided Little Red is a fiction book because it is a made up story.
Help at home by sorting any books you have at home into fiction and non-fiction.
We used our previous knowledge of Little Red Riding Hood to predict what Little Red may be about.
I predict the book will be just like Little Red Riding Hood.
I think it will have a grandma and a wolf in it.
I think it will be in a forest.
Then, we read the story and shared what we liked and disliked about it.
Maths: addition bridging 10
This week, we’ve been bridging 10 in Maths.
We set up two buses in the playground, each with 10 seats. If we had 7 children in our first bus and 5 more wanted to join, we had to fill our first bus with 3 of the children and the remaining 2 had to go in the new bus. Altogether, we then had 12 children.
After we were secure with this, we moved onto doing it in our books. For 7+5, we partition 5 into 3 and 2. Next we add 3 to 7 to make 10 and then add the 2 to make 12.
Help at home: practise these facts using this method…
7 + 5
8 + 4
9 + 4
7 + 6
8 + 5
Poem of the Week – Conkers!
This is our focus poem (song) this week…
Conkers!
Conkers! I’m collecting conkers,
I’m trying hard to find the biggest and the best.
Conkers! Lots of lovely conkers,
I want a conker that is better than the rest.
Under the chestnut tree,
There waits for me,
A sight so marvellous to behold.
Amidst the autumn leaves,
It gleams at me,
A conker, beautiful and bold.
Conkers! I’m collecting conkers,
I’m trying hard to find the biggest and the best.
Conkers! Lots of lovely conkers,
I want a conker that is better than the rest.
It’s a part of this song.
Help at home by listening and practising it at home.
Forest School
Year 4 have been really enjoying forest school with Chris. This week’s focus has been:
- using tools to fix equipment
- making clay mushrooms
- fire lighting
Living and Learning: Me and My Community week
We had a busy end to our Me and My Community themed week.
First of all, we had an online meeting with Year 4 at St James’ where we learnt about their identity and community. The children thought of some interesting questions to find this out. There were some similarities but also some differences. 
Baz Green from Moortown Community Group came to visit to share what the group do and how we can help to make Moortown an even better place.
Finally, we had chance to share what makes us all special as part of our identity day.
Help at home: ask your child about this learning and how they will ensure they respect their communities and other communities too.
Living and Learning – Me and My Community Week
This week we have been celebrating Me and My Community Week in Year 5. We have had lots of visitors in the classroom (including a guide dog!) and we have learnt lots about how we can be part of our community.
We have learnt about how we can create a happy and healthy community at school, within the classroom and in our locality. We have learnt about British Values and Protected Characteristics as well as hearing from visitors from the RNIB, the Anne Frank Trust and the Moortown Community Group.
On Tuesday we visited, Allerton Grange High School and took part in some drama where we explained to an alien what makes the Moortown Primary School community such an amazing one to be part of! The children did fantastically well!
To round the week off, we celebrated Identity Day where we all came to school dressed in an outfit that represented a community they were part of. All the children were very proud to be explain what they were wearing and why.
Help at home by discussing what communities you and your family belong to.
This week’s poem – I’m Glad to be Me
This week our poem was called I’m Glad to be Me. It linked nicely to our Me and My Community Week as it was all about celebrating ourselves and what makes us us! Our focus words were ‘precious’ and ‘personality’.