Class reward
After achieving all of our Brill Buddies, we thought about what we could do for our class reward and how we could stay cool at the same time… frozen yogurt ice lollies it was!
Let’s just say they went down a treat this afternoon. A special treat to celebrate all of the children’s hard work and effort.
English – writing
Year 2 have worked really hard this week to produce some lovely independent writing using the book Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett as the stimulus. We’ve really enjoyed listening to this story over the past few weeks and it’s been wonderful to see the children use it to inspire their own ideas and writing.
(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.)
Living and Learning: RSE
These past weeks, we’ve been learning about Relationships and Sex Education.
Here are some snippets of our learning. We covered topics such as conception, pregnancy and consent (which of course can be seen in a variety of scenarios).
Help at home: Check to see if your child has any more questions about this topic.
D&T: sewing
In Year 3, we’re going to be designing, making and evaluating a pouch! This pouch can be for whatever purpose that the children choose. It could be a pencil case, a coin purse, a glasses case or something else entirely.
A key skill that we’ll be using to make these pouches will be sewing. Some of us had sewed before but many of us hadn’t.
We followed these instructions:
1. First, thread the needle and tie a knot in the thread.
2. Then, complete a running stitch using your binka fabric.
3. Finally, tie a knot at the end of the stitch and cut the excess thread.
The children worked so hard to be precise with their sewing and their running stitches look fantastic! More confident sewers were helping their friends and Year 3 all worked together. Have a look at how we got on:
One of the trickiest parts was tying the knots in the thread. Help at home by practising tying knots in a piece of string or even learning how to tie shoelaces! These fine motor skills will be really beneficial for the children.
Food Technology: summer salad!
Today, Year 4 made a summer garden salad! The children prepared the ingredients, assembled the salad and ate almost all of it.
We used the bridge and claw cutting skills to cut up all the vegetables. The bridge was best for the new potatoes and the cherry tomatoes. The claw was more suitable for the gem lettuce leaves and cucumber. The carrot was grated to keep it fine and we boiled the new potatoes until they were soft. We stayed safe by using these skills and taking our time. After we assembled all of the vegetables, we whisked together the oil and vinegar for the dressing.
Everyone tried it and the majority of us loved it. It’s a perfect summer recipe for the very hot week we’re having!
Help at home by making it again ! The recipe has been sent home with the children. Can you add something new? Could you try a different dressing?
Living and Learning: relationships education
For the last few weeks, our Living and Learning lessons and circle times have been all about happy and healthy relationships between our friends, peers and families.
We read some texts about how not all families are the same and that is ok. The children also enjoyed sharing special members of their family.
The Great big book of families by Mary Hoffman
What is a healthy relationship?
What does a good friend do?
What should I do if I’m not happy with a friendship?
These were all questions we considered as we moved onto thinking about friendships.
Consent is also part of this relationships learning. We have already learnt about consent in terms of permission seeking when online but here we thought about it when we are with others. We practised showing how we give and don’t give consent and how we can also change our mind if we want to.
Finally, you will have seen the children have brought home the NSPCC Pants Underwear rule. We revisit this important learning every year.
Help at home: read the NSPCC pants underwear rule with your child/children and think about how this keeps you safe. This parent guide is available too.
Living and Learning: Body Image
This week in Living and Learning, we talked about what body image is and what might influence it.
The children created a variety of definitions but in the end all agreed that ‘Body image is our idea of how our body looks and how we think it looks to others. This can include our feelings and thoughts about our height, weight, shape, skin colour, appearance or attractiveness’.
We then went on to discuss potential influences. Here are the ones we thought of:
- Social Media
- TV
- Celebrities
- Friends
- Family
- News
- Ourselves
- Fashion
- Experience (e.g. sports clubs, school, parties)
Help at home: Discuss how each of the influences might impact our body images.
We are designers.
This half term we are designers. The children learnt/recapped how to tie a knot, thread a needle and create a running stitch. Year 6 were very resilient and had lots of concentration.
Help at home: Why not practise the running stitch? Discuss the difference between a running stitch and back stitch.
Production: The Amazing Adventures of Superstan!
Please make sure you bring your costumes and props outlined to school no later than Wednesday 24th June, in a named plastic bag. If you don’t have any of the items listed for your role, please let an adult in Year 5 or Year 6 know before the 24th.
D&T: sewing
In Year 4, we’re going to be designing, making and evaluating a pouch! This pouch can be for whatever purpose that the children choose. It could be a pencil case, a coin purse, a glasses case or something else entirely.
A key skill that we’ll be using to make these pouches will be sewing. Some of us had sewed before but many of us hadn’t.
We followed these instructions:
1. First, thread the needle and tie a knot in the thread.
2. Then, complete a running stitch using your binka fabric.
3. Finally, tie a knot at the end of the stitch and cut the excess thread.
The children worked so hard to be precise with their sewing and their running stitches look fantastic! More confident sewers were helping their friends and Year 4 all worked together. Have a look at how we got on:
One of the trickiest parts was tying the knots in the thread. Help at home by practising tying knots in a piece of string or even learning how to tie shoelaces! These fine motor skills will be really beneficial for the children.