Living and Learning: Mental wellbeing
Last half term, Year 3 learnt about different emotions and how we can deal with those emotions in a healthy way. Some of the sessions focussed on topics such as strong emotions, being the same and being different, and solving problems.
For one week, we focused on change and loss. Change and loss occurs all the time during our lives in small and big ways and it’s important to know how to deal with the emotions that come with these situations.
We identified things that change can change such as; changing topics, clothes and seasons but also changing friendships, year groups and someone not being here anymore. When these things change, we might feel a loss and miss how things were before and that’s ok!
Teddies play a big role in many children’s lives. We listened to the story ‘Dogger’ by Shirley Hughes which is about a child who loses his favourite toy, Dogger. We discussed how we might feel if we were to lose our favourite toy and what we could do to make ourselves feel better.
Living and Learning – Change and Loss
Over the previous term, Year 4 were learning about different emotions and how we can deal with those emotions in a healthy way. For one week, we focused on change and loss. Change and loss occurs all the time during our lives in small and big ways and it’s important to know how to deal with the emotions that come with these situations.
We identified things that change can change such as; changing topics, clothes and seasons but also changing friendships, year groups and someone not being here anymore. When these things change, we might feel a loss and miss how things were before and that’s ok!
Teddies play a big role in many children’s lives. We listened to the story ‘Dogger’ by Shirley Hughes and here’s what we discussed…
What does your teddy mean to you?
I’ve had my teddy since I was born so I feel safe when I have it.
How would you feel if you lost your teddy?
I would feel upset and miss it a lot.
How might your body feel if you lost your teddy?
I might feel anxious and nervous because I’m worried about where it is.
What could make you feel better if this happened?
I could ask my family and friends to help me look for it.
I could talk to my grown ups about how I feel.
I could hug a friend.
Help at home by talking about any changes, big or small, that might be coming up at home and share how you are feeling about them!
Bean update
Hello Reception!
I hope you’re all enjoying the glorious sunshine as much as your beans. Here’s a picture of how your beans are doing.
As you can see, some of them are at the “sprouting” stage. At this stage, the bean is developing a root system to soak up moisture and nutrients from the soil.
Some of them are developing their first leaves which enables them to absorb as much sunlight and energy as possible.
Don’t forget to send me any pictures of what you get up to in the holidays!
moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
Spring 2: Week 6
I can’t believe we’re at the end of our second term in Reception! This half-term, we found about transport from the past. We created simple maps and learnt how land, sea and rivers are represented on maps. We’ve noticed the first signs of Spring, planted flowers and beans and learnt about the different stages of a beans life cycle. Finally, we talked about how some families celebrate Easter and created our own Spring baskets.
Here’s a video of some of our amazing highlights from this half-term.
Poetry picnic
This week’s poem was called The Tiny Seed. This week, we talked about the rhyming words. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem?
Reminders and upcoming dates
- PE will be on a Monday and Thursday next half-term.
- Don’t forget to keep reading your Collins e-books over the holidays.
- Monday 01 May – Bank holiday
- Monday 08 May – Bank holiday
- Monday 15 May – Training day: school closed
Help at home: Practise spelling the phase 2 and 3 tricky words.
As always, I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term break. Don’t forget to email me any pictures of what you get up to in the holidays. moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 17 April.
Living and Learning: MindMate
This half term our Living and Learning lessons are based around the MindMate learning themes of emotions and friendships.
Our first lesson was based around strong emotions and exploring and describing how it feels to be sad/unhappy.
We thought about how others might express feelings of unhappiness and if they did feel unhappy, to practise asking, and listening to, others about what makes them unhappy.
We reinforced that everyone feels sad or unhappy at times and that’s natural.
In our circle time on the same theme, the children suggested some things to do if they were feeling sad.
Would it help if…
- you talked to a friend or a trusted adult
- you wrote down how you felt
- you played with a friend or brother or sister
- you did something you enjoyed
- you did some exercise
As part of this lesson, we did two of the mindfulness exercises taken from this website. The children enjoyed this very much and focussed excellently.
In the second lesson, we started by working together to match emotions to the pictures and explaining the choices.
We recognised all the emotions from our own lives and that a person’s facial expressions often say how they are feeling. We also discussed how our bodies might change in other ways when we feel strong emotions (clenched fist, red cheeks etc..)
This video of two friends shows lots of characteristics of a good friendship and a healthy relationship. Friends do have fall outs and we talked about what to say to someone who is feeling upset because they have fallen out with a friend, being teased or is feeling left out.
This was done by putting themselves in their shoes.
Help at home – ask your child to practise what they might say to someone who is being teased or feeling left out.
Design and Technology: food preparation
This week, Year 1 have prepared, eaten and evaluated some overnight oats. This is part of our Living and Learning (healthy eating) and Design & Technology (food preparation) learning.
The children have thoroughly enjoyed it and have used lots of different food preparation skills and techniques.
Then we got to taste it! Yum!
The recipe has been sent home so you can ask your child to demonstrate their cookery skills at home over the holidays!
Working scientifically
This half term, we have been working scientifically using roads and a scientist called John McAdam, who invented tarmac, as our focus.
The children have enjoyed all our investigations and have learnt lots of working scientifically skills too.
First of all, we carried out a comparative test to see how a car travelled along different surfaces around school.
Then, using four different materials, each one was tested to see which made the best road surface. Water was added to see which of the materials had the best drainage.
Finally, we recreated the layers that made up McAdam’s road.
Science: A sticky experiment!
In Science this week, the children planned and created their own glue. The children decided on their variables and then completed the experiment.
This type of scientific enquiry was comparative and fair testing.
We then put our glues to the test! The children added pegs to their pieces of paper which were stuck together using their glue. The glue that held the most pegs was the stickiest. In conclusion, we found out that flour and sugar were the stickiest substances.
Afterwards, the children went on to reflect on their experiment and decided what they would do differently next time. Some responses were: adding more glue between the pieces of paper; changing the amount of substance so it made the glue thicker and trying to add the pegs when the glue was still drying.
Design & Technology: food preparation
This week, Year 2 have prepared, eaten and evaluated our overnight oats. This is part of our Living and Learning (healthy eating) and Design and Technology (food preparation) learning.
The children have used some different food preparation skills (snipping, peeling, claw cutting technique, mixing, measuring liquids, using measuring spoons, weighing and arranging toppings) as part of this learning to create their finished product.
Then, it was the best bit – the tasting!
Finally, we evaluated our product and considered any changes we’d make next time.
York Railway Museum
Last Friday, Reception enjoyed a day out to York Railway Museum.
When we first arrived, the children were amazed at the size of the trains.
In the morning, we enjoyed looking at all of the different trains. We jumped on board the high-speed Japanese bullet train – the world’s fastest passenger rail network. When lunchtime arrived, they were so excited to sit with their friends and show off their packed lunches! After lunch, we continued to explored the museum. We found the replica version of Stephenson’s Rocket.
From getting on the coach to arriving back at school, their behaviour was impeccable. It was a pleasure taking them all on their first school trip.
Barney had a good time, too!
