Science – basic needs
Our science topic this half term is living things and their habitats. We have learnt about different habitats and the different animals and plants that live there.
Today we learnt about what every animal needs to survive – their basic needs. They are four basic needs: food, water, air and shelter.
We then thought about different animals in their habitats and how each of those animals gets their basic needs. We worked in pairs to show how each animal gets their basic needs from their habitat.
Another great week Year 1, well done!
Maps, maps and more maps!
Literacy
This week, our focus story has been The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson. After reading the book, we drew story maps of the Bear’s adventure. They were fantastic at remembering all the places the Bear visited.
On Wednesday, Barney (our class bear) and Mrs Wood went on a journey around Moortown. We looked at the photos together to see if we could recognise any of the landmarks. Talk to your child about where Barney went.
After this, we watched a video about maps. We talked about the symbols used on maps and took our own soft toys on a journey around school. On our return, we drew maps of our journey.
Maths
This week, we focussed on the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. We developed our counting skills to enable us to identify how many there are in a set that cannot be subitised. We explored how all sorts of things can be counted, including sounds. We practised our 1:1 correspondence, by moving, tagging and using counting sticks when counting larger objects .
Counting how many skittles we knocked over.
Counting our votes next to each piece of fruit after carrying out a survey.
Counting sets of objects.
Using our counting wands to count larger objects.
Poetry Picnic
Every week, when we’re having our milk and snack, we’ll learn a poem. Throughout the week, we’ll rehearse it, practise the actions and talk about the poem. On Fridays, we’ll perform our poem for you to watch at home. Click here to watch this week’s poem: Chop Chop.
Every Friday, your child will bring a paper copy of the poem we’ve been learning in school.
Barney
We’ve an extra member of our class! Barney likes going home with children on Friday evenings. He sits in his basket and watches all week before choosing who he’d like to go home with. Barney loves playing in the garden, going on adventures and listening to lots of stories. He has a special diary for you to write a brief description of what he’s been up to so we can share his adventures with the class. You could even add some photos and drawings!
Reading meeting
Thank you to those of you who attended the reading Zoom meeting on Tuesday. We hope you found the information useful and are looking forward to supporting your child on their exciting reading journey.
Reading daily at home plays an important role in your child’s reading development. Support at home will help foster your child’s love of reading and your child’s reading development.
If you didn’t attend, the recording will be sent by email.
E-books
Today, your child has come home with their e-book login and reading record. Please expect e-books to be read daily. If you have any problems logging in, please speak to a member of the Reception team.
Home-Link Challenge
As always, please ask if you have any questions!
Netball skills with Tracey Neville
Today, ten Year 5 and 6 children took part in a netball skills event with Tracey Neville, former England netball international and England head coach, at the opening of the new sports dome at The Grammar School at Leeds.
The children enjoyed three skills sessions – shooting, passing and defending and the consensus from all of them, was that they had a fantastic afternoon.
Themed menu 07 October 2022
Catering Agency, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Friday 07 October. Please contact the office if your child would like a school dinner on this day (no action needed if your child normally has a school meal on this day).
Check out the Cricket World Cup themed menu.
Reading Records
So far this half term, we have battled who has the best book, explored vocabulary and this week we are creating comic strips.
Take a look at some of our fantastic reading record activities:
Please remember to bring your reading records into school every Friday so we can continue to share your great work. If you need help to complete an activity, take a look in the front of your reading records as each task is explained or simply ask me.
I’m looking forward to seeing your homework!
Miss Goswami
Living and Learning: manners
Using good manners was our Living and Learning focus this week.
We thought about what manners are.
Saying sorry
Saying please and thank you
Saying excuse me
Sharing
Having good table manners
Not interrupting others
Being kind to others
Covering our mouth (with our elbow) if we cough or sneeze
Manners are words and actions that we can use to help us be kind and respectful to others. They are so important in our relationships with others.
Here’s a poem about manners that we will be our reading fluency text next week.
So far in Year 2, we have heard and seen some great manners. We will continue to reinforce this, not just this week, but all the time.
Remember to use these good manners whether at home, at school, in shops or wherever you are!
We are historians!
This half term, we are historians.
We’re learning about Ancient Greece.
To kickstart our history topic, we have been learning about chronology and learning the order of time periods in history.
Year 3 placed some time periods of British history into chronological order on a timeline. Then, we added Ancient Greece to our timeline to compare what was happening elsewhere in the world with Britain. Ask your child if they can remember this learning!
The vocabulary that we are learning this half term is:
- period: a phase in time
- civilisation: a period of human development that is considered most advanced
- golden-age: a time when an activity or society is at its best
- government: the group of people responsible for ruling a country
- monarchy: a type of government ruled by a king or queen
- democracy: a type of government where the people living there make decisions
- oligarchy: a type of government where a small group of people make the decisions
- Parthenon: an important temple in Athens built during the Ancient Greek golden-age
Reading
Hello!
I have been so impressed with Year 4’s reading records over the last couple of weeks. Not only have they all remembered to bring them in each Friday but the activities they have completed, have been done to a fantastic standard!
Have a look at this example:
If you are ever unsure of how to complete the set activity, have a look at the front of the reading record and it will explain each one in detail.
It’s so important that the children complete these activities to show yourselves and us at school that they are understanding their books and even more importantly, enjoying their reading!
Keep it up Year 4!
What have we been up to this week?
From pirates in the small world area to fire officers putting out fires in our outdoor area, we’ve had another fantastic week. The children are really starting to show us their interests when exploring in the areas.
We also had a go at drawing our faces. We used mirrors to look closely at the details on our faces. When you come into the classroom, see if you can spot your child’s self-portrait.
Chilli challenges
This week, we’ve introduced the chilli challenges. Each week, there will be six green chilli challenges in different areas. The children will be encouraged to complete the challenges and tick them off on their chilli challenge card (see below). There will also be some red chilli challenges. These challenges are to extend their learning further. When your child completes a challenge, they will explain or show what they’ve done to an adult and the adult will tick the challenge off on their card.
Here’s some of the chilli challenges in action…
Literacy
This week, our focus story has been The Great Big Book of Families by Hoffman Mary. After reading the book, we talked about our families and why they are important. We even had a go at drawing our families!
Maths
This week, we’ve focussed on perceptual subitising (recognising the number of objects without counting) up to 3. We’ve been learning how to use our fast eyes when looking at small sets of objects.
Phonics
This week, we’ve learnt more phase 2 phonemes: i, n, m and d. We’ve been trying really hard to pronounce the phonemes correctly.
Has your child come home saying some ‘fancy’ phonics words?
If so, please don’t be alarmed! We use these words every day in phonics and we want the children to use them too.
Here are the words we’ve been using so far…
Phoneme: the smallest unit of sound you can hear in a word. For example, ‘sat’ has three phonemes: ‘s’, ‘a’ and ‘t’.
Grapheme: a ‘symbol’ of a phoneme –it’s a letter or group of letters representing a sound and we use the letter names for this.
Blending: merging the separate sounds (phonemes) in a word – this is a vital skill for reading. For example, the three phonemes m-a-t are blended to make mat.
Learn at home phonics sheet
Today, your child has come home with a ‘learn at home’ phonics sheets. The sheets link to our current phonics learning and will be sent home each Friday. 
Home-Link Challenge
Reminders
- The cold weather is creeping in! Please make sure your child comes to school wearing a suitable coat.
- Join us on Tuesday 27 September at 6 pm for our Early reading Zoom. This session will provide you with some information regarding the teaching of reading in Reception and how you can support their reading journey at home. You should have received the Zoom link in an email. If you’ve not received this, please contact the school office.
Great Fire of London
Our topic this term is the Great Fire of London. We have been learning lots of interesting facts about the fire and some of the reasons why it was so devastating for the people of London. Why not ask your child what they can remember about the fire so far.
We have also been learning a recount of the fire in our English lessons. We have devised some actions to go with the words and are using a story map to help us remember when we are retelling.
I wonder if your child could have a go at telling you the recount at home using the story map below.
