Maths Masters!
We have been so impressed with the maths learning in Reception lately.
The children have a good understanding of tens and ones and can recall number facts including doubles.
This week our maths learning is focussing on grouping and sharing and odd and even numbers.
Literacy
We are continuing to read and retell the story, ‘The Train Ride’ and this week the children will write about where they would like to go on a train.
Phonics
We are nearing the end of Phase 4 and the rest of this term will focus on applying their phonic knowledge to read and write sentences.
Please keep practising the phonemes and words and read with your child. A comment in the reading record really helps us.
The children have been fascinated by maps during our topic. We made a map of Moortown and the children made their own houses. They have enjoyed looking at maps of the local area and beyond and drawn their own maps.
Living and learning: Body image
Body image has been our topic in Living and Learning.
Body image describes our idea of how our body looks and how we think it is perceived by others. This can include our thoughts and feelings about our height, weight, shape, skin, colour, and our appearance.
First of all, Year 1 thought about how we are similar and different.
What could be different?
- our birthdays
- our hair
- our skin
- our names
- our eyes
- if we wear glasses
- our clothes
- anything else we might wear such as a watch or a bobble in our hair
- our voices
- the size of our body
- inside of our body
- our houses
- our memories
- our religions
- our families
We then thought about the things we can change and how, and what we can’t change.
All the children were given the opportunity to talk about they like about their bodies.
I like my hair.
I like my eyes.
I like my body. It helps me to do things.
I like my heart because it holds all my memories.
You might like to read this book, Your body is awesome , at home with your child which gives a great final message.
Design and Technology – What is a structure?
Year 1 have been gaining an understanding of what is meant by the term ‘structures’ by looking for them in their environment. We began our lesson by looking at some bridges and other structures from around the world.
What is a structure?
A structure is a combination of materials and/or parts to create a 3D shape.
After discussing the definition of the word structure we moved on to looking closely at cylinders. The children were given the task of creating cylinders using paper and tape.
My cylinder won’t stand up on its own!
You need to try using some tape to make it more stable.
Try putting the tape along the join.
It is still wobbly. How can I get it to be freestanding?
Try putting on some more tape and make sure it is stuck down properly.
You could try rolling the paper up tightly.
Thank you
Some of the children worked on constructing some freestanding structures using different building materials.
Below is the vocabulary the children will be learning during the current DT topic. Please revise these words (and their definitions) at home.
| design | a plan or drawing showing what something will look like before it is made |
| design criteria | the things a product must have to be successful |
| design brief | a description of what a new product should do |
| base | the bottom part of an object; the part on which something rests |
| evaluate | to decide, after careful consideration, how good or bad something is |
| structure | a combination of materials and/or parts to create a 3d shape |
| stable | something that is unlikely to fall down or collapse |
| freestanding | something that stands up by itself |
| plan | to think about and decide how you’re going to do something |
TTRS tournament winners (wb 07 June)
Hello again to all of the Times Tables Rock Stars out there,
Well done for all the engagement with TTRS you’re doing so far – keep it up!
BREAKING NEWS:
The results are in. We have our ROCK STARS OF THE WEEK.
With an outstanding 987 points, this week’s winners are Y3!
Y3 have been able to retain the top spot in TTRS in our final tournament!
The TTRS tournaments are having a little break so for now, keep up the good work and don’t forget to challenge your friends and teachers!
Remember to give your teacher a nudge as the week goes on if you’ve not yet had a chance to play on TTRS. If you’d like to play at home and would like a reminder of your login details, let your teacher know.
All the best TTRS!
Topic: Design and Technology
As our last half term in Year Three is underway, here is what we are learning about this half term in topic.
Design and Technology!
We will be learning about the design process to make our own Go-Kart prototypes.
So far, we have learnt what a typical design process looks like and what a design criteria is. Another piece of vocabulary we have learnt about is product.
Below are our pieces of vocabulary for this half term. See if your child can remember any of our learning so far!
The Tortoise and the Hare
Last week, the children were focusing on Aesop’s fables. We read a few of them throughout the week. The one we focused on the most was, The Tortoise and the Hare. Once the children had listened and read the story, they worked as group to sequence it using pictures and captions.
Then, the children moved on to creating their own story map. Here are a few examples of their brilliant work.
Finally, the children retold the story in their own words. Take a look at some of the amazing examples.
Living and Learning: Body Image
In our first Living and Learning session this half term, we learnt all about body image and what that means.
What is body image?
Body image describes our idea of how our body looks and how we think it is perceived by others. This can include our thoughts and feelings about our height, weight, shape, skin, colour, and our appearance and attractiveness more broadly.
We started by looking at different activities such as running, painting, swimming and playing music and decided how confident we were with each.
We then, as a class, thought of lots of ways we are different to each other.
We came up with: different heights, weights, body builds, complexions, hair colours, eye colours, preferences, likes/dislikes, abilities, interests.
We then put these into three categories:
- things we can’t change (eye colour)
- things we could change by practising (swimming, maths)
- things that will change over time (height, weight, preferences)
To conclude the session, we all anonymously wrote down one thing we thought we were good at on a slip of paper. These were then read out and if you shared that idea, then you put up your hand.
This allowed us to see that although we may look different, we all share similar strengths and weaknesses.
Here are some pictures of us sorting the ways we are different into the three categories.
Cricket opportunities
Resources for learning at home
As we start the last half term of Year 1, here are a few reminders about supporting your child’s learning.
Reading books
Reading books will continue to be changed on PE days – Tuesday and Thursday. Please add a brief comment, or simply your name and a tick, in your child’s reading record book so we know your child has read at home and is ready to have a new book. Daily reading is important to develop your child’s reading fluency so children should be changing their book at least weekly if not both Tuesday and Thursday. Thank you.
Lexia
Please continue to work on Lexia until your child has achieved their Level 5 certificate and has completed the Year 1 learning.
Phonics Play
For those children who have reached Level 5 in Lexia, Phonics Play can be accessed for practising phonics at home. The login details are username Sphere and password is Spher3.
Handwriting
We are doing lots of handwriting in class. Here’s a link to a video showing the cursive letter formation that we use in school and also our handwriting guide.
Numbots
Numbots is a maths resource, based on building addition and subtraction skills, that can be accessed by children at home using their individual logins (please email if you need these resending). We now have a weekly leader board for Numbots so keep working hard to earn those coins!
Hit the button is another maths resource we use in class especially for number bonds practice and more recently for learning doubles.
Little and often is best for these resources. If you need any login information for your child, please contact us.
Living and Learning: Body Image
This week’s Living and Learning theme surrounded body image.
First, we thought about what the term body image meant to us.
Next, we discussed school’s definition and compared the different definitions that we’d talked about.
We thought about what in our lives might be influencing us to think a certain way. This might be a pressure to look or act like others.
Something we kept returning to was the fact that you should love who you are and it doesn’t matter what height or weight you are or what colour hair or skin you’ve got. It matters what’s on the inside and respecting yourself.
Nobody on earth is youer than you! Celebrate what makes you unique.
Lastly, we discussed the power of words.
Imagine everyone carries around an imaginary bucket and it gets filled with the words people say to them.
Would you rather have your bucket filled with positivity or negativity? The former, of course!
To match our L&L statement for the week (I can pay and receive compliments in a sensible way), we filled each other’s buckets with positivity!
It was important to focus our compliments on the inside rather than outside – things people can actually change.
