Y6’s last term ever…
… will be an amazing one!
This half term, we’ve got some exciting learning planned.
PE
With the exciting arrival of our amazing new playground, PE has never looked so good!
This half term, we will be practising our football skills, alongside playing games to deploy them in, in our trusty old MUGA.
Science
We’ve kicked things off with learning about animals including humans. So far, we’ve self assessed our knowledge and learnt some new words!
Challenge your child to tell you some changes that a human experiences as they go from a baby, to a toddler, adolescent and adult.
Computing
This half term is all about Scratch! We will be honing our programming skills to complete a different activity each week.
Take a look at some of the digital art we’ve created so far:
This one is by Daisy and Jess.
Test your child to see if they know what these words mean already:
- repetition
- sequence
- selection
- variable
- logical reasoning
- simulation
- program
- search engine
Writing
This half term will be a mixture of recapping old skills and learning new ones like how to use a semi colon within a list.
We’re starting off with some robot descriptions. Take a look at these incredible ones from Jemima, Emily and Felix respectively.
Reading
To enhance our computing topic, we will be reading about significant individuals, such as Ada Lovelace, learning about digital literacy and how to stay safe online.
To help at home, make sure you’re reading every day (whether that’s your library book, subtitles on the TV or even the back of the cereal box).
Maths
We’re always making sure that everyone is confident with our maths learning, so this half term will be a mixture of recapping prior topics, such as the four operations, and learning new things like ratio and proportion.
As always, we will have a strong thread of arithmetic and reasoning throughout our lessons.
Summer Term!
Hi everybody!
I can’t believe it’s summer term already. Where has the time gone?
I hope you are all feeling happy and healthy – especially now that the weather has improved!
In Y3 this half term, we will be learning about…
- forces and magnetism in Science
- computing using Scratch Jr on the Ipads
- inferring how people are feeling through drama
- addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in maths
- prepositions, instructions and writing about computer games in writing
- basketball and skipping in P.E.
- solving problems, good hygiene, the importance of sleep and more in Living & Learning
- different spelling rules and regularly practising our times tables
…and much more!
Below are some pics of us working hard already this half term.
The Captain Tom 100 Challenge
Working scientifically
Today, Year 1 have been working scientifically. As part of their ‘Growing Plants’ topic, the children began by looking closely at a variety of seeds. The first stage, in the life cycle of most plants, is a seed and these come in all shapes and sizes.
The class discussed the appearance of different fruits and asked some very good scientific questions.
I wonder whereabouts the seeds are?
If we cut the lemon in half, will we see a seed?
Why are the seeds inside?
I wonder which fruit will have the most seeds?
I think all the seeds will look very different.
Next, we sliced the fruits open and examined the insides carefully.
Each fruit has a different seed.
Next, the children examined the open pieces of fruit and sketched some close up drawings. These images concentrated on a small section or slice of the fruit and the class looked carefully at the colours and the structure.
Year 1 were very curious about this learning and they use appropriate scientific language to communicate their ideas.
Caterpillars munching!
Our ‘very hungry’ caterpillars arrived this morning and we are looking forward to observing them grow and change over the next few weeks.
We read and retold the story, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and have been making caterpillar and butterfly art.
Maths
We are learning all about numbers from 11-20 and using a variety of resources to represent them.
We are also learning the days of the week and thinking about what happens on each day.
Phonics
This week’s phonemes are ur, oi and ear and the ‘tricky’ words are they and are.
Please can you make sure your child’s reading book is in their bag everyday as we will be changing and sending books on different days and more frequently this term.
We are encouraging the children to write independently using their phonic knowledge. Remember, it doesn’t matter about spelling every word correctly at this stage. It’s more important for children to ‘have a go’ and use their phonic knowledge.
Thank you for sending photos of the sunflowers-I’m so glad some survived!
www.moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
Basketball!
In P.E. this half term, Y3 have bounced their way into some new learning: Basketball.
We had glorious weather last week when practising our dribbling skills!
We practised bouncing whilst standing on the spot. Then, we started walking around whilst bouncing the basketball. After that, we practised using our body to shield the ball while bouncing. Finally, with a partner, we tried to keep possession of the basketball while our partners tried to tackle us!
Here are some pics of us in action!
PE in our new playground
Today, Year 1 had their first PE lesson in the new area at the back of the school. It was great to have so much space!
The children worked hard to develop their throwing and catching skills. To finish the session, the class worked with a partner to see if they could aim their throw and get the ball through a hoop.
Welcome back!
We hope you’ve all had a great break and enjoyed the sunshine!
The children have returned to school happy and ready to learn!
They enjoyed playing in our new playground, especially when the diggers arrived!
This half term we will continue with our ‘Growing’ topic and will have some caterpillars and chicks to observe in the classroom.
Phonics
We are continuing to recap the Phase 3 phonemes; ar, or, ow, ur, oi, ear, air, ure and er.
The tricky words for this phase are; he, she, we, me, be, was, are, they, you, all, her and my.
Maths
We will be learning about numbers to 20 and beyond. The children will know that teen numbers are made up of one ten and some more. They will practise counting on and back from different numbers and represent numbers using a variety of materials.
You can help your child at home to say, read, write and order teen numbers.
PE
Our PE days are Wednesday and Friday. Please can you label all items of clothing.
Writing
The children are really enjoying writing at the moment and it is nice to see so many choose to write independently. We are encouraging them to hold their pencil with the correct tripod grip. This will help them write more efficiently and comfortably.
Please refer to the school’s handwriting style which you can find on the website or ask us for a copy. It is far easier for children to adopt this handwriting style now as they begin to write than try to change it later. Encourage your child to write at home. They could write a shopping list, letters to friends and grandparents or write about what they have seen and done.
If you need advice or information on this please ask.
Please continue to let us know about those ‘wow’ moments.
moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
Welcome to the summer term.
Welcome back!
This term is set to be a very busy one indeed. Here is a quick overview of what will be going on in school.
Writing 
The children will continue with handwriting, grammar and sentence structure learning. Below are some of the age related expectations for the end of Year One.
- To start and end sentences using capital letters to start, use a full stop to end, or question mark /exclamation mark.
- To use a capital letter for ‘I’ and for everyday proper nouns.
- To separate words using (finger) spaces.
- To combine words to make a sentence.
- To write sentences with one ‘chunk’ of meaning.
- To say what I’m going to write and then compose a sentence orally before writing it.
Maths 
The class will continue with place value and counting work.
- Count within 100, forwards and backwards, starting from any number.
- Reason about the location of numbers to 20 and compare numbers.
- Develop fluency in addition and subtraction facts within 10.
- Count forwards and backwards in multiples of 2, 5 and 10.
Science 
The children will be investigating, observing and describing how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants. They will find out and describe how plants need water, light and suitable temperature to grow and be healthy. Below is the specific vocabulary that will be used in our science lessons. Talk about these words at home. Does your child know any of them? Can you child tell you the definitions?
- seeds
- bulbs
- temperature
- growth
- survival
- healthy
- mature
- plants
Computing Topic 
The children will be learning about computer programming. They are going to discover what an algorithm is and what it needs to work effectively. We will be creating and debugging simple programs and will use logical reasoning to predict what will happen when an algorithm is executed.
In some of our lessons, we have regular ongoing online safety messages. These are usually prompts and reminders about the important of staying safe on and offline. Asking for a person’s consent is very important and this is something we regularly rehearse.
May I take your photo?
Yes, of course you can.
Would you mind if we show your learning to the whole class?
No, I really don’t want to share it.
As well as programming, the children will be having specific lessons about the following;
Age Restrictions
• I know that some online activities have age restrictions because they have content which is not appropriate.
Digital Content
• I am beginning to understand what a digital footprint is.
Misinformation, disinformation and hoaxes
• I know that I shouldn’t believe everything I see or read online.
Fake websites and scam emails
• I know that some websites have secure markings (eg padlock symbol next to URL) that makes them more trustworthy.
Password safety
• I know that passwords are important and that I should not share them. Personal data
• I know that I’m too young to share personal information (eg full name, address, school, age) online.
Persuasion
• I know that there are adverts online which, if clicked on, may take me away from the page I’m looking at.
Online vs. offline behaviours
• I know that people should treat others respectfully when they are online.
• I know what to do if someone is mean to me or someone else online.
Impact on quality of life
• I know that being online offers lots of positives but that
there needs to be a balance between time being spent on
and offline.
Below is the vocabulary that links to the computing topic.
| algorithm | program | debug |
| computer | password | personal information |
| appropriate |
As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or queries.
jackiefreeman@spherefederation.org
carolinetaylor@spherefederation.org
Tennis opportunities
