This week
Literacy
This week we are reading the story ‘Rosie’s Walk’ by Pat Hutchins. The children will learn to retell the story using a story map. As their phonics knowledge increases we will be encouraging them to write labels and captions for their drawings.
Phonics
We have completed Phase 2 of ‘Letters and Sounds’ and will spend this week consolidating and reviewing this learning. The phonemes we have learnt so far are:
set 1: s a t p
set 2: i n m d
set 3: g o c k ck
set 4: e u r h
set 5: f ff b bb l ss
If you have any questions please email me moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
Don’t forget there are some really good games on Phonicsplay
username: sphere
password: spher3
Here is a guide for helping you to say the sounds correctly.
Maths
We are continuing to learn all about the number 4 and will learn that 4 is a square number.
Using the book ‘Rosie’s Walk’ the children will make an obstacle course and describe where they are using positional language.
We’ve just signed up to Numbots. This is a great app and website for practising counting and addition and subtraction facts. Your child can use it at home too – they will be given their login details this week.
Living and learning: anti-bullying week
This week is anti-bullying week and Year 1 have been considering the theme of bullying across different areas of our learning.
Our fluency text, that we read daily, was based on our anti-bullying child friendly policy.
As we read it, we considered words we weren’t sure of.
several = lots of
on purpose = someone meant to do something and it wasn’t an accident
solution = how to sort something out
We spotted the important message of STOP which means two things in our school.
In our Living and Learning lesson, we used our inference skills and our school definition, recently reviewed by our school councillors, when looking at this photo to consider what might be happening and whether this is bullying.
The boys, who are standing up, are laughing at the boy sat down. We can laugh with someone but not at them.
The boy on the ground looks unhappy, upset and left out because his face looks sad and his head is down.
They are hurting his feelings.
We don’t know if this is bullying because bullying is when it happens lots of times (several) on purpose.
We discussed that if this boy is being bullied he should…
Start
Telling
Other
People.
The children then considered who they would tell if they needed to get help or if they were worried about something.
I can tell my family.
I can tell my friends.
I can tell an adult that I know.
I can tell my teachers.
I can tell my cousin.
Thank you to all the families who supported Odd Socks Day. There were all different sizes, patterns and colours of socks on show and it was great that the children could express themselves and celebrate their individuality while raising awareness of bullying. Here’s the Odd Socks Day assembly, led by CBeebies star Andy Day, which prompted lots of discussion within the class.
This years’ song performed by Andy and the Odd Socks is based on the theme of ‘United against bullying’.
We’re excited to see the childrens’ homework based on anti-bullying week. Here’s some we’ve received already. What great messages they are giving!
Austen’s kindness statements
Grace’s anti-bullying poster
Staying hydrated
Bridging through ten
In our recent maths lessons, we have been recapping bridging through 10.
Bridging through ten is a method that many people use (possibly without realising it!) to add numbers mentally.
The bridging through 10 strategy can also be used to add a one-digit number to a two-digit number, for example:
Can you spot your learning? .
Parents, ask your child to teach you this mental maths strategy.
Expanded noun phrases
In our recent writing sessions, the children have been adding description to their sentences using expanded noun phrases.
An expanded noun phrase adds more detail to the noun by adding one or more adjectives. An adjective is a word that describes a noun.
We will be using these expanded noun phrases in our stories about the Great Fire of London.
Times Table Rock Stars!
Watch this video below to see the progress that Y3 have made with their times tables from when they were in Y2 back in January.
The lighter the colour of the box, the faster that particular times table fact has been answered. A white box indicates a times table that has not been attempted at that time.
There has been some amazing improvement in Y3 and we must keep going to get even better!
Now you’ve watched it, click at the start and then at the end to quickly see their entire progress!
Synonyms and Antonyms!
This week in Y3, we have been up-levelling our vocabulary using synonyms of words we commonly use to describe things.
We also found antonyms for these words, too.
As we’re preparing to write a setting description, the children made a bank of all the best, and relevant, pieces of vocabulary they found.
Here it is:
We used the iPads and thesauruses in order to up-level our vocab. The original words are displayed at the top with the synonyms below.
Ask your child if they can tell you what synonyms and antonyms are!
Shapes
The children have taken part in lots of activities to learn about different shapes and their properties. They have learnt the names of basic 2D shapes and looked at the differences between them.
Being able to physically see the difference between a shape with three sides and one with five helps with number sense.
Why not go on a shape hunt at home? Where can they see circles, triangles, squares and rectangles?
Don’t forget to send photos to moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
History: pyramids
Why did the Ancient Egyptians build pyramids? Y6 know!
After researching some cool facts (check them out below), we made and decorated our pyramids with our information and even some hieroglyphics.
One of our History words is the Rosetta Stone.
Albie said, “The Rosetta Stone was found in a fort near Rosetta, Egypt. It has three different languages on it: cursive Egyptian, Greek and hieroglyphics. Scholars knew Greek and cursive Egyptian so they used it to work out what the hieroglyphics meant.”
Rayn said, “It’s now located in the British museum and it was found by a soldier!”
Leo said, “It was found by a captain called Pierre in 1799 and in 1801 it was transported to the British museum. In 1802, they managed to find out what the hieroglyphics meant!”
Safiya-Mishal said, “I found this task easy and hard. Finding facts was easy but when we came to actually sticking the pyramid together, mine kept falling apart but I had help from Yusayrah!”
Hifza shared, “I found it challenging because you had to fold every part carefully and use the glue to put it together. Finding out the facts was interesting because there was lots of things I hadn’t learnt before.”
Maths: fractions
This week, we’ve started a new topic of tricky fractions!
I’ve been so impressed with how we’ve learnt to find equivalents, add and subtract and convert mixed numbers to improper fractions and back again.
Take 2 and 1/3 for example:
Yusayrah said, “First, you multiply the whole number by the denominator. 2 wholes x 3 = 6 or 6/3 (six thirds). Next, you add the extra 1/3 to give you a total of 7 thirds because the denominator always stays the same. The answer would be 7/3.”
Challenge your child to do the opposite of this and explain how to convert an improper fraction such as 7/4 (seven quarters) to a mixed number!