Times Table Rockstars
Each week, the TTRS leader board is updated in class. First place gets to spin the reward wheel, second place receives 5 Thunderbolts, third place 4 Thunderbolts and so on. Well done to this week’s Times Tables Rockstars!
Just a quick reminder, that each day, your children should be practising their times tables for 10 minutes. The deadline for this homework is Friday. If your child does not have access to TTRS, please bring in paper copies of their times table practice – with their completed reading record – to school on Friday.
Please see the homework guide for more information.
The importance of attendance
The importance of attendance
What did you do today? ‘We just played’…is the answer many parents of Reception children get. But here’s just a few of the things your child would miss if they’re absent for five consecutive days.
Phonics: Children learn four new graphemes and three tricky words each week.
Reading: Children practise reading books that closely match their phonics, plus loads of stories are read aloud and celebrated. We visit the school library once a week to choose a book to take home.
Poetry picnic: There’s a poetry session every day –another valuable activity which helps children learn to read.
Writing: We write every day using the graphemes that we’ve learned.
Handwriting: Children learn how to form letters correctly, otherwise joining letters will be difficult in Key Stage 1.
Maths: We’ve four maths sessions a week, setting the foundations for children to be successful in using and applying numbers in the future.
Alongside all of this, children learn Science, Music and other subjects. Even more importantly, children learn to concentrate in a large group, to share resources, take turns when speaking, answer in full sentences, regulate our feelings and prepare ourselves for future learning.
There’s a lot happening when ‘we just play’!
Autumn 1: Week 4
We have been very busy in reception this week.
This week, we have started our reading groups. These groups may alter slightly throughout the year as we get to know the children and their abilities. Please bear with us.
If you have any problems with the login, please feel free to contact me.
Maths
This week in maths, we have been subitising and looking at different ways in which we can arrange 1,2 and 3.
Areas of provision
The children have been exploring in our areas of provision. They have been making cube towers that are taller than them, filling different containers with different amounts of water and practising their letter formation.
PE
During PE, the children have been exploring with different equipment. They were able to select appropriate equipment to build castles and then select different balls to knock them down.
Poetry Picnic
We have completed our first week of poetry picnic. The children have enjoyed learning the poem and the actions to match. Some children asked if they could perform the poem to the rest of the class.
Help at home: by practising our phonics sounds from this week. See if you can spot them in your local environment.
Opening a parcel…
Y6 have been inspired by their class novel – Secrets of a Sun King by Emma Carroll.
In the book, Lilian finds a strange parcel on her grandad’s doorstep and what she finds inside completely turns her life upside down.
We wanted to use suspenseful vocabulary and interesting sentence structures in our writing, where we pretended we were about to open a similarly mysterious package.
Have a look at the incredible writing below.
Living and Learning – rights and responsibilities
This week, Year 3 have been talking about rights and responsibilities.
We learnt about Eglantyne Jebb, the founder of Save the Children, who drafted the first Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1923. She wanted children to be protected, nurtured and educated!
The children discussed what rights they have and that these rights come with responsibilities. Here’s what we came up with:
I have the right to learn and go to school. I have the responsibility to help others learn while at school.
I have the right to clean water. I have the responsibility to not waste water.
I have the right to share my religion. I have the responsibility to be respectful about other religions.
I have the right to feel safe. I have the responsibility to make others feel safe.
I have the right to feel happy. I have the responsibility to make others feel happy.
Help at home: What other rights and responsibilities can you think of? See how many you can list with your child!
Living & Learning: Rights and Responsibilities
This week, our L&L statement was: I know that rights come with responsibilities.
We had a brilliant discussion about how we all have rights, however these come with certain responsibilities. As a class we came up with some rights we have within school and the responsibilities that come with these:
- We have a right to playtime but a responsibility to play safely and respectfully.
- We have a right to learn but a responsibility to be great learners.
- We have a right to eat lunch but a responsibility to be respectful and polite to the lunchtime staff.
- We have a right to use the classroom equipment but a responsibility to look after it.
- We have a right to share our opinions in circle time but a responsibility to do so respectfully.
After, we looked into some children’s rights in the UK:
Help at home: Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9_IvXFEyJo and ask your child what rights and responsibilities they have at home (eg. they have the right to play with their toys but a responsibility to do this safely).
Leeds Schools Sports Association cross country races
We have received details about the LSSA cross country races for this year. These races take place on a Saturday and children compete against pupils from other Leeds schools.
Please note, parents/carers are responsible for taking and supervising their child/children at these events. There will be a parent representative.
There are opportunities for Year 3 and 4 girls and boys to race 900m and Year 5 and 6 girls and boys to race 1500m.
Race 1 – Saturday 19th October 2024 – Woodhouse Grove School
Race 2 – Saturday 9th November 2024 – Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School
Race 3 –Saturday 14th December 2024 – Prince Henry’s Grammar School
Race 4 – Saturday 18th January 2025 – Middleton Park Subject to confirmation from LCC
More details about race 1 will follow shortly.
Here are some of our Key Stage 2 children taking part in one of the races last year.
Connect Challenge Wednesday 02 October
What is it?
The Connect Challenge is in memory of Rob Burrow CBE. It involves a rugby ball being ‘passed’ between local schools and each school taking part in a physical activity event.
When is it?
The challenge will run from Thursday 26 September, (Rob’s birthday) until Thursday 3 October. Our event is in the morning of Wednesday 2nd October.
Why are we remembering Rob?
Rob Burrow CBE sadly died on 2 June 2024, four and a half years after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Throughout that time, Rob and his family bravely chose to publicly share their MND journey to raise awareness of the disease.
What is our Connect Challenge?
We will complete seven (Rob’s rugby shirt number) laps of the green and the back playground by travelling in different ways – walking, jogging or skipping. Children should come to school in outdoor PE kit on the day.
We will be raising money at the event, to be split between the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Appeal and our school charity, The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.
We request a donation of at least £1. This can be paid online via school gateway.
Help at home: discuss this challenge at home and the reasons why we are remembering Rob. This challenge is also about friendship. Rob’s ex team mate and friend Kevin Sinfield has now raised over £8 million for MND charities. Ask your child how can they be a better friend?
Reading: The Hobbit
In Reading this week, our focus text is ‘The Hobbit’ by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.
The Hobbit is a classic story of Bilbo Baggins – a home-loving hobbit
who enjoys a quiet and contented life in his cosy hobbit hole and
has no desire to travel afar. But then the wizard Gandalf and a
band of dwarves arrive unexpectedly and enlist his services, and
soon Bilbo finds himself part of an extraordinary expedition to raid
the treasure-hoard of Smaug the Dragon – and on the way becomes
the possessor of a very unusual ring.
Writing – What is a recount?
In our writing lessons, we have begun our first writing unit! We’re going to write a recount as a warrior arriving back home to Athens.
What is a recount?
A recount re-tells events and describes what has happened.
What makes a good recount?
- past tense
- description
- feelings
- adverbs
So far, we’ve read a WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like) and we’ve decided that the best recounts include lots of detail and their sentences start in many different ways. One way to do these two things is to use adverbs!
What is an adverb?
An adverb is a word that adds information to the verb. It might tell us how, where or when something is happening.
For example:
Miss Birch danced elegantly.
The boat floated into the harbour early.
I love chocolate ice-cream the best.
Help at home: Use adverbs to describe your everyday tasks. I am walking up the stairs carefully. I woke up eventually.
We’ve identified adverbs in our writing and our next step is to use them in our writing. Check back here soon to see how we’ve been getting on!
