Living and Learning: 8Rs for learning
For the last two weeks, in our Living and Learning lessons, Year 1 have been getting to know the 8Rs for learning (responsible, risk taking, resilience, resourceful, ready, responsive, remember and reflect). These are eight characteristics to promote good learning behaviour and of course, these are referred to throughout the year across all subjects. The parent’s guide to the 8Rs can help to reinforce this at home.
The children were given different scenarios and they had to match them up to the correct 8R or complete the missing R in a sentence. Ask your child if they can remember the answers.
Saavi has her white board and pen on her table for phonics.
Evie changes her number 2 after Mrs Taylor asks her to check her numbers.
Nate puts his hand up to answer a question even though he is not sure if it is right.
Talha uses the hundred square to check his number formation.
Grace _______________ her spellings because she had been practising them at home.
Austen took __________________ for his belongings because he put them all back in his pencil case.
Erica was _______________ as she kept trying until she could write the letter y in handwriting.
Rico ________________ on his maths learning and tries to put one number in one box in his book.
Resilience has been one of the themes of the After the Fall book we have been learning about in our topic lessons. We thought about what messages we might send to Humpty Dumpty as he tried to climb back up the wall again.
Don’t look down.
Keep going up.
Always keep going.
You can do it.
Don’t give up.
We’ve got you.
Take a risk.
Be resilient.
We’ve been talking about the 8Rs across other lessons and here are some more examples of Year 1 using the 8Rs.
Being resourceful in maths
Being responsive by checking number formation
With such a great start to the year, we are sure Year 1 will continue to use the 8Rs across all areas of their learning.
Foraging for Homework
On Friday, the children were asked to get creative for their homework. Having read an autumnal poem in class, they then had to spot some signs of Autumn whilst out and about.
Mrs Freeman and Mrs Taylor have both enjoyed some leaf crunching walks this weekend.
We have already received some great examples of super learning in the outdoors. So far, we have seen crafts, pictures, models, colour mixing and some impressive writing!
We look forward to seeing more throughout the week.
Don’t forget that homework can be emailed to us and is celebrated in class every Thursday.
jackiefreeman@spherefederation.org
carolinetaylor@spherefederation.org
Well done, Year 1!
The first few weeks
The children are settling really well and it’s lovely to see how happy and engaged they are in the classroom.
During the next few weeks your child will be getting to know new routines, rules and making new friends. We will be doing on-going assessments of the children to make sure we are providing the right learning opportunities for each child.
Please let us know about those ‘wow moments’ that happen at home.
moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
Reading
Your child will start to bring a reading book home shortly. They will need a bookbag which they will need to bring to school everyday.
The first books we will send don’t contain any words but are intended to introduce your child to holding a book, turning pages and discussing the pictures. Please encourage your child to predict events and retell the story.
When we begin learning letters and their sounds your child will bring home letters to learn and words to read. We will then send phonetically decodable reading books home.
I will be posting a presentation explaining how we teach early reading and writing soon.
PE
We will begin PE this week. Your child will need to come to school in their PE kit every Wednesday.
Maths
We are learning about the number one and the ‘oneness of one’. The children will be thinking about one as an amount and quantity, and that first means position one and once means one time.
Phonics
This week we are learning to identify the initial sound in words. We will also introduce the children to ‘blending’ by saying the sounds in a word individually. For example, c-a-t. The children will then blend the sounds together to say cat.
Art: watercolour paint
This afternoon, we’ve been painting British garden birds with watercolour paint. The concentration was impressive and the artwork was excellent!
Planning an experiment
After the Fall inspired us to make paper aeroplanes and find out which is the best.
In groups, we planned a science experiment with a different variable – challenge your child to define this!
Today, we made and tested our aeroplanes!
Ask your child to explain how we ensured it was a fair test!
Our Brilliant Maths
This week, we’ve continued our place value learning with rounding.
Just look how neat we are to show off our fantastic understanding.
Challenge your child at home to explain how they would round to the nearest 10, 100, 1000 or 10,000. They might use a number line or the look next door method!
Reading
Reading is super important. In fact, we think it’s one of the most important things you can do to support your child at home.
Some studies have found that children who read regularly are more likely to be happy in adulthood, more likely to earn more money and more likely to do well in all school subjects.
Whilst we understand life is busy, we’d love it if you could read with your child every day (ideally for about 20 minutes but anything is better than not reading at all).
This article has a handy reading for parents guide if you’d like any more information or tips.
Our Reading Activities leaflet will provide lots of activities to make reading an even more enjoyable and active experience for all. Check out the ‘Help Your Child‘ section of our website for a range of guides and tips for helping your child across a range of subjects.
Some common questions about reading:
When should my child have their reading book in school?
Our library session is a Thursday morning where we can browse the library or exchange a book. Children can now take their library book home. It might be a good idea to have one of your library books at school and take one home to read. Make sure you keep it at home until you’re ready to swap it; it will be quarantined at school beforehand!
My child can read fluently. Should they still read aloud to me?
Ideally, yes. They can spend time reading on their own, too – we encourage this. However, it’s really important that children still practise the skill of reading aloud. It helps improve their confidence and improves their ability to read with expression. Being read to is really important, too – so don’t underestimate the power of a bedtime story!
The book my child has brought home is too easy / hard. What should I do?
This will rarely happen but if you do think your child’s book isn’t the right level please get in touch with me.
Living and Learning: 8Rs for learning
For the start of this half-term, our Living and Learning focus is the ‘8 Rs for learning’. This is about promoting good learning behaviour for your child.
In class, the children will focus on different ‘Rs’. We use an animal to symbolise each ‘R’, which might help your child remember all eight – can your child remember which animal matches the correct ‘R’?
You can support your child at home – we’ve listed a few ideas to help you below. Ask us if you’ve any questions or comments.
Download top tips for promoting the 8Rs for good learning behaviour.
Risk taking
Talk about the difference between a safe and unsafe risk. At school, we want your child to take a safe risk by having a go at answering, even if unsure; trying something new and attempting harder learning.
Responsibility
Provide time and space at home so your child is able to organise themselves: their PE kit, reading book, homework, spellings and tables… Don’t organise everything for them!
Make a link between rights and responsibilities: your child has the right to a great education, but needs to be responsible for their own learning.
Responding
This could be responding to their teacher in class or responding to feedback in their learning.
Ready
Make sure your child is at school on time for a prompt start.
Make sure your child has had plenty of sleep so they are alert and ready to learn at all times.
Encourage your child to ask lots of questions – that shows they want to learn!
Resourceful
Encourage your child to be organised so they can play with a range of different toys.
Encourage your child to try new ways to solve a tricky problem.
Resilience
Encourage your child to keep going! Set a tricky challenge or puzzle for your child to do.
Encourage your child to think of different ways of doing things.
Don’t let your child win when they play a game – they need to experience losing, too!
Celebrate mistakes as opportunities to learn – be happy that your child found some learning hard and encourage them to ‘bounce back’ and learn from the experience.
Relate this ‘R’ to Humpty Dumpty and our current whole school topic, After the Fall.
Remember
Make sure they have time to learn spellings, number bonds and times tables – a little practice daily is best.
Play memory games:
Kim’s game: show them objects for 30 seconds… can they remember all the objects?
Can they build up the sequence, ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple and a bike.’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple, a bike and a cucumber.’ etc … Take turns!
Reflect
Talk with your child about what they’ve learnt, asking questions about how they learnt, why they learnt it, when they’ll use their learning, how they would teach this to someone else, what learning might link with what they’ve learnt today…
This week, children will have the opportunity to not only reflect on their learning in general but also reflect on how the 8Rs supports their learning.
Of course, these characteristics are referred to throughout the year across all subjects to promote good learning behaviour.
Tennis
Take a look at a few photos from our latest Tennis session.
As you can see, the children are trying really hard to watch the ball onto their racket. The children have been working independently to improve their hand eye coordination. They are trying to position their body and read where the ball is bouncing before striking it again into the air. Soon, the children will move onto playing in pairs to test out these skills with a partner.
Settling in
We’ve had another great week in Reception with twenty children settled and happy. We can’t wait to meet the final ten!
Please remember that the school day for our class is 8.30-3.00. Please try to bring and collect your child at these times.
