Reading: The Spider and the Fly
This week – in Reading – we have been looking at the poem ‘The Spider and the Fly’ by Mary Howitt. We have looked at a range of different skills but in today’s lesson the children used their retrieval skills to draw and label the characters and setting.
Help at home: Find out about the poet Mary Howitt. Are there any more poems you like of hers?
Living and learning: manners and courtesy
Manners are words and actions that we can do to help us be kind and respectful to others. Good manners help us to get on well with others.
We thought about examples of good manners and we did some role play to model these good manners.
We linked our daily poem to manners to reinforce this important aspect of Living and Learning.
Help at home: reinforce this message about using good manners at home as well as at school. Encourage your child to greet the adults on the gate as they arrive at school.
Also, have a go at this manners quiz to check your child’s understanding.
Leeds Rhinos play offs
PLAY OFF ACTION RETURNS TO AMT HEADINGLEY
Following the conclusion of the regular season Leeds Rhinos will take on St Helens in a mouth-watering elimination play off at AMT Headingley Stadium on Saturday 27 September 2025, kicking off at 8pm.
Tickets are on sale now at Leeds Rhinos – Online ticket sales
We hope that you will join us for what promises to be a fantastic occasion as we aim to get within 80 minutes of the Grand Final at Old Trafford.
Further info can be found here Play Off Eliminator tickets on sale now
Living and 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.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zqgm7yc#zmghp4j 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).
Learning at home
Your child should now have their new e-book login and a reminder of their Numbots login (same login as Year 1). These can always be found inside their reading record book.
Reading
At the end of each week, your child will be set the book they have been reading in school. This can be accessed on the Collins e-book app. Please ensure this book is read at home and a comment is added to your child’s reading record book. Reading record books should be brought back to school by Wednesday of the following week.
Numbots
The children do use Numbots in school but regular short periods of time spent on this at home will help to support the children’s addition and subtraction knowledge across the year. Certificates are awarded every Thursday where children have earned their next level. We’ve had plenty so far!
Spellings
Each week, the children will be given eight spellings and these will be tested the following Friday. The spellings can always be found on the Year 2 spellings page. They will be a mixture of words from our phonics learning and also some tricky words. This spelling guide gives you some ideas for how to learn these spellings with your child. They will know their weekly score so please ask them how they have got on.
We have also been checking the children’s spelling of the Year 1 tricky words and your child has brought this learning home to show you which of these words they need to practise at home.
Handwriting
The children are practising our cursive handwriting daily following the letter sequence in our handwriting guide. This will support the children when we start to join our letters. Please use this at home to practise handwriting so the children can apply this in their writing at school.
Thank you for your support with your child’s learning at home and if you have any questions, please do come and ask!
Reading and writing – Flat Stanley.
This week in Reading and writing we have been reading Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. We have been learning lots of new vocabulary such as bulletin board. This is very important because a bulletin board is what made Stanley flat! We have also been trying to make predictions around the text and making inferences from information we have been given.
Latin
This week in Latin, we learnt about how the Romans loved to play games. We looked at some of the artefacts that had been found that showed us what kind of games the Romans played. Then, we had a go at playing one ourselves.
Help at home by asking your children if they can make the game to play at home.
Writing: diary entries
This week we have been writing diary entries inspired by stories we have read in our class novel ‘Survivors’ by David Long. We imagined we had been involved in a disaster and we were fighting to survive. I was really impressed by how the children were able to embody their character and really put themselves into a survival situation.
Help at home by asking your child what happened in their diary entry.
Autumn 1: Week 3
You might be thinking what your child is doing at school on a regular basis. Here’s a snapshot of what a typical day might look like in Reception at Moortown Primary School. 
Maths
This week, we’ve focussed on perceptual subitising (recognising the number of objects without counting) up to 3. We’ve been learning how to use our fast eyes when looking at small sets of objects.
Help at home: Can you say how many conkers there are without counting?
Poetry Basket
Every week, we’ll learn a new poem. Throughout the week, we’ll rehearse it, practise the actions and talk about the poem. On Fridays, we’ll perform our poem for you to watch at home.
Here’s our first poem…
Every Friday, your child will bring a paper copy of the poem home for you to keep practising at home.
Reading practice
Reading daily at home is an essential part of your child’s reading journey. Click here to watch a useful video about how to use a wordless book at home with your child. If you have any issues logging onto Collins eBooks, please let me know. Please make sure your write in your child’s reading record and return it every Thursday.
Finally, thank you to all the parents/carers who attended the Reception welcome meeting on Tuesday. It was great to see so many of you. As always, if you have any questions or would like to share any home learning please use our Reception email moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org.
Geography – Where in the World am I?
This half term, our Geography topic is ‘Where in the world am I?’ We have started our learning off by learning the names and location of 7 continents. A fantastic way to remember each of the continents is to learn the continents song.
Seven Continents Song (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip).
We’ve loved learning this song and have listened to it lots of times.
Each class spoke about how a continent is the largest piece of land. A country is smaller than a continent and a city is smaller than a country.
We have also been learning about the 4 countries that make up the UK. We listened to another educational song that tells us all about the countries in the UK and what sorts of things you can find in each.
“United Kingdom Song” with signing | By Al Start | Primary School Geography (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip).
We placed or wrote labels on a map of the UK, adding each country, capital city and sea/ocean name in the correct place.
Help at home by listening to the songs above!