Class News

Science: Plants and their parts.

Since returning from their break our wonderful Year 1s have been learning all about plants, their parts and how to grow them. The children started off by looking at different parts of plants and trees. They were split into groups then classified and grouped the different parts together.  They did really well in this and impressed us with their knowledge on the parts that make plants. After this, they then learnt how to plant a sunflower, planting one inside and one outside. They are now going to observe the changes over time (so feel free to ask how ‘Sun Sun’ and ‘Sunset’ are.)

Summer 1: Week 2

On Monday, a very special parcel arrived at school… inside were five tiny and very hungry caterpillars!

The children were full of excitement as I carefully opened the box. We spent time observing the caterpillars closely, noticing their size, movement, and how eager they were to begin feeding.
Over the next few weeks, we’re looking forward to watching them grow and change. The children will have the opportunity to observe each stage of their journey. This links perfectly to our word of the week: metamorphosis—the process some living things go through to become adults.

We can’t wait to share updates as our caterpillars continue their incredible transformation!

DT
In the creative area, we’ve been exploring how to safely use hand drills to make holes in pieces of wood. The children have been learning to handle the tools with care, applying the right amount of pressure and control to create their holes. They showed great concentration and enthusiasm as they developed these new practical skills.
Next week, we’re excited to put these skills into practice by working together to build a class bug hotel for our outdoor area. Thank you to everyone who has collected natural resources to help fill our bug hotel—we really appreciate your support!

Stay & Learn
Thank you to everyone who attended our final Stay & Learn session today.  We hope you found the session helpful and came away with some useful tips and ideas for supporting your child’s fine motor skills. If you were unable to attend, click here to view the slides.

Home learning activity

Writing: using inverted commas

Year 3 are going to be writing a recount. What is a recount?

A recount re-tells events and describes what has happened.

Our recount will be inspired by a picture book called  ‘The Flood’ by Alvaro F. Villa.

In our recount we’re going to include; description, action and dialogue (direct speech).

We’ve began practising our use of inverted commas for direct speech…

Help at home by practising writing direct speech. Have a conversation with someone at home and write it down using inverted commas. Use the list of R2s above to help you!

Here’s some great examples from our learning.

Reading: Retrieval Race

In today’s lesson, Year 6 competed in a retrieval race. They were split up into teams and had to run to read through a text and then return to their group to recall all they had read. A key tip for retrieving is to scan the text for key words.

Help at home: What can your child remember about the Amazon Rainforest?

PE

New class novel

This half term is the beginning of our new class novel. Year 3 voted for…

Guardians of the New Moon: Ming and Miaow’s Great Race

Book by Eric Huang

Living and Learning: I know the importance of sleep.

Yesterday in Living and Learning, we talked about  the importance of sleep. We were so impressed by their thoughtful and mature contributions as they shared their ideas about why sleep helps our bodies and minds. The children talked about feeling more energetic, happy, and ready to learn after a good rest.

Lu – I want to sleep because I want to grow.
Ha – If I don’t sleep enough, I get tired.
Ar – If I can’ sleep, I ask my Dad to hug me.
Ken – Sleep helps your body recover from things.
Ro – Sleep is important because it helps you recharge your brain.
Imo – Sleep gives us more energy.
Ka – Sleep is good for you because it makes you intelligent and good at writing.
Sal – It gives you lots of energy so you can grow.

Help at home: Continue the conversation at home by talking about bedtime routines and why a good night’s sleep is so important.

Living & Learning: Speak out. Stay safe.

This week is our second week on being safe in L&L. Today, your children learnt all about speaking out to stay safe with NSPCC.

We discussed children’s rights and the importance of the NSPCCs message of ‘Speak out. Stay safe’.

All children have the right to:

• speak out and have their views taken seriously,
• be kept safe,
• get help when they need it.

As part of this lesson, your children identified their trusted adults that they’d confidently ask anything to. We discussed the importance of having these trusted adults and why we should always speak out rather than bottling things up.

Alongside this, we spoke about how our trusted adults make us feel. Your children were really confident and comfortable speaking to their trusted adults about any worries or concerns.

Our Living & Learning box, in the classroom, is another way the children can speak out and write down any worries.

Help at home: visit the Childline website with your children (https://www.childline.org.uk/kids). Explore the games, interactive tools and age-appropriate advice.

Year 3/4 football final

Well done to our Year 3/4 football team who competed in the Leeds Well School Partnership final at the West Riding FA. The team worked together to play some great football including some fantastic saves from our goalkeeper. The children should feel extremely proud they qualified for this final along with the six other best schools across Leeds.

Summer term after-school clubs