Brown Bear, Brown Bear, “What do you see?”
We have enjoyed retelling this story and using story maps to record a different version of the story.
Ask your child to tell you their story.
Phonics
We have begun phase 3 of the ‘Letters and Sounds’ phonic programme.
The purpose of this phase is to:
• teach more graphemes, most of which are made of two letters, for example, ‘oa’ as in boat
• practise blending and segmenting a wider set of CVC words, for example, fizz, chip, sheep, light
• learn all letter names and begin to form them correctly
• read more tricky words and begin to spell some of them
• read and write words in phrases and sentences.
Here are some examples of words your children will be reading: tail, week, right, soap, food, park, burn, cord, town, soil
Tricky words
During phase 3 the children will learn more ‘Tricky Words’. These are the words we will learn in phase 3:
he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all said
In addition, during this phase children will be expected to begin to write sentences independently.
If you have any questions please ask.
There will be further phonics mornings in February where you will be able to see how we teach the new phonemes.
Homework
Last week the children were asked to get creative and show what they know about the water cycle.
During our homework review, it was clear to see how much the children have remembered about this learning. Lots of our class members had correctly used the scientific vocabulary within their piece of work. Well done Year 4!
Please feel free to pop in and have a look at our ‘Water Cycle” display.
Computing: touch typing
This afternoon, we’ve been practising out touch typing skills using the free games on the BBC Bitesize website.
At first we found it tricky to rest our fingers in the correct place – pointing fingers on the bumps (F and J)!
Soon, we were getting the hang of it and typing with much more confidence!
Have a go at home if you can!
Can we make it rain indoors?
Many thanks to all who came to watch our assembly on Wednesday. The children showcased their learning impressively. Despite a technical hitch, the children remained calm and were able to sing their song without the backing track.
In Science, we’ve been learning more about the water cycle and some tricky scientific vocabulary. To help secure good understanding of the new words, Year 4 created their own glossaries. After putting the words into alphabetical order, the class then added definitions.
Question: How can you make it rain indoors?
This afternoon, we thought about this question and came up with some ideas of how we could go about finding out whether or not we could make it rain inside.
What You Need:
• An empty glass jar with a metal top
• Hot tap water
• Ice cubes
Tip: Be patient. It takes about 15 minutes for water drops to form.
1) First, fill a glass jar with very hot tap water.
2) Then, place a plate over the jar and fill it with ice.
3) Now, wait and watch. In about 15 minutes you will see “rain” fall inside the jar .
What will happen?
“The hot air will rise and cool down.”
“When the water vapor reaches the cold plate, I think we will see droplets of rain.”
“The hot water will turn into steam.”
“The ice will cool the steam and turn it back into a liquid.”
” This process is called condensation.”
Were we correct?
YES!
Inside the bowl, we began to see water droplets falling . 
Question your child about these images. Can they tell you what is happening using some scientific vocabulary?
We’ve “bin” to the Recycling Centre!
Sorry for the terrible joke – it was rubbish.
Here are a few snaps from our time at the Leeds Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility!
We were astounded by the size of the claw and even more so by all that rubbish! (We were on the seventh floor of the building and the pile went all the way down to ground level and 5 m below!)
We played a game where you had to throw the rubbish (a bean bag) into the correct recycling bin. It’s tricky to know what’s what, so check with Leeds City Council if you’re ever unsure.
We also made pledges to become Waste Champions and learnt all about their Living Wall; it had around 110,000 plants on it!
We learnt a lot of facts about recycling from our time at the facility. It’s good to be green!
Watercolour Techniques
This week, we’ve been learning about watercolour techniques (one of our processes of art) using colour (0ne of our visual and tactile elements of art).
We practised a flat wash, a graduated wash, wet on dry and wet on wet techniques.
Next time, we will learn a few more techniques before putting what we’ve learnt into a full painting.
Living and Learning – solving problems
This week’s Living and Learning theme is I can make things better. Year 5 had a very in depth and beneficial circle time to discuss how we can solve problems and improve any tricky situations we are experiencing. We covered some important topics: sleep, resolving arguments and online behaviour.
We first “opened up the floor” to ask if anyone was having difficulty with anything and I would like to thank Year 5 for being very mature, open and honest.
Our first topic was sleep; lots of us said we were finding it hard (or harder) to sleep since returning to school. This included Miss Wilson! Here are our top tips, if you’re having trouble:
Key points:
- Reduce / stop screen time in the hours leading up to bed.
- Write down any worries you have and scrunch them up.
- Listen to calming music or do something relaxing.
Next up – resolving arguments:
Key points:
- Treat people how you would like to be treated.
- Walk away and give yourself time to calm down if you need to.
- Be a good role model for siblings.
Finally, something that was very important for lots of people in the class and seems to have been causing a couple of issues outside of school. Here are our top tips:
Lots of children were sharing their experiences of online behaviour that made them feel upset or uncomfortable. This is a great start. To make things better, often the first step should be to talk to someone.
Key points:
- Do not – DO NOT – ever share your password with someone under any circumstances! This is your personal information and should be kept a secret. Would you give anybody a key to your house or car? It’s the same thing.
- Change your password if you suspect anybody knows it. And make it as complex as you can whilst it still being memorable.
- Act online how you would in real life. Hiding behind a keyboard does not make you brave. Make sensible, kind choices online – just like when you’re face to face.
Thanks to Year 5 for our mature and beneficial talk this week.
If any parents or children are still having issues or have concerns, please come in to speak to me or to Mrs Weekes to discuss this further. Thanks!
What is dissolving?
In Science, we’re learning about about dissolving which involves being familiar with some tricky vocabulary: solute, solvent, soluble, insoluble, solution.
We know that salt will dissolve in water and used this to help us to understand the scientific terminology above.
- Salt is a solute.
- Water is a solvent.
- Salt is soluble.
- Salt and water create a solution.
We then applied this knowledge to making predictions about other substance: coffee, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, rice and sand. Having made our predictions about which would and wouldn’t create a solution if mixed with water, we found out by testing them.
Finally, we were tasked with getting the dissolved salt back out of the water. There were a few puzzled faces and the children’s initial response was, ‘You can’t.’ However, with a few suggestions of equipment and a bit of thinking about learning last year, we decided you could separate all of the substance we’d testing by either sieving them, filtering them or, if a solution had been created, allowing the water to evaporate.
At home, see whether you can spot things, particularly in the kitchen cupboards, that will and will not create a solution when added to water. If you’re not sure, try it out.
Living and Learning: Mental Health
In our Living and Learning lessons, we’ve been finding out more about mental health.
Talk to us at home about what mental health is and what decision you can make as a family to ensure you’re mentally healthy. We discussed what can affect our physical, mental and emotional health and quickly realised that these three areas are very closely linked.
