Living and Learning: I know the importance of the emergency services.
As we move onto another week of our half term let’s have a look at our previous Living and Learning statement from last week; I know the importance of the emergency services. Our wonderful Year 1s worked really hard on their understanding of the importance of the emergency services. They shared some great ideas and questions around our statement. One question that stood out was “Can we call them at any time (of the day)?”. This was one of many great questions our Year 1s had during last week’s L&L session.
Well done Year 1!
Living and learning: internet safety – consent
Today, we learnt about how we can stay safe on the internet by giving (or not) our consent.
Consent means the permission for something to happen or agreement to do something.
Which of these scenarios do we need to ask for consent to do?
Help at home by reading through these and deciding which you’d need to find consent to do.
We must always speak to a trusted adult if we are unsure of what to do or if something happens online that we need help with.
We also discussed the importance of having a healthy balance of online and offline behaviours. We looked at different signs we might come across that tell us that we need a break from our screens!
Drop Down Morning
Every half term we have a drop down morning. This is a morning where we dedicate our learning time to recapping and revising topics we have already covered in different year groups. Today, we went over previous History, Geography and Design Technology topics. We do this in order to keep this knowledge fresh in the children’s minds so that they can easily recall it and use it in future learning.
We looked back over what makes a good design criteria and came up with our own design criteria for an umbrella.
We looked at Ancient Greece and considered why it was such a golden age for innovation (something that links really clearly to our topic on the Early Islamic civilisation).
Finally, we recapped what we had learnt about York and Venice and how the two cities are both dealing with similar problems.
The children really impressed with their knowledge retention and engagement.
Help at home by asking what the children remember about these subjects.
Poetry Basket: A little house
This week’s poem is called A Little House. Hope you enjoy the performance!
We’ve been thinking about and using the words curling and drifting.
Spring 1: Week 4
This week, we’ve been super busy being superheroes.
On Tuesday, the children arrived in the classroom to discover that the Evil Pea had been up to his mischievous tricks. He had trapped the super veggies in a bowl! We used our fantastic detective skills to search the classroom and spot clues he had left behind. We made wanted posters and displayed them around the school to help find him.
On Wednesday, the Evil Pea was up to his mischievous tricks once again! He had taped the super veggies to the window and left us a message saying, “Mwah ha ha! You can’t catch me!”
On Thursday, we couldn’t believe our eyes… the Evil Pea had trapped the super veggies up high in a basket. We really had to use our detective skills to help capture the Evil Pea.
What a busy week we’ve had! They’ve wowed us with their amazing creativity and imaginative play. From finding and writing signs for clues to designing and building traps, we’ve seen some fantastic teamwork.
Maths
In Maths, we continued to develop our understanding of composition. We used the Hungarian number pattern (die pattern) to explore ways of making 5. We sang 5 Little Aliens in a Flying Saucer to help remember the pairs of numbers that make 5.
On Wednesday, we noticed there wasn’t enough space on the die frame for 6 aliens. To extend our learning, we used a double dice frame to explore numbers 6 and 7, understanding them as 5 and a bit.
Help at home: Number bonds to 5 game
- Put 5 small things into a bag.
- Ask your adult to take some things out of the bag.
- Then, you take the rest of the things out of the bag.
- How many things does your adult have? How many do you have?
- How many altogether?
Phonics
This week, we learnt our final phase 3 graphemes (air, er) and tricky words (are, pure, sure)
Next half-term, we’ll revisit all of the phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs. We’ll also be reading words with:
- double letters (h-a-mm-er)
- two or more digraphs (ch-a-tt–er)
- ending in –ing (l-oo-k/i-ng)
- s /z/ in the middle (visit sounds like v-i-z-i-t)
- s /s/ /z/ at the end (c-oo-k-s)
- es at the end (t-or-ch-es)
Reminders
- Phonics Phase 3 Stay & Learn – Wednesday 4th February
9:00–9:20am – Phase 3 phonics presentation
9:25–10:00am – Watch a Phase 3 phonics lesson
Due to limited space, one adult per child may attend. - Parent-teacher meetings – Tuesday 10th & Thursday 12th February
I look forward to chatting to you all about your child’s learning. - School trip – Wednesday 25th February
Latin: Translating sentences
Recently, Year 6 have been translating Latin sentences into English. When doing this, you need to follow a method:
- Look for the verb and the ending and translate it.
- Look for the subject of the sentence and translate it.
- Look for the object of the sentence and translate it.
- Look for adverbs or any other words.
Sometimes there is no subject…
… or object in the sentence.
Help at home: Have a go at translating this sentence.
Yoga
Today, we’ve continued our yoga learning in PE. We’ve enjoyed creating different poses to show strength and balance followed by some relaxation at the end.
Help at home: if your child has enjoyed learning yoga, try Cosmic yoga to practise more yoga poses at home.
Maths: Translation
Today, Year 6 have been looking at translation in maths. They have been moving shapes on coordinate grids with four quadrants. Next, we’ll move on to reflection of shapes.
Help at home: Have a go at these true or false questions.
Year 4 class assembly!
Year 4 have been given their scripts to prepare for their class assembly next week! It would be brilliant if over the weekend your child can try to learn their lines off by heart for Wednesday.
We can use our oracy skills (speaking and listening) to make sure our performance is as strong as possible:
- project our voices loudly and clearly
- keep eyes on the audience
- read with expression
- good posture and open body language
We’re looking forward to seeing you there, if you can make it!
Help at home: practise your child’s lines with them.
Topic Drop Down Morning
This morning, we’ve had a lovely time revisiting some of our History, Geography and DT learning from Year 1.
In History, we recapped two heroes — Nelson Mandela and Leonora Cohen. The children really wowed me with how many facts they remembered about both significant figures.
In Geography, we recapped the seven continents and looked at the four countries that make up the UK, labelling their capital cities. Once again, the children did this confidently, demonstrating fantastic remembering skills (one of our 8Rs for learning).
Finally, in DT, we explored the design process and discussed how it’s a continuous cycle of planning, making and evaluating. We talked about how this needs to be repeated, as designers are constantly evaluating their work until they’re happy with the final design. We also tested the stability of three different structures and found that the cylinder was the most stable.
What a fab morning of learning we’ve had in Year 2! ✨