Our first week
What a great start to Reception!
The children have been busy making new friends and exploring their classroom. We’ve been really impressed with their enthusiasm, confidence and attitude to learning.
Looking forward to a great year!
What is the United Kingdom?
We’ve used atlases, and globes to work out which countries make up the United Kingdom. We then located the capital cities of each country.
List writing
This morning we’ve been writing lists using commas. Children had to create the list on slips of paper (including punctuation).
Living and Learning: ready and respond
This week, we’re focusing on being ready to learn and responding to feedback. Year 6 show they’re ready to learn by having empty hands, writing their date and learning objective quickly (but neatly), asking questions, and by ensuring they have everything they need in their trays.
We’ve talked a lot this week about responding to feedback and knowing what feedback is:
- marking in books
- requests made at home
- tips during football training
- verbal praise during a piano lesson
As the children had their books marked all week, we looked at how well we were responding to the feedback in them. Where we’d not responded to feedback, we recognised that this was going to mean that we were missing out on opportunities to learn from our mistakes or on receiving positive comments so that we know what to continue doing well.
As a class, we decided we were probably better as responding to feedback at home or at a club than at school. Discuss feedback with your child at home:
- What feedback do you give them?
- Which is positive?
- Which is negative?
- How do they respond to it?
- Is this the best response?
Computing and Geography
We continued our work with OS maps this week by learning all about grid references. Once we were confident with four figure grid references, we tested our knowledge by seeing whether we could follow an algorithm and give the four figure grid reference of the square we had landed on.
Taking these skills even further, we placed our counters onto the grids of the OS maps and challenged our partner to follow a journey we made for them, giving the four figure grid reference for where we ended up and seeing whether we were right.
A really fun lesson which helped us understand our Geography and Computing skills much better!
What a geographical afternoon!
This afternoon, the Year 4 class enjoyed a topic lesson with a difference. We studied maps (old and new), identified different countries and their capital cities, read a poem called Globe Trotter, began work on a class piece of art, visited the local shops and carried out a locality survey.
Location survey
We asked different people if they could spare five minutes to help us with our survey. Members of the public were very willing to answer some questions and commented on how polite the children were.
- “What is your main concern about the area?” “The parking and the traffic.”
- “What is your main reason for visiting this area today?” “I’m talking a walk with my child and visiting the shops.” “How often do you visit this area?”
- “Almost every day.”
We will be interpreting the data collected and then it will be put into different kinds of charts.
Ordinance survey maps
The children searched for our school on the map.
Jess stated: “Well, our school won’t be on that map because it was built in 1915 and this map is before that date.” Good knowledge, Jess!
The shape of the land
Following a task to identify countries by their shape, borders and coastlines, work began on our very own version of the British Isles.
Using paint mixed with glue the land was transformed. To add different textures we also sprinkled sand on top of the paint. This created a rugged effect. The children will be carrying on with this project over the next few lessons.
Adding mountain ranges, rivers, towns, counties and a few famous landmarks will complete our work. Stay posted to see the unveiling of the United Kingdom as you’ve never seen it before!
Using stencils, some children created images adding coloured sand to represent different countries.
Best of British themed menu
Catering Agency, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Thursday 04 October.
Please contact the office, by Wednesday 26 September, if your child would like a school dinner on this day.
KS2 fruit tuck shop returns on Tuesday 25 September
Our popular Key Stage 2 fruit tuck shop runs every Tuesday playtime and regularly sells about one hundred portions of fruit.
The dates for the tuck shop for this year are:
- Autumn term: Tuesday 25 September 2018 to Tuesday 18 December 2018 inclusive
- Spring term: Tuesday 08 January 2019 to Tuesday 26 March 2019 inclusive
- Summer term: Tuesday 16 April 2019 to Tuesday 16 July 2019 inclusive
This year, we’ll continue with the pre-payment option so that you pay in advance for the whole year for your child to have fruit from the tuck shop. We know that some children like to buy more than one portion of fruit, either for variety or to top up their packed lunch and we can also offer the option of paying for two items.
As an incentive for selecting the pre-pay option, we’re able to offer you one week per term free. Therefore for this year, you would pay for 32 weeks and receive fruit for 35 weeks. The cost for one portion of fruit for this year is £6.40 and the cost for two portions is £12.80.
Please note that payments are non-refundable and should be made via School Gateway. If you prefer your child to pay in cash on a weekly basis, that’s fine – we’ll continue to operate this system. Each portion of fruit costs 20p.
If you would like to pay in advance for your child to visit the tuck shop, please do this via School Gateway, under the payment option, by Friday 21 September 2018.
Thank you for your support for the fruit tuck shop.
Welcome to Reception
The classroom is ready and we’re looking forward to welcoming you all next week. See you soon!
Reading
Every week, we have a ‘Love Of Reading‘ session.
The aim is to encourage the children to read for pleasure; the session allows them time to enjoy their chosen texts.
Alongside this, we’ll hear groups of children read as a guided session with an adult. This allows us to focus on particular skills required to aid reading for this age group. The age-related expectations can be found on the school website. These are worth looking through. They are used in reading as specific objectives and a focus for each group.
We began with the objectives below.
- Can fluently read a set text appropriate for their age.
- Apply phonic knowledge and skills to read unfamiliar words.
All children have been given a reading book and a target page. It’s very important that the children do not read beyond the set target page.
In addition to this, we encourage the class to bring books from home. Topic related books are always a good idea. The books can then remain in our reading area for others to enjoy – with your permission of course!
Around the World in 80 Days
This is our first class novel. We’ve read the first chapter and completed a retrieval activity based on who, where, why, when, how and what type questions. Ask your child what they know about the main character, Phileas Fogg, so far.
