Phonics
We have begun phase 3 of the ‘Letters and Sounds’ phonics 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’: 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.
Our next phonics mornings will be held in February.
Wolf Boiled Alive!
This week, at Moortown Primary School, Y5 children became detectives as they attempted to solve a mysterious crime involving three pigs and a wolf.
Children, many of whom were working on their first case, were given evidence bags containing a range of items: quotes from witnesses, newspaper headlines, CCTV footage, a range of public reaction and an expert interview.
The young detectives were then set the challenge of solving the case! They quickly got to work and within an hour had come up with a solid theory which they hoped would stand up in court. (Ask your child what their theory was.)
After spending some time reviewing each suspect, victim and witness, the detectives were ready for the next step: a trial. With a make-shift court set up in the Y5 classroom, the children held their own court session. With the public’s imagination captured, the children took on a role for the session: juror, judge, media, lawyer, witness or ‘The Accused’.
Mr Catherall, a teacher at the school, said: “The court case was absolutely gripping. From start to finish, the quality of the questioning was exceptional and the responses from those in the dock were just as good! All involved in the case seemed to find the whole thing fascinating and hopefully much of the information will be retained for a long time!”
After much deliberation, the jury were eventually able to come to a unanimous decision on each of the three main suspects. To find out about the jury’s verdict, contact your own child. If you require more information on this fascinating case, there is a very informative video.
Here is a sketch (produced by a Y5 child) of the witnesses in the dock…
We’ll use this awesome learning next week as we write our own news reports.
What would happen if…?
- “What would happen if we used Coke instead of water?”
- “What would happen if we used card instead of kitchen roll?”
- “What would happen if we used cold hot chocolate instead of water?”
- “What would happen if we used lemonade?”
- “What would happen if we used melted chocolate?”
- “What would happen if we put our cups in a line?”
LO: To make predictions and perform a test.
Firstly, we predicted what would happen giving reasons to justify our opinion. For example:
- “I think the kitchen roll will disappear and dissolve because Coke is fizzy.” – Phoebe
- “I think the kitchen roll will go brown because the cold hot chocolate is brown.” – Emma
- “I think the water won’t go into the other cup because card is heavier than kitchen roll.” – Noah
We took safe risks as we had no idea what would happen.
Next, we set up our experiments according to our plans and by remembering whose role was whose.
It was important to be responsible and work well within our teams.
We had to be ready to record observations at certain points in the day.
There was progress in some…
… but less so in others!
Either way, we reflected on our experiments at the end of the day by describing what went well and what we would change for next time.
One More and One Less
This morning in Year One, we worked hard to find one more and one less of a number using a variety of resources. 
Author visit!
This morning, we had a visit from an author, Clare Luther, who talked to us about her books and answered some of our questions. It was great fun!
Welcome back
Happy New Year and welcome back to what is set to be another very busy term!
Our first mini-topic is ‘What’s the matter?’ and is science-based. Children will learn about materials and their properties. We will explore what objects are made from and why. You can help your child learn more about this topic when choosing which clothes to wear and talking about which materials everyday objects are made from and why. Children will also ask ‘What’s the matter?’ from a social and emotional point of view, thinking about how they can solve problems.
The next big topic is Life.
Life is all around us, in plants and animals, and comes in all shapes and sizes – it’s amazing! In this biology-based topic, we find out how our body works, what all living things have in common and the differences we might notice. Amongst other things, we’ll think about why animals choose particular habitats and why a healthy diet is important. Help your child at home by naming body parts, including the parts inside that you can’t see, discussing why you breathe hard after exercise and what plants you can see when you’re out and about.
This term, Year 4 will be diving into two class novels.
The first will be a Fighting Fantasy novel, which is the title given to a series of interactive books, also known as game books, that were developed by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. This book will certainly be intriguing and memorable because the children’s participation and the choices they make directly affects the outcome of the story! Good luck!
The second will be ‘Akimbo and the Elephants’, written by Alexander McCall Smith. Here’s the blurb:
‘Ten-year-old Akimbo lives on a game preserve in Africa. His father is the head ranger, and Akimbo is eager to help him whenever he can—even if it means getting into some pretty dangerous situations.’
How can you help?
Question your child about the book. What do they know about the characters? Perhaps, look at other books in ‘The Fighting Fantasy series.’
During the next term, we will be giving some children additional or alternative homework. This is because, in lessons, there are areas in Maths and English where extra practice (at home) would be very beneficial to consolidate the learning in school.
Please support your child with this at home and if you’re not sure of how best to do this then please pop in and ask us. We’re always happy to help.
Court in Session
Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed their English lesson today as they entered, not their classroom, but a fully fledged courtroom.
We had a judge, a jury, the media, defence and prosecution lawyers, witness and family members of the unfortunate victim and, of course, the accused. The Three Little Pigs were on trial for murder and we were determined to find out exactly what happened.
There were some fantastic characters in the room and, at times, it all got very tense! After a long deliberation, the jury decided that all three of the little pigs were guilty of murder, using the wolf to try and commit insurance fraud and then murdering him so that he couldn’t give the game away.
Have you ever heard of walking water?
Happy new year and a warm welcome back!
To get our brains back into gear, we’ve started this week with Science.
We were posed with the challenge of moving water from one cup to another – without touching the water or the cup, using only the following equipment:
A pipe cleaner, a square of kitchen roll, a plastic glove, packing peanuts, string, an elastic band and a newspaper.
Do you think you could crack the case?
After lots of (mostly failed) attempts, the answer was finally revealed…
It was the kitchen roll all along!
The walking water absorbed by the kitchen roll created this lovely rainbow effect which is so easy to recreate at home!
This got our scientific juices flowing, and we started to ask “What would happen if…?” to help us plan our own version of the experiment!
Here are some we came up with:
Watch this space, as we launch our own investigations in the coming week!
Welcome Back
I hope you’ve all had a lovely break over Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody.
Year 6 had a lovely start to the new year yesterday, adapting straight back into school life with focus and a positive attitude. We started an investigation into the Three Little Pigs who have been arrested on suspicion of boiling the wolf alive!
After gathering all of the evidence, we created a crime investigation board, locating connections between the different clues and, therefore, piecing the story together.
Take a look at the news reports at home here.
We’ve also started a science investigation into solutions and how to separate them and have started to look at working with decimals in Maths.
To continue helping at home, help us to practise our times tables three times a week and quiz us on our spellings in the car, on a walk or while eating breakfast. It would also help if you asked us about our reading every now and again too.
Living and Learning
- Drug, alcohol and tobacco education (DATE)
- Keeping safe and managing risk
Here are the weekly Living and Learning statements, for this half term, to support this learning.
- I don’t interrupt (with my mouth or my hand).
- I can make things better.
- I know what a drug is.
- I am aware of risks.
- I make safe choices.
- I stay safe online.