Living and Learning: I know that some drugs can be harmful.
In L&L this term, we’re looking at drugs, alcohol and tobacco. In Year 3, we discussed what a drug is:
A substance that changes the way the body or mind works.
To begin this topic, we looked at a range of medicines and household products and spoke about their benefits.
Medicine can help us feel better when we feel unwell.
Cleaning products keep our homes clean.
Soap keeps us clean and kills bacteria.
We then discussed the importance of staying safe when using these products. We identified the risks of these items and how we can reduce these.
Always put medicines and cleaning products up high or locked up so children can’t touch them.
Never take medicine that isn’t given to you by a doctor or a trusted adult.
Always read the label on medicine to make sure you’re using it safely.
Help at home: talk about some household products or medicines you have at home and how you make sure you’re always using these safely.
World Book Day – Thursday 5th March
Thursday is World Book Day! World Book Day encourages more children and families to find the fun and enjoyment in reading, because reading for pleasure changes lives.
Read more here: https://www.worldbookday.com/about-us/
As part of World Book Day, I’d like the children to bring in their favourite books! This might be linked to the character they’re dressed as. We’ll have time to share and discuss their books which will give the rest of the class inspiration for their next book to read.
I look forward to hearing about them!
Thanks, Miss Birch
Writing: narrative
This half-term, Year 4 are writing a narrative inspired by The Dragon Slayer.
purpose: to tell stories to interest and entertain
audience: children sat around a campfire listening to stories of legends from the past
Our narratives will..
– describe the main character (and his back story)
– create tension as he rides towards the dragon
When we’re writing, we’ll be thinking about including our R2s (remember tos):
- adverbs
- verbs
- apostrophes for possession
- ENPs (expanded noun phrases)
Keep your eyes peeled to see our writing develop.
Help at home: watch The Dragon Slayer (up to 1 min 53) and discuss the character with your child. What might his background be? What words could you use to describe him? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_f3AtPfuiw
Reading: Oracy
In today’s Reading lesson, the children performed the poem ‘Railway Carriage’ by Robert Louis Stevenson written in 1885.
We recapped our oracy targets from this year and identified which ones would be relevant to this lesson.
Help at home: Can your child learn this poem off by heart?
Writing: Francis
This film is perfect at building tension: the narrator uses pauses and varies the speed at which he speaks in order to build the suspense. As well as speech used to create tension, the music also plays a key part in creating suspense.
Help at home: Watch the video with and without music. How does this alter the tension created?
Forest School
Today the second half of Year 5 got out to Forest School. They were very excited to get out there this afternoon.
Last half term, the first group experienced making dens, building fires and just enjoying being outside and the second group have been doing just the same!
Maths: First, Then and Now addition stories.
Our wonderful Year 1s are back and ready to go.
They have had a great first week, settling straight back into the swing of things. Over the week they have learnt about computing, maths and have even started a new story called Nothing by Mick Inkpen.
Although, they have learnt so much this week, one lesson in particular stood out, and that was maths. In our maths lessons this week the Year 1s have been learning about First, Then and Now stories, so we took them outside to practise and show their own addition stories. We had some great stories with some really imaginative ideas. Look below to see a photo of one of the Year 1s stories.
Poetry Basket: Pancakes
This week’s poem is called Pancakes.
How do you like your pancakes? When I was 5, my mum used to make pancakes with mince and gravy for me and my brother on pancake day! Fortunately, we had lemon and sugar pancakes for pudding.
Two of the words we’ve been focussing on this week are toss and fry.
Book Club – group reading
Hello!
This week, we’re beginning group reading again.
The class have been divided into groups and each group has been given a book to read at home. This will last for this half term.
During our Book Club sessions each Friday, each group will discuss what they have read so far and share their reading record activities related to their book. This will be a fantastic opportunity for the children to explore characters and storylines more than they might do normally!
Every Friday during Book Club, each group will be given a new page to read to for the next Friday.
What to remember:
- Your child has a book that they need to read every week (up to a chosen point marked with a post-it notes).
- Make the reading work for your child. Feel free to share the reading with them or even you read it to them here and there.
- The reading record activity needs to be completed using their new book.
- A comment from a grown up needs to be written in their reading record.
- Group reading books and reading records need to be brought in every Friday.
Help at home by listening to your child read their new book and ask questions about the book to help prepare them for class discussions.
I look forward to hearing the children’s discussions next week.
Any questions – please ask. Thank you!
Living and Learning: I know what a drug is.
In Living and Learning, Year 6 have been learning what a drug is, why people use medicine and how vaccines can protect the population.
We defined a drug as ‘a substance that changes the way the body or mind works.’ Then, we moved on to focus how medicines can help:
- prevent someone from becoming ill or stop a disease from spreading
- help someone manage an ongoing health condition, such as asthma or diabetes
- help someone feel better and relieve pain, such as from a headache
- help the body recover from illness
To finish off, we played ‘the vaccination game’. This helped us to look at how different percentages of vaccinated people can affect the spread of diseases. We learnt that the more vaccinated people in a population, the less likely it is for someone to get the disease.