Story mapping
We’ve been planning our own story today based on our class novel, Lost and Found. Children have drawn pictures to represent what happens in the story. This will help them sequence the story when they write it tomorrow. 
PE – basketball
Yesterday, in PE, we practised our basketball skills. We focussed on our dribbling skills and played games that allowed us to improve our skills whilst working as a team. More importantly, we made sure we worked up a sweat and had fun!
Please remember that your child should have their PE kit in school every Tuesday and Wednesday (preferably every day). However, from next week onwards (for 4 weeks), PE will be on Monday and Wednesday. This is to accommodate a visitor.
What’s that coming over the hill?
Is it a monster?
Continuing on with our text focus, Orion and the Dark, we have had fun creating our own monsters.
First of all, the children were asked to describe their monster. Using different parts of the body we were able to create a bank of adjectives. Using these, the children went on to create some expanded noun phrases. Here is an example of how we set this work out.
- ears noun
- wrinkly ears adjective noun
- wrinkly, old ears adjective adjective noun
- wrinkly, old ears that can hear a pin drop extra detail
- My monster has wrinkly, old ears that can hear a pin drop. full sentence
Then, it was time to get creative. The children sketched their monsters first. After this, using clay, we set to work. Children had to select tools needed to make patterns, cut, flatten and decorate their models. When complete, the models were baked and are now on display in the classroom.
Below, are a few pictures of the children at work.
Skills
In our topic lessons, and other lessons, children have the opportunity to use many skills such as ICT, improving their own learning and performance, working with others and problem-solving.
Here the children are working with others and using their thinking skills to predict what their learning might be at the start of a topic lesson on seasons.
Ourselves in the style of Oliver Jeffers
Wow! I’ve been blown away by our fantastic art today. Over the last two weeks, we’ve been building on our existing art skills in order to prepare ourselves for this final piece (Learning Objective: To be able make images in the style of another artist).
Inspired by ‘The Incredible Book Eating Boy‘, we drew an illustrated version of ourselves in the style of Oliver Jeffers. Oliver Jeffers, who has illustrated lots of other books, has quite a unique style and we tried to replicate this in our pieces. For example, when studying a range of his work, we noticed that many of his characters have large, round heads. In the images below you can see that many children were able to replicate this in their drawings. Similarly, we noticed that his characters tend to have very spindly arms and legs; again, you can see this in the examples below.
Can you spot which one is Mr Catherall?
If reading this post with your child, help them practise their writing skills by asking them to point out all the fronted adverbials and relative clauses.
Experimenting with different media – art
On Monday, we had the chance to experiment with using watercolour paint and watercolour pencils (Learning: To be able to use different media). We had a go with each and decided which one we’ll use to add detail to our illustrations – some people decided they’d use both! Our illustrations will be of ourselves but in the style of Oliver Jeffers, the author and illustrator of ‘The Incredible Book Eating Boy’.
Here’s a few images of us showing off our best concentration faces:
And, a few good examples from our sketch books:
Computing – with no computers?
We started a computing project this week – without computers! Y6 reminded me what an algorithm was and discussed what made successful and unsuccessful algorithms.
We practised trying to give oral algorithms by drawing a simple picture and then instructing a friend to draw the same (without seeing it first).
Here were some that actually ended up being very similar and we decided it was because the picture was simple in the first place; the instructions given were step by step; and the instructions included descriptions of where to draw things and how big to draw things.
In pairs, we then created some written instructions to try and get me (Miss Rushbrooke) from the front of the classroom to outside the fire door. I walked into walls, banged by shins, ended up in the cupboard, but – after refining their algorithms as a result of other people’s mistakes – a couple of groups managed to get me outside.
Key Stage 2 tuck shop
Our fruit tuck shop returns next Tuesday, 19 September. The tuck shop is available for Years 3 – 6 at playtime every Tuesday and we regularly sell over 100 portions of fruit every week.
The cost per portion of 20p remains the same this year and children can either pay weekly by bringing money on the day or take advantage of our pre-payment offer of one free week per term.
Please return the prepayment reply slip by the end of the week if you would like your child to have that option.
Here are some quotes about our tuck shop from the recent pupil health questionnaires.
- ‘It is excellent as you get a range of different fruits.’
- ‘I think tuck shop has yummy fruits.’
- ‘You are selling healthy stuff which is good for us.’
- ‘You don’t feel hungry during lesson time.’
- ‘I really like it as it is a nice healthy snack.’
- ‘It’s very good and keeps our school healthy.’
- ‘You get to have fruit at a low price and it helps you to have one of your 5 a day.’
Library
Year 2 will be visiting the school library on Mondays. This will be part of our reading sessions and half the class will spend the session in the library relaxing and reading. The other half of the class will visit the library the following Monday.
The children will choose a book (to bring home) and will keep the book for two weeks. Children should take responsibility to return their library book to school after this time to be ready to choose a new book.
Have you visited local libraries nearby, too? As well as borrowing books from Moor Allerton or Chapel Allerton libraries, have a look at the different events that take place there.
Flexible bodies
In our Friday PE this half term, we will concentrate on balance, shape and teamwork. This will build up to dance related sessions with the children performing a short sequence of movements by the end. Children will plan, perform and repeat short sequences that include changes of speed and level, with clear shapes and quality of movement.
In most of these lessons, the children will work in bare feet. However, if your child has any problems with that, such as verrucas or blisters, then they can leave their footwear on.
For our first lesson, we focused on shape and balance. Children were asked to create shapes using their bodies only. Following that, we looked at which part of our bodies we could balance safely on.
There were some superb balances taking place. In a small group, the children then had to incorporate an object into their balance and hold it for three seconds. This was tricky but I was impressed by the determination shown to be able to achieve this.
Take a look at some photos of our work below.
