Lots and lots of art
We’re reading a book called The Incredible Book Eating Boy at the moment and, during our topic lessons, we’re trying to create our own piece of art in the style of Oliver Jeffers.
We’ve had a look at his art and compared it something that has similarities and differences.
Then, we practised drawing in the style of Oliver Jeffers which we notice included rather large heads and very thin arms and legs.
We also noticed that it looked like he used watercolour to create light and shadow in his illustrations so we practised that, too, ready for creating a final piece of art next week.
Marvellous Maths
Year 6 have had some great Maths lessons this week, recapping some previous learning while honing our explanation and justification skills.
We’ve been reading, writing, comparing and ordering numbers up to 10,000,000 and managed to achieve some fantastic learning while playing some really fun games.
See whether your child can explain what we were doing here and teach you the game, too.
Welcome back to Y3!
What a fantastic first week of this Autumn term! I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to your children recount their summer adventures and getting to know them a little better.
This week, in Maths, we’ve been working on counting and place value using hundreds, tens and ones. I have been so impressed with the children’s ability to explain their reasoning, which is very tricky!
Our class novel for the first two weeks is Orion and the Dark, a book about a boy who explores his greatest fear on an adventure. We were inspired to write our own descriptions of monsters:
We have also been designing our own real life monsters using our descriptive plans…
… and our sketch books!
We’ll make our monsters out of clay next week, so watch this space!
This week’s Living and Learning theme has been “I greet someone politely”. We discussed what this means and the different ways you can achieve this in our first circle time:
A highlight of ours this week has got to be this humongous courgette brought in for show and tell. The children (and I!) had lots of questions!
Thank you to all the children for working extremely hard to make our first week so amazing. I am very excited for the journey ahead.
Welcome to Reception!
We’ve been busy preparing the classroom this week and thinking about all the exciting activities planned for the coming year.
Please bring your child on the day and time you have been given.
Looking forward to seeing you all next week!
Hot and cold countries
We’ve been using atlases in a geography lesson to locate hot and cold countries. Children have learnt that countries close to the poles are cold but that countries closer to the equator are hotter. 
School Library
Today, we visited the school library for the first time this year. We chose a book (which we will be taking home) and enjoyed relaxing and reading. Please remember that your child needs to return their library book, in good condition, every Thursday.
The Incredible Book Eating Boy art
This week, we’ve been reading a picture book: The Incredible Book Eating Boy. So far, we’ve used the book as a stimulus to learn how to justify our inferences during our reading lessons and in our writing lessons we’ve been focussing on the grammar skills needed to write a high-quality recount (next week we’ll be writing a recount as if we are Henry – The Incredible Book Eating Boy).
Today, we studied the illustrations in the book and compared them to other illustrations by Oliver Jeffers. We discovered that he has quite a specific style and then practised drawing ourselves in the style of Oliver Jeffers in our sketch books.
Here’s a few action shots:
Ruler Art
We’ve created pieces of art and practised using rulers to draw straight lines this afternoon.
Welcome back!
Welcome back to what is set to be a busy term full of exciting learning. We hope that you all enjoyed the summer break. It was great to see all the children settle so well back into school. Attitudes to learning have been impressive so far – let’s keep this up! We like to keep you up to date with what’s going on in class so please keep checking the class news page on the school website regularly.
Our focus for the next two weeks is around a book called Orion and the Dark written by Emma Yarlett.
This is a beautifully written book, with engaging illustrations that help to tell the story of a little boy’s fear of the dark. What’s unusual here is that Dark is represented as a friendly being, and the book reveals why Dark really isn’t that scary after all. This book will form most of our English and reading activities. During the two weeks, the children will design and make their own monster using clay and look closely at constellations in the night sky.
In fact, work has already started on our monsters.
Here’s a quick peek! More to follow.
Following that, jump aboard the Year 4 Discovery ship as we head out on our adventure as explorers! Throughout this Big Topic, we’ll be studying famous explorers and their expeditions, use geographical skills for map reading and direction, look closely at some of the wonders of the world and much more. We are also planning to take the children out on a trip full of adventure and exploration! More details to follow.
Linking to our big topic, the first class novel will be Robinson Crusoe written by Daniel Defoe.
This classic novel has been adapted especially for younger children and has fantastic reviews. Here is an example: “I bought two copies of this book so my grandson could have one and I the other. He is nine years old so still enjoys being read to. The book is written at his level. I would recommend this book to anyone who is eight/nine years old, or thereabouts, and parents or grandparents reading one of the classics to their offspring.”
How can you help?
Question your child about the book. What do they know about the characters? Have they learnt anything new?
What questions would you ask if you met some of the characters?
Indoor and outdoor kits are needed in school each week. PE will be twice a week (Mondays and Fridays). Please ensure your child has a full kit in school. Also, please note that there has been an addition to the uniform policy regarding earrings. Children who wear earrings will be asked to remove them prior to a PE lesson. This must be carried out by the child. If they are unable to remove or put earrings back in by themselves, they must not wear them on the day they have PE.
Maths
Place value, rounding numbers and comparing numbers are all on our maths agenda. Alongside this, there will be daily counting and times tables practice. If you need any ideas of how best to support your child with their maths, then please feel free to ask. There is also a lot of guidance on the school website.
Living and Learning
Living and Learning is our new name for SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning).
Living and Learning will continue to cover SEAL learning but will also incorporate other aspects of PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) such as keeping safe, identity, drug education, physical health, rights and responsibilities and healthy minds.
We begin our Living and Learning learning this week with a focus on manners: I can greet someone politely.
For the rest of this half-term, we’re thinking about the ‘8 Rs for learning’. This theme is about promoting good learning behaviour for your child.
Each week, we’ll focus on two different ‘Rs’. We use an animal to symbolise each ‘R’, which might help your child remember all eight – can your child remember which animal matches the correct ‘R’?
You can support your child at home – we’ve listed a few ideas to help you below. Ask us if you’ve any questions or comments.
Download top tips for promoting the 8Rs for good learning behaviour.
I can show I am ready to learn.
Make sure your child is at school for a prompt start of 08:50.
Make sure your child has had plenty of sleep so they are alert and ready to learn at all times.
Encourage your child to ask lots of questions – that shows they want to learn!
I respond to feedback.
Ask your child if they remember their ‘stars’ and ‘steps’ in English and Maths.
I take a safe risk.
Talk about the difference between a safe and unsafe risk. At school, we want your child to take a safe risk by having a go at answering, even if unsure; trying something new and attempting harder learning.
I take responsibility for my own learning.
Provide time and space at home so your child is able to organise themselves: their PE kit, reading book, homework, spellings and tables… Don’t organise everything for them!
Make a link between rights and responsibilities: your child has the right to a great education, but needs to be responsible for their own learning.
I am resourceful.
Encourage your child to be organised so they can play with a range of different toys.
Encourage your child to try new ways to solve a tricky problem.
I am resilient.
Encourage your child to keep going! Set a tricky challenge or puzzle for your child to do.
Encourage your child to think of different ways of doing things.
Don’t let your child win when they play a game – they need to experience losing, too!
Celebrate mistakes as opportunities to learn – be happy that your child found some learning hard and encourage them to ‘bounce back’ and learn from the experience.
I remember.
Make sure they have time to learn spellings, number bonds and times tables – a little practice daily is best.
Play memory games:
Kim’s game: show them objects for 30 seconds… can they remember all the objects?
Can they build up the sequence, ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple and a bike.’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple, a bike and a cucumber.’ etc … Take turns!
I reflect about my learning.
Talk with your child about what they’ve learnt, asking questions about:
how they learnt
why they learnt it
when they’ll use their learning
how they would teach this to someone else
what learning might link with what they’ve learnt today etc