Tricky words
The children enjoyed reading their bananas this week!
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.
If you have any questions, please ask and do attend our next phonics open mornings on Wednesday 18, Thursday 19 and Friday 20 January.
What’s the matter?
We started our mini science based topic. The children were all very keen to learn about solids, liquids and gases.
The children enjoyed a carousel of activities including investigating solids and some scientific reading!
Materials
We’ve been learning about different materials this week. We started by discussing the types of materials and their properties. We’re now designing a new shed for Mr Grumpy using the most appropriate materials.
Thinking about our next Big Topic
In preparation for our upcoming Big Topic, we put our heads together to think about what we’d like to learn and do. The next Big Topic will be Time Travel and Year 5 and 6 will be exploring entertainment through the ages.
There were hundreds of great ideas which Mr Catherall and I now need to seive through but here are a few to give you a taster:
- create a marble run using woodwork skills
- learn some ballroom dancing
- create our games using our computing skills
- write a promotional text for a game
- work out the costing and profit for putting on a theatre production
We look forward to starting this topic in the week beginning 16 January and will keep you updated on what we’re doing.
What’s the matter?
We have started our new mini-topic: What’s the matter? In this chemistry based topic we will focus on materials and their properties. We’ll also ask ‘What’s the matter?‘ as part of our current SEAL theme: Good to be me.
Today, we revised some prior learning about the states of matter (ask your child what these are) and learnt about some examples of reversible changes (ask your child to give you an example of a reversible change). We focused on water as it can be a liquid at room temperature, a solid and a gas (ask your child how water becomes a gas).
Later in the week, we’ll focus on irreversible changes like burning – safety goggles at the ready!
Happy New Year!
Welcome back and a Happy New Year!
All the children made a great start to their time at Moortown last term and we are looking forward to seeing their enjoyment and progress this term.
Our next big topic will be ‘Life in the snow’.
Good to be me!
Our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) learning this half term is all about Good to be me and as part of this learning we would like the children to bring something in that they are proud of – something that reflects the theme ‘Good to be me’.
This may be from a sporting achievement, a learning achievement or something to show their unique skill or talent.
Don’t forget, it is also Moortown’s Got Talent this half term.
Happy New Year!
We hope you all enjoyed the holidays and are ready for a new term of learning.
We are looking forward to starting the year with a science mini topic, What’s the matter? before we go back in time with our history themed Time Travel big topic.
Don’t forget this half term it is our second class assembly of the year on Wednesday 11 January at 2:40pm.
Parents’ evenings are also later in the half term (Monday 06 February and Tuesday 07 February) but if there is anything you would like to ask or clarify, please do come and see us before then.
New SEAL theme…Good to be me
Our new SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme for this half-term, Good to be me, focuses on three main areas of learning:
- Self-awareness: feeling good about yourself, taking risks.
- Managing feelings: understanding feelings, and why and how they lead us to behave the way we do – particularly the feelings of being excited, proud, surprised, hopeful, disappointed, worried and anxious and standing up for yourself.
- Empathy
This theme explores feelings in the context of the child as an individual, developing self-awareness and helping the child to realise that it really is ‘Good to be me’. The theme is about understanding our feelings as well as considering our strengths and weaknesses as learners.
As part of our current science mini topic, What’s the matter?, children will also ask ‘What’s the matter?’ from a social and emotional point of view, understanding feelings and thinking about how they can solve problems.
The theme also links with Moortown’s Got Talent, our upcoming annual talent show.
The key ideas and concepts behind the theme of Good to be me are:
Building emotional resilience
Children need to become resilient if they are to be healthy and effective life-long learners.
Coping with anxiety and worrying
Worry and anxiety are major features in many children’s lives. Many children have good reasons to be anxious. Exploring worries is important.
Calming down
Although getting stressed, anxious or angry are important and useful emotions, sometimes these feelings can be overwhelming.
Assertiveness
The theme encourages children to become assertive – that is, able to recognise and stand up for their rights while recognising and respecting the rights of others.
Understanding feelings and how they influence behaviour
The theme explores the relationship between ‘thinking’ and ‘feeling’ and the way each impacts on our behaviour. It looks at Flight or Fight rapid response to situations of threat and our responses to feeling threatened / under stress.
‘I respond to difficult situations in a positive way’ is the first SEAL statement for this theme.