Autumn 2: Week 6
Literacy
This week, we have been learning all about The Christmas Story. We used actions to help us remember the events, and the children really enjoyed joining in. Click here to watch us.
We wrote our own sentences about a scene from The Christmas Story. The children used their segmenting skills to write the sounds they could hear. In Reception, we encourage them to try writing by themselves. Sometimes you will see words spelled phonetically – this is absolutely fine. It helps the children become confident, enthusiastic writers!
On Tuesday, we had great fun decorating the Christmas tree in the hall. It now looks wonderfully festive and ready for next week’s Christmas performances and parties!
Here’s a snapshot of some of the Christmas challenges we’ve been completing this week.
Christmas events happening next week
Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 – Christmas Production: Wriggly Nativity
Tuesday 16 December – 2:15pm–3:00pm
Wednesday 17 December – 9:30am–10:00am
Thursday 18 December – Christmas Lunch
Friday 19 December – Non-uniform Day & Christmas Party
Christmas nativity rehearsals
We’ve been working brilliantly during our Christmas nativity rehearsals – the children’s enthusiasm, teamwork and growing confidence has been wonderful to see! We’re very proud of how hard they’re trying with both their lines and the songs. Please remember to send in any costumes by Friday 12th December and do keep practising the songs at home to help them feel extra ready for the performance. Thank you for your support!
Writing: The Dream Giver
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been planning and writing a narrative based on the beginning of this short film – The Dream Giver.
We learnt how to write using prepositional phrases to help set the scene.
…above me…
…on the windowsill…
…inside the golden eggs…
We learnt to write similes to help build the narrative in the reader’s minds.
The stars twinkled like diamonds.
The ballerina danced as elegantly as a swan.
I flew as quietly as a mouse.
The children did an amazing job at writing their narratives! We were so impressed with their ideas. They shared them with Year 5 and Year 5 were too.
Here are a few of the narratives for you to have a read:
Help at home by discussing your child’s narrative and what similes they used.
Living and learning: being me
Yesterday in L&L, we discussed our strengths and weaknesses and set ourselves some targets.
We began by writing down something we’re really good at and proud of ourselves for. We realised that it could be linked to a hobby or it could be a quality that we have.
I think I’m good at climbing.
I’m a good listener.
I’m a great defender in football.
My biggest strength is being kind.
We used these strengths to help us set a target for ourselves.
For example… I’m a good listener so I’d like to challenge myself to listen to my siblings too or I’m a great defender in football but I’d like to get better at attacking too. I’m a strong reader so I’d like to set a target to read one chapter book a month in 2026.
We discussed that our targets should be…
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable/achievable
- Realistic and relevant
- Time-Limited
Finally, we thought about each other’s strengths and gave each other compliments. This can sometimes feel a bit awkward so we practised accepting the compliments with a simple ‘thank you’!
Help at home: ask your child what target they set for themselves. Can you work together to help them achieve this?
Living and Learning: being me
Yesterday in L&L, we discussed our strengths and weaknesses and set ourselves some targets.
We began by writing down something we’re really good at and proud of ourselves for. It was lovely to see your children celebrating themselves. We also had a go at identifying some strengths of other children in the class.
I am proud of myself for my swimming.
I am really good at my times tables because I practise them at home.
I’m proud of myself for being a good big sister to my little brother.
My biggest strength is my handwriting because it’s really neat.
Next, we spoke about an area that we’d like to work on and set ourselves some targets to achieve this. We discussed that our targets should always be SMART.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable/achievable
- Realistic and relevant
- Time-Limited
Help at home: ask your child what target they set for themselves. Can you work together to help them achieve this?
Living and Learning: friends and family
Our Living and Learning this week has been about the importance of friends and family.
We used the Elmer story to explore our own feelings of happiness/ joyfulness and then feelings of happiness/ joyfulness that our friends and family may feel.
When we are happy, we have certain feelings and behave in certain ways. When might we feel happy?
I feel happy…
when it is my birthday.
when I am playing.
when someone makes me laugh.
when I’m with my friends.
How does it feel to be happy ? How do we behave when we are happy?
We might be smiling.
You might be laughing with someone.
You wouldn’t be laughing at someone.
We’d be having fun.
Help at home: Happy is the feeling that we focused on in this learning. Our feelings first emotions for this half term have been lonely, confused, thrilled, apprehensive, calm and thankful. Ask your child what these feelings mean and how our bodies might feel.
Leeds Rhinos festive match
The annual Wetherby Whaler Boxing Day Challenge against Wakefield Trinity is back again this year; and alongside the match children and families can experience family friendly festive fun as Father Christmas will once again take over game day proceedings before returning to the North Pole.
The match day will also feature Santa’s elves and a sing along with Frozen Princesses Anna and Elsa. Plus children can also take part in our half time snowball fight lead by a certain Christmas loathing Grinch!
Use the link to find out more and purchase tickets.
Writing
This week we had some visitors in to the classroom. Year 3 had been writing a narrative and Year 5 were their audience. We were very happy to welcome our Year 3 friends into the classroom and to listen to their writing.
I was really impressed with how the Year 5 children showed maturity, kindness and patience when listening to the Year 3’s read their work. They made some fantastic positive comments on their work .
Elsewhere in writing we have been looking at the 4Ps of handwriting: pencil grip, posture, paper position and pressure. We all checked our pencil grip and our posture before handwriting. We made sure our paper was positioned at a slight angle and we applied the right amount of pressure to the paper with a sharp pencil.
Help at home by asking your child to explain to you what the 4Ps of handwriting are. Maybe they could check that you follow them all?
Guided Reading Week 5
Here are the target pages for this week’s guided reading. These need to be read by Friday 28th November.
The Girl of Ink and Stars – up to page 201 (Chapter 23)
Kensuke’s Kingdom – finish the book.
Extra time – up to page 181 (Chapter 39)
Flood and Fang – finish the book.
Rooftoppers – finish the book.
Poetry Basket: Wise Old Owl
This week’s poem is called Wise old owl.
One of the words in the poem that we’ve spent time talking about and learning is wise.
The class performed with an enthusiasm the owl would no doubt have admired – though perhaps not the level of dignity he had in mind!