Reading: Hot Seat
For the final week of term, we’ve been reading The Santa Trap, written by Jonathan Emmett and illustrated by Poly Bernatene.
This story’s all about a very naughty boy called Bradley. Each year, Bradley only gets socks from Santa which he’s not happy about. So one year, he decides to set up an enormous santa trap!
Year 4 took on the role of Bradley in our hot seat lesson. Using information and hints from the book, the children had to answer questions from the class from Bradley’s perspective. There were some very convincing Bradleys!
How does it make you feel when you only get socks at Christmas?
Why do you think Santa only brings you socks every Christmas?
Your parents do so much for you, why are you so ungrateful?
Do you think trapping Santa was the best way to get more presents?
How does it make you feel that your plan to trap Santa didn’t work?
Will you behave differently next Christmas?
What were you feeling when you saw that you had more than a pair of socks in your stocking?
Help at home: recreate the hot seat at home and ask your children some of the questions above.
Royal Ballet and Opera School Set Design
Today, Year 3 joined a live lesson to learn more about how someone set designs for the Royal Ballet and Opera’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Visit this link to see more about this production: https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-events/alices-adventures-in-wonderland-details
We listened to how a set designer starts with their drawings to building a prototype to their final sets.
A part of the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland set is the trees. We had a go at creating our own prototype trees using different materials.
It was quite tricky to create the cone shape but once we did, we tried to add texture to make it look realistic. Here’s some of our final trees… 
Help at home: You can join another of their live lessons at home too! Visit this link here…https://www.rbo.org.uk/schools/teacher-training/live-lessons
PE DAY CHANGE 2025!
Year 3’s PE day is changing to a TUESDAY rather than Thursday.
Your child needs to come into school in their PE kits on a Tuesday and Wednesday (plus swim kits) from the first week back!
Please remember to have your child in white or black trainers too.
Thank you!
Living and Learning: Mental Health
Year 5 looked at learning how to identify worry and actions that a person can take if they feel worried.
We looked at different scenarios and how each person might be feeling in these situations. What similarities and differences might these two people be feeling?
Then, the children went on to talk about what physical signs of worry which might be seen. Year 5 gave lots of great ideas:
- heart beating faster
- sweaty hands
- getting frustrated/angry
- biting your nails
- not paying attention to other things other than the worry
Here are lots of ideas to help with dealing with worries.
- Writing worries down
- Speaking to someone trusted about worries
- Doing something about it (if possible!)
- Scrunching up and releasing
- Being active
- Learning something new
- Doing a favourite hobby
- Creating (for example, doing a piece of art, crafts or making a drama)
Help at home: Have a discussion with your child about how they would deal with their worries.
Autumn 2: Week6
This week, we have been completing challenges, writing postcards to Santa and practising our nativity.
The children enjoyed completing the different challenges in the classroom and sharing them with others. They have been developing their fine motor skills by cutting shapes; developing their writing skills by writing letters to Santa; sequencing stories in the reading area and making pictures with our 2d shapes.
On Thursday, the children enjoyed their Christmas dinner.
Help at home: by identifying 2d shapes in the local environment.
Remember: our nativity is on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.
This week and next are review weeks for phonics so there will be no phonic sheet sent home.
I am however sending home a wow sheet. This is for you to complete at home if there is anything wow that happens and you would like to share. I will send one home every half term. If you would like any in addition to this please let me know.
We are making a book of our families. Please can you email or send in a picture of your family.
DT Food technology: fruit smoothie
On Thursday this week we were able to complete our first food technology lesson in Year 1. We made fruit smoothies! We had to peel the banana before using the claw grip to chop it into pieces. We then measured out the frozen berries, yoghurt and milk before mixing it all together. Next, Miss G used the blender to turn our mixture into a smoothie! The final part of the recipe was to taste. We all thought the smoothie was delicious!
Help at home by trying out the recipe for yourself! Think about how you would change it to make it different.
Philosophy Friday: What is so great about the world?
Every Friday, we do Philosophy Friday.
Philosophy is thinking deeply about the world around us.
Each week, we have a philosophical question that we discuss and share our answers to. This week it was…
‘What is so great about the world?’
It was fantastic to hear some really brilliant and mature ideas from your children. I loved seeing how they respectfully listened to each other and built on others’ opinions and ideas.
Here are some of your children’s responses:
I think what is great about the world is that we’re all unique and different with different opinions.
I think a great thing about the world is that we can play football and do hobbies we like.
I think the world is great because we can just have fun and learn stuff.
I think what is great about the world is that we have family and friends.
I think the best thing about the world is that we can travel to different places because the world is so big and we can meet new people.
My favourite thing about the world is when people listen to others and then great things happen.
Help at home: ask your children some philosophical questions from this article. https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2016/feb/14/philosophical-questions-children-should-ask-bernadette-russell
Whoops a daisy angel
Rehearsals are going well for our Reception, Year 1 and 2 Christmas production of Whoops a daisy angel.
Following our dress rehearsal to the rest of the school on Monday, we will welcoming you to come and watch us on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon at 2:15pm.
If your child has brought a note home about their costume, please could you send this into school in a named bag by Friday. Thank you for your support.
We hope you enjoy the show!
Science: we are chemists
This half term, we have been learning all about materials and their properties (chemistry).
Here’s our vocabulary for this learning.
Actions help us to remember the definitions of these words. Which words are being shown here?
We’ve been exploring materials around us.
The object is a chair. The material is plastic. Plastic is a man made material and it can sometimes be recycled.
Then, we were scientists and we investigated the most suitable material for an umbrella. It needed to be waterproof, light and strong.
Then, we used our playdough to investigate how some materials are flexible and can change shape. How has the playdough changed shape?
Help at home: have a look at home to find different things that are flexible, rigid, brittle, transparent and opaque.
Living and Learning: I can describe and use self-care techniques.
Last week in our Living and Learning lesson, we were learning about different stages we might go through that could cause different emotions.
For example, we might lose something or someone that we care and love. This can be a tricky time to navigate our emotions.
We drew how people might think about and react to different emotions…
Content: feeling calm, relaxed, kind to others and happy to go with the flow
Anger: feeling hot and easily irritated, needing time alone or to move our bodies
Excited: feeling like you can’t sit still, can’t concentrate, very happy and loud
If we can recognise these emotions, we can try to regulate them too. Some thing we can do to regulate our emotions is by talking to others!
“A problem shared is a problem halved.”
We could talk to a trusted adult at home or at school, a friend, a club leader, a teddy or Childline.
Help at home: List all the ways you can regulate your emotions… Have you got a safe place to relax? Is there an activity that relaxes you like reading? Do you have a person or teddy you can talk to?
