Reading and Music: Sounds Like A Story
Today, we welcomed back Liz from the British Library to do another workshop with us.
This time, we linked together reading and music. It started with us listening to The Phoenix of Persia by Sally Pomme Clayton. As Liz was reading, we had a soundtrack playing in the background; each page had a different song.
Afterwards, we were then able to practise with instruments and then in small groups, create our own soundtrack for the rest of the book. 
Living and Learning
This week’s living and learning statement is I know what a drug is. Yesterday, we discussed that medicines are drugs to help us feel better. Lots of sensible contributions were made by the children.
Rayaan – Last time I had a cough, my Mama gave me some medicine.
Bryher – Once my brother went to the doctors and he needed to have a special thing in his ear.
Xara-Mae – Last time, when I was ill and had a cough, my Mummy gave me medicine and it was pink.
Gurjeevan – When my sister was poorly, she needed to stay off school.
Edie – I have a cough and my Daddy gave me medicine.
Teddy – The teachers give you medicine at school.
Ayah – My Mummy put my cream in the office to keep it safe at school.
Art: Our Sculpture Show
At the end of last term, we had a sculpture show to showcase our amazing sculptures. If you were unable to make it, here are the final pieces of artwork.
Help at home: Discuss how your child’s sculpture related to Barbara Hepworth’s ‘Family of Man’.
Reading and music – Sounds Like A Story
Today, we had the pleasure of welcoming Liz from the British Library to do another workshop with us.
This time, we linked together reading and music. It started by us listening to The Phoenix of Persia by Sally Pomme Clayton.
In groups, we practised with some instruments…
…and then analysed the story to match the characters to the desired sound.
It was a unique experience to think about the characters of a story compared to music in this way – describing music is called timbre.
Finally, it was time to create the rest of the story using our compositions. What a performance we gave!
PE superstars!
On Thursday in PE we had an amazing lesson! We got out lots of equipment and practised all the skills we had been learning this half term. We did balancing, jumping and moving. We were all very brave and very safe! Sorry the pictures aren’t perfect but they were moving too fast!!
We ended the lesson with our balance challenge. How long can you balance on one leg? We have got so much better at this over the half term! I wonder if you could practise at home!
Have an amazing break everybody and thank you all so much for the generous gifts and words of thanks. I will see you all in the new year!
Merry Christmas,
Mr McGriffiths
Autumn 2: Week 7
What a busy final week we’ve had in Reception! We’re so proud of all the Reception children for their FANTASTIC singing. Thank you to everyone who came to watch. We hope you enjoyed!
Literacy
This week, we’ve been learning about The Christmas Story. We used actions to help us remember the story. Click here to watch us.
We also wrote a sentence about a picture from The Christmas Story.
Poetry Picnic
We love learning new poems in Reception! Switch the kettle on, click here and enjoy having a cup of tea – cheers!
Christmas party
This morning, it was PARTY time! We had lots of fun playing party games and showing off our best dance moves. After all that dancing, we enjoyed eating some party food with our friends.
Finally, we hope you have a happy and healthy break. Enjoy spending some quality time with friends and family. Merry Christmas and a happy new year from all of the Reception Team!
See you in 2024!
Our final sculptures
As promised, take a look at some of our final sculptures from this half term’s art learning!
We had so much fun creating these and exhibiting our knowledge of colour and shape.
On behalf of all the Year 4 staff, we hope you have a lovely holiday and a very happy New Year.
See you on the other side!
Living and Learning: Mental Health
Over the past 3 weeks we have been talking about our feelings and emotions in Living and Learning lessons. We met Maz, who had landed on this planet and wanted to learn all about different feelings. We were able to list lots of different feelings including: sad, upset, excited, shy, happy, worried. We acted out how our body’s would be if we were feeling these emotions to help Maz recognise his own emotions.
We also discussed how we would feel in different situations and that everyone can feel different emotions about the same thing. For instance, many of us would feel scared or worried in the dark whilst it made others feel calm and relaxed. I was very proud of the children for expressing their own individual opinion and being brave to say how it would truly make them feel.
In the final week we spoke about BIG feelings and how some big feelings are just lots of small feelings building up. We read the book Barbara throws a Wobbler and talked about what had happened to Barbara to make her so upset! Finally we spoke about how we could help ourselves if we felt some BIG feelings. We have an excellent breathing technique called finger breathing which helps us calm down. Ask your child about it.
Talking about feelings and knowing where and how to seek help for yourself or others is very important.
Help at home: We’ve talked about how people’s faces and body language can help us to understand how others are feeling. We acted out certain emotions in class. Try to have a go at home.
Final art sculptures!
After a few lessons of hard work, Year 3 have finished their sculptures and they look amazing! Here’s just some of them:
As you can see, they all look so different which is so lovely to see their imaginations coming to life. We set up a mini art gallery and walked around to observe each others sculptures. We did this silently as that’s what they’re usually like! After, we made positive comments about each other’s work using our art vocabulary. For example:
- I like this because they have used complementary colours.
- This one reminds me of the planets as it’s made out of big circles.
- I like this one because it’s so different and looks more figurative (the shape of a person) than abstract.
- They have used warm colours on one side and cool colours on the other.
A big well done to Year 3!
Our final pieces
Behold… our final sculptures!
Help at home by asking your child to explain how we created ‘patina’ on our artwork.
We think Barbara Hepworth would have been proud.
