Phonics
We’re coming to the end of Phase 2 of our phonics programme, ‘Letters and Sounds’. Next week, your child will begin Phase 3 with the last of the single letter phonemes. 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 (so please help your child to learn these: talk about letters using their correct name as well as the sounds they make)
- read more tricky words and begin to spell some of them
- read and write words in phrases and sentences.
CVC words containing graphemes made of two or more letters
Here are some examples of words your child will be reading: tail, week, right, soap, food, park, burn, cord, town, soil.
During Phase 3, your child will learn more ‘Tricky Words’. These are the words we’ll learn in Phase 3: he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, said.
Keeping our teeth healthy
Year 1 and Reception have been visiting Year 2 to learn about how to keep their teeth healthy. The children had great knowledge on what they needed to do to have healthy teeth and we tested just how well they were brushing their teeth by using a plaque disclosure tablet. We found the parts of our teeth that we needed to brush most and then brushed for two minutes until they were squeaky clean. We did look a little odd with our purple mouths though!
We are resilient
This week’s Rs for learning are…
- I can be resilient.
- I take safe risks.
To see how resilient we could be, Year 2 took on the Marshmallow Tower Challenge. Each team of three were given half a packet of spaghetti and a whole load of mini marshmallows. Our towers were very difficult to make sturdy and kept falling down! Everybody did a great job staying positive and trying and trying and trying again if their tower fell down.
Great teamwork!
And the prize for tallest tower goes to….
Several times on purpose
Alongside our Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds themed week it has been national anti-bullying week.
Our school definition has been discussed by the School Council and has been amended, 10.11.14, to incorporate the stop message.
‘Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.’
Following a whole school assembly, Leeds Anti-Social Behaviour Team have delivered Show Racism the Red Card workshops across school and in class children have discussed these aspects of bullying:
- Our revised definition of bullying (above)
- Types of bullying – cyber-bullying and prejudice-based bullying related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion and belief, special educational need and disability
- What to do if children experience bullying. The key message is to tell someone (start telling other people)
Bullying resources can be found at…
- http://www.childline.org.uk/explore/bullying/pages/bullying.aspx
- http://www.bullying.co.uk/advice-for-parents/
- http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_parents/worried_about_your_child/bullying
Children tell us what they would do if they were bullied ‘…I would tell an adult, teacher or someone I trust.’
All classes have access to their class SEAL box or a whole school worry box where they can tell an adult any concerns about bullying or any other issues.
Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds
Our themed week, Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds, has been filled with visits and visitors providing a variety of experiences for the whole school.
We would like to thank the following for their support with our themed week:
- Heart Research UK
- d:side (drug education)
- Betty Sutherland tai chi
- White Rose martial arts
- Chapel Allerton squash and tennis club
- Leeds United
- Molly Cawthorn (Leeds United ladies)
- Leeds Rhinos
- Tesco Seacroft Farm to Fork trail
- Jhardine Farrell who delivered ‘respecting everybody’ circle times
- Leeds anti-social behaviour team
- Year 6 for taking over PE lessons for the rest of the school
- Mr Catherall for introducing the teachers to our new whole school sport, tchoukball
- parents/carers who talked about their health related job to different classes
- Public health resource centre for the loan of resources and providing health related leaflets
Finally, thank you to all staff and pupils who have fully engaged with all the learning throughout the week. Take a look at the Class News sections of the website to find out what each class have been doing. We have enjoyed a fun-filled week.
For further information about healthy bodies and healthy minds have a look at the Kids health website and Leeds Let’s Change for advice on more local health issues.
And an extra note from me, Mr Roundtree: I’d like to also thank Mrs Taylor for continuing to organise wonderful, packed themed weeks around being healthy or staying safe. She puts an incredible amount of effort into ensuring our pupils enjoy some wonderful learning opportunities from staff and visitors.
Healthy bodies, healthy minds
What a fun filled week of learning about keeping healthy bodies and healthy minds. We’ve had a variety of visitors throughout the week and we’ve been out and about too. Year 1 have certainly been resilient and taken some safe risks as part of their learning. Take a look at what we’ve been doing…
Using the Eat well plate we learnt about the importance of eating lots of fruit and vegetable (5 a day). Did you know this could be fresh, frozen, dried, tinned or fresh juice. Ask your child how big a portion is.
We named lots of different fruit and vegetables, tasted some dried fruits and then learnt the bridge and claw cutting techniques to create our own Mr Potato Heads.
Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day. A healthy breakfast gives you energy to start your day and your learning. We loved our porridge and banana slices – hopefully there have been some requests to have this at home.
When learning about ‘healthy’ drinks, we found out that water and milk are the best drinks to have to keep us hydrated. We couldn’t believe the amount of sugar in some of these other drinks aimed at children.
Now time for some physical activity which also helped us to relax our minds – tai chi and karate.
We’ve been busy doing other physical activities too – dance at Allerton Grange and Year 6 took over our PE lesson.
D:side visited us on Tuesday and we met Q who had come to found out about humans. We learnt about parts of our body and their functions, healthy foods and the safe use of medicines.
A highlight of the week was our Farm to Fork trail at Tesco. Starting in the bakery we saw the process of making bread and we even brought some back to school to taste.
Next was the fish counter.
At the cheese counter, we tried two different types of cheese: Wensleydale and Cheddar.
We learnt about lots of different fruits and vegetables – some we had never seen before.
Finally we took a look inside the fridges and freezers. It really was freezing!
We’re looking forward to seeing all your homework to show how to keep a healthy body and healthy mind.
Better than?
On Wednesday, we had a visit from Jhardine Farrell, who talked to us about our perceptions of people. It was a great, interactive session which challenged children’s images of people. I was so impressed with the mature conversations the children engaged in. Some of their responses are listed below:
“We are all different but we are all equal.”
“We should all be treated the same.”
“No one is better than anyone else.”
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
“Some people may think they are better than others but inside we are all the same.”
It was great to hear so many thoughtful, respectful comments. We just need to ensure that we remember this whenever we meet new people, walk past people in the street, see a new person at school, get a new neighbour, etc.
The Challenge Cup
We were lucky enough to get a class photo with the Challenge Cup yesterday after the assembly from Leeds Rhinos.
Ronnie the Rhino and the Challenge Cup!
Yesterday, we had a fun-packed assembly from two Leeds Rhino Coaches who recapped some very important messages about how to have a healthy lifestyle. They introduced us to their friend Ronnie the Rhino – who had successfully changed his unhealthy lifestyle by eating a more balanced diet and doing lots more exercise. We were also very lucky as Ronnie had brought in The Challenge Cup which the Leeds Rhinos won recently.
Takeover Day!
Today is Takeover Day which means the children are doing lots of the jobs adults usually do in school (or at least helping them). In Year 5 this has meant that some children led a DT lesson; some children led the weekly tests; some children served school dinners; children chose the certificates and presented them in assembly.
