Time Travel – A stroll around the houses
Our new Big Topic is Time Travel. Year 1 and 2 are focussing on houses through time. To kick off, we’ve all gone for a walk to see what the houses around us look like today. There are lots of different houses all around the small area near school so just imagine how many different styles we’ll see across thousands of years.
We had to be careful as the streets have been very slippery this week.
We saw detached houses, semi-detached house, bungalows and flats all in our mile long walk! I wonder what different houses we’ll see as we travel through time?
Creative homework
What can you make out of the rubbish (recycling) in your house?
What a great response to this week’s homework! I’ve seen lots of amazing work in books as well as models we brought into school. Here are some things we created…
Time travel
Our new whole school Big Topic, Time Travel, got underway today with Year 1 and 2 focussing on houses and homes.
The first challenge was to work as a group to put the different types of houses in chronological order according to when they were built. There was lots of discussion about what the houses looked like and what they were made of. The next task was to match the inside of the house to the outside.
The first types of houses we investigated were Celtic houses and we concluded that houses certainly have changed over time.
We’re learning about history.
We enjoyed a visit from Time Striders today and learnt lots about the history of Britain.
The Tin Forest
For the first two weeks of Spring Term, we’ve enjoyed a book called The Tin Forest by Helen Ward. This tells the tale of an old man who lives on the edge of nowhere, near forgotten, whose house is surrounded by other people’s rubbish.
We started our mini topic by looking at the pictures and developing our prediction and inference skills for reading.
We wondered about who might live in the abandoned house and whether we’d like to go there ourselves. It was a unanimous NO!
Then we thought about who might live in this house and what sort of questions we might want to ask that person. Here are some of our ideas…
After writing a diary entry as the old man; a letter to a real person who lives on a dump; a description of the final forest; and a poem… we made our very own Tin Forest!
Keep visiting our news feed for weekly updates on the forest and how it is growing and thank you to those of you who contributed to our tin tree trunks.
Phonics open mornings
We have three fun phonics sessions for parents this week. Don’t worry if you haven’t requested a session, just turn up on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday at 9am.
See you there!
Swimming
Unfortunately, until further notice, there will be no swimming due to roof damage at Scott Hall Leisure Centre caused by severe weather.
Phonics mornings
Next week, we’ll be holding phonics sessions for parents on Wednesday 21, Thursday 22 and Friday 23 of January at 9 am.
During these sessions you will have the opportunity to see how we teach tricky words and long vowel phonemes. We will explain words such as ‘digraph‘ and ‘polysyllabic‘ and give you ideas for supporting your child at home in their independent writing.
Please let us know which day you wish to attend.
We look forward to seeing you next week.
Talented Year 1
This half term our SEAL theme is Good to be me. For homework, this week, Year 1 have been asked to discuss, Why is it good to be you? What is your talent?
We will be discussing this homework in our SEAL lesson on Wednesday and it would be great if your child could bring in anything to support this homework (for example: a recorder, swimming certificates) on Wednesday as this will feed into our upcoming class assembly on Thursday 22 January.
We’re looking forward to hearing all about these talents.
Topic
Samba is our current mini-topic (mini-topics usually last just two weeks). It was great to see so many children have such good rhythm and timing whilst learning about Samba music. The children enjoyed making their own music as part of a Samba band, although I think Mrs O’Malley will be pleased when the noise is over!
The whole-school Big Topic starts Monday 19 January: Time Travel. We’re learning all about medicine through the ages. To kick start our journey through time, we’ll embark on a history workshop followed by a visit to the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds. From early medical breakthroughs to scientific advancements, this topic will have your child exploring the life of a patient in 1861 to present day and beyond. Beware…things could get a little gory!
Encourage your child to talk about and research topic subjects at home. Talk to grandparents and others about what they know. Take a trip to the local library, or research on the internet.