Meet the artists in Year 1
The first week of our Big Topic has been really busy. We had an amazing day with Splats – the children worked on their scene from Katie’s Picture Show for 45 minutes and then it all came together for a professional performance. Well done to all of the children and thank you to Arran who co-ordinated the whole day and narrated the story in the performance. There are a few photos below from the day and also some photos of our own artists – following Vincent Van Gogh’s lead, drawing sunflowers.
Sunflowers – by Year 2
We’ve got art fever in Year 2 with the start of Big Topic. We’re looking at a series of books based around a little girl called Katie. She visits the Art Gallery with her Grandma but always manages to get into mischief by journey right into the paintings!
Katie knocked over Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ in this weeks story but don’t panic – we’ve created our own (that’s just as good, if not better) to replace them.
Here’s how we created this whole class piece of art…
Martha even had a go at doing her own coloured version at home.
Yoga through the rainforest
Year 2 went on a journey through the rainforest on Wednesday but nobody left their yoga mat! We had great fun doing a rain dance as we got used to the rainforest’s humid climate and then climbed trees and met many animals before sailing down the Amazon and back home. Take a look at our fantastic poses.
What a great yoga class. Well done, Year 2!
Did you know yoga means union?
From balances to relaxation, Year 1 had a very calming end of the day with a yoga session with Roisin who runs a local children’s yoga class at Yoga Kula in Chapel Allerton. Information will be sent out about her class for any children who are interested in doing yoga regularly.
Take a look at some of our poses.
Vincent Van Gogh or Kandinsky?
Today we have started our new Big Topic, Katie and… based on the books by James Mayhew.
Year 1 had some great group discussions about likes and dislikes of a number of famous paintings. We concluded that it was ok to each have our own opinions and to respect others’ opinions, too.
Welcome!
Welcome to Reception Class!
Thank you all for welcoming us into your homes. It was lovely to meet you all and get to know your child a little bit more.
We hope you’re as excited as we are about this new chapter in your child’s life and hope you’ve been provided with all the information you need. As always, please ask if you are not sure about anything.
The children will all begin this week, with the last children arriving on Thursday.
After your first day, school will begin at 8.50am and finish at 3.15pm. Please bring your child into the classroom and help them in the different learning areas to have a go at a learning challenge. Take this time to look at your child’s learning journey.
We try to get the children to be as independent as possible early on, so please let them hang their coat up and sort themselves out while you wait in the classroom.
At 3.15pm, please wait at the gate to the Reception outdoor area to collect your child.
See you all soon!
Ralph the Rabbit
Let me introduce you to a member of Year 1 that you may not have met before – this is Ralph:
Ralph goes to someone’s house every Friday but doesn’t like being away from school too long so needs to be returned to school on Monday morning. Ralph will have a rucksack with his pyjamas in and he has a full set of clothes (including boxer shorts) so please make sure he doesn’t sleep in his clothes. In the bag with Ralph, you will find a book for you to record what Ralph has done at your house while he has been visiting. Please make sure that all his clothes are returned back to school with Ralph – one of the main objectives for your child is to be responsible for something else which means caring for his possessions.
We hope you enjoy having Ralph to stay – he’s a very easy-going house guest!
Welcome to Year 1
Wow! What a brilliant start to Year 1. The children have moved from Reception to Year 1 without any upset and are certainly ready to learn – well done to Mrs Burke and her team who have done a brilliant job preparing the children for Key Stage 1.
We’ve had a busy couple of weeks, learning new routines and getting straight into all lessons. We have seen some fantastic independent writing and have discovered that there are some great imaginative ideas when predicting stories. Gerry the Giraffe has helped us to learn some positional language and there has been some great PE which has impressed Mr Catherall.
Here are some photos of our first couple of weeks:
A great start
Now that we’ve all settled into Year 2, it’s time to say welcome back to everybody and well done for such a great start to the year.
Already, we’ve been exploring our use of adjectives by working together to make sentences more interesting…
A dog walked down the street.
- Add an adjective – An angry dog walked down the narrow street.
- Choose a more interesting verb – A dog scurried down the street.
- Use a conjunction to add information – A dog walked down the street so he could get back home.
- Use an adverb – A dog walked hurriedly down the street.
- Of course, you could use all of these to really improve your writing.
An angry dog scurried hurriedly down the narrow street so he could get back home.
We’ve also got lots of facts to remember for our Where in the world? topic. Here are some things we need to know. Maybe you could test us at home…
- Seven continents – Africa, Europe, South America, North America, Australasia, Antarctica and Asia.
- Five oceans – Arctic, Indian, Atlantic, Southern, Pacific
- United Kingdom – England (London), Scotland (Edinburgh), Wales (Cardiff) and Northern Ireland (Belfast).
Keep up the hard work, Year 2.
Smile for miles on the St Gemma’s sponsored walk
One of our chosen school charities, St Gemma’s Hospice, is holding their first ever Happy Walk on Saturday 20 September. This is a good opportunity to support our school charity but also to take part in a great morning with your family while walking 3.5 or 5.5 miles around Roundhay Park. The event starts at 10am.
We’ll be co-ordinating registration for the event and registration forms are available now from the office.
Entrance for this event is £5 (children under 12 walk free) and each walker will get a free hot drink and cake. All participants are asked to raise sponsorship money. It is also a pram and wheelchair friendly route so the whole family really can get involved.
There will be an activity pack that children can take with them on the walk where they can look out for wildlife and take some tree rubbings. Before the walk starts there will also be a face painter, a chance to meet Olaf from Frozen, and time to make your own Happy Loom band to wear and keep.
St Gemma’s are also encouraging all walkers to wear what makes them Happy on the walk – whether that’s a silly hat, fluffy socks or a brightly coloured t-shirt.
We hope you are able to join in with the St Gemma’s Happy Walk.
