Try this tasty dip
Year 6 have been developing their food technology skills by making hummus:
Have a try at making hummus! It is a great source of protein and fibre and makes a healthy alternative to meat if you’re a vegetarian. To make this tasty dip even more delicious, spread it in pitta bread for a light lunch or dip veg into it for a scrumptious snack. Try it in your lunchbox – you won’t be disappointed!
Here’s the recipe:
- 410g can of chickpeas
- juice of one lemon
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
Whizz the chickpeas, lemon juice and garlic in a food processor or using a hand blender until just smooth.
Loosen with a little warm water if needed.
Phonics phase 3
Phonics is the step up to word recognition. Automatic reading of all words, both tricky and decodable, is the ultimate goal! We’ve begun Phase 3 of our phonics programme. The purpose of this phase is to:
- teach more graphemes, most of which are made of two letters, for example, ‘oa’ as in boat and float
- practise blending and segmenting a wider set of CVC (consonant – vowel – consonant) words, for example, fizz, chip, sheep, light
- learn all letter names and begin to form them correctly
- read more tricky words and begin to spell some of them
- read and write words in phrases and sentences.
The following phonemes will be taught during Phase 3.
- v, w
- x, y, z, zz, qu
- sh, ch, th, ng
- ai, ee, igh, oa
- oo, oo, or, ar
- er, oi, ir, ur
- air, ear, ure
Here are some examples of words your children will be reading: tail, week, right, soap, food, park, burn, cord, town, soil.
The number of tricky words is growing. This term we will learn: he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all.
How you can help at home
- Sing an alphabet song together.
- Play ‘I spy’, using letter names as well as sounds.
- Continue to play with magnetic letters, using some of the two grapheme (letter) combinations:
r-ai-n = rain blending for reading | rain = r-ai-n – segmenting for spelling
b-oa-t = boat blending for reading | boat = b-oa-t – segmenting for spelling
h-ur-t = hurt blending for reading | hurt = h-ur-t – segmenting for spelling
- Praise your child for trying out words.
- Set a timer; call out one word at a time and get your child to spell it on a magic board or a small whiteboard, against the timer – remember, they can use magnetic letters.
- Play ‘Pairs’, turning over two words at a time trying to find a matching pair – this is especially helpful with the tricky words: the the, to to no no, go go. Don’t worry if they get some wrong! These are hard to remember – they need plenty of practice.
Making complete circuits
Space Dance
This half-term, we’re very lucky to have a dance teacher coming into school to teach us dance in PE lessons. We’ll create and learn a dance which links with our Big Topic about space. We’ll even perform our dance in an assembly in front of the whole school!
It’s cold outside…
…so make sure you come to school wrapped up warm!
PE multi-skills
We’ve been practising lots of different skills in PE this week.
A chance to perform
This term sees the return of the annual dance showcase event held at Allerton Grange. Alongside Talbot, Moor Allerton Hall and Hillcrest Primary Schools, we’ll be taking part once again.
To prepare for the event we are running an eight week after-school club led by dance leaders from Allerton Grange to master the routine for the showcase.
No dance experience is necessary and it’s a great opportunity to learn a fun routine and take part in a fantastic dance event.
The club, open to boys and girls, starts next Tuesday 15 January, 3.15 – 4.30pm and will run until Tuesday 19 March. The dance showcase will be on Thursday 24 March.
There are still a few places left so call in at the office if you’d like to sign up.
Big Write!
Here are some pictures of the class getting ready for a big write this afternoon (the last day of term).
Surprisingly, they didn’t complain at all and actually seemed quite happy to do it. What a group of super learners!
I was only joking about the big write! Instead, we had a fun afternoon of playing games and singing carols.
Merry Christmas!
As a term comes to a close, it’s always a good time to reflect on the recent events; I’d like to take the opportunity to say
thanks to the children for all their hard work and well done for all their successes.
The class have worked extremely hard on their Rich and Poor Big Topic. The topic books of some of the children – Iona, Georgia, Henry, Mehak, Faizaan and Ebony – are especially good in terms of their research and how the children have expressed their ideas about rich and poor in a range of styles.
We have had many good class discussions inspired by SEAL or Talk Time homework about rich and poor. Luke, Connor, Adam and Max always add huge amounts to these discussions with their considered and interesting opinions.
Linked to our Rich and Poor topic, the children paired up to work on adverts that a charity may use to persuade people to donate money to help the poor. Scripts were written and the advert was made using a great app called ‘Explain Everything’. Husna and Lili made a superb job that looked and sounded like a real advert.
Those of you who have been into class or seen the class assembly will have probably noticed the excellent artwork on show. Art is a
major strength of the class. I’m already looking forward to the art we have planned for next term!
Recently, we have written quests in Big Writing. Grace wrote one of the best stories I’ve ever read in all my (many) years as a teacher. Tyler, Zahra, Sami and Fatima also wrote some brilliant stuff!
I have been really impressed with how much progress has been made with reading. Riyaz and Nevan have done a great job with the class novels ‘Street Child’ and ‘The Switch’ and Ibraheem, Dovydas, Liam and Meva have done extremely well with their guided reading.
Homework has really improved. Zakib always produces detailed work. Alongside this, Ahmed, Mehar and Amir are working much harder to produce homework of a great standard.
All in all it’s been a great start to Year Six and I’m looking forward to lots more learning in the new year.
A Christmas round-up
It’s always a busy time at Christmas in school. Here are a few photos showing you what Year Six have been up to. Activities have included making illuminated Christmas cards with a light bulb and a switch controlling the circuit and our brilliant Victorian Chrismas day.
