Handwriting
There are 4 Ps to remember when writing:
- posture
- pencil grip
- paper position
- pressure
Posture: You need to make sure you sit up straight and have 6 legs (4 of from the chair and your 2) on the floor at all times. Your chair should be tucked under the table.
Pencil grip: You should have a tri-pod grip.
Paper position: The paper needs to be slighted tilted towards the hand you write with. Your other hand should hold on to the paper too.
Pressure: You need to have a sharp pencil – it really does make all the difference!
Help at home: Read our handwriting guide. Each day, practise the letters in order.
Art: Soap carving
This week, we started our soap carving. The children were very excited to get going. They created a design, which was inspired by the sculptures of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Afterwards, we learnt how to use spoons, paper clips and a wet paper towel to create shape, form and texture in our soap. We were really focussed and created some brilliant sculptures.
Some parents even came in to help!
Help at home – talk to your child about the visual and tactile elements of art. How did they create texture? How did they use form and shape?
Living and Learning: Identity and Self Respect
This week – in Living and Learning – we focussed on our identities (what makes you you) and self respect. In assembly, we talked about what we can do to show respect to ourselves. The children thought of some ideas:
- going to bed on time
- saying positive things about yourself
- having a healthy diet
- exercising and staying fit.
We also completed an identity map (a drawing of what makes you you). I was really impressed with how much the children had to say about themselves. They brought their identity maps home – is there anything they could add?
Help at home: Discussing the most important parts of their self identity. Could you complete a family identity map? What makes your family special and unique?
Guided Reading Week 4
Here are the target pages for this week’s guided reading. These need to be read by Friday 28th November.
The Girl of Ink and Stars – up to page 161 (Chapter 18)
Kensuke’s Kingdom – up to page 145 (Chapter 10)
Extra time – up to page 153 (Chapter 33)
Flood and Fang – up to page 183 (Chapter 15)
Rooftoppers – up to page 212 (Chapter 21)
Poetry Picnic: Mice
This week’s poem is called Mice.
One of the words in the poem that we’ve spent time talking about and learning is nibble. Hope you enjoy the performance!
Living and Learning: Identity and Self Respect
This week – in Living and Learning – we focussed on our identities (what makes you you) and self respect. In assembly, we talked about what we can do to show respect to ourselves. The children thought of some ideas:
- going to bed on time
- saying positive things about yourself
- having a healthy diet
Help at home: Can you think of any other ideas?
In class, we created an identity map. These showed what made us us. Take a look at some great examples.
Guided Reading Week 4
Here are the target pages for this week’s guided reading. These need to be read by Friday 5th December.
Divine Freaks: up to page 155
Spirit Walker: up to page 195
How to Train your Dragon: up to page 196
The Considine Curse: up to page 137
The Switch: up to page 165
Autumn 2: Week 4
Focus story/literacy learning
This week, we’ve been reading How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers. Together, we sequenced the story and talked about what happened at the beginning, middle, and end.
In the middle of the story, the boy sees a reflection of a star in the water. Reflection was our word of the week. We used mirrors to help us understand what a reflection is. The children had lots of fun pulling funny faces and discovering how reflections work!
On Wednesday, we learned about star constellations. After looking at some pictures of different star constellations, we had a go at drawing our own.
Art
Last Friday, Mrs Boulton created a mini art gallery to introduce this half-term’s featured artist, Howardena Pindell. The children spent time looking closely at some of her artwork and talking about the colours and patterns they could see.
This week, we used hole punchers, soft pads, and paint to create our own representations inspired by Pindell’s style. The children really enjoyed experimenting overlapping the colours.
Maths: Composition
We developed our understanding of the composition of numbers by investigating the composition of 3, 4 and 5. We consolidated our understanding of a whole being made up of smaller parts by using cubes to compose and de-compose numbers. We also introduced the part–part–whole model to the children.
We played the hats game to help us understand the parts of 3, 4 and 5.
How many children are holding a hat? (part)
How many children are not holding a hat? (part)
How many are there altogether? (whole)
We watched the Numberblocks Stampoline video and had a go at printing our own Stampoline patterns of 4. We also used double-sided counters to explore the compositions of 3, 4, and 5. The children enjoyed investigating the different ways these numbers can be made.
Help at home: Draw, paint or create your own Stampoline patterns at home.
Here’s a collage of some more amazing learning that’s happened in our classroom this week.
Christmas is coming!
We’ve started to practise the Christmas songs for our Christmas performance. We can’t wait for you to come and watch us sing on Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 December.
Reminders
– Learning journey drop in’s – Monday 01 or Thursday 04 December
3.00 – 3.30pm Thank you for signing up!
– The cold weather is here! Please make sure your child comes to school wearing a suitable coat.
Year 3/4 sports hall athletics taster session
As part of our involvement in the Leeds Well Schools Partnership, some of our Year 3 and 4 children took part in a sports hall athletics taster session at Roundhay High School.
The event had an emphasis on personal development with the children learning and developing new athletics skills. This included standing long jump, standing triple jump, vertical jump, javelin, chest push, speed bounce and running races.
Well done to all the children for their effort and engagement at this event and for representing school so well.
Thank you to Mrs Boyle for accompanying the children.
Maths: Shapes and Patterns.
This week our wonderful Year 1s have been learning about shapes and patterns. In this lesson the children learnt that we can put shapes together to create patterns. They explored and experimented with different shapes to see what patterns could be made. Here are a few of our favourites: 
