Art around the world
As part of our Big Topic, Katie and…, we have been finding out about art from around the world – a good chance to check our geographical knowledge from our recent Where in the World topic, too.
Aboriginal art has certain features that we tried to include in our own examples. Can you see them in the work below?
Phonics in Reception
At Moortown we follow the Letters and Sounds programme for teaching phonics.
We’ll be inviting you to a ‘phonics morning’ where you’ll be able to watch a short phonics lesson and observe the types of activities which will help you to support your child at home. These will be held on 15, 16 and 17 October at 9.20am. A letter will be sent home with your child.
This week, we’ll be busy learning to identify alliteration and rhyme which will pave the way for the systematic learning of phonics.
The children are taking part in lots of activities where they listen attentively to sounds around them, such as sounds in the environment and to sounds in spoken language. Singing a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs and reading books to and with the children helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books.
We’re also learning to ‘sound talk’. The separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, in order, all through the word, and are then merged together into the whole word: d-o-g = dog. This merging together is called blending and is a vital skill for reading.
Children will also learn to do this the other way around: cat = c-a-t. The whole word is spoken aloud and then broken up into its sounds (phonemes) in order, all through the word. This is called segmenting and is a vital skill for spelling.
This is all oral (spoken). Your child won’t be expected to match the letter to the sound at this stage. The emphasis is on helping children to hear the separate sounds in words and to create spoken sounds.
Ways you can support your child at home:
Play ‘What do we have in here?’ Put some toys or objects in a bag and pull one out at a time. Emphasise the first sound of the name of the toy or object by repeating it, for example, ‘c c c c – car’, ‘b b b b – box’, ‘ch ch ch ch – chip’.
When sounding out, try to avoid the ‘uh’ sound – say ‘sssss’ rather than ‘suh’, ‘mmmmm’ rather than ‘muh’. This is to keep the sound as ‘pure’ as it can be so there’s no confusion with extra, unwanted sounds when blending and segmenting words.
Say: ‘A tall tin of tomatoes!’ ‘Tommy, the ticklish teddy!’ ‘A lovely little lemon!’ This is called alliteration. Use names, for example, ‘Gurpreet gets the giggles’, ‘Milo makes music’, ‘Naheema’s nose’.
Teach them ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’ and other tongue twisters.
Find real objects around your home that have three phonemes (sounds) and practise ‘sound talk’. First, just let them listen, then see if they will join in.
- ‘I spy a p-e-g – peg.’
- ‘I spy a c-u-p – cup.’
- ‘Where’s your other s-o-ck – sock?’
- ‘Simon says – put your hands on your h-ea-d.’
- ‘Simon says – touch your ch-i-n.’
- ‘Simon says – pick up your b-a-g.
Have fun and remember to let us know which phonics morning you wish to attend.
More competitions
Tag rugby, tennis, netball and cross country were some of our sporting successes last year as part of the Sainsbury’s School Games programme. Upcoming competitions this term include athletics and cross country. Details to follow!
Ratios in art?
Yesterday, we combined our artistic and mathematical skills by using ratios to turn primary colours into secondary colours. We discovered that different ratios of blue to red created different purples; different ratios of red to yellow created different oranges; and different ratios of yellow to blue, of course, created different greens. Farai decided that, to make a ‘good’ orange, you needed more yellow than red.
Here we are in action…
…and our end product…
Great work, Y2.
Cooking in the new curriculum
Teachers have been busy learning about the different cooking skills we’ll be teaching your child this year!
Today we’ve made a tasty (and healthy) garden salad!
Budding actors and actresses
Friday was filled with drama and costume making as Years 1 and 2 set to work to create a performance in just one day! While half of the class worked on creating a scene, the other half were hard at work cutting, colouring and combing masks and props for the final performance. Then…we swapped.
The show took our audience through a number of paintings just like Katie (the main character of our class novels) and watched her lose a girl’s hoop, argue with monkeys, run from a tiger and dance with shapes – not to mention hiding from the gallery guard!
If you couldn’t make it, here are a few pictures from our main performance.
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.
