Reading and writing – Flat Stanley.
This week in Reading and writing we have been reading Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. We have been learning lots of new vocabulary such as bulletin board. This is very important because a bulletin board is what made Stanley flat! We have also been trying to make predictions around the text and making inferences from information we have been given.
Latin
This week in Latin, we learnt about how the Romans loved to play games. We looked at some of the artefacts that had been found that showed us what kind of games the Romans played. Then, we had a go at playing one ourselves.
Help at home by asking your children if they can make the game to play at home.
Writing: diary entries
This week we have been writing diary entries inspired by stories we have read in our class novel ‘Survivors’ by David Long. We imagined we had been involved in a disaster and we were fighting to survive. I was really impressed by how the children were able to embody their character and really put themselves into a survival situation.
Help at home by asking your child what happened in their diary entry.
Autumn 1: Week 3
You might be thinking what your child is doing at school on a regular basis. Here’s a snapshot of what a typical day might look like in Reception at Moortown Primary School. 
Maths
This week, we’ve focussed on perceptual subitising (recognising the number of objects without counting) up to 3. We’ve been learning how to use our fast eyes when looking at small sets of objects.
Help at home: Can you say how many conkers there are without counting?
Poetry Basket
Every week, we’ll learn a new poem. Throughout the week, we’ll rehearse it, practise the actions and talk about the poem. On Fridays, we’ll perform our poem for you to watch at home.
Here’s our first poem…
Every Friday, your child will bring a paper copy of the poem home for you to keep practising at home.
Reading practice
Reading daily at home is an essential part of your child’s reading journey. Click here to watch a useful video about how to use a wordless book at home with your child. If you have any issues logging onto Collins eBooks, please let me know. Please make sure your write in your child’s reading record and return it every Thursday.
Finally, thank you to all the parents/carers who attended the Reception welcome meeting on Tuesday. It was great to see so many of you. As always, if you have any questions or would like to share any home learning please use our Reception email [email protected].
Geography – Where in the World am I?
This half term, our Geography topic is ‘Where in the world am I?’ We have started our learning off by learning the names and location of 7 continents. A fantastic way to remember each of the continents is to learn the continents song.
Seven Continents Song (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip).
We’ve loved learning this song and have listened to it lots of times.
Each class spoke about how a continent is the largest piece of land. A country is smaller than a continent and a city is smaller than a country.
We have also been learning about the 4 countries that make up the UK. We listened to another educational song that tells us all about the countries in the UK and what sorts of things you can find in each.
“United Kingdom Song” with signing | By Al Start | Primary School Geography (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip).
We placed or wrote labels on a map of the UK, adding each country, capital city and sea/ocean name in the correct place.
Help at home by listening to the songs above!
Reading: Inference
This week in Reading we have been practising the skill of inferring. To infer is to be a “reading detective” and use clues from a text along with what you already know, to figure out something that isn’t said directly. It’s like filling in the blanks by making a smart guess based on the evidence.
In today’s lesson, the children read a diary entry from a survivor of an avalanche. The put themselves in the shoes of the character and created a TV interview.
Help at home: Why not create another TV interview for a character in a book from home?
The Collins Hub
Hi everyone!
All children in Year 3 have now been sent home with their new and updated Big Cat Collins E-Book logins. They’ve been stuck into the front cover of their reading records. Please let me know if there is any problems with the logins.
I’ve uploaded the books the children are reading from now (15.09) until next Friday (26.09). The children will be reading one chapter a day, 3 chapters per week (6 chapters in total). These books will stay on your child’s login should they want to come back to it later in the year.
These books are online for you to read with your child after school or on an evening. You could read the same chapter they have read that day or begin the next chapter. This time reading with an adult will really help your child with their word reading and comprehension!
You could…
- discuss new or tricky vocabulary
- echo read (I read, you repeat)
- complete your reading record activity on what you’ve read
- draw a scene in the story
- draw a character’s family tree
- link the information you’ve read to something you seen or read elsewhere
- hot seating (pretend to be one of the characters)
- write a factfile
Let me know if you have any questions!
Miss Birch
Science: I can group skeletons.
Our Science topic is skeletons.
So far, we’ve learnt about 5 parts of the human skeleton;
- skull
- pelvis
- ribcage
- femur
- spine
Our skeleton’s function is to protect and support movement. Without a skeleton, we might look a bit like a jellyfish!
Help at home by playing ‘Simon Says’ using these 5 parts of the human skeleton… “Simon says point to your skull.”
In our second lesson, we looked at a variety of animal’s skeletons. We classified these animals based on whether they were mammals, reptiles, fish, amphibians or birds.
How else could you group these skeletons? Could you group them based on which ones have a spine or ribcage?
Science: We are biologists!
This half-term in Science, Year 4 are biologists and will be learning all about living things and their habitats.
Biology is the study of living things.
We’ve been grouping and classifying animals and have used classification keys to help us do so.
All animals can be classified as either vertebrates (animals with a spine) or invertebrates (animals without a spine).
There are five types of vertebrates that we’ve explored:
- mammals
- birds
- fish
- reptiles
- amphibians
A classification key helps scientists identify things using closed questions (‘yes’ or ‘no’). We’ve been using classification keys to classify a variety of vertebrates and invertebrates.
We’ve discussed what makes a good classification key question. For example, ‘Is it scary?’ isn’t useful because people find different things scary which could lead to misclassified animals. Instead, our questions should be simple, observable and objective. Your children had a chance to write their own…
Help at home: complete this classification key with your children:
Science: We are biologists.
In our first science unit, we are biologists. Biology is the study of living things. Year 6 will be learning about living things and their habitats. The children learnt that both animals and plants are organisms but they have a different criteria to fulfil to be classified as either.
Animals have 6 criteria for life.
- breathe
- move
- eat
- grow
- excrete (poo)
- reproduce
Plants have 4 criteria for life.
- move (towards sunlight)
- make its own food
- grow
- reproduce
Year 6 looked at the enquiry question ‘How can we identify, group and classify plants, animals and microorganisms?’. To help us with this learning, we played ‘Guess Who?’. The children could classify these people according to their common observable characteristics. We can also identify them due to their common observable characteristics.
They then used this knowledge to identify the common observable characteristics of each species of animal.
Help at home: Discuss the key vocabulary for this science unit. Can you use these words in sentences?
