Class News

Residential

We arrived at Dobroyd Castle after a very excited coach journey and since then it’s been full-on fun!

Today, we’ve taken part in climbing, the night line, archery, trapeze and team challenges alongside having some delicious food.

It’s been amazing to see everyone having so much fun, getting stuck into absolutely everything as well as tackling their own personal challenges in each activity.

Bring on tomorrow!

Reading: Performing Poetry

This week, we’ve been reading a poem called ‘Photograph’ by Roger Stevens.

Roger Stevens is a well-known British poet, author, and musician who has written extensively for children. He has published dozens of poetry collections, both as a solo writer and as an editor of anthologies that bring together poems from a range of voices.

Today, we performed the poem in groups! Here are the R2s:

– tone / emphasis
– vary the pace
– vary the volume

Here’s the photo I took
Last year on the beach
Dad, wearing the tie
I bought him for his birthday
Billy drinking lemonade
The straw up his nose
And Mum, huddled up in her coat
Against the seaside wind

Now Dad’s in France
And our beach is covered in concrete
And tangled barbed wire
And land mines
In case the Germans invade

But on that day
We’d just made
The world’s grandest sandcastle
And watched the tide
Rush in
Filling the moat
Gradually washing
The sandcastle away

Living and Learning: exercise!

Our latest Living and Learning sessions have been all about the importance of exercise and how we need to keep active to keep our bodies and our minds healthy.

During the school day, here’s some ways we move our bodies:

Travelling to and from school by walking, bike or scooter

Wake up Shake up

Running around at playtimes

PE: netball

Swimming on a Wednesday

The NHS guidance states that children and young people should ‘aim for an average of at least 60 minutes (30 minutes in school and 30 minutes out of school) of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week’. We know that the exercise we need to do to achieve this, should increase our heart rate.

We spent part of our lesson moving our bodies! We followed this yoga video which also helped us to feel calm and centred: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBYhgQnVRGw

Help at home – try a new physical activity out of school – maybe a local junior park run, tennis lessons or have a look at our local physical activity guide for more ideas!

Multiplication Tables Check

Coming up next week, Year 4 will be completing their Multiplication Tables Check (MTC).

They will have to answer 25 times table facts and will have 6 seconds for each question. It will be completed on the iPads.

I am so proud of all the progress Year 4 have made with their times tables this year. They have put in so much time and effort and this is reflected in their fluency.

In preparation for the MTC next week, ensure your children are practising their times tables up to 12s at home. Here are some ideas:

• Visit https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check to complete a practice MTC.
• Go on TTRS and do Garage and Soundcheck.
• Ask your child a different times table fact at each meal time.
• Play a game to see who can answer 10 times table facts the quickest.
• Stick some post-it notes around the house with different multiplication facts on.

T3.2 – group reading

Hello!

This week, we’ve begun our final group reading!

The class have been divided into groups and each group has been given a book to read at home. This will last for this half term.

During our Book Club sessions each Friday, each group will discuss what they have read so far and share their reading record activities related to their book. This will be a fantastic opportunity for the children to explore characters and storylines more than they might do normally!

Every Friday during Book Club, each group will be given a new page to read to for the next Friday.

What to remember:

• Your child has a book that they need to read every week (up to a chosen point marked with a post-it notes).
• The reading record activity needs to be completed using their new book.
• A comment from a grown up needs to be written in their reading record.
• Group reading books and reading records need to be brought in every Friday.

Help at home by listening to your child read their new book and asking them questions about the book to help prepare them for class discussions.

I look forward to hearing the children’s discussions next week!

Thanks, Miss Birch

Writing: setting description

Over the next few weeks, Year 4 will be writing setting descriptions based on a creepy, abandoned house. Our audience will be an illustrator so we’ll be so descriptive that an illustrator could use our writing to draw the setting for their book.

Today, we read a WAGOLL (what a good one looks like) and pulled out all the description that allowed us to picture the setting in our heads.

Deep in the middle of nowhere stood the Murkmire Forest — a dark, tangled, and silent place. The trees loomed like tall, twisted statues, their branches reaching out like bony fingers. Even during the day, a mist lay low to the ground, curling around roots and rocks like it didn’t want to let go.

The air inside the forest was heavy and still, as if it had been holding its breath for years. Leaves crunched softly underfoot, though no animals ever seemed to stir. Every now and then, the wind would blow suddenly, whispering through the trees like it had something to say — like a ghost trying to reach out.

Even the sunlight seemed afraid to enter, slipping weakly through the thick canopy above. Shadows moved where nothing else did, and the deeper you walked, the more the path behind you seemed to fade. Some say if you stay too long, the forest remembers your footsteps… and follows them.

Using this description, your children then drew what they imagined the forest to look like. This was a great way for them to see how important rich description is for the reader.

Help at home: when your children are out and about, ask them to use their 5 senses to describe what they’re experiencing.

• What can you smell?
• What can you see?
• What can you hear?
• What can you feel?
• What can you taste?

Living and Learning: physical health and fitness

Our latest Living and Learning sessions have been all about the importance of exercise and how we need to keep active to keep our bodies and our minds healthy.

We thought about all the things we had done since waking up. Then, we checked which ones were active.

Practised gymnastics

Wake up Shake up

Walking to school

Playing tig with friends at playtime

Classroom skipping brain break

Pull ups

The NHS guidance states that children and young people should ‘aim for an average of at least 60 minutes (30 minutes in school and 30 minutes out of school) of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week’. We know that the exercise we need to do to achieve this, should increase our heart rate.

How do we manage to achieve our 30 minutes during the school day?

• Daily WUSU
• 2 weekly PE sessions
• Playtimes
• Lunchtime play – front playground, MUGA
• Go Noodle, Supermovers and active counting in class
• Jogging around the playground for brain breaks
• After school clubs

Help at home – try a new physical activity out of school – maybe a local junior park run, tennis lessons or have a look at our local physical activity guide for more ideas. Don’t forget to do skipping practice for our upcoming festival too.

Summer 1: Week 5

This week, we’ve been learning about the human body. Before introducing our focus called See inside Your Body, I asked the class if anybody knew any facts about the human body.

Ta – The heartbeat helps us get red blood around our tummies.
Po – Our neck is really important
Ell – Lungs help us breath.
Gur – We have a brain.
Tee – We have to have bones.

We looked at the human skeleton, drew pictures of skeletons and labelled some of the 206 bones we have in our body! We also had lots of fun learning the skeleton dance. We also looked at some x-ray pictures and talked about why we might have one.
Role-play
In the home corner, we’ve had a very busy doctors’ surgery! Many of our children turned into doctors and nurses. They’ve been checking heart beats, putting bandages on and giving medicine to help their patients feel better.
Butterflies
On Monday, we released our butterflies! We enjoyed waving goodbye when watching them fly away.
Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem was called The Fox. When learning this poem, we shared lots of our own experiences about foxes.

Je – I’ve seen three foxes before. When we were in our old house we saw a baby fox.
Tho – I’ve seen a fox through my car window creeping along the edge of the road near a bush.
Poppy – I saw a fox in my garden and it jumped over my fence.

Phonics
This week, we’ve been learning to read and write words ending in:

• – ing
  For example, squelching, twisting
• – ed =/t/
  For example, bumped, cracked
• -ed = /id/
  For example, grunted, trusted
• -est
  For example, plumpest, freshest

We also learnt the last two phase 4 tricky words.
Help at home: Practise reading and writing the phase 4 tricky words.

I can’t believe we’ve only got only one half-term left in Reception. Where has this year gone?
I hope you all have a fantastic week off. Don’t forget to send me lots of pictures. See you on Monday 2^nd June for your final half-term in Reception.

Living and Learning: 60 active minutes

This week in Living and Learning, we discussed 60 active minutes. This means staying active for 30 minutes at school and 30 minutes at school!

The children had some amazing ideas as to how they could be active outside of school.

I play in the park after school.

I ride my bike to school and home again!

I bounce on my trampoline every day.

I do junior parkrun at the weekend.

I was very impressed how active everyone is being! Well done Year 1!

Help at home by talking to your child about how they can stay active and giving them as much chance as possible to be active!

Living and Learning: Physical Health and Fitness

This week, our L&L statement is ‘I know that being physically active is mentally and physically healthy’.

We also watched a video which explained why movement was so vital to our lives – it prevents disease, helps memory and builds muscle.

We discussed lots of other ways that being active improves mental wellbeing and came up with our own. We listed some top tips for getting moving.

Help at home: What advice would you offer to this person?