Spring 2: Week 2
We’ve had a wonderful day we’ve had celebrating World Book Day. Our classroom was full of wonderful book characters. Here’s some photos of the children enjoying the World Book Day challenges.
Thank you to all the parents/carers who came to our stay and learn session this afternoon. It was lovely to see our classroom so busy!
This week, we continued exploring our topic ‘Let Go’ and read the story The Hundred Decker Rocket. The story is about a girl called Ivy who sets off on a mission to space and meets some very messy aliens along the way. When her rocket breaks down, the aliens work together to fix it and each add their own deck.
The children enjoyed using their imaginations to design their own rocket decks and write a sentence about their creation.
Phonics
This week, the children have reviewed air, er and longer words that contain double letters.
Write these words on paper and ask your child to underline the double letters before reading.
hammer shimmer cannot chatter muffin
Help at home: Tricky words are really tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try.
Tricky word password
Write different tricky words on paper and stick them next to different doors around the house. Each time your child enters or leaves a room they must press and say the tricky word password.
RE
This we’ve been learning about the Hindu festival of Holi, the festival of colours. We explored four special colours and what they represent: yellow for knowledge and learning, blue to represent the gods, red for love, and green for nature and the start of spring. The children had lots of fun celebrating by getting messy and using their hands to create a bright, colourful piece of art.
Maths
This week, the children continued to develop their counting skills and their understanding that counting helps us find out how many there are. They practised the counting sequence and revisited the idea that the last number counted tells the total. The children also worked on counting out a set number of objects from a larger group and explored counting beyond 20, noticing the repeating number patterns. They reinforced the correct order of numbers to 10 and learned that each number is one more than the one before.
Yesterday, the children were challenged to work with a partner to create a staircase pattern using 11 towers of 5, thinking carefully about ‘5 and a bit’ when building their staircase.
Reception parent/carer survey
If you’re a parent of a child in Reception, please complete this short survey.
At Moortown Primary, we’re always trying to keep getting better and better. Your views help us to do that. The survey will only take a few minutes to complete and you’ve got until Wednesday 18 March to complete. (If you’d like us to follow-up any of your responses with you, we can only do this if you leave your name.)
We can’t guarantee to meet the needs and wants of every parent / carer, but we do assure you that we consider all the points raised and aim to act on specific points that are raised by many, or a useful idea raised by just a few.
Previously, based on your feedback, for example, we alternated the days Stay and Learns were held – to give all parents an opportunity to attend.
Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. We’re looking forward to reading your views.
Poetry Basket: Pancakes
This week’s poem is called Pancakes.
How do you like your pancakes? When I was 5, my mum used to make pancakes with mince and gravy for me and my brother on pancake day! Fortunately, we had lemon and sugar pancakes for pudding.
Two of the words we’ve been focussing on this week are toss and fry.
World Book Day
We’re very excited to be celebrating World Book Day next Thursday in school!
If your child would like to, they can come to school dressed as their favourite book character or in something book-related. Please don’t feel any pressure to go out and buy a costume.
Throughout the day, we’ll be taking part in a range of challenges inspired by different books. One of our creative activities will be making a milk bottle Elmer. To help with this activity, we would really appreciate it if you could send your child in with an empty milk bottle (rinsed out, please!).
Love of Reading Stay & Learn
At 2:45pm, you are more than welcome to join us for our Love of Reading Stay & Learn session. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to watch one of our daily Poetry Basket sessions and share and enjoy lots of stories with your child.
We look forward to celebrating our love of books together!
This Green Moon
Today was a very special day for our Reception class as we went on our very first school trip to This Green Moon! As soon as I opened the Reception gate this morning, the children were buzzing with excitement.
When we arrived at Green Moon, we were warmly greeted by the two leaders, Paul and Matt, as well as the Reception class from St James’, one of our other Federation schools. It was lovely to come together and share the experience.
From the moment we stepped onto the coach to the minute we arrived back at school, the children were exceptional – what a credit they were to our school! Their behaviour, listening skills and enthusiasm were wonderful to see.
We thoroughly enjoyed spending the day outdoors, exploring the natural world around us. The children took part in so many exciting activities: making a fire, creating sculptures using potatoes, designing bracelets with pieces of coloured wool we found in the forest, and even working together to create a giant piece of artwork. It was fantastic to see their creativity and curiosity shining through.
What a fantastic day full of learning, laughter and adventure. Well done, Reception – we’re so proud of you all!
Let’s grow
Spring 1: Week 6
This week, we’ve been learning all about Lunar New Year. Our focus story was The Magic Paintbrush by Julia Donaldson. Using our imaginations, we thought about what we would create if we were given our very own magic paintbrush.
On Wednesday, we watched a video about how people prepare for and celebrate Lunar New Year.
Yesterday, we read The Great Race and learned about how the Chinese Zodiac began. We then had a go at putting the animals in the correct order.
Maths
We’ve been exploring pattern. The children have been copying and continuing patterns, as well as creating their own, using patterns like AB, ABB and ABBC with colours, shapes, actions and objects.
We’ve also been spotting errors in patterns and explaining what has gone wrong. This helps children really think about how patterns work, rather than just guessing. A key focus has been talking about the ‘unit of repeat’ – the part of the pattern that keeps repeating (for example, red–blue in an AB pattern).
Help at home: Choose a rule and create a pattern. Take a picture of your pattern and send it to the Reception email address.
Finally, thank you to everyone who attended the parent–teacher meetings this week. It was lovely to talk with you all about your child’s learning and to celebrate their fantastic progress.
As always, I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term break. Feel free to send me an email to let me know what you get up to. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 23 February.
Internet Safety Day
Today we’ve been talking about internet safety and how to make smart choices online. Our friend Smartie the Penguin helped us learn what to do if something unexpected pops up on a screen.
While using his tablet, Smartie saw something that didn’t look right. Instead of clicking it, he remembered TAG — Tell A Grown up. Smartie told a trusted adult straight away.
We learned that if we ever see something that’s not meant for us online, we should TAG (Tell A Grown up). Telling a grown-up helps keep us safe and makes sure we can enjoy using technology the smart way — just like Smartie the Penguin!
Here’s a video with advice on how to support children up to age 5 to stay safe online.
School dinner menu
After February half term, we start our new menu which runs to the end of the year. It can be viewed here. Please review this with your child to help with their selection at the start of the day. We continue to offer meat free Mondays.
The cost of a school meal is:
- children in Reception, Years 1 and 2: this is free because of universal infant free school meals
- children in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6: £3.05 for children in Years 3 to 6
Payment should be paid in advance on the Arbor app. We’re happy to accept payment for the week, month, half term or term. We prefer two weeks’ notice to change lunch arrangements.
All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive free school meals. If your child is in Year 3 to Year 6, and you are on benefits or a low income, your child may be eligible for free school meals.
Some people like to choose a mix of school dinners and packed lunch for their child – that’s absolutely fine, as long as it’s a the same pattern of school dinners and packed lunches every week. Just let office staff know which days you’d like to opt in for a school meal in the week, and which days you’d prefer to provide your child with a packed lunch.
We continue to gather feedback from children on our school meals.
If you have any feedback, please do get in touch.
Poetry Basket: Mr Bluebird
This week’s poem is called Mr Bluebird. Hope you enjoy the performance!
This week, we’ve discussed the word hive.