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English – instructions

We are learning all about instructions. We have already learnt about the importance of instructions being in the correct order and being clear (just ask your child about what happened when we tried to make a jam sandwich with unclear instructions)!
Now we are beginning to think about writing our own instructions. Today, we looked at imperative verbs, or ‘bossy’ verbs. These are verbs which create an imperative sentence, i.e. a sentence that gives an order. We played a game which we called ‘bossy boots’ to help us to identify and use imperative verbs.

I gave the ‘boss’ a verb and they had to say it in a sentence to be bossy. We had some very bossy characters!

10 June 2016

-ent, -ence or –ency

This week’s spellings are all nouns that end in –ence.

Children should learn the words and investigate which words can be changed to have an –ent or –ency ending.

These spellings will be tested on Friday 17 June.

Pattern

This week the children have been given the opportunity to discover, explore and create patterns in a variety of ways.

In mathematics, pattern is concerned with the relationships between shapes and numbers. Being able to identify and create patterns is an important mathematical skill as number and calculating are built upon patterns, for example recognising sequences of numbers or the spots on a dice.

Rio Challenge

This week, we have launched skills drills Rio Challenge.  Linked to the upcoming Rio Olympics, pupils can attempt a series of ten timed sports drills based around core skills from different Olympic events.  These include hockey, gymnastics, rugby and athletics.

Children can be part of this online competition against their peers and other schools and we will be uploading times for the quickest drills.

The drills will be carried out in PE lessons and at lunchtime.  You could even have a go at home.

Rio challenge drills are led by Sports Leaders at lunchtime.

10 June 2016

This week’s spellings have been chosen by the children and me because they’re words we’ve noticed lots of us make mistakes on. These spellings will be tested on Friday 17 June.

• favourite
• colour
• excited
• excellent
• different
• altogether
• absolutely
• definitely
• necessarily
• minutes

10 June 2016

Yellow and Red group: I have chosen eight ‘common exception words’ as your spellings this week. These are words which don’t follow the usual rules of phonics.
friend
one
once
our
school
house 
your
love

Green group:  I will be asking you any ten words from the following list of ‘common exception words’.

10 June 2016

The spellings this week are for everyone in Year 2.

Year 3 sound learning

This week, our mini topic has been hearing. We’ve been studying how sound is made and how we are able to hear it.

We put some oats onto a drum to help us observe the vibrations creating the sound. We also walked around school looking for sources of sound and identifying what might be vibrating.

Here are some quotes we wrote this morning about sound:

“This week, we have been learning that sound can travel through air (gas), water (liquid) and walls (solids).”

“We were also listening to some interesting sounds outside and around school.”

“When you speak, your vocal chords vibrate and these vibrations vibrate the air around them. This allows them to travel through the air to people’s ears.”

“If you hit a drum lightly the vibrations will be smaller and if you hit a drum harder the vibrations will be bigger. The bigger the vibration the louder the sound.”

10 June 2016

This week’s spellings are brought to you by the letter ‘w‘. Here is a list of common ‘w‘ words. Go through these words  with your child and decide which spellings they already know and which spellings they think they need to focus on learning. A very common error in class is using ‘Wh’ instead of ‘W’ (whent instead of went). On Friday, your child will be assessed through a dictation activity. The following week’s spellings will be based on the whole class’s results in that assessment.

Can your child spot any of our school spelling rules (drop the ‘y’ for an i, double up for a short vowel sound, drop the ‘e’ for ‘ing’)? Can your child spot any words within words to help them remember a spelling (warm)?

Safe and secure…

To make sure that Moortown Primary School is a happy, healthy and safe place to learn, we invited a safeguarding expert to come in and review our practice.  As a result there was a safeguarding review on Wednesday 08 June.  The process took all day and was very thorough.  I am pleased to tell you that it was a very productive exercise and the report was very positive.  Here is a summary of what was said:

“The school is clearly committed to safeguarding its pupils.  The school has an integrated approach to safeguarding which ensures that children are kept safe.  There is effective training and support for staff, and a clear induction process.  The school’s systems for raising and recording concerns about children works well and is used by staff of all roles in school.  There is a rich learning environment which gives children a positive sense of self-worth.  Behaviour is well managed and clear processes are in place.  The school has excellent attendance and the children seemed very happy to be in school.”

Well done to everyone for this great report.