Week Beginning 19 October 2020
We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me at benparker@spherefederation.org.
Here’s a short video message from me introducing the week.
Maths
This weeks maths lessons are from the Oak National Academy. They will help you consolidate the place value lessons you have done.
These lessons roughly match the lessons we are doing in school.
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Write the words and draw shapes round them to show the ascenders and descenders. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 2: Write the words using rainbow writing. (Try some of the other activities in our Super Spelling Strategies guide.)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
This is the text we’ll read in class to to build up fluency skills this week.
In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: We will be using this RIC lesson in class. RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Day 2: Watch this video and learn about the ‘ow’ digraph.
Day 3: Watch this video and learn about the ‘oi’ digraph.
The two videos above were made by one of our teacher friends from another school in the federation.
Day 4: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Activity 1:
Talk to your child about a picture or photograph you choose. Write three words or phrases to label different things in the picture (eg ‘a car’ or ‘a red car’). Your child should aim to spell in a sensible way and use finger spaces between the words, joining up letters if they can (use our handwriting guide to help).
Activity 2
Finger strengthening activities support the development of fine motor skills needed for writing.
Challenge your child to have a go at 3 or more of these activities: practise tying shoe laces, fasten and unfasten buttons, attach nuts and bolts, separate dried pasta and dried peas (or similar) into two separate piles, do some mindfulness colouring in, do a jigsaw, cut up drinking straws and thread them on to a shoe lace, attach clothes pegs (the squeezable type) to a shoe box or similar, use a paint brush and water to make pictures or words on a wall, chalk words or pictures on the ground, make a Lego model.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Topic
This week, we’re starting our new topic learning about The Great Fire of London. Find out what London was like in the past using this this Oak National Academy Lesson.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
Science
We’re continuing our learning about habitats and living things. This Oak National Academy lesson will really help to support learning at home. Once your child has watched the video, try the quiz that follows.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
Living and learning – self care techniques
Today, we had a great class discussion about how to look after and be kind to yourself. Take a look…
Week beginning 12 October 2020
We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me at benparker@spherefederation.org.
Here’s a short video message from me introducing the week.
Maths
This week’s maths learning is linked to number and place value.
These five video lessons will roughly match the teaching and learning happening in class:
Lesson 1: video
Lesson 2: video, worksheets, answers
Lesson 3: video, worksheets, answers
Lesson 4: video, worksheets, answers
Lesson 5: video, worksheets, answers
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Write the words and draw shapes round them to show the ascenders and descenders. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 2: Write the words using rainbow writing. (Try some of the other activities in our Super Spelling Strategies guide.)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
This is the text we’ll read in class to to build up fluency skills this week.
In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: We will be using this RIC lesson in class. RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Day 2: Watch this video and learn about the ‘oo’ digraph
Day 3: Watch this video and learn about the ‘ar’ digraph.
Day 4: Watch this video and learn about the ‘or’ diagraph
The three videos above were made by one of our teacher friends from another school in the federation.
Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Activity 1:
Year 1 children: Talk to your child about a picture or photograph you choose. Write three words or phrases to label different things in the picture (eg ‘a car’ or ‘a red car’). Your child should aim to spell in a sensible way and use finger spaces between the words, joining up letters if they can (use our handwriting guide to help).
Activity 2:
Finger strengthening activities support the development of fine motor skills needed for writing.
Challenge your child to have a go at 3 or more of these activities: practise tying shoe laces, fasten and unfasten buttons, attach nuts and bolts, separate dried pasta and dried peas (or similar) into two separate piles, do some mindfulness colouring in, do a jigsaw, cut up drinking straws and thread them on to a shoe lace, attach clothes pegs (the squeezable type) to a shoe box or similar, use a paint brush and water to make pictures or words on a wall, chalk words or pictures on the ground, make a Lego model.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Topic
Get arty with topic learning at home. Look at the piece art below:
Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci
Think about these questions:
What do you like about it?
What don’t you like about it?
Do you think it is modern or old?
How do you think Mona Lisa is feeling in the painting?
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
Science
We’re continuing our learning about habitats and living things. This Oak National Academy lesson will really help to support learning at home. Once your child has watched the video, try the quiz that follows.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
Our weekly message (09 October 2020)
Some statistics to start this week’s message…
It sadly seems that the country is facing more restrictions due to coronavirus. Despite the challenges facing Leeds, it was encouraging to note earlier in the week that:
- no school in Leeds is completely closed
- in fact, 191 schools are fully open
- a further 84 schools are operating despite a bubble closure
- so, all 275 schools in Leeds are open to 114,814 pupils and 13,539 staff
Whilst the rate per 100,000 in Leeds has risen significantly (it’s around the 300 mark), there’s not been a significant increase in the number of pupils and staff testing positive. The numbers are currently relatively stable.
In our three Sphere Federation schools, although individual children have stayed away from school to self-isolate or to wait for a test result, we’ve not yet had to close a bubble. Thank you for your support with this. You’ve been sticking to the drop-off and collection times and it’s great that so many of you continue to wear face masks – we appreciate how responsive you’ve been.
Think carefully before seeking a Covid-19 test because colds are common at this time of year. When we showed this chart a couple of weeks ago, it proved popular. Read the full article.
Home learning
If your child is absent from school due to coronavirus, make sure you check out our home learning page. Every Monday morning, you’ll find some learning for the week:
- five Maths lessons (usually from White Rose Maths, which is what’s used in school) (suggested time: about 30 minutes each day)
- Times Tables practice using Time Tables Rock Stars (suggested time: about 15 minutes each day)
- Spellings practice using the spellings list that’s published each week (suggested time: about 15 minutes each day)
- some Reading fluency using the same text that’s used in school (suggested time: about 15 minutes each day)
- five Reading sessions, including using the ‘RIC’ text used in school (suggested time: about 30 minutes each day)
- two Writing sessions (suggested time: about 30 minutes each)
- a Topic lesson which will link closely with the learning happening in school (suggested time: about 30 minutes)
- a Science lesson which will link closely with the learning happening in school (suggested time: about 30 minutes)
Lunches
If you’re entitled to free school meals, you’re also able to arrange for a light lunch for your child each day, too – contact the school office.
Parent-teacher meetings
Thanks to everyone who has signed up so far for a parent-teacher meeting coming up in the last week of the half-term.
This is the first time we’ve run a parents’ evening online so please be patient with us. We’ll work hard to stick to timings and keep our fingers crossed for good WiFi!
And something completely unrelated to coronavirus…
We’ve added an extra feature to our website. If you go to the Safeguarding page, you’ll see on the right hand side some new content from Parent Info. Parent Info is a collaboration between Parent Zone and NCA-CEOP. It provides support and guidance for parents from leading experts and organisations. The content is updated regularly, and it covers six broad areas, such as technology, relationships and parenting, all linked to keeping your child happy, healthy and safe.
Painting with syringes
Year One have been using the book Here We Are, written by Oliver Jeffers, as their focus for the current mini topic.
We have looked closely at our planet and the children thought of questions they would like to ask about life on earth.
How many humans live on Earth?
Which is the biggest animal?
Is everybody different?
Why is there so much water?
Using Google Earth, we looked down on our planet from space. Then we zoomed in gradually and found our school. The children were fascinated by the colours of our planet from far away.
Using some water colour paints, we created our very own versions of Earth. The children mixed their own paints and then used a syringe to drop the colours onto some filter paper.
It’s magic! The paint is spreading out!
The colours are joining.
It is light and dark.
The finished planets looked very realistic indeed.
Week beginning 05 October 2020
Hi everyone
We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me at benparker@spherefederation.org.
Here’s a short video message from me introducing the week.
Maths
This week’s maths learning is linked to number and place value.
These five video lessons will roughly match the teaching and learning happening in class:
Lesson 1: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 2: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 3: video
Lesson 4: video, worksheets, answers
Lesson 5: video, worksheets, answers
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Write the words and draw shapes round them to show the ascenders and descenders. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 2: Write the words using rainbow writing. (Try some of the other activities in our Super Spelling Strategies guide.)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
This is the text we’ll read in class to to build up fluency skills this week.
In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: We will be using this RIC lesson in class. RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Day 2: Watch this video and learn about the ‘igh’ trigraph.
Day 3: Watch this video and learn about the ‘oa’ digraph.
Day 4: Watch this video and learn about the ‘oo’ diagraph
The three videos above were made by one of our teacher friends from another school in the federation.
Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Activity 1
Watch this video and complete the lesson about capital letters and full stops. It links to some of the learning that we’ve been doing in class recently.
Activity 2
Talk to your child about a picture or photograph you choose. Write three words or phrases to label different things in the picture (eg ‘a car’ or ‘a red car’). Your child should aim to spell in a sensible way and use finger spaces between the words, joining up letters if they can (use our handwriting guide to help).
Topic
This week’s topic learning is linked to geography. Click on this link and have a go at the different activities.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
Science
We’re continuing our learning about habitats and living things. This Oak National Academy lesson will really help to support learning at home. Once your child has watched the video, try the quiz that follows.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
Welcome back!
Hello everyone!
What a first two weeks it has been! All the children have settled back into school life brilliantly. I have been really impressed to see how the children have adapted to the ‘new normal’ in school.
Here’s a little bit about our plans for the next few weeks…
In maths, we’re beginning with place value and looking at numbers to 100. We are recapping some of the learning from Year One, to make sure that everyone is confident before moving on to the trickier Year Two skills.
Starting at any given number, support your child at home by counting forwards and backwards within 100. Also, give them a number and ask them to tell you how many tens and ones the number is made up of.
In writing, we’re looking at sentence structure. Again, we’re recapping on Year One learning to begin with. This will help the children become confident writers, for when we begin to write our own short narratives, recounts and diary extracts.
Support your child at home by asking them to write sentences using varied punctuation, including full stops, question marks and exclamation marks.
In reading, we’re using our whole school novel ‘After the Fall’. In Year Two, we practice reading in a variety of ways. We have daily phonics and fluency (ask your child what this is) sessions, one-to-one reading and lessons that teach skills such as RIC (retrieval, interpret and choice).
Please read at home as much as you can. Look out in the coming days for your child’s home reading book. Reading this as much as possible at home, will help build up your child’s fluency.
In topic, we will use the book ‘After the Fall’ as a stimulus which will inspire lots of artwork. The children will take part in sketching, painting and collaging.
Our first week
The first group of children have started school and been amazing!
We look forward to meeting more of you next week.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us via our Reception Class email.
We value the knowledge and understanding you have of your child so we’d like you to be involved. It would be really helpful if you let us know what they enjoy out of school and if possible take some photos.
This information will help us plan activities to meet your child’s needs and motivate their learning.
Let us know of any ‘wow’ moments that happen at home by sending photos of your child’s achievements.
moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
The Reception Team
Teacher – Mrs Burke
Teaching Assistants-
Mrs Burgess
Miss Billard
Mrs Stewart
11 September 2020
Own It app
Has you child got a mobile phone? If they have, do the have the Own It app from the BBC?
The Own It app helps children and young people take control of your online life. It gives them advice when they need it, in real-time as they type. It’s designed to help them make smart choices, feel more confident, and live their best life online.
The Own It app comes with a special keyboard. This can be used like any other keyboard, but it also gives users helpful tips and friendly advice as they write.
There’s also the ability to track how they feel and improve their wellbeing. There are plenty of gifs and emojis so users can express themselves.
The Own It keyboard and app is personal to the user. Everything your child types is kept completely private, and never leaves the Own It app on their phone.
