Working hard in gymnastics!
Art around the world
As part of our Big Topic, Katie and…, we have been finding out about art from around the world – a good chance to check our geographical knowledge from our recent Where in the World topic, too.
Aboriginal art has certain features that we tried to include in our own examples. Can you see them in the work below?
Phonics in Reception
At Moortown we follow the Letters and Sounds programme for teaching phonics.
We’ll be inviting you to a ‘phonics morning’ where you’ll be able to watch a short phonics lesson and observe the types of activities which will help you to support your child at home. These will be held on 15, 16 and 17 October at 9.20am. A letter will be sent home with your child.
This week, we’ll be busy learning to identify alliteration and rhyme which will pave the way for the systematic learning of phonics.
The children are taking part in lots of activities where they listen attentively to sounds around them, such as sounds in the environment and to sounds in spoken language. Singing a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs and reading books to and with the children helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books.
We’re also learning to ‘sound talk’. The separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, in order, all through the word, and are then merged together into the whole word: d-o-g = dog. This merging together is called blending and is a vital skill for reading.
Children will also learn to do this the other way around: cat = c-a-t. The whole word is spoken aloud and then broken up into its sounds (phonemes) in order, all through the word. This is called segmenting and is a vital skill for spelling.
This is all oral (spoken). Your child won’t be expected to match the letter to the sound at this stage. The emphasis is on helping children to hear the separate sounds in words and to create spoken sounds.
Ways you can support your child at home:
Play ‘What do we have in here?’ Put some toys or objects in a bag and pull one out at a time. Emphasise the first sound of the name of the toy or object by repeating it, for example, ‘c c c c – car’, ‘b b b b – box’, ‘ch ch ch ch – chip’.
When sounding out, try to avoid the ‘uh’ sound – say ‘sssss’ rather than ‘suh’, ‘mmmmm’ rather than ‘muh’. This is to keep the sound as ‘pure’ as it can be so there’s no confusion with extra, unwanted sounds when blending and segmenting words.
Say: ‘A tall tin of tomatoes!’ ‘Tommy, the ticklish teddy!’ ‘A lovely little lemon!’ This is called alliteration. Use names, for example, ‘Gurpreet gets the giggles’, ‘Milo makes music’, ‘Naheema’s nose’.
Teach them ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’ and other tongue twisters.
Find real objects around your home that have three phonemes (sounds) and practise ‘sound talk’. First, just let them listen, then see if they will join in.
- ‘I spy a p-e-g – peg.’
- ‘I spy a c-u-p – cup.’
- ‘Where’s your other s-o-ck – sock?’
- ‘Simon says – put your hands on your h-ea-d.’
- ‘Simon says – touch your ch-i-n.’
- ‘Simon says – pick up your b-a-g.
Have fun and remember to let us know which phonics morning you wish to attend.
More competitions
Tag rugby, tennis, netball and cross country were some of our sporting successes last year as part of the Sainsbury’s School Games programme. Upcoming competitions this term include athletics and cross country. Details to follow!
26 September 2014
Our homeworks this week are Talk Time and Practice Makes Perfect and are due in on Wednesday 01 October.
The Practice Makes Perfect homework builds on our grammar learning in class about main clauses and subordinate clauses. Hopefully, the sheet in the homework books will explain this but if you have any questions, please ask.
The Talk Time homework is related to our class novel. You have to put yourself in the mindset of our main character who is about to start his quest: What three items would you take with you on your quest in the Citadel of Chaos and why?
Children should talk to you and other family members and friends about the subject and must give reasons why their items would be important. On Wednesday, we’ll then have a discussion about which items the children think would be most useful. When discussing their reasons, children should be encouraged to use connectives when making their points:
|
time |
adding (see also some time links) |
problem (or ‘opposing’) |
reason + result |
explaining |
| Firstly, / First of all, / Secondly,Next,After that,
Finally, Meanwhile, Then, / Just then, Suddenly, Later,
|
Also,In addition, / Additionally,Furthermore,
Moreover, As well as this, Besides, Another point is … Not only that, To make matters worse, |
However*,In spite of this,On the other hand,
Yet, Nevertheless, Contrary to this, In contrast, Despite this, Despite followed by thing: Despite the fact that…, Despite feeling tired, |
As a result,Consequently,As a consequence,
Therefore Due to this, Because of this, This results in… The reason for this is… |
For example,In other words,That is to say,
By this, I mean… The explanation for this is… |
*’However’ is often seen mid-sentence (sometimes correctly eg It won’t work however hard we try; sometimes incorrectly (although debate continues on this point) eg It rained all day however we still had fun); we have decided to teach as a connective add-in only ie not as a conjunction.
26 September 2014
This week, the spellings are all verbs which end in the suffix ‘ise’.
Help your child: Can (s)he think of any other verbs which contain this suffix? Can (s)he say / write sentences using the words eg I despise the way they advertise junk food so that children recognise brands.
Children will be tested on all ten of the words on Friday 03 October.
| verb | |
| 1. | advertise |
| 2. | despise |
| 3. | empathise |
| 4. | exercise |
| 5. | memorise |
| 6. | patronise |
| 7. | realise |
| 8. | recognise |
| 9. | terrorise |
| 10. | vandalise |
Ratios in art?
Yesterday, we combined our artistic and mathematical skills by using ratios to turn primary colours into secondary colours. We discovered that different ratios of blue to red created different purples; different ratios of red to yellow created different oranges; and different ratios of yellow to blue, of course, created different greens. Farai decided that, to make a ‘good’ orange, you needed more yellow than red.
Here we are in action…
…and our end product…
Great work, Y2.
26 September 2014
This week’s homework is Practice makes perfect and is due on Wednesday 01 October.
I can use a number line for addition.
Your child has been practising addition in class for the last two weeks. They have work that is suited to their learning in their homework books which will allow them to practise the skills they have developed and offers the suggestion of learning that will challenge them.
Practice Makes Perfect
This is similar to what you might consider traditional homework: it may be a worksheet or a writing task (such as Y5’s current homework: I can write instructions). Practice Makes Perfect is useful homework when something has been taught in school but needs consolidation. The work should be fairly straightforward for the child as there should be no need for new learning, so just some encouragement from you is needed. However, it would be a great time to get your child to teach you – they should be able to explain the key points or processes! We use this type of homework less often because usually the best practice is where a teacher can keep feeding back and presenting new challenges when they see it as appropriate. Teachers mark these activities in line with our marking policy.
As always, please ask if you’ve any questions or concerns.
26 September 2014
This week’s homework is practice makes perfect. It needs to be handed in by Wednesday 01 October.
It is really important that the children know their number bonds to 10 – this means that they need to know the pairs of numbers that make 10. For example…
7 + 3 = 10 so 3 + 7 = 10
And if they know the addition facts, they’ll know subtraction facts, too…
10 – 7 = 3 and 10 – 3 = 7
The homework this week is looking at calculations that make 10 – if your child can recall these facts quickly then it helps with more complicated calculations as they progress.
(Thank you for the great discussions that seem to have happened about Katie – it’s an exciting topic!)
26 September 2014
|
Red Group |
Yellow Group |
Green Group |
|
ship |
thorn |
night |
|
shell |
short |
mine |
|
cash |
north |
tiny |
|
chip |
morning |
invite |
|
rich |
torch |
untie |
|
chill |
born |
coat |
|
some |
wrote |
|
|
come |
spoke |
|
|
glowing |
||
|
unfold |
Here are this week’s spellings. There will be a spelling test on Friday 03 October .