Living and learning : rights and responsibilities
Last week in our Living and Learning lessons, we were talking about what rights and responsibilities are.
We discussed how a right is an entitlement to have or do something and talked about the rights that we all have, such as the right to an education.
We also discussed that rights come with responsibilities too – and we matching some together.
We have the right to be listened to.
We have the responsibility to listen to others.
Help at home by asking your child if they can tell you some different rights and responsibilities.
Watch Us While We Work
Thank you to the parents who could attend our Watch Us While We work lesson earlier on in the week.
In 56C, we talked about some strategies to help with homework.
Spellings:
Have you tried playing hangman? This is a great game for spotting spelling patterns. It also means that children will get a chance to really study the 40 word list.
Using story dice as a stimulus for writing sentences, is a a great way to learn how to use the spellings in context.
Another way to avoid the repetition of writing out the words is to play Mind Meld. Partners work together to get the same spelling. The only rule is that you have to say yes to whatever your partner says.
E.g.
Partner one: Our word begins with the letter E.
Partner two: Yes and our word has a double SS.
Partner one: Yes and our word has an a followed by an R.
Together: Our word is embarrass.
Reading:
Reading aloud to and with a child is still a really important way of teaching reading skills. We looked at ways to narrate our thoughts as we read. We might read a few sentences and reflect on what we have read.
Another way to share the love of reading is to take turns when reading. Read a line, paragraph or page each.
Finally, if there is lots of speech, you could each take on a role to play. How can you change your voice/ pace to suit that character?
Reading: debate
This week, our topic learning linked with our reading lessons. We were developing our ability to explain a personal point of view, giving reasons for our views.
As part of our learning about Ancient Egypt, we had a debate about Howard Carter – the archaeologist who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Our debate statement was:
Howard Carter is a positive figure in history.
The children used trusted websites to research the topic and develop debate points. Half of the children were in support of the statement and the other in opposition.
We discussed good techniques for a debate such as projecting our voices, giving evidence and listening respectfully to other people’s opinions. Our oracy skills were very useful here. The children all used some great debate style sentence stems to help put their opinions across to the opposing team.
The result was a very respectful and articulate debate.
Help at home: Ask your child about their opinion of Howard Carter.
We are writers!
The year 5, 6 phase have been working really hard producing some recounts over the last couple of weeks. We used part of our class novel ‘Secrets of a Sun King’ by Emma Carroll as inspiration for our writing. There is a section of the novel in which the main character finds a parcel and has the dilemma of whether to open it or not. As writers, the children created descriptive paragraphs using adventurous vocabulary and they created tension for the reader. We worked hard to think about how to start sentences in different ways, such as using a verb or a question. We also added adverbials to add more information to the verb.
Help at home: Can your child write some sentences beginning with a verb that ends in -ed or -ing. For example:
Drifting down, the leaves suffocated the ground as the silence engulfed the darkness.
3,4 Trip – Lotherton Hall
What a fabulous trip!
The children had a great time having the opportunity to enrich their Science learning. They all participated in the classification workshop where they found out more about different vertebrates. They explored the Wildlife World where they saw flamingos, capybaras, tapirs, penguins and other species of birds. After a walk in the woods, a play in the park, a lunch break and more exploring, it was time to come back to school!
Help at home by asking your child what they have been learning.
Thank you
Thank you to all parents and carers who made it to the ‘Watch Us While We Work’ session this morning. The children really enjoyed having you in class and showing off some of what they have been learning.
We look forward to welcoming you again later in the year.
Connect Challenge
Thursday saw the whole school take part in the Connect Challenge in support of the Rob Burrow Foundation. This event was aimed at rasiing awareness of MND whilst also linking primary schools across Leeds. It promoted the idea of collaboration, physical education and friendship. We were the first school in Leeds to compete in which the children had to complete a challenge linked to the number 7. This was Rob Burrow’s shirt number when he played for the Rhinos. The children had 1 minute to complete 7 physical activities such as passing a rugby ball, hula hooping – all sorts of crazy activities! At the end of all the challenges, we filmed Lilly in year 6 throwing a rugby ball to her left. This will be incorporated into a video in which the next school receives the ball. It will eventually show all the primary schools taking part, linking together by passing the rugby ball. It was great fun and the children loved taking part in the challenge! 
Down on the farm
We’ve had another busy week in nursery, continuing to explore the provision and making friends. Our new small world area, the farm, has sparked a lot of interest. We talked about the different animals that we see on a farm and the sounds that they make. The children enjoyed adding the animal sound effects whilst playing.
As part of our early phonics learning, we encourage children to listen to the sounds that they can hear around them, such as an aeroplane flying above or birds singing in the trees. We also explore the different noises that animals make.
Help at home: If you visit a farm or see some animals in a field, remember to use the animal names and talk about the noises that they make. You might like to play a game where you use some farm animal toys and choose an animal to describe. For example: It has 4 legs, a curly tail and a snout. Can they guess which animal you are describing and make the animal noise? Can they give you some clues? This is a great way to add new words to your child’s vocabulary and to develop their listening skills.
The children have enjoyed retelling this weeks focus story ‘The Three Little Pigs’ joining in with the repeated refrains “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down”.
As the children continue to explore the provision lots of different interests have been emerging, rolling cars down ramps being a big favourite. We experimented with other things that roll in the paint this week and tried our hand at painting with rollers. This up and down motion will help us later when it comes to developing our skills as a writer.
Here are some of the other activities from this week
- bug hunting
- friendship making
- brick house building
- sorting and matching in the maths area.
- imaginative play
Next week, we’ll talk about the changes that we are noticing outside. Look out for a brown bag in your child’s folder – we’d like you to fill it with autumn treasure that you find and return it to Nursery.
Our focus story is the popular story “We’re Going on a bear Hunt” We will be exploring this story using our own puppets and props.
Our Nursery rhyme of the week will be Row, row, row your boat Can you sing along with the rhyme at home?
Reminders:
- Please don’t forget to send a family photograph for our home corner display Please send it to scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
- We play outside in all weather – please remember to send your child with a waterproof coat everyday.
- Please remember to check the school menu each day. School Lunch Menu
The Everywhere Bear
We’ve been reading The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson.
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s along the play bar) and turn off auto play – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.
The story follows a class bear that goes on quite the journey! We’ve been re-telling parts of the story and have used it to introduce our own travelling teddies- Ziggy and Penelope .
We’ve been using a map of our school to find the different places our teddies have visited.
Ziggy and Penelope will be coming home with a child each weekend, along with a book to record their adventures!
Maths; counting principles
In Maths, we’ve been using toys to demonstrate accurate counting. We’ve been reminding our toys to ‘stop at the stopping number’ to find the total amount (cardinality), only count each item once (one-to-one correspondence) and know that objects can be counted in any order (order irrelevance) We’ve been looking at ways to make counting easier. We’ve also been counting things that cannot be seen (such as sounds or actions) and things that cannot be moved, by using a ‘tagging wand’.
Music: Charanga
In our Wednesday afternoon music lessons, we follow a scheme called Charanga
The children are introduced to a wide variety of music, including traditional nursery rhymes. Over the past few weeks they have enjoyed Celebration by Kool and The Gang and Sing by The Carpenters!
During lessons they move in time to the music, identify what they can hear (voices/instruments), discuss tempo and pitch and make comments about how the music makes them feel.
We love our music lessons!
Understanding the World: Nature Study
Did you know that each Friday in Reception, a group of children get to take part in nature study activities? Last week, our first group explored autumn using their senses and made fat ball bird feeders to help the birds in the upcoming months.
This week, our second group also explored autumn, hung out the bird feeders and planted some flower bulbs ready for spring!
Each group will experience 3 different nature sessions this term, with a different focus each week. We love exploring the world around us!
Phonics
This week, the children have learnt the phonemes (the sound a letter makes) i, n, m and d. They have also been practicing writing the graphemes (the written letter).
We have started reading words, by putting sounds onto our phoneme fingers.
Can your child show you how we use our phoneme fingers in class? You could write out the following words for them to try: sat, map, tin.
Please continue to use the ‘Learn at home’ sheets with your child, to review our new sounds each week.
eBooks
Reading records have been sent home today, so please check in your child’s book bag. On the back of the record book, you’ll find login details to access your child’s eBook on the Collins Hub website. Your child has already shared the wordless story in their reading sessions this week. We hope that you enjoy reading and talking about the book together and look forward to beginning their reading journey with you.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Breezy Weather
Click here to watch Reception recite this week’s poem
More pictures from this week…
Reminders and dates
Class News
We are biologists!
Over the last couple of weeks, we have been learning how to classify animals and plants using a classification key. We have really enjoyed this work and have created yes and no questions to classify and group animals and plants.
We can’t wait for our classification workshop.
