Year 2 maths : introducing multiplication and division
The year 2s have begun to learn about multiplication and division. We are counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and then linking this to calculations. We are spending time talking about what each number represents in a calculation.
Help at home by encouraging your child to play on Times Tables Rockstars and watch BBC Supermovers videos.
Abbey House Museum- 1A
Apologies for the lack of photos. The technician has my iPad and hopefully we can post photos before long. The children were incredible and we all had an amazing day.
FYI-We have updated all children’s e-books so you can access their new book online. We did not have the opportunity today to write the title of these books in your child’s individual reading record. Happy reading!
Exploring Nursery
We had a busy week settling yellow group into Nursery and helping them to explore their new environment. They’re all doing really well and are gradually getting to know us and beginning to make some new friends. Please try not to worry if your child has a little wobble when they’re saying good bye to you in the morning. They usually find somewhere to play and settle very quickly (and we would always contact you if they didn’t).
It was very chilly outside this week; we talked about the cold weather and explored ice in the sensory area. We’re hoping we’ll be able to play in our Nursery garden soon – children are looking forward to seeing the changes.
Next week’s learning:
We noticed lots of children were interested in dinosaurs so over the next few weeks, we’ll learn all about dinosaurs and enjoy reading ‘Dinosaur Stomp’.
Sound of the week – g for goat
Nursery Rhyme of the week –Row, row, row your boat
Ice!
Spring 1 is our Fire and Ice theme, we’ve been using nature to explore freezing and melting- what a perfectly cold week it has been to do so!
Lost and Found
We’ve continued to focus on the book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.
We’ve been linking the story to topic work. We looked at a world map to see how the boy and penguin would travel from where we live (The United Kingdom), to The South Pole in Antarctica. We recalled what we know about the world map from our previous learning:
“The blue bit is the sea”- Isobel
“The coloured bits is land”- Finlay
“I see The South Pole at the bottom”- Norah
We’ve also been comparing our weather to that in the continent of Antarctica. Our word of the week is: climate.
We’ve been writing ‘Missing’ posters, describing the penguin from our story. In provision, we’ve been writing a list of things we might pack to take on an Antarctic adventure.
Penguin observations
We’ve been zoologists this week- observing the livestream ‘penguin-cam’, from San Diego Zoo
We’ve been making notes on how the penguins move and interact with each other. We were even lucky enough to catch feeding time during one livestream!
The children have loved this activity and it has inspired some wonderful child-led learning…
An amazing small world model was carefully created whilst watching the livestream and reading non-fiction books on penguins- “They need rocks here because that’s what they have in there”
The children were keen to find out about different types of penguins and their different sizes. The tallest penguin (Emperor) and shortest penguin (Little Blue) were marked on the height chart in Sunshine room and children compared them with their own height!
Ice painting
We made ice paintings by freezing paint mixed with water and creating art tools with them.
First, we collected them from the freezer
“it’s so cold in the freezer…it has to be in there a long time”- Charlotte
Then, we needed to get them out of the ice cube tray
“Our hands are warm, so we can get the ice out if we hold the ice”- Jake
We noticed the difference in how well the tools painted, as the ice began to melt.
“you have to wait for it to melt a bit, then it paints… it works!”- Heidi
We looked at the weather outside throughout the week and had a discussion about whether we needed to use the freezer. We experimented to see if we could make ice by leaving water trays outside, as the weather has been below freezing. The children were amazed to discover ice canvases we could paint on!
d:side
This week’s Living and Learning statement is: I know that some drugs can be harmful
d:side visited Reception and discussed different ways to keep our minds and bodies healthy:
- identifying and managing emotions- using a puppet with different facial expressions and some ‘real-life’ scenarios to identify feelings. We also played ‘Feelings bingo’
- making healthy food choices- filling a packed lunch box
- the importance of sleep
- keeping our bodies clean- identifying hygiene items such as toothbrushes and saying how and when we use them
- being safe around medicine- looking at a medicine bottle, discussing child caps, where medicine should be stored and who is allowed to give us medicine.
The children shared some great ideas and existing knowledge during the activities.
Phonics Phase 3 Stay and Learn
Thank you to the parents and carers who were able to join us for another Stay and Learn session this week.
We hope you enjoyed watching a lesson, getting to spend time in the classroom and hopefully getting some more ideas and information for the next steps in our phonics journey.
Maths; the staircase pattern
In Maths, we’ve been looking at counting and ordinality- specifically, the ‘one more’ relationship that creates ‘the staircase pattern’.
We were introduced to the concept by the Numberblocks, before moving on to create our own staircase patterns in small groups.
In provision, we’ve been using Frayer models to explore numbers- counting the corresponding amount of cubes/teddies, finding the Numicon and representing it on a tens frame.
Phonics
Spring 1 week 2 has focused on the digraphs oo, oo, ar, or
We’ve learnt the tricky words; was, you, they
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
In provision, we’ve been playing roll and read.
Each week, we’d like to give you an idea of a game you could play at home to make reading even more exciting.
This week’s game is: Tricky Word Bingo
- Enter the list of tricky words you want to focus on into an online ‘picker’ (pickerwheel.com is an easy to use option) or write them down onto strips of paper, to be picked at random.
- Ask your child to choose 4-6 tricky words and write them down (they can copy these from a list), you should do the same and you could even ask a sibling to play along too!
- Pick the tricky words at random or by clicking the wheel- who will be the first to cross off all of their words and shout BINGO?!!
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 I can build a snowman
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!
Help at home; Superheroes
Next week, our focus story is about a very special veggie superhero (can you guess what it is?)
We would love for your child to draw and write about their favourite superhero. It could be their favourite character or a real-life person who is a superhero to them- perhaps they know someone who helps others in their job, raises money for charity or is generally just super!
Please send them into class to be shown or email photos over to the usual email address:
scholesreception@spherefederation.org
Cancelled swim session
There will be no swimming (for Rainbow Class) on Wednesday 31.01.24.
Abbey House trip – 1,2B
We had a fabulous fun-filled day at Abbey House Museum today, learning about life in the past. The children asked and answered some interesting questions. They represented Scholes Elmet Primary School brilliantly.
Abbey House museum
We have had a fantastic time at Abbey House museum today. All of our learning links with our current History topic.
Vikings: primary and secondary sources
In this week’s history learning, we learnt about primary and secondary sources of historical evidence and how to judge their reliability when learning about the past.
primary source: a source of information created at the time (artefacts, newspaper articles)
secondary source: a source of information created after the event (drawings, reconstructions)
Help at home: See if your child can tell you what happened at Lindisfarne in 793AD.
3,4 C Class News
This week, we have had an informative visit from Hazel at d:side about the dangers of smoking.
In History, we have learned about when the Romans invaded Britain and why they invaded. Challenge your child to explain why.
In Reading, we have completed some drama to explore the feelings of different characters, after reading an extract taken from Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach.
Help at home by regularly reading and supporting your child to access Numbots and TT Rock Stars.
Living and Learning – Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
Across all classes in Year 3,4, we have been learning about drugs, alcohol and tobacco. The definition we have learnt is that a drug is a substance that changes the way the body or mind works.
We had a visit from local charity D:Side where we learnt about the dangers of smoking and a huge variety of facts. These included there being 4000 chemicals in a cigarette. The children listened really well and made some thoughtful contributions.
Help at home by asking your child which facts they can remember. 
Class novel : The Bog Baby
As our class novel, and focus book for reading and writing learning, we have been reading The Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis.
It is a lovely story and has enabled us to infer the characters’ feelings from the pictures and text. We have also talked about wild animals and nature.
We have used extracts to work on our reading fluency, identify conjunctions and use our phonics to spell words. The children have also written some sentences using conjunctions too.
Help at home by talking about The Bog Baby story. What would you do if you found a beautiful little creature? There is a video version here, read by the author. (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)