Science – taste
In Science, KS1 have been looking at the 5 sense. This week the sense we focussed on was taste. During this week’s Science lesson, we tasted 3 different pieces of food. We smelled the food first because we know that our sense of smell links to our taste buds.
After we tasted the food we described it in our books. We decided:
- lemon is sour
- dark chocolate is bitter
- crisps are salty
- biscuits are sweet
We had a lot of fun in this lesson.
Living and learning: I take part in democratic decisions
As a school we pride ourselves on the idea of promoting democracy. We really value pupil voice and being part of the Junior Leadership Team is a way that children can make positive changes around school and have their voice hear. This week, we’re holding the elections for a new JLT team. The children in 5,6B have been busy writing their speeches at home and read them aloud in class yesterday. The children spent last night pondering over who they will vote for in the elections today. Who will be lucky enough to be elected? Let’s wait and see!
Tom Palmer local events
This year, some children at school attended an online workshop with author Tom Palmer. Tom Palmer has been in touch to let us know about some local events he is attending in half term.
Message from Tom
For children and families – I am also coming to Leeds on Thursday 2 November
2023 :
* Farsley Book Festival – 10am-11am more here
https://trumanbooks.co.uk/event/flf-kids-day
* Chapel Allerton Library – 2pm
* Pudsey Community Hub and Library – 4pm
Living and Learning – Democracy
This week we are learning about democracy and what that means for us and for others. We know that grown ups have a democratic vote to choose who they want to lead the country in a fair way. During a vote, everyone gets the opportunity to have their say and the majority of votes will decide who or what the winner is. School will be holding a democratic vote for the new members of the JLT this week. In class, we practised by voting for a story to share. The book with the most votes was read and shared with everyone.
Geography Fieldwork: How much carbon is stored within trees in our locality?
Over the last half term, we have been learning about Geography.
During this topic, we have learned that trees are really important for a number of reasons. One of these is that they store carbon in their trunks, roots and branches. Because carbon dioxide is a gas that contributes to climate change, the more carbon that can be stored, the better.
In order to work out how much carbon is stored in our locality, we went out into Scholes and measured the girth of different trees.
Help at home: Which of our vocabulary can your child remember?
From these measurements, we are able to work out how much carbon each tree stores and work out a total for Scholes by using our sample.
In our geography lessons this week, we will be collating our results and working out the total amount of carbon stored.
Come back later this week to read our results!
For ways to help plant more trees in our locality, visit: https://www.leeds.gov.uk/campaign/trees
Philosophy Friday!
Every morning, children have a morning task as soon as they arrive at school.
This could be practising their number facts, times tables, spelling, reading skills and more! This is one reason why it’s vitally important that your child arrives at school on time.
On Fridays, our morning task is a little different. Fridays are now… Philosophy Friday! On these mornings, children are given the task to ‘think and be ready to share’ about a given statement.
These have included: We rely too much on technology; What is the meaning of a good life?; If you discover buried treasure, is it yours?; and more!
Help at home: have discussions with your child and give them the opportunity to develop their thinking skills by asking thought provoking questions!
Geography in 1,2B – fieldwork
We carried out some fieldwork as part of our geography topic this week.
We identified and counted trees on our school field.
We also returned to 1372 conkers we collected by throwing them into the bushes. The squirrels will now have plenty of food and we hope maybe some will become trees too!
Help at home by looking at the leaves, seeds or berries on different trees and trying to identify them. The Woodland Trust have some ways to help on their website. This guide could also help.
3,4 C Maths, Topic and Book Club
What a great week of learning!
In Maths, Year 3 have continued to learn how to add three-digit numbers using the column method. In Year 4, the children have continued to round numbers; next week they will be starting a unit of work on addition.
In topic, we have applied our maths skills to identify and write grid references.
At home, use Times Tables Rock Stars and Numbots to improve fluency and recall of key facts. This will help your child in all areas of maths.
In Book Club, we celebrated reading, shared books and looked at some of the wonderful work completed at home as part of the reading challenge. At home, continue to read regularly with your child and make sure the book challenge is completed each week. Please ensure that your child brings their book and signed reading record to Book Club each Friday.
Well done 3,4 C.
Autumnal weather
It has definitely been a week of mixed weather; we’ve enjoyed playing in the sunshine and dancing in the rain! Children loved taking part in an obstacle course – they balanced carefully along the beams and across the stepping stones and took turns to crawl through the tunnels.
On the rainy days, we enjoyed singing and dancing to some ‘bean bag‘ songs. Children waved the bean bags high and low, balanced them on different body parts and skipped around them.
We continue to talk about autumn time and have been looking at some artwork by Andy Goldsworthy. Children used the ‘autumn treasure’ from their bags to create their own patterns and pictures.
Help at home: Our nursery rhyme for this week is ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep‘. Sing the rhyme together at home. Does your child know the words? Can they say the end of each line if you miss out the last word? E.g. Baa Baa Black Sheep, have you any….? You might like to change the words and create your own version, too.
Nursery Library and Wish List
- In the entrance to Nursery, we have a selection of books that you’re welcome to borrow. Please sign them out and tick when you return them. We hope you enjoy sharing the stories at home together.
- We also have a ‘Wish List’ board in Nursery where we sometimes add things that we need to enhance provision and learning in Nursery. We’ve added a few items for the next two weeks, so please take a look and if you are able to help out, please take the post-it note and bring in the item when you can. Thank you in advance for your help and donations.
Henri’s Scissors
Henri’s Scissors
We’ve been reading Henri’s Scissors, by Jeanette Winter
The story is a biographical children’s book, about the artist Henri Matisse. Our word of the week was artist. We had lots of discussions about types of art, introducing new vocabulary such as sculptor/sculpture and collaging.
We’ve been artists ourselves by “painting with scissors”, just like Matisse!
Art talk
We’ve been using our language and communication skills to respond to different examples of artwork by Matisse. We’ve been saying what we like/dislike about it and answering questions like: “Why do you think the artist painted this?”, “which is your favourite and why?”
I like the picture because it looks like my mummy’s shirt- Sofia
I can see flowers and lemons. I would choose this one to put on my wall ’cause I really like it- Dawson
I like the rainbow colours- Leila
Maths; counting principles
In Maths, we’ve been using our subitising skills to identify patterns to 4.
We’ve practised spotting changes, to see whether there is more/fewer/the same and identifying the changes we can see.
We’ve also shown different representations of 4, using multilink cubes. This was inspired by our introduction to Numberblock 4!
In provision, we’ve been continuing and creating repeating patterns of 3.
Stay and learn- phonics phase 2
Thank you to the parents/carers who were able to join us on Thursday for our stay and learn activities and coffee morning. We hope you enjoyed a little insight into daily phonics sessions in Reception. If you were unable to attend or would like to revisit the slides shown in the presentation, you can find them here. We look forward to inviting you to more stay and learn sessions throughout the school year.
Phonics
Autumn 1 week 4 has focused on the new phonemes:
h,b,f,l
We’ve also learnt the tricky word; the
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’. In the, it’s all tricky! the /th/ is tricky because we don’t yet know that sound and the ‘e’ makes the /ə/sound (“uh”)
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 Leaves are falling
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; autumn leaves
If you go out on a walk this weekend, we’d really appreciate donations of dry leaves to help us with an art project next week. We will be making a leaf bowl.
Dates for your diary
Halloween disco- 20.10.23-3.15-4.15 Please send a named change of clothes in a bag for the end of the day. Collection from the classroom door.
We have changed the timing of some our stay and learn session to incorporate an opportunity for you to meet with your child’s teacher and other parents at a coffee morning.
Stay and learn sessions
This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about the Early Years Curriculum and watch your child learning in school.
Maths – 15.11.23 – 09.00 – 10.00
Phonics Phase 3 – 16.01.24 – 09.00 – 10.00 (with coffee morning)
Fine Motor Control and Writing –06.02.24 – 09.00 – 10.00 (with coffee morning)
World Book Day- 07.03.24 – 8.50- 9.20
Learning Journey Drop In’s
An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them.
Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm (Tuesday and Thursday)
Week beginning 11.12.23
Week beginning 25.03.24
Week beginning 08.07.24
Swimming
Due to work being done on the pool, next week’s swimming lessons for Rainbow Class are cancelled. Please still send children to school in their PE kit, as they will take part in a Foot-tech PE session. We will keep you updated of any future changes in each week’s class news post.
