Geography – Never Eat Shredded Wheat!
This week KS1 have been learning about 4 points on a compass; North, East, South and West.
We came up with a few rhymes to remember each of the points on the compass.
We like ‘Never Eat Silly Worms’ the best!
We had some brilliant discussions about compasses, how they work and how they help us with directions. We even labelled our classrooms with each compass point. During the lesson, each class went out onto the KS2 playground to ‘hunt’ for the compass. Once we found it we discussed where each arrow pointed to. We played some games so that the children had the chance to practise which direction each letter on the compass points to.
See some of our photographs below!
Science – sound
This week in 2C Science we have been learning about the ears and their purpose. We know that our ears help us to hear different sounds.
We played lots of different instruments at different volumes. We learnt that it was easier to hear the sounds that were played the loudest (by hitting them, or blowing into them, on banging on them). We also learnt that it was more difficult to hear the quieter sounds.
Old MacDonald had a farm
Children loved the new small world farm area this week. We sorted the animals into different pens and sang ‘Old MacDonald had a farm‘ as we played. Children enjoyed adding the animal sound effects to the song; we’re sure you could hear the ‘moooooos’ and ‘baaaaaass’ throughout school!
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: Sing ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’ together to help your child become familiar with the words and tune. 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.
This week, we listened to the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and used the puppets in the story corner to re-tell the story with our friends. The construction area has also been popular. We saw some great team work as children worked together to build a boat. They added seats and some lights and set off on an adventure, sailing through a storm (on the windy day!).
We’ve also enjoyed picnics in the home corner and scooping, pouring and using sieves with fine sand in the sensory area.
Next week, we’ll begin to learn about autumn and we’ll read the popular story, ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. Look out for a little brown bag in your child’s folder – we’d like you to fill it with autumn treasure and return it to Nursery.
Reminders:
- Thank you to everyone that has e-mailed a family photograph for our home corner display. Don’t worry if you haven’t sent it yet, there’s still time! Please send it to scholesnursery@spherefederation.org
- We play outside in all weather – please remember to send your child with a waterproof coat everyday.
The Everywhere Bear
The Everywhere Bear
We’ve been reading The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson.
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- Lissy and Monty. Lissy and Monty will be coming home with a child each weekend, along with a book to record their adventures.
Rainbow Class- The Everywhere Bear 
On Thursday, we watched a specially streamed video of our focus author (Julia Donaldson), as she spoke about her new book The Oak Tree. We also watched the illustrator of the book demonstrate how she created her digital illustrations.
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’.
In our groups we’ve been counting knocks we can hear, making marks and counting them and counting different quantities of small objects.
Maps; Exploring maps of our local area
Our focus story has led us to discussions about journeys we have been on. We’ve been exploring some maps of our local area and next week, we’ll begin to make our own maps. We will also we taking a real walking journey around Scholes!
Philosophy Friday
Did you know, each Friday morning we take part in Philosophy Friday? In Reception, we use this time to focus on asking questions that encourage the children to think beyond the ‘here and now’. We are starting with some ‘Would you rather…’ questions. Last week’s question was: ‘would you rather have a jungle, or water outside your house?’
Phonics
Autumn 1 week 3 has focused on the new phonemes:
g,o,c,k
We’ve also learnt our first tricky word; is
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’. In is, the ‘s’ is tricky because it makes the /z/ sound.
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
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!
More pictures of our learning this week…
Help at home; Autumn Walks
Dates for your diary; time changes
We have changed the timing of some our stay and learn session to incorporate anopportunity 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.
Phonics Phase 2 – 12.10.23 – 9.00 – 10.00 (with coffee morning)
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.
3,4 C Class News – Geography and PE
Our topic this half term is, Where in the world am I? This week, the children have enjoyed looking at a map of Scholes. We have discussed the different symbols that can be found on a map and why people use maps. Today, we have discussed and used the compass points.
In PE, we have developed control and accuracy when passing the ball in football.
Well done to everyone who remembered their books and reading records today. At home, you can listen to your child read and encourage them to play on Times Tables Rock Stars. Please let us know if you have any problems logging on.
Have a great weekend.
Living and Learning
This week’s Living and Learning statement is ‘I know that rights come with responsibilities’.
Within KS1 this week we have been discussing our rights. We talked about our rights and responsibilities within our local community, our city and within school. Here are some of the ideas the children came up with:
‘I have the right to an education. I have the responsibility to try my best.’
‘I have the right to live in a clean village. I have the responsibility to make sure I pick up litter and use the bins.
We also had a look at several flashcards and took part in some role play.
3,4 B Class News
A wonderful week of learning in 3,4B this week!
In Science we have been looking at animal skeletons and classifying them based on a range of different criteria. The children worked in pairs to do this and worked fantastically in a collaborative way – having great discussions and offering each other help and support when needed.
In Geography this week, as part of our topic- ‘Where in the world am I?’ we have looked at compass points and then applied this knowledge by looking at a map of Roundhay and deciding where locations are in relation to each other.
Help at home by regularly listening to your child read and discussing the content to develop understanding. Feel free to quiz us on the counties in the United Kingdom and the points of a compass too!
Living and Learning – Rights and Responsibilities
This week in Living and Learning, we have been talking about what rights and responsibilities are.
We discussed how a right is a moral or legal entitlement to have or do something and talked about the rights that we all have, such as the right to an education.
We have also discussed how a responsibility is an obligation to behave in a certain way.
For example, 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.
Crazy about conkers in 1,2B
We’re collecting conkers to use in our maths lessons. It’s helping us count in tens and add bigger numbers. We have 357 so far!
Science: we are physicists
5,6B have continued to learn about forces this week and investigated air resistance further. The children constructed their parachutes using plastic bags, Plasticine, paperclips and string. They ensured their 3 parachutes had different surface areas. They predicted that the parachute with the smaller surface area would fall first as it has less surface area and therefore less drag.
The children dropped the parachutes multiple times and worked out an average drop time. Next week, we’ll evaluate the results and reach a conclusion about our findings.
Help at home: Ask your child about variables. What was the control, dependent and independent variable in the investigation?