Welcome back!

It was lovely to see everyone this week and we enjoyed hearing all about your Christmas holidays.  It sounds like Santa was very busy delivering presents!

This week, we listened to ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and children loved creating their own gingerbread people with the  scented play dough. We counted out buttons and talked about the different sized cutters. This led to some discussions about ‘height’ and language including big, little, tall and short. In group time, we compared our heights to see who was tallest/shortest.

Miss Morris and Mrs Kilburn have been busy visiting all of our new families at home. Look out for some new faces in Nursery next week, and please be patient as we help our new children to settle in.

Reading stars!

This week, I have been blown away by the dedication of year 5 with their reading. Some children continued to read during the Christmas holiday and have been reading daily this week too. They have even completed a reading task. This is amazing and well done!

Help at home: please continue to read daily with your child at home. This really helps to improve their fluency and understanding. Don’t forget that there is a task set each week that needs to be completed in the journals. Please make sure you sign the journal too.

Here are some examples of the work from over the Christmas holiday.

Welcome back!

Welcome back

The children have returned to school ready to spring into action this spring half term! It has been fantastic to hear about everybody’s Christmas holidays – the children have really enjoyed confidently and articulately sharing their news.

Lost and Found

This week, in literacy we have been reading the book ‘Lost and Found’ by Oliver Jeffers. We have been retelling the story using actions and story maps.

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.

Maths – super subitising!

This week we have been practising our subitising skills. This means, we have been looking and saying how many objects we can see – without counting one by one! Ask your child how many spots they can see by subitising.

“…there’s 4 because there’s 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom – that makes 4!” Edie

“3 because there’s 2 there and 1 there – that makes 3!” Jack.

You can also practice subitising by playing board games with a dice at home with your child.

Phonics

This week, the children have learnt some new digraphs – a digraph consists of ‘two letters that make one sound’. Ask your child to tell you the sounds the digraphs below make.

ai      ee    igh   oa

Before reading a word we always look for any digraphs (two letters that make one sound). Then, we say the sound the digraph makes. Finally, we sound out the word and blend it together – using our phoneme (the sound a letter makes) fingers! This helps your child identify the digraphs (two letters that make one sound) before reading a word.

Here is a video modelling how we do this in school. This is something you can do with your child when reading their book at home.

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. This week’s poem is ‘Let’s put on our mittens’.

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm. Can your child tell you if this week’s poem is fast or slow?

PE

This week, Sunshine class had their first Foot-Tech session. They were excellent listeners and played lots of fun games to keep fit and healthy.

Library

This week, we have visited the school library. Your child will have bought a library book home. Please enjoy reading and sharing this at home.

Please return your child’s library book to school on Thursday’s so that your child can choose a different book – if they are ready to change it.

Reminders

Swimming/Football

Spring 1 –  swimming

Rainbow Class- 4 Jan, 18 Jan, 1 Feb

Sunshine Class- 11 Jan, 25 Jan, 8 Feb

When your child is not swimming, they will be taking part in Foot Tech Football sessions. Please ensure your child comes in PE kit every Wednesday, including suitable trainers.

Living and Learning: I know what a drug is

We start the new year with drug education.

• I know what a drug is.
• I know that some drugs are harmful.

This week,  we focus on the reasons why we use household products and medicines and the importance of using them safely. Our pupil explore a range of medicine labels and instructions and assess risk in different situations. They identify how to minimise/prevent further risk to help prevent accidents from occurring.

Even young children can begin to develop an understanding of drugs.

Talk to your child about medicines – they’re helpful drugs, but only when used by the right people in the right way. Older children can develop this understanding in terms of other drugs like alcohol – talk about age restrictions and drinking in moderation.

In today’s lesson, we looked at empty medicine packaging with partners. The aim was to find the all the information someone would need before taking the medicine, and how they were labelled. 

Living and Learning – Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco

This week in Living and Learning across Years 3 and 4, we have been talking about medicines and how they can help us. We have also talked about the risks and what we can do to reduce the risks, including the importance of following the instructions of a doctor and our adult at home.

Help at home by discussing with your child further how we can be safe with chemicals in our home, whether it relates to medicines, cleaning products or toiletries for example.

Living and learning : I know what a safe drug is

Today in our Living and Learning lesson, we discussed what drugs are used for, when we should take them, who can provide them and how to safely store them.

We each shared stories about a time where we have been poorly and what types of medicine helped us to get better. We then acted out a number of scenarios to show our understanding of illness, what to do when poorly, who to tell and who to trust to give us medicine. We also learnt that we should only ever have medicine when we are poorly and never take somebody else’s medicine.

One child said ‘My Mummy keeps all of the medicine in a cupboard that I can’t reach. It keeps me safe.’

3,4B: Our New Class Novel!

Happy New Year everyone and welcome back.

We’ve had a super first week so far in 3,4B and we can’t wait for the rest of the year.

Our new class novel is ‘The Firework Maker’s Daughter‘. We’ll be reading this every day in class and enjoying hearing about Lila’s awesome adventure as she attempts to find the final secret in her quest to become a real firework maker.

Help at home by…

• asking your child what’s happened in the novel recently
• asking your child what they are enjoying about the book (note that this is a subtly different question to ‘Are you enjoying the book?’ where ‘No’ would be a perfectly suitable, but not that useful, answer).
• asking you child to summarise what’s happened in the book so far

Enjoying a class novel is one aspect of our reading diet in school. We know how important reading is for academic and life success so we place a huge emphasis on it. That’s why we expect you to be reading regularly at home with your child: it’s crucial! 

If you’re having problems getting your child to read at home, please let us know and we’ll do our best to help.

Here’s to a great (reading-full) 2023!

Living and learning: I know what a drug is.

As part of our ‘Being safe’ theme, we have been discussing what a drug is, including alcohol. The children were encouraged to think about how they would manage risk and deal with influences and pressure. We talked about why people might choose to use drugs, smoke or drink alcohol. What would they say if they were placed in a scenario where they were offered any of these drugs? When discussing how to manage such scenarios, some strategies they could apply included being passive and not actively joining in. Other options included being more willing to confront people about what they were doing.

Help at home: ask your child if they know where to get help if they’re worried about drugs or being safe. They could talk to a trusted adult. Do they know who their trusted adults are? They could also contact Childline on 0800 1111 or even contact the police using 111.

Welcome Back!

Hopefully both parents and children feel rested and ready to start a new year. What a half term we have coming up.

Our main topic focus will be geography this half term. As geographers we will be exploring the environment and natural disaters. In this topic, we’ll look at the effects of global warming and discuss the use of fossil fuels and renewable energy. We’ll be using digital resources to look at how erosion has taken place over the last 100 years and how sea defences, such as groynes, help to minimise the effects.

In science we’ll be venturing further afield (not literally) into space as we explore the relationship between the Earth, Sun and Moon. We’ll resreach how opinions about space have changed over the years.

Our Living and Learning theme this half term is being safe. In the next two weeks, we’ll be discussing some influences associated with drugs and alcohol.

At home,  continue to discuss our topics and perhaps carry out some reaseach for yourself. Keep an eye out for our moon study homework in the next few days.  

School applications- September 2023

Have you applied for your child’s school place yet for September 2023?

Children born between 1 September 2018 and 31 August 2019 are due to start primary school in September 2023.

You must apply on-line for your child’s primary school place. Applications must be submitted before 15 January 2023.

If you haven’t received an e-mail about applying for a place, you must contact Leeds City Council .

Leeds City Council recommend choosing five schools to give your child the best chance of getting a place at a school you prefer. Children that attend Scholes (Elmet) Primary School Nursery are NOT guaranteed a place in Reception. 

Please visit the Leeds.gov.uk website for more information.