Meeting a real life author!
Today we had a very special virtual visitor in KS1. Popular children’s author Beth Woolvin, gave a virtual workshop all about her brilliant book, ‘Little Red.’ We read the book together and were also given a step-by-step guide on how to draw our own Little Red. The children had a fantastic time.
Art – Bridget Riley
During this half term’s topic, we have been looking at optical art by Bridget Riley. She has inspired us to create our own pieces of optical art using straight lines.
Living and Learning: self-care techniques
This week, year 5/6 have been discussing how they could improve their mental health through self-care techniques.
We watched this short video to gain a better understanding of self-care techniques and get some ideas about what we can do.
At home, set aside some time to discuss which self-care techniques work for you. Remember, not all self-care techniques work for everyone. Give them a go and if you enjoy it, try to make it a regular thing.
Some children decided that they would try deep breathing. Others suggested that spending more time with their parents might help. Finding time for yourself or being around positive people can have a dramatic influence on lowering your stress levels and boosting your engery.
Class 5/6A News
Phew! What a week that has been. Not only have the pupils crammed in a huge amount of learning, we’ve also been cheering England and Wales to World Cup glory! Let’s catch up on the goings on in Mr. Robson’s class this week.
In Maths, Year 5 have been getting to grips with mixed numbers and improper fractions, and being able to convert one into the other. One of the key skills to success in this is sold times table knowledge, which we have reinforced this week with Times Table Rockstars sessions at every opportunity. Having that solid times table knowledge helps to unlock a whole host of mathematical understanding.
Ever wondered what it’s like to interview a snowman? Well we managed to put one in the hot seat this week along with their friend Lily. Our Reading focus has been on the heart-warming Christmas tale of “Lily and the Snowman”, where a snowman magically comes to life in Lily’s garden, the two build up a strong bond only for Lily to grow up and the pair drift apart (all while the snowman lived in Lily’s fridge). Our pupils took turns to be the main characters, whilst the rest of the class used their inference skills to ask questions about how they might have felt at certain parts of the story.
Water resistance was the focus of our Science experiments this week. Tasked with investigating how changing the shape of an object affected the amount of water resistance it was subjected to, the class took part in a competition to see who could create a shape which would reach the bottom of the tank the quickest. Some very creative designs were on show, but congratulations to Amelie whose effort reached the surface in 0.38 seconds.
The class have been under strict instructions to follow instructions this week, as creating a clear and concise set of instructions is our Writing focus at present. Eary in the week they got to grips with tying a necktie, drawing a house and creating origami. We will build on this further in the coming week and identify the key language and layout that makes a good set of instructions.
There’s just time to see who our lucky certificate winners were this week:
P.E – Sam Wilkinson: Always on task, gives 110% effort in every game.
Learning – Harry: A Strong week all round for Harry, but he has particularly shone on his fractions work in Maths.
Living & Learning: Millie – A mature, confident student who is always demonstrating the best version of herself.
Enjoy the weekend!
Mr. Robson
Whatever Next!
A few week’s ago, we enjoyed reading ‘Peace at Last’ written by Jill Murphy. This week, we listened to another of her stories about a family of bears, titled ‘Whatever Next’. It’s about a little bear who went on an adventure to the moon. He used a cardboard box as a rocket, some wellies as his space boots and a colander for a space helmet. He packed some food and shot up the chimney into space. When he got there, he enjoyed a picnic with his friend owl. What would you take into space with you?
Children loved making their own rockets in the creative area using different shaped boxes and bottles. It was quite tricky working out how to attach the different parts together. Some children used PVA glue, some tried a stick of glue and for some things, only cellotape would hold the parts in place. Once the rockets were ready, there were lots of count downs!
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 BLAST OFF!
We loved singing ‘5 Little men in a flying saucer‘ and counting the aliens in our maths corner. At the dough table, we used different tools and star shaped cutters to make rockets, stars and space ships.
Outside, children enjoyed exploring some unusual objects that appeared near our space rockets.
We also had some very special visitors in Nursery at the start of the week. Children enjoyed looking after some Giant African snails and watching them crawl around the tank, eating their cucumber snack. Thank you for sharing them with us.
Reminders
- Please return the Christmas slip to let us know if you can attend one of our ‘Stay and Decorate’ sessions in December. Please see the letter for more details of dates and times.
- Remember to send your child’s costume for the Christmas concert to school as soon as possible. Please NAME all items and put them in a NAMED bag. As you can imagine, changing 20-3o children can be tricky; having items named and in a clearly named bag makes things much easier for us. Thank you.
How to catch a star
This week, we’ve been reading the book How to catch a star by Oliver Jeffers.
We’ve been retelling the story in sequence and adding actions to our retelling.
Maths
In maths, we’ve been extending our understanding of the parts that make a whole, through number composition games. The children were introduced to the part-whole model, as a way of investigating the smaller numbers (parts) that make a whole number.
Three is a part, one is a part. Four is the whole number.
We watched the ‘Stampolines’ episode of Numberblocks, linked to this week’s learning. The children have represented different patterns of four, using multilink cubes and stamping paint squares.
Phonics
This week, we learnt the digraphs (two letters that make one sound) sh, th, ng, nk. These phonemes are some of the most challenging to learn and it’s really important that we pronounce them correctly (‘th’ even has two different pronunciations; voiced and unvoiced!) The children have been superstars working on this daily, both in our phonics sessions and at other times too.
To help your child with the correct pronunciation at home, the Little Wandle website has some fantastic resources for parents. This includes videos on how to say each phoneme. Click here to find out more.
We’ve also learnt three new tricky words this week: she, he, of.
A new ‘learn at home’ phonics sheet was sent home today. Please use this and previously issued sheets, for continued learning at home.
Poetry Picnic
Each week, we will be learning a new poem. We’ll 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 Mice
Ask your child to say the poem to you at home! The words were sent home with your child on Friday. Can they remember it?
Music/ Christmas Production Preparations!
The children are enjoying our Christmas production rehearsals; learning songs and getting to know their parts. We’re looking forward to rehearsing on the big stage next week. We’re sure many of you will have been treated to a few songs at home too! Everyone is doing brilliantly. Please continue to say lines at home if your child has a speaking part. This will give them that little extra confidence, when it’s their time to shine!
Take a look at more learning from this week!
Reminders
-Swimming Dates
Please send swimming kits on the following dates:
Autumn 2
Rainbow Class- 2 Nov, 16 Nov, 30 Nov
Sunshine Class- 9 Nov, 23 Nov, 7 Dec
There will be no swimming 14 Dec
Spring 1
Rainbow Class- 4 Jan, 18 Jan, 1 Feb
Sunshine Class- 11 Jan, 25 Jan, 8 Feb
-Reception Christmas performances. 08.12.22 10am, 09.12.22 1.30pm
Please return slips for tickets to our Christmas performance, if you haven’t done so already.
– Learning Journey Drop in.
- Monday 12.12.22, 9.00-9.30am
- Tuesday 13.12.22, 9.00-9.30am
- Thursday 15.12.22, 3.30-4.00pm
An invitation for parents/carers to come into the classroom and take a look at your child’s learning journey.
-Reception Christmas Party day. 16.12.22
Your child can come to school in party clothes on this day.
Living and Learning: Mental health
Mental Health
We’ve started a three week block of living and learning lessons around mental health this week. Being able to identify and talk about feelings and emotions is an important part of mental health. In our living and learning lessons, we have shared our feelings and emotions and talked about how emotions can change and that they don’t stay the same forever. We can look after our mental health by doing this regularly.
Writing – Little Red Riding Hood
This week, we have been been reading and acting out the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The children have enjoyed creating their own actions and using prosody to retell the story.
Next week, we have the author of Little Red (Bethan Woollvin) meeting us virtually. Little Red is an alternative version of Little Red Riding Hood.
Help at home by reading alternative versions of traditional tales and discussing similarities and differences.
Inspired artists
This half-term we have been looking at artists George Seurat and Bridget Riley. We were inspired particularly by Riley’s optical art and this week we have started the process of making our own op art. Over the next few weeks, we will be creating some 2 and 3D. We will be using black and white stripes that we drew and painted this week.
Year 5 reading
This week in reading, Year 5 have been enjoying a video called ‘Lily and the snowman.’ The video is a story about a child who builds a snowman and he comes to life. When the snowman starts to melt, Lily puts him in the freezer in the garage. Each day she brings him out and they sit and share stories together. Over time, Lily forgets about the snowman and she no longer visits him. Many years later, she remembers that he is still in the freezer in the garage and that she has forgotten all about him now that she is older and has so much to do. She returns to her parents house to see if he is still there – he is! The video is about always making time for the things you love. It might make you shed a tear – I nearly did!
The children have used the video to complete lots of learning over the week. They have thought of questions they could ask Lily and the Snowman. We then did a hot-seating activity in which a child takes on the role of a character. They must answer the questions as if they are the character. The children were also able to apply their oracy skills – voice projection, prosody and clarity and pronunciation.
Have a look at the video at home with your child. What do they like/dislike about it? Can they create some questions for the video? Can they infer what the characters are thinking or feeling?