Living and Learning: Staying Safe Week
What a fantastic Staying Safe Week we’ve had! Earlier on in the week we had a talk from the RNLI. We learned about the difference between the flags on the beach and how to float in water.
Darren talk about first aid was very informative. Serveral topics were discussed: choking, first aid kits, the recovery position, the lazy W and asthma.
Help at Home: Discuss how the lessons learned in school can help outside of school.
First Aid
Calling 999 is serious business. We know we only call 999 in emergencies. Today 1/2B and 2C had a special visitor who came to talk to us about when we might need to call 999., particularly if we want to get through to a hospital. If someone is seriously poorly and needs urgent medical attention, we can call 999 and ask for an ambulance.
We then had a go at drawing our own ambulances and we added some extra bits that we thought might make them even better for patients.
Remember – calling 999 is never a joke!
Scholes in Bloom
Some children went out to meet the Britain in Bloom judges this week. The winner of the ‘design a flowerbed’ competition came to talk about their design. We also told them about plants we have grown and our beautiful wildlife garden. We hope they were impressed!
Living and learning : Staying Safe week (Canal and River Trust visitor)
We had a visitor from the Canal and River Trust today in Key Stage 1. She told us about how to stay safe near water using the letters from the word SAFE : Stay Away from the Edge
The children were very knowledgeable and answered the questions sensibly. They know that they shouldn’t play near water alone, float like a starfish if they fall in, use a life belt to help someone and call 999.
Help at home by talking to your child about water safety.
KS1 Dogs Trust Visit
Today, to support or Safety Week, we were visited by Mrs Hill from The Dogs Trust. She introduced her little friend and talked to us about the types of things that dogs like and dislike. We learnt how these things can be different to the things that humans like and dislike. She talked about how dogs might communicate their feelings in a different way to us too. This is why we have 5 important rules to follow when we are around dogs.
Mrs Hill taught us five happy dog rules along with actions to help us to remember them.
Five Happy Dog Rules
- If a dog is resting, we leave them alone.
- If a dog is eating, we leave them alone.
- Remember to be quiet around dogs.
- Dogs don’t like hugs, they like gentle strokes.
- If a dog takes your toy, you tell a grown up.
Help at home: Talk to your child about the Happy Dog Rules and encourage them to remember them. Can they put their knowledge into practise when you are out and about this summer?
A day in the life…
Year 5 had a fantastic time visiting Wetherby High School yesterday. They got to experience what it would be like to be a high school student for the day. It was a jam-packed day that involved a lot of rushing around to different classrooms but the children took part in a great range of lessons. We began the day with French. This was a great link to the Latin learning we do in our school as the children could already work out the meaning of some french words. Science allowed us to consider which things in the world are living and non-living and they got the chance to use some scientific equipment – a microscope. Maths provided the children with lots of mind-boggling challenges! After lunch, one lucky group got to experience a high school PE lesson whilst the others turned their hand to cooking. What budding chefs they were!
Living and learning : Staying Safe week (visit from D:Side)
All the Year 1 and 2 classes have had a visit from D:Side this week. They talked about staying safe online and taught us some rules about being on the internet.
- always ask you parent or carer first
- only talk to people you know
- stick to places that are just right for you
Help at home by talking about internet safety and checking parental controls and the age guidelines for games.
Living and learning: RSE
Year 5 are continuing to complete their Relationship and sex education lessons and we have been discussing how our emotions change during puberty. The children understood that during puberty, they will expect a change in their hormones. This can impact on how they feel. We talked about how they can manage these changes, especially when they are feeling low, sad or angry. They cam up with some great ideas of how to relax and talk time to look after themselves, such as: having a bath, spending time outside, reading a book or even doing some art.
Help at home: Has your child been experiencing any changes in their emotions? How can you support your child through this?
The Snail and the Whale
The Snail and The Whale
We’ve been reading The Snail and The Whale, another book by one of our favourite authors, Julia Donaldson
We’ve been retelling the story in our own words and writing special blackboard messages, just like the snail trail messages in the story!
The book had some fantastic adventurous words to describe landscapes and actions. Our word of the week was humongous. We discussed the meaning of lots of other words too.
Can your child tell you what each of these words mean? They could use the images to remind them.
Maths
This week, we’ve re-visited the composition of 5 in various ways.
Transition
On Wednesday, the Reception children had a wonderful visit to their new Year 1 classroom. It was a delightful experience for the children as they met their new teacher and explored their future learning environment.
The children were excited and engaged, participating in fun activities to make them feel welcome and at ease. This visit was a positive step in helping the children transition smoothly into Year 1. They left with big smiles and lots of enthusiasm!
The dancing raisin experiment
Phonics
Summer 2 week 5 has focused on:
root word ending in: –er, –est
longer words
In provision, we’ve been reading words ending in –ed and sorting them by the sounds that –ed makes:
‘t’ final sound: jumped, helped, screeched etc.
‘id’ final sound: boasted, painted, printed etc.
Help at home; Sentence Substitution Throughout the school year, we’ve suggested lots of practical ways to explore phonics at home with easily made resources and games. There are also some great quality online phonics games. Sentence substitution is a great way to practise both reading and comprehension. The goal is to replace one word in the sentence, whilst ensuring that the sentence still makes sense. This is a free to access game on ‘Phonics Bloom’ Click here to play 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. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers.
This week’s poem is Sliced Bread
The children enjoyed exploring synonyms for the word nice and came up with many alternatives, such as delightful and delicious. This sparked a lot of interest in changing and adapting various parts of the poem. Check out some of their new poems!
Nell Bank
On Friday, we set of on our trip to Nell Bank. We began by listening to a story about Pete who liked to be TIDY but maybe a little bit too much.
We worked together safely to clear up a big mess! During this activity, we explored ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and discussed what would happen to litter if it was left.
Afterwards, the children had the opportunity to go on a mini-beast hunt to help Pete find lots of worms. Following this, it was time to help Pete make a new home in the woods. One of their favourite parts of the day (outside of lunch, of course) was the water play area.
Ahoy there!
Children enjoyed listening to ‘Pirates Love Underpants‘ and we’ve been busy digging for treasure in the sand tray and counting gold coins in the maths area.
During maths group times, we’re learning about positional language. Next week, we’re going to use treasure maps of the Nursery garden to find some treasure. Children will need to use lots of positional language to describe where the treasure is hidden. For example, the treasure might be next to the sandpit, underneath the bridge, behind the planter or on top of the bird table.
Help at home: Try to use positional language in your day to day conversations and during play. For example -Can you put your teddy underneath the box? The car is behind the garage. The monkey is on top of the tree. Put your shoes next to the cupboard. As you look at illustrations in a story, ask questions such as ‘Where is the cat hiding?’ or ‘What can you see in front of the fence?’
The older children have also been busy visiting Reception and have enjoyed exploring and playing in their new classrooms. We’ll continue to visit over the final few weeks as part of our transition process.
Reminders-
- Please send your child with a waterproof coat everyday. The weather is very mixed at the moment and we enjoy playing out in all weather, even when it’s warm but wet!
- A few water bottles have missing names. Please take a minute to re-label your child’s bottle if it has come off.