Harvest time
Thank you for your generous donations for our Harvest Festival on Tuesday. We watched a short clip together and talked about harvest time. Outside, children have really enjoyed playing in the farm small world area and ‘harvesting’ the vegetables on the farm. We’ve also enjoyed sorting farm animals in our maths area (by type and size), singing ‘Old Mac Donald had a farm’ and completing some farm animal jigsaws.
We continued learning about autumn and used all of the treasure that we’d collected in our autumn bags to create some Andy Goldsworthy inspired art outside. We looked at some of his art and talked about what he had used and the shapes that we could see. We noticed leaves, sticks and stones and lots of circle shapes. Children also enjoyed playing in our new woodland small world area in the Sunshine room. What animals might you find in the wood?
Following on from an interest in ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ last week, children have enjoyed mixing porridge oats and re-telling the story with their friends.
We’ve been busy ‘mark making’ in a number of ways, including drawing and also dipping conkers in paint to see what marks they make when they roll!
Reminders
- Nursery closes on Friday 21 October for the half term holiday. We will see you again on Tuesday 1 November following the training day, when school is closed, on Monday 31 October.
- If you are thinking of increasing or changing your child’s sessions at Nursery, please speak to Mrs Beesley or Mrs Long this week.
Another fantastic week!
Phonics
This week, the children have learnt the phonemes (the sound a letter makes) h, b, f and l. They’ve also been practicing writing the graphemes (the written letters). We have been challenging the children by asking them to spell words using the letters that they know. This week your child has been spelling the words; dog, ten, red, mum and kid. Can your child tell you what phonemes (the sound a letter makes) they can hear in these words?
|
d-o-g |
t-e-n | r-e-d | m-u-m |
k-i-d |
This week, your child has learnt the tricky word; the. A tricky word is a word you cannot sound out – you just have to know it by sight! The children now know THREE tricky words; I, is and the. You could write these words on paper and stick them around your house. Keep challenging your child to read the tricky words. The more practice the better since they need to be learnt by sight!
Maths
This week, we have been listening to sounds on a drum and counting the beats we can hear. The children have been practicing counting these in their head quickly too! They have also been exploring how they can show a number on their fingers in different ways.
Clap slowly and ask your child how many claps they heard. Ask them to show you on their fingers how many claps they heard. Can they show you in a different way on their fingers?
Henri Matisse
We have been listening to the story Henri’s scissors and have learnt about the artist Henri Matisse. The children have enjoyed looking at his artwork which has inspired their own creative work!
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.
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 Leaves are falling.
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?
Phonics stay and play
Thank you to all parents who came to the stay and play on Wednesday. It was fantastic to see so many of you there! We hope you went away with ideas of how you can support your child’s learning at home. The children were really proud to show you their classroom and fantastic learning. Any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
If you were unable to attend, you should have received an information booklet – we hope this helps. There are lots more stay and plays planned throughout the year too:-
Stay and Play 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.
Marvellous Maths – Thursday 17 November 9.00 – 9.30
Funky Phonics Phase 3 – Monday 16 January 9.00 – 9.30
Fiddly Fingers – Friday 03 February 2.50 – 3.20
World Book Day – Thursday 02 March 9.00 – 9.30
Learn at home phonics sheet
Today, your child has come home with a ‘learn at home’ phonics sheet. The sheets link to our current learning in phonics and will be sent home each Friday. Please support your child by practising their new sounds and reading skills at home.
Home link
Your child will have received an autumn collecting bag on Friday. Please enjoy going on a walk together over the next few days and see what ‘autumn treasure’ you can find. When you’ve filled your bag, please return it to Reception for us to share and talk about. Next week, we will be learning lots about seasonal changes, autumn and reading the story the Leaf man.
Junior Leadership Team Elections
It’s that time of year again where we vote for new members of the Junior Leadership Team. Do you fancy being the representative for your class? Can you listen well to other people’s ideas and opinions? Do you want to make a difference in our school? Then this is the role for you.
Make sure you take a look at this weeks homework – you will need to get writing a speech. It will need to convince others that you are the best candidate – there will be lots of competition! Make sure you mention your strengths, qualities, what you’d like to change in school and any other useful skills you might have.
Good luck!
Geography topic review morning – Year 2s
We had a topic review morning today with the Year 2 children – recapping learning from last year. We particularly looked at the big concepts of PLACE, SPACE, SCALE and INTERDEPENDENCE.
We used concentric circles to show how Scholes is in Leeds, Leeds is in England, England is in Europe and Europe is in the world.
We looked at human and physical features in different environments.
We marked the equator, southern and northern hemispheres on a ball.
We also played North, South, East, West to review the points of a compass.
5/6A Class Assembly
Just a quick reminder that Class 5/6A will be hosting our Class Assembly this coming Friday afternoon, and we can’t wait to welcome parents, grandparents and family members into school. The pupils have been working really hard in putting the assembly together to showcase all of their learning over the past 6 weeks.
3,4C Class News
Over the last week, we have been working really hard in 3,4C.
In History, we have researched information about Ancient Greek inventions and creations. They created theatre, introduced democracy and invented the Olympic Games. We have also been debating if we would rather be a Spartan or an Athenian in Ancient Greek times.
In Reading, we have looked at different examples of discussion texts, considering the arguments for and against wearing school uniform. Next week, we are going to write our own discussion text.
We are continuing to work on our number facts and times tables using Numbots and Times Tables Rock Stars. You can help at home by encouraging your child to count, recall number facts and log on regularly.
As a class, we collected many items for our Harvest collection – thank you to everyone who donated.
Well done 3,4C!
Science – looking for seasonal changes on our autumn walk
All the key stage 1 classes had a lovely autumnal walk around our school grounds on Monday. We returned our conker collection back into the food chain and looked for signs of autumn too.
Help at home by talking about seasonal changes you can see : the days getting shorter, leaves falling from trees and animals hibernating.
‘I respect myself’
Today we have been discussing our Living and Learning statement, ‘I respect myself.’ The class came up with many reasons why we are all different. As a class, we came to the conclusion that we are all different and unique. We respect our differences as well as other peoples.
We then created lots of different characters on A4 paper. We started by drawing a head. We then folded our paper and passed it on to another person in the class. We repeated this until each character had a full body. Take a look at some of our weird and wonderful creations!
Autumn walk – all Y1 and Y2 children bring wellies on Monday 10th October!
We are going on an autumn walk around the school grounds on Monday. Please bring a pair of wellies as the field is muddy!
Class 5/6A News
Hard to believe that we only have two weeks of this half-term left! Let’s catch up on what Class 5/6A have been getting up to this week.
A big thank you to everyone who came to see us in our Watch Us While We Work session earlier this week. It was great to be able to welcome you into our classrooms, and we hope you came away from the session with some useful tools to support your child’s learning at home.
Ancient Egypt has been the focus for the majority of our learning this week. In Reading, we held a debate on whether Howard Carter (who discovered the intact tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922) was a positive figure in history. Our pupils used a variety of resources to build a case for their argument, and then practiced their debating, reasoning and listening skills to discuss the question.
In Topic, we have looked at how the Ancient Egyptians used the River Nile to survive and prosper, and wrote our names on papyrus in hieroglyphics. Science saw us delve into the murky world of bacteria and microbes, and building on our learning from earlier in the term, use Carl Linnaeus’ classification system to create a key for various microbes.
Good luck to all of our Year 6 pupils who will be competing in the cross-country competition at Brigshaw High School on Monday. We wish you the best of luck! Next Friday sees Class 5/6A hosting their class assembly. We look forward to welcoming the parents and families of Class 5/6A into school for our performance.
Just time to look back on our certificate winners for this week.
Living and Learning – Gene. Showing real maturity with his answers in class discussions, providing thoughtful responses and always showing respect to his classmates.
Sport – Bethany C. Gave 110% in our circuit training this week. Tackled every exercise with enthusiasm and a huge smile on her face.
Great learning – Amelia. Constantly produces well-presented work in all subjects, a willingness to learn and makes the right choice first time, every time!
Have a lovely weekend!