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Farmyard Hullabaloo

It has been a fun-filled farm themed week!

We have continued our learning on our topic Life on Earth, by exploring animals that may live and work on a farm.

We began our week by reading Farmyard Hullabaloo.

Farmer Time

We had a very exciting video call with a farmer named Luke. The children were very eager to find out about Luke, his animals, and life on a farm.

On the call, we learnt about Farmer Luke’s farm and what types of jobs he does. We even got to join him on a drive to see his neighbour’s cows!

The children confidently asked their questions and listened carefully to his answers.

What is it like being a farmer? Charlotte

What jobs do you do? Sienna

How loud are you animals? Liezah

How do you plant seeds? Norah

What tractor do you have? Albert

Butterflies

Everyone was very excited to see the newly hatched butterflies on Monday morning. The children enjoyed observing them closely and looking at the details on their wings and bodies.

By the afternoon, it was time to release them outside. It was wonderful to watch them fly around our wildflower garden and some children also had the opportunity to hold them.

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 The Fox.

Phonics

This week we have focused on reading root words with the suffix ing, ed and est.

plumpest   swimming   melted   helped

We’ve learnt the tricky words; out and today.

Help at home- Please continue to work through the weekly learn at home phonics sheets. We’ll continue to send these home each Friday.

Reminders

Sun cream – Please remember to bring in a labelled sun cream, ready for those hot spring days.  As your child will need to independently apply their sunscreen, please practise this at home.

Thursday 23 May – Farmyard Festival: (Letter sent home) Please don’t go to the expense of buying anything new – creative adaptations of something you’ve already got will be fantastic.  Outfits need to be suitable for school, safe and warm/cool enough to be worn all day.

Friday 24 May- School Closed: Training Day

SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1

Sunshine– 22 May

Reading – poetry

We have been enjoying ‘There’s a Rang-tan in my bedroom’, a poem that links to our geography topic. It identifies the threat that humans pose to the Amazon Rainforest and the diverse ecosystem that lives there. The children were quite moved by the poem. They were given the opportunity to perform the poem, drawing on their oracy skills. They used prosody, read with fluency and pace and portrayed the emotions brilliantly. They are definitely becoming more confident at reading aloud.

Help at home: Find a poem that you can read aloud together at home. Can your child read it fluently and with expression and self-assurance?

School Journalist: The Transition to High School

This week, we’ve another update from our now lone reporter, Jimmy in Y6.

The transition from primary school to secondary school can seem daunting. Our year 6s have just entered their final term at Scholes. It is a good time to check in with our leavers about what lies ahead for them and to look back at their time at Scholes.

I interviewed Thomas, Alex and Emma on this topic to find out their thoughts.

What has been your greatest moment in primary school?
Emma: Getting a school job.
Thomas: When I did some very good cooking that expanded my horizon around flavours and recipes
because my passion is cooking.
Alex: Probably when I scored a volley from the halfway line two days in a row in football earlier this
year! (Editor’s note: I know this is true as I was on the same pitch!)

How do you think that high school will be different to primary school?
Emma: We’re going to have to move around different classrooms a lot.
Thomas: It will feel a lot more grown up because we will have to take ourselves to our own
classrooms and there will be a lot more responsibility.
Alex: There will be a lot more people, much harder learning and a lot more homework, but I can cope
with that.

What are you most worried about going into high school?
Emma: Making new friends because all of my friends are going to different high schools.
Thomas: All the new people and different personalities that I will face.
Alex: The teachers and how strict they’re going to be.

It is very normal to feel this way and have anxieties about moving to secondary school. I interviewed a year 7 from Lawnswood school who I know through an out of school activity. She said that within her first month at high school, she had already made a new circle of friends and had found it
surprisingly easy to settle in.

Well that’s all, folks. See you next week

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This week, we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. As a class, we created a story map to help retell the story. We used time connectives to develop our story language.

First,   Next,   After that,   Finally,  

In our writing, we have been composing sentences to retell main events of the story. Some children chose to adapt the story by changing the main character and food.

The reading challenge this week was to create a story map.

Maths

This week, we have continued to develop our subitising skills (see the quantity without counting) in complex arrangements.

We have explored creating arrangements of 6. The children explained how they could see 6.

Phonics

This week, we have continued to learn phase 4 words such as frog, shift, chimp and drum.

We’ve also learnt more phase 4 tricky words; some, come, love and do

Help at home- Please continue to work through the weekly learn at home phonics sheets, throughout the Summer term. We’ll continue to send these home each Friday.

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 Under a Stone. Watch here.

Living and Learning

I know the importance of sleep.

The children thought about different reasons we need sleep and how to get a good night’s sleep.

It can sometimes make your eyes sting. (screens)

It wont help her brain. If she’s distracted she wont go to sleep. (iPad)

You shouldn’t have any screen one hour before bed.

If you put a calming song on your might go to sleep.

Science

The children have been amazed at the rapid growth of the caterpillars. Each day, we have observed how they have changed and recorded what we noticed

They are massive now!

They have got too big for their skin.

They are moulting.

Reminders and Dates

SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1

Rainbow Class-  1 May, 15 May

Sunshine Class- 8 May, 22  May

The Bad-Tempered Ladybird

We’re excited to be back together for a happy and healthy Summer term!

This half term is called Life on Earth. We’ll be exploring minibeasts, wild animals, farm animals and the human body.

The Bad-Tempered Ladybird

This week, we’ve been reading The Bad-Tempered Ladybird by Eric Carle.

There was lots to explore in this story; feelings and appropriate behaviours, clocks/time and the comparative sizes of animals.

Frustrated is our ‘word of the week’.

In our writing, we’ve written things that make us feel happy and things that might make us feel sad or angry, like that bad-tempered ladybird!

Art; clay modelling

We’ve been using clay to make minibeasts. We looked at pictures and photos of minibeasts, before making our models. We had spiky caterpillars, wiggly worms and crawly spiders to name just a few! Clay is great for our fine motor skills. We have to work hard to mould, pull, press and shape.  We’ll be continuing with our clay creations into next week.

Maths

In Maths, we’ve been counting beyond ten- to twenty. We’ve been suggesting ways to make counting easier, when we are faced with a lot of objects to count.

We’ve also been counting things that cannot be moved, or things that cannot be seen (such as sounds/actions)

In provision, we explored doubles through doubling ladybirds and recorded our findings.

Help at home- Challenge your child to count more than ten objects. Can they count the pegs on the washing line? Can they count toys in their toy box? Can they count books on a book shelf? Don’t forget to send in photos of counting at home!

Caterpillars

We’ve got some new additions to the classroom, as this week some very tiny caterpillar friends arrived! We’ve been observing them and have been writing about the caterpillar life cycle. Some of us also wrote down how we will keep them safe. We can’t wait to see them change and grow over the next few weeks.

Phonics

Summer 1 week 1 has been an introduction to reading phase 4 words. We’ve also learnt our first phase 4 tricky words; said, so, have, like

Help at home- Please continue to work through the weekly learn at home phonics sheets, throughout the Summer term. We’ll continue to send these home each Friday.

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 Pitter Patter

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.

click below to watch us recite this week’s poem!

Pitter Patter

More pictures of our learning this week…

Reminders and Dates

SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1

Rainbow Class-  1 May, 15 May

Sunshine Class- 24 Apr, 8 May, 22  May

3,4A Class News

It’s been great to see everyone back at school this week! In Writing, we have started to look at promotion texts and their features, including present tense, questions, commands and alliteration. We will be writing our own promotion about York. This links in with our new Geography topic – Explorers! We have started off by learning about global climate zones and then focusing in on the countries in Europe. Later on in the topic, we will be comparing the two cities of York and Venice.

On the same theme, we have used a non-fiction text about York to practise different reading skills including retrieval, summarising and understanding the meaning of words in context..

In Science, we have been completing our unit on light. We carried out an experiment to see what happened to the size of the shadow when we moved a light source further away from an opaque object.

Help at home by asking us what we discovered! Feel free to quiz us on the terms opaque, translucent and transparent too.

Rabbits don’t lay eggs!

Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs

This week, we’ve been reading Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs by Paula Metcalf.

Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog 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.

The story begins on a farm, with a rabbit named Rupert. All he wants is to be useful but unfortunately, he struggles to find anything he’s good at. Luckily, he soon finds an unexpected job on the farm.

Our ‘word of the week’ is creation – something that is made or created.

“Come look at my creation!”

“The creation of new life, like lambs.”

We also spotted some other adventurous words in the story.

Giggled to laugh lightly and repeatedly (a lot) in a silly way.

“When I told a knock-knock joke. Finlay giggled!” said Rupert.

Glumly to look unhappy and disappointed.

We also talked about writing the story from the farmers perspective. How would he feel waking up to no vegetables? To seeing Rupert running across his field? The children wrote some fantastic stories!

Maths

In Maths, we have been sorting objects by attributes.

They are sorted by colour.

They’re big and they’re small.

Those bears have scarves and they don’t.

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 A Tiny Seed.

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.

We always look at two words in the poem and share the definition. This week, we looked at the following words.

sow – plant (seed) by scattering or putting in soil

shower – a short period (time) of rain

We finished the week with lots of Easter themed activities.  The egg rolling competition was a real highlight of the day!

Home learning

Can you write a daily diary about your half term? A sentence a day would be fantastic! Please bring your diary in to share when we return to school.

Writing reminder

Remember, it is okay for things to be spelt phonetically. It is important your child grows into an independent learner. Encouraging your child to write the words as they sound rather than always spelling correctly is important. It encourages your child to use their own skills – rather than copy from an adult.

It is important you do not let your child simply copy your writing. They need to use their phonics skills to write. Here is an example of a child’s writing in Reception.

Have a fantastic half term!

Reminders and Dates

SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1

Rainbow Class- 17 April, 1 May, 15 May

Sunshine Class- 24 April, 8 May, 22 May

A Tiny Seed

This week, we’ve been reading The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.

Some of the children recognised the illustrations, knowing that the author also wrote The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The story follows the journey of a tiny seed, tracking its journey through the four seasons.

We decided to go on a season walk to find signs of spring. The children spotted buds, leaves, blossom, bees and even the sun.

Miniscule is our ‘word of the week’. We’ve been learning that miniscule is even smaller than tiny!

Maths

In Maths, we’ve been doubling! Ask your child explain how we find doubles.

Phonics

Spring 2 week 5 has been a review of phase 3 sounds. We’ve been reading longer words, words with s in the middle /z/ (like ‘visit’), words ending –s and words with –es at end /z/ (like ‘foxes’)

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 Hungry Birdies.

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.

click here to watch us recite this week’s poem!

Road safety

A visitor came to talk to us about how to keep safe around roads. We discussed what should be on the roads and what/who should be on the pavement. We talked about how seatbelts, helmets, zebra crossings and holding our grown-up’s hand keep us safe. We even sung a seatbelt song to help us remember to always wear a seatbelt in the car.

Science

This week, we have explored seeds and stones that are found in fruits. We looked inside a kiwi, melon, pepper and nectarine. The children were able to describe what they discovered and drew their observations.

Loads of seeds. Myla

It’s a nectarine! Sienna

It’s a tiny seed. Albie

Teeny tiny kiwi seed! Frankie

Reminders and Dates

Learning Journey Drop in  Tuesday 26 and Thursday 28 8.45-9.15 or 3.15-3.45

Every child in Reception has a Learning Journey book that celebrates their learning – this might be with photos, our observations, and your updates from home. Come in and share with your child their Learning Journey so far.

Road Safety Lesson

Key Stage One had a special visitor today. Harriet came to talk to the children all about keeping safe on and near the road. She was really engaging and the children ALL listened intently to what she had to say.

She started out by labelling a large picture of a road. She introduced some characters and vehicles to the road picture and talked abut how important it is to stay near a trusted adult and to hold hands when we are walking near the road. We discussed how children should cycle and scoot on the pavement and how you should always wear a helmet. She talked about how useful a zebra crossing is and she was very impressed that we have one right outside our school.

Harriet introduced us all to The Green Cross Code. She explained how there are 4 important rules:

1. THINK
2. STOP
3. LOOK
4. LISTEN. We talked about how the listening rule can be difficult at times because we can’t hear bikes and electric cars very easily.

Finally, she shared a story with us about how a little boy called Billy had forgotten to click his teddy bear’s seat belt when they went on a journey in the car. The poor bear fell out of his seat and hurt his head. Billy always tried to remember to click the seatbelt after that! Billy sang a song to help him to remember:

(Tune: Have you seen the Muffin man)

Let’s all do the seatbelt click,

Let’s all do the seatbelt click, 

Let’s all do the seatbelt click,

We’re going for a drive.

Beep! Beep!

HELP AT HOME: by talking to your child about road safety. Point out and discuss the times when you hold hands to keep them safe near the road. You could ask them to listen for the click when they click their seatbelt in the car. Perhaps your child would be happy to sing the ‘Seatbelt Click’ song to you at home.

Writing

Year 5/6 have been writing their own tension building texts this week. We used a video called Francis as inspiration. We talked about the use of figurative language, short snappy sentences and repetition to help put the reader on the edge of their seat.

Help at home: Use your child’s favourite TV show or film as a stimulus. Can they write in the same style? What language has been used? How does this help create the world of the show?