Author: Mr Roundtree

13 November 2020

This week’s homework is Creative and is due on Thursday 19 November.

 I can show how sound travels.  

 In science, we have been learning about how sound travels. We have seen the rice vibrating on the drum – the louder the sound the bigger the vibrations. Find a way to show how sound travels.

Please send a picture of the completed homework to Mrs Rowley (beckyrowley@spherefederation.org)

 

Times tables:

 If you want some quick fire practise, head to https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button .   Use the sheet to practise the times table you’ve been given.

 

 

 

Our weekly message (13 November 2020)

It’s so good to keep receiving positive feedback about how we’re doing in these challenging times, including our weekly messages. Many thanks for this. This message kicks off with a gentle reminder. Lower down, there are details about some ways to support your child’s learning at home (whether they’re self-isolating or just in general). We’ve also important advice about your child keeping warm in school and some news about Christmas.

Continuing to take care

This is the end of the ninth week in school and we’re so fortunate that we’ve not burst a bubble – yet. Within your household group and beyond, it can sometimes feel a bit too much of an effort to maintain all the precautions…

  • hands (wash and sanitise them lots during the day)
  • face (wear a mask around people outside of your household)
  • space (maintain 2 metres distance around others)

…however, please do keep helping us keep our schools open for all. In general, respect the national lockdown restrictions, and in school, wear a mask and keep your distance from others at the start and end of the school day.

Supporting your child at home 1 – online activities

Since September, there’s a fairly steady number of children having to stay at home due to Covid. Whether your child is self-isolating or if you’re keen to provide a bit of extra support at home, please do remember we publish an overview of learning for your child to get on with at home on our Home learning page. Contact us if this online approach doesn’t work for you – we can provide paper-based learning if you’re child is self-isolating at home. It’s definitely also worth checking out our Help your child and Calculations and times tables pages which both contain a range of ideas, links and activities – even just a bit of regular practice of times tables and handwriting can make loads of difference!

Talking of times tables, Times Tables Rock Stars is an app and website that we use in school to quicken the recall of tables facts. It’s something that you can use at home, too – your child has their own username and password. (If you don’t have these, or you have any questions, email your child’s class teacher.) Each game is short so you don’t need lots of time. ‘Garage’ is where you’ll find tables set by us whilst ‘Soundcheck’ includes all facts up to 12 x 12.

We’ve just signed up to Numbots, too. Perhaps more suited to younger children or children who need a bit of extra support with the basics, this is a great app and website for practising addition and subtraction facts. Your child can use it at home – they login using the same details they use for Times Tables Rock Stars. There are 15 different games, each with a different focus. Topics covered include doubles and number bonds to 10, 20 and 100.

PhonicsPlay is a great website that teachers in Reception to Year 2 (and sometimes Year 3) use in their daily phonics lessons. In each game, you can select the phase of phonics and, more specifically, which letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) to focus on.  The games are a fun way to practise reading sounds, real words, ‘alien words’ and sentences. Login details are Sphere (user name) and Spher3 (password). Check out the Resources page.

Supporting your child at home 2 – Zoom workshops for you

Normally in the Autumn term, we provide a range of workshops to help you support your child’s learning at home. This year, we’re happy to offer something similar via Zoom…

The sessions – each lasting just 30 minutes – are:

  • Wednesday 18 November: Curriculum
  • Monday 23 November: Reading (mainly for Key Stage 2)
  • Wednesday 25 November: Phonics (mainly for Reception / Key Stage 1)
  • Wednesday 02 December: Maths
  • **Re-scheduled date** Monday 07 December: EYFS (mainly for Reception)
  • Wednesday 09 December: Times Tables

All six sessions start at 6pm. If you’re interested in attending, please send us a message on the School Gateway app or email us at stjamesoffice@spherefederation.org. We’ll email the joining details out to all those who express an interest.

Keeping warm

Even though it’s getting colder, it’s important that we keep all areas of school as ventilated as possible. Ideally, the windows and doors should be open all of the time but we obviously don’t want staff or children shivering! We’ve asked teachers to judge the temperature and make a decision on whether it’s realistic to keep windows open during lessons. There’ll be times when it’s just too cold so we’ll open windows and doors when children aren’t in the rooms to blast some fresh air in.

Over the coming months, it’d be great if you could make sure your child has an extra layer on under their uniform or an extra jumper or fleece (unbranded and in the school colour where possible). Don’t forget suitable coats, too.

Christmas is coming…

…really?! Whilst we all wait eagerly for news of what Christmas might look like for ourselves and our families, we can say with some certainty that Christmas at school will be quite different.

Unfortunately, many of the things we do involve gathering large groups of children (and adults) together. Sadly, we won’t be performing any nativity plays for you to come and see. Instead, we’ll aim to share Christmas with you virtually with a few festive fun times. Details of these will be shared nearer the time.

Christmas parties will be held in individual classes with each child asked to bring their own party ‘pack-up’ to enjoy. Again, we’ll share details nearer the time.

Christmas will still be fun – just a little different!

What’s that coming over the hill…

This week in our writing, we have been learning to use adjectives (gives more information about a noun) and expanded noun phrases ( adds more detail to the noun by adding one or more adjectives). The children have been using these to describe their greek mythical creatures. Have a look at a few of our descriptions (copied exactly from their books – how fantastic are our writers!):

Over the hill came a monster…It was a three-eyed, prickly faced monster. Its face was as stripy as a zebra! It has two ears on each side of its head and a patch of freckles on its nose. It had a four-armed, purple body like a purple, slimy alien. It was as small as a mouse and you would barely see it coming! Its footsteps were so quiet adventurers can’t even catch one! It has six legs. On one side it has three spikey feet and on the other it has three human feet. The finger nails were as sharp as a knife. It had a ripped, beautiful butterfly shirt and one eye closed at one side of its face. It kind of had the nose of a lion. After hours, it finally ran away silently. (Leah)

 

Over the hill came a monster… Its head looked like a tiger. Its enormous eyes would surely be able to see everything but the scariest part is that it has venomous, purple prickles on its back! There’s more about this monster, it has dark spots and black stripes on his arms. The legs are like a human, feet even with shoes on! It has ears like a polar bear, pretty good to hear with. The last and smallest part is the really sharp teeth. Some even as sharp as a shark! So now you know it’s scary if you see it run! (Jacob)

 

Over the hill came a monster… with its smelly and venomous spots. Its eyes as big as boulders could catch anything at the corner of his eyes! They glistened around the gloomy, eerie forest. The ears would point out like razor, sharp knives scaring the other animals. Feet as small as cute as little bunny paws. Its neck was as wavy as an aliens’ arm. The legs were as long as the alphabet and were as bendy as a sheet of paper. It makes sounds which are as noisy as a monkey and it chomped on its food hungrily. It also has lived for over 100 years. (Siana)

Week beginning 09 November 2020

Maths

This week’s maths learning is linked to addition and subtraction.

Year 3 children use these resources:

Year 4 children use these resources:

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 3 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on the 8 times table. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)

 

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. They should choose some past spellings that they feel less confident with. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
  • Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

 

Reading fluency

This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

 

Reading comprehension

Day 1: We’ll be using this ‘RIC’ text in class to practise comprehension skills. Answer these questions. RIC stands for:

  • Retrieve: finding information in a text
  • Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
  • Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.

Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.

Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. Next, do one of the following:

  • Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
  • Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
  • Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
  • Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.

Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

 

Writing

Activity 1: This lesson about expanded noun phrases from BBC Bitesize links to some of the learning that we’ve been doing in class recently.

Activity 2:

Children should write six sentences about a picture or photograph you choose. Your child should remember capital letters, finger spaces, joined up letters (use our handwriting guide to help, paying particular attention to tall letters and letters that go beneath the line), and a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?) to end the sentence. Encourage interesting words to make their writing more interesting.

 (Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

 

Topic

This week’s topic learning is all about our new history topic: Ancient Greece. This video lesson from Oak National Academy links to some of the learning we’ve been doing in class recently.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

 

Science   

We’re continuing our learning about sound (physics). This week, we’re learning all about what sound is.

Have a go at this Oak National Academy video.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

 

RE

In our RE topic, we are learning all about different faiths and how events are celebrated. This week, our video lesson is from Oak National Academy. In this lesson, we will be learning all about how the religion of Sikhism began with its founder Guru Nanak.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

06 November 2020

Spellings

This week, please learn the following spellings ready to be tested on Thursday 12 November. There are many ways to practise these, for example:

  • Rainbow write (write them in many different colours)
  • Speed write (how many times can you write a word in a minute)
  • Pyramid write (write one letter, then two, then three etc till you’ve written the whole word
  • Look, cover, write

 

This week, all of your spellings are based around the phoneme “i”. It can be spelt in many different ways whilst sounding the same.

 

 

replied exercise increase height night
light slide bicycle why cried

 

06 November 2020

This week’s homework is practice makes perfect. Complete the sheet and send a picture of it to stjamesy3y4@spherefederation.org by Thursday 12 November.

Year 3 – we have been looking at adding and subtracting a 3 digit number to/ from a 3 digit number. Use the diagrams to help you – draw out your hundreds, tends and ones.

Year 4 – we have been subtracting two 4 digit numbers. Be careful when you’re subtracting – you may need to exchange!

 

 Times tables

If you want some quick fire practise, head to https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button .   Use the sheet to practise the times table you’ve been given.

 

Living and Learning: I can show perseverance

This week, our living and learning statement is “I can show perseverance”.

The children were able to describe that perseverance was “keeping on going when things get difficult” and “not giving up”. We talked about the different ways we could show perseverance in school and at home.

During our living and learning session, we practised perseverance. In pairs, we had some tangrams to complete.

“We had to persevere to make the different shapes because it wasn’t easy and we couldn’t do it the first time we tried.”

The children have been fantastic at showing perseverance in school this week especially during their maths learning.

 

Our weekly message (06 November 2020)

Welcome back to school, and (sadly) to Lockdown 2…

Guidance for schools about the new national restrictions was released just the day before the lockdown kicked in, so we’re still working through any changes – we don’t anticipate too many, thankfully. You may have read headlines about teachers claiming that schools should close. The arguments stem from one particular union, and others disagree. As we said earlier this week, we fully support the decision to keep schools open – children need to be in school to learn and socialise. We can assure you that Sphere Federation schools have been working as hard as we can to keep our schools safe places to learn.

Your child’s a historian this half-term!

With the start of a new half-term comes the start of a new topic. Across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, children are becoming historians this half-term:

  • children in Years 1 and 2 will learn about the Great Fire of London
  • children in Years 3 and 4 will become experts on Ancient Greece
  • children in Years 5 and 6 will compare the Stone Age and Iron Age in Britain with what was going on in Ancient Egypt at around the same time

Read this one page list of History learning for the half-term ahead – it contains the core learning in terms of both knowledge and skills. (Be aware, though, that because of the closure of schools in Lockdown 1, teachers are being more flexible in their approach to the expectations set out in this document, making sure that missed learning and gaps are being addressed in Reading, Writing and Maths.)

And now, a message from Miss Beatson…

We’ve had a really positive start to the half term; the children have come back eager to learn and happy to be with their friends. These are such challenging times for all of us but our children have shown great resilience and we’re all very proud of how well they continue to cope with the changes to school life. This half term, our Christian value is perseverance and I don’t think I can think of a more suitable value to focus on in these current times.

I’m really pleased to say that we’ve reviewed our school lunch grab bags and we’re now able to provide a hot meal option each day. I know this is something many of you have been asking about and our catering staff have been eager to provide, particularly now the weather is getting colder. Check out the menu on our website page or on the notice board in the playground if you’re considering a school meal for your child.

Our bagel bar is proving very popular and the children are enjoying meeting with their friends over breakfast before their day of learning begins. If you’d like your child to attend, then bring them to school between 8.30am and 8.45am.

I’d just like to finish by thanking you for your kind, supportive comments and messages that I know the staff in school really appreciate at this time. I’d also like to thank you for your support as you continue to wear face coverings and keep your distance in the school grounds to ensure we keep everyone as safe as we possibly can.

Reading detectives

Many mythical creatures were made up of different animals combined to make one beast. In our reading lessons, we have been using our inference skills to work out which animals were combined to make up these mythical beasts.

First, we listened to and read the description and tried to draw the beast.

The Sphinx was a female monster with the body of a lion, the breast and head of a woman, eagle’s wings and a serpent-headed tail.

Triton was a fish-tailed sea god, the son of Poseidon, king of the seas. He is blowing a conch-shell trumpet. In his other hand, he holds a staff.

Pegasus was an immortal, winged horse which sprang forth from the neck of Medusa.

Then, we matched the images to the description – the monsters were easy to match because the text gave us key information (tail, wings, horse).

New national lockdown

The Department for Education have been sending schools daily emails since the start of the coronavirus crisis. This is an extract from today’s email. We fully support the decision to keep schools open – children need to be in school to learn and socialise. We can assure you that Sphere Federation schools have been working as hard as we can to keep our schools safe places to learn…

On Saturday 31 October, the Prime Minister announced new national restrictions that will come into force on Thursday 5 November for 4 weeks until Wednesday 2 December.

We will continue to prioritise the wellbeing and long-term futures of our children and young people and will not be closing early years settings, schools, colleges or universities. It remains very important for children and young people to attend, to support their wellbeing and education and help working parents and guardians. Senior clinicians still advise that school is the best place for children to be, and so they should continue to go to school.

Until Thursday 5 November, the relevant Local COVID Alert Level measures will continue to apply in the area where you live. From Thursday, the national restrictions replace the local restrictions in your area.