Me & My Money Week
Our first week back has been jam packed with new and exciting learning! This week has been one of our themed weeks all about money! We’ve had a variety of sessions where we’ve learnt a lot about money, different ways to pay for things, saving, fundraising for charity, how our values and advertising can impact our decision making and the cost of everyday items. We can’t wait to show you all of our learning when you come in for our Topic Review on 28th November.
A trip to Antarctica
One of the most fun sessions was an online live lesson offered by HSBC where we planned a trip to Antarctica thinking about the difference between our wants and our needs. We had a budget to stick to and it was tough making decisions between our competing wants.
Help at home – the children were shocked to learn the average monthly cost of household expenses such as electricity and food shopping. Next time you go food shopping, you could challenge your child to use a calculator to add the cost of the food as you put it in your trolley. If they want a bigger challenge, they could use rough prices and add the amounts in their head.
The children were very excited when they returned to school this week. They excitedly shared their stories about Halloween with their friends. There was a lot of talk about witches, bat costumes and skeletons.
As part of our phonics learning, we’ve introduced the letter ‘s’ this week. We took turns to pull some objects out of a bag that all started with the letter ‘s’ We talked about the ‘s’ sound that we could hear at the start of each word. In Nursery, we focus on our listening skills. We’re not learning about letter formation just yet.
We show the children this picture card and use this pronunciation phrase.
Show your teeth and let the s hiss out ssssss
You could try this at home.
Help at home: What can you find at home that begins with the sound ‘s’? Go on a sound hunt together and look for some. Let us know what you find.
Next week’s Learning
It’s World Nursery Rhyme Week so instead of our usual Nursery Rhyme of the week, our provision will be Nursery Rhyme themed. We’ll be singing lots of our favourite rhymes. If you’d like to send us an email with your child’s favourite rhyme and we’ll try to sing it at Nursery next week. stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Sound of the week – a for astronaut and apple
Open your mouth wide and make the a sound at the back of your mouth a a a
Story of the week – Peace at Last by Jill Murphy
In this story Mr Bear moves about the house to try to find somewhere that is quiet to sleep. We will find out how many different sounds he hears.
Reminders
- Odd Socks Day – Monday 10 November
Children are invited to wear odd socks to school today, marking the fact we’re all different in some way. - Children in Need: non-uniform day – Friday 14 November
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman, Mrs. Linton and Mrs. Cairnes
Potion Commotion
We’ve had so much fun with our book of the week Potion Commotion, we enjoyed hearing about Betty, making her own potion and saving the town from the hungry dragon.
Our classroom challenges included finding ingredients from in the garden to add to a potion and to make a trap to catch a dragon.
“I put sticky tap at the end so he will get stuck inside.”
“I’m going to trap him inside this big tub, we could put a biscuit in to make him come in.”
Maths
This week, we’ve been engaging in activities that highlight the purpose of counting – finding out how many objects there are altogether. We’ve reinforced our understanding of cardinality, recognising that the last number we say when counting represents the total number of objects in the set.
A key focus has been deepening our understanding of the number 5 as a quantity. We’ve been linking the number to familiar representations, such as the five fingers on one hand. The children are also beginning to explore different ways to represent numbers up to 5, using both their fingers and the Hungarian number pattern (die frame).
Help at home: Draw a hand on a piece of paper and collect 5 objects.
Reminders
- Odd Socks Day – Monday 10 November
Children are invited to wear odd socks to school today, marking the fact we’re all different in some way. - Children in Need: non-uniform day – Friday 14 November
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman, Mrs. Linton and Mrs. Cairnes
Money Week
This week, we’ve had a special focus! It’s been all about money. Here’s what we have been up to:
In maths, we’ve been learning to recognise the value of different coins and notes. We practised ordering them by their value and explored how many 1p coins are needed to make the same amount as other coins.
In our Living and Learning sessions, we’ve been thinking about how people earn money and how to manage it wisely. We discussed the importance of being careful with our spending and prioritising what we need before buying things we simply want. We also talked about how keeping our money safe is very important.
Finally, we considered how we can use our money to help others. This led to a thoughtful discussion about charity, and the children voted for our new school charity which will be revealed next week!
People earn money by working. Deacon
We keep our money in the bank. Luna
I am saving up my money to buy a toy. Elsie
It’s good to give some money to charity to help others. A
Living and Learning
Me and My Money Week
During our first week back after the October half term, we have been focusing on money and liking our learning to money. We have carried out a variety of lessons to help us to understand money and how to use it in a responsible way.
We have learnt about budgeting, debit and credit cards, overdrafts, currency and how/why people may value money differently.
We have also been linking money to our Christian Values. We thought about how saving takes perseverance, starting your own business takes courage, how giving to charity requires compassion. We linked our learning to Bible readings and researched famous Philanthropists.
A philanthropist is a person who donates time, money, experience, skills or talent to help create a better world. Anyone can be a philanthropist, regardless of status or net worth.
Finally, we have had online workshops delivered by HSBC. Here children learnt about where our money comes from, how we can keep it safe and what happens to our money when we get paid.
It has been a busy and very enjoyable week.
Me and My Money Week
Me and My Money Week
This week, we’ve been learning all about money.
The children have developed a deeper understanding of what money is, where it comes from and how we can use it wisely.
Before beginning our learning, we considered two big questions to understand what we already know.
What is money?
Money is something you spend on stuff. – Mia
Money is something you have to buy things. – Eli
Money can you make you rich and once you have enough you can buy something. – Joey
Money is something you can get from working. You can give it to poor people. – Ella D
It helps us to buy a house stuff that we need. – Scarlett
Where does money come from?
the bank
Money comes from a machine in the wall.
money factory
The bank gets it from the Prime Minister.
Understanding the Importance of Money
We began by talking about why money is such an important part of people’s lives. The children shared their own experiences of using money, from buying treats to saving up for something special. Together, we explored the difference between things we need (like food and clothes) and things we might want (like toys or sweet).
This helped us think carefully about how people make different choices about how they spend and save their money. The children showed great curiosity and maturity in recognising that everyone’s spending decisions can be different and that’s okay!
Keeping Money Safe
We then looked at the different places people can keep their money safely. We discussed the benefits of using a bank compared to a money box and we talked about why some places are safer than others. The children enjoyed sorting pictures and deciding which options would be best for saving their coins.
We also explored where money can come from. Money can be:
- given
- earned
- found
- borrowed
Comparing and Choosing
To put our learning into practice, we compared the cost of some everyday products. The children were amazed to see how prices can vary and enjoyed talking about which items they thought were worth more or less. This led to some great conversations about making choices and getting good value for money.
Staying Safe Online
We also linked our money topic to online awareness. The children learned how to spot adverts online and understand that some adverts might try to persuade us to click on them. We discussed how clicking on adverts can sometimes take us away from the page we were looking at and why it’s important to always check with an adult before clicking on anything new.
The Smile Shop
In our reading lessons, we linked our learning to our theme of money through the story The Smile Shop by Satoshi Kitamura. Before reading, we made predictions about what might happen and afterwards we created an emotions graph to show how the main character’s feelings changed throughout the story.
Through our discussions, we discovered that some of the most valuable things in life can’t be bought with money. The children reflected thoughtfully on the message that you don’t always need money to make you happy and that sharing a smile can be just as rewarding as spending money.
Reflecting on Our Learning
Our Year 1 children have developed a fantastic understanding of money and how to make sensible choices about saving and spending. They also showed great awareness of how to stay safe online – a skill that will help them both now and in the future.
It’s been a fun, practical and thoughtful week in Year 1, full of discussions, teamwork and real-life learning!
Help at Home
Here are a few ideas for ways you can support your child’s learning at home:
Talk about needs and wants
When shopping, talk about which items are things you need (like food) and which are things you want (like treats or toys). This helps children make thoughtful spending choices.
Talk about saving
Encourage your child to save up for something special. You could use a money box or jar and count how much has been saved each week.
Compare prices together
Next time you’re shopping (in store or online), look at two similar items and compare the prices. Talk about why one might cost more than the other.
Share stories about money and kindness
Share some stories that show how happiness and kindness can’t always be bought. Talk about what makes your child happy without spending money.
Stay safe online
Explore websites or games together and look for adverts. Talk about how to spot them and what to do if something pops up unexpectedly. Remind your child to always check with an adult before clicking on anything new.
Gymnastics in Year 2
This half term, Year 2 have started an exciting new unit in PE, gymnastics. The children are exploring different types of movement, beginning with low, then medium and finally high movements. They have been thinking carefully about how these movements could be inspired by animals, using their bodies to stretch, balance and travel in creative ways.
Throughout the unit, the children will be challenged to try a range of gymnastics poses, including the forward roll, wheel pose and candlestick. As their confidence grows, they will begin to link movements together to create a smooth and controlled sequence.
The children will also have the exciting opportunity to use the apparatus, where they can practise climbing, balancing, and exploring different levels safely.
Cross Country
Today, a whopping 52 of our KS2 pupils took part in the Leeds Easy Cross Country event. This event provides opportunity for young people to take part in a competitive running event, with routes through to Leeds and District finals. St James pupils conducted themselves really well on the trip and the high levels of perseverance/resilience from our children were definitely on show! Years 3 and 4 had a 900m race to complete, and the Year 5 and 6 pupils had a 1500m race. Every single pupil from St James ran and finished their races – we are so proud of everyone for this. Some pupils managed to get into the top 20 and may reach the finals in a few months! Here are some pictures of some pupils after their races.
Money Week
This themed week is all about money it’s been a really insightful week in Year 5. We started the week learning about different types of bank accounts and which ones were the best for saving and gaining interest on your money. We also became thrifty shoppers when we looked at the unit price of goods in a supermarket. The children had to calculate which products offered the best value for money. They noticed that sometimes buying the larger product, offered the consumer better value for money.
Through the week, we’ve also had some online workshops from Barclays and HSBC. Both of these were very useful and allowed pupils to pick up on some top tips when spending and saving money. It turns out lots of our Year 5 pupils are very good savers and use Christian values like perseverance and courage by setting goals to save towards!
