Fun in the sun!
Last Friday, ZS’s Dad came to help us spruce up our outdoor planters.
In RE, we talked people who are special to us and why some people are particularly special to us.
In Literacy, we used a map to locate seaside towns. We looked at some photographs of Scarborough and talked about the things we might see at the seaside that we don’t see in Leeds.
FH – The seaside town has a lighthouse but Leeds doesn’t.
OR – We don’t have boats but the seaside does. We have boats to travel on the sea.
DA – The seaside has little beach huts.
LS – The beach might have jellyfish.
LW- The beach has water but Wetherby and Leeds don’t have water.
The glorious weather has enabled us to spend lots of time learning outside. Please continue to make sure you apply sun lotion to your child before school. This stops us from missing any learning time. Thank you to everyone that has done that this week.
Click here to watch us learning outside.
Home-Link Challenge
Welcome back!
I can’t believe it’s the last half-term. Where has this school year gone?
We’ve dived straight into our new topic, Let’s make a splash!
This half-term, we’ll be thinking about days at the beach – we even have our own beach! We’ll investigate floating and sinking, locate seaside towns on a map, talk about what we see at the seaside that we don’t see in Leeds and talk about seaside holidays of the past.
This week, we’ve been reading Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson. The children were great at sequencing the key events from the story.
We used adjectives to describe what our favourite character looks like.
In Maths, we’ve been using the rekenreks to help us with our perceptual and conceptual subitising skills. We know to make sure all the beads are at the right-hand side of the rack. This is called the ‘ready position’. We then get ready, set and push using the ‘one finger push’ method.
With sports day just around the corner, we thought we should start practising.
This week’s chilli challenges have been very successful. Lots of children worked really hard to complete all of the challenges.
We drew sea creatures with wax crayons and watched what happened when we painted over it with a blue wash.
Exploring in our new role-play area.
We made signs to put up in our beach.
We used our observational skills to draw shelfs.
Diary dates
20, 21 & 24 June – Learning journey drop ins
23 June – Moving from Reception to Year 1 parent meeting
5 July – Sports Morning
6 July – Trip to Tropical World – look out for the letter!
7 July – Reserve Sports Morning
8 July – PTA Summer Fair
This half-term is very busy!
Please make sure you’ve noted down the events.
Reminder!
Please don’t forget to sign up to one of our learning journey drop ins. A letter went out on Wednesday.
Home-Link Challenge
This week’s bible story
Jesus is friends with Zacchaeus: Luke 19: 1-10
Have you ever heard the story of Burglar Bill – Bill goes out every night. Getting into houses through open windows and taking things. Until one night, Bill found a baby, and that changed his whole life …
There is a Bible story about a man who stole from other people. He took extra money when he gave them their tax bills and became very rich on all the money that he stole. Zacchaeus was a little man and that small people can’t see in crowds. Read the story of Zacchaeus to find out what happened to him.
Reflection:
Jesus loved everyone when he lived on the earth. It didn’t matter how bad people were, Jesus was always there for those who needed him. This is true for us too – no one is so bad that God doesn’t love them. And the more time we spend with God – praying, thinking about him, finding out about him, the more we want to be like Jesus; kind, helpful and good. Just like Zacchaeus, Burglar Bill changed his ways and tried to be more like Jesus by loving those around him. Even though Burglar Bill and Zacchaeus made the wrong choice, God forgave them and continued loving them.
Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you that Jesus loved Zacchaeus even when he wasn’t making the right choices. Help us to love all of those around us and be honest about our actions.
Amen
Our school community working together to commemorate the Queen’s Jubilee.
As part of a Wetherby community group, our school has entered a Jubilee craft cake for the Royal Church and Community Fete and Queen’s Jubilee Cake Festival at St James’ Church, Wetherby.
The whole school contributed to this creation and they all thoroughly enjoyed making it.
Reception – Beefeaters
Year 1/2 – stamp rubbings and crowns
Year 3 – clay corgi dogs
Year 4 – clay postage stamps
Year 5/6 – Hama Beads flags
We are all very proud to have been part of this and if you would like to attend the festival, it takes place on Friday 3rd June, 10am till 2pm at St. James Church in Wetherby.
Jubilee and butterflies
This week, it’s been a fun filled Jubilee themed week!
In literacy, there was a lot of laughter when reading The Queen’s Knickers. The children designed a new pair of knickers for the Queen to wear on different occasions.
The Queen will wear these knickers…
MC – when she goes on holiday
HD – wherever she wants to go
DA – when she goes to the park
OR – when she goes to the United Kingdom
Florence – when she sees a rainbow
JD – when she walks her dogs
SF – when she goes to a birthday party
HN – when she goes to the beach
RF – when she goes to Burger King
Take a look at their super designs!
At the creative table, the children enjoyed making the Queen’s Guards.
On Tuesday, we learnt that the Queen has had her portrait painted over 130 times! So we thought we would add to this collection and draw our own portraits.
Throughout the week, we’ve been practising the National Anthem ready to sing at our Jubilee party. Click here to watch us.
Butterflies
Over the past few weeks we’ve been closely observing the life cycle of our caterpillars. From Monday, our butterflies finally started to emerge! Today, we had fun releasing them.
Jubilee party
Finally…
I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term with family and friends. Don’t forget to send us photographs of what you get up to. See yo all on Monday 06 June for your final half-term in Reception.
This week’s bible story
Jesus Gives Us Peace: John 14:27–31
In John 14, Jesus is talking to His disciples shortly before He is crucified. He knows they will be scared, but He promises them a spirit of peace. Even though He will leave them, He promises them “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you . . . Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
He doesn’t promise His disciples a peaceful, easy life when they will always relax and never experience conflict or fear. But He does promise that ultimately, they will live together again in peace when Jesus returns. That means that no matter what they face, the disciples’ future is secure because of Jesus. This gives them true peace, not a peace based on their situation. We can share in that same peace when we believe in Jesus!
Memory Verse: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27
Prayer:
Dear God,
Help us to remember that you are always there for us. Help us to feel the peace that you have given us when we are in times of uncertainty.
Amen
We love to learn!
Our school vision is to be a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe. This week, we’ve seen so many children believe in themselves and achieve in many areas of their learning.
Even when things were a bit tricky, they persevered and achieved.
Well done Reception!
In maths, we built on our previous skills to compare attributes and quantities. Through practical activities and games, we thought carefully about which number is more or less. We used linear number tracks to play games that encouraged us compare numbers that are far apart, near and next to each other. (For example, 10 is a lot more than 2 but 5 is only 1 more than 4.)
In the maths area, we continued to explore number bonds to 10. We used part-whole model plates to support our learning.
In literacy, we used our actions to recap Walking through the Jungle. We had a go at writing our own story. Before writing our stories, we made a list of other rainforest animals. We also thought about how they might move through the jungle.
Check out what else we’ve been up to!
Home-Link Challenge
Gary the giraffe has made some number 10 towers. Can you work out the number bonds he has made?
Next week, we’ll be having a fun-filled week of Jubilee activities!
Have a lovely weekend.
This week’s bible story
Jesus in the temple: Matthew 21:12-13
Have ever been really angry? Is there a difference between being angry because we can’t get our own way and being angry because something really isn’t right or fair? Can they think of a story when Jesus was angry?
The following story probably happened during the week leading up to Easter. Jesus had just entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Crowds of people came to see him and cheered him as a hero. Many powerful people were worried about how popular Jesus had become and some didn’t like his teaching.
The Temple in Jerusalem was a place of pilgrimage, especially at the time of the Passover. People would bring offerings, often of animals, as symbols of thanksgiving or of sorrow for past sins. These animals could be bought at the entrance to the Temple. It seems likely that the people who sold the animals, the money-lenders or merchants of the story, were charging too much and cheating the poor. Jesus may have heard about this, although that is not recorded in the Gospels. listen carefully to the story and think about the following:
How they think Jesus is feeling.
What Jesus does.
What he says.
Read the story of Jesus in the temple.
Reflection:
How do you think Jesus was feeling?
What did he do?
What did he say?
Was Jesus putting himself in danger by expressing his anger? are surprised to hear a story in which Jesus expresses anger. Why do they think he was angry? Are there times when it is right to show we are angry? Is it right to be angry about injustice or unfairness? What was Jesus trying to change by his anger?
Think about a time when you have been angry. Was it right to be angry?
Prayer:
God of all creation,
Help us as we try to understand all our feelings.
Help us to recognize when we are angry
and to see when things we do or say make other people angry.
Help us to see the difference between anger that is selfish
and anger that seeks justice for others or ourselves.
Help us to choose our actions with care, courage and love.
Amen.
This week’s bible story
Jacob steals Esau’s blessing: Genesis 27
The bible says that Peace comes through forgiveness and repentance (saying sorry).
Read the story about Jacob and Esau and see how they were not at peace with each other. After Jacob had stolen Esau’s birth right, he ran away and the brothers lived apart for many years.
Reflection:
How could he be at peace with his brother, when he had done so many wrong things? Would they be able to live peacefully? When they met, Jacob tried to give Esau gifts, but Esau just forgave him. This is a beautiful example of peace between two brothers after years of being angry and apart!
Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you that there are examples in the bible where we can see peace between family and friends. Help us to be at peace with our friends and family.
Amen
This week’s bible story
‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.’ John 14:27
What do you understand by the word ‘peace’.
The Oxford English Dictionary lists various definitions for the word ‘peace’.
– One definition is ‘freedom from disturbance; tranquillity’. Can you use this definition of peace in a sentence. For example, ‘The teacher wanted to have a few minutes’ peace in the staffroom.’
– Another definition is ‘a state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended’. Can you use this definition of peace in a sentence? For example, ‘After the Second World War ended, there was a time of peace.’
In 1981, 37 years ago, an organization called the United Nations set up a very special day called the International Day of Peace. The event is observed by people all over the world on 21 September every year. The aim of the day is to encourage everyone to commit to peace, despite there being many differences among us. People observe the day in various ways. Some people have special parties; others bring everyone together to eat in peace. Some people put up peace poles; others organize peace workshops. One thing that is common to all of the different groups of people is that they aim to have one minute of silence at midday.
The world is spinning on its axis in space. As the world turns, midday occurs at different times in different parts of the world. For example, when it is midday in Paris in France, it will be 11 a.m. in the UK because Paris is one hour ahead of us. When it is midday in the UK, it will be 11 a.m. in Dakar in Senegal, West Africa. This is because Dakar is one hour behind us. Show the maps above to illustrate. This time difference means that different countries will be observing the one-minute silence at different moments across time zones. The idea is to create a ‘peace wave’ that moves around the globe.
Each International Day of Peace has a special theme. In 2018, the theme celebrates the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When the declaration (agreement) was written 70 years ago, it stated that everybody in the world should have equal rights to life, freedom and security. It didn’t actually say that everyone had the right to peace. This year, it is hoped that the International Day of Peace will again send out a clear message about the importance of peace.
Time for reflection
The International Day of Peace encourages people all over the world to think about the importance of peace. In many parts of the world, people are living in situations where war and unrest make peace seem unlikely or even impossible.
It may seem that we can do little to help change the world. However, each of us can do things that encourage peace in our own small parts of the world. All of us can help to create peace in school or in our homes. Each of us can try to live peacefully with one another. Each of us can listen to other people’s opinions and learn about our differences.
Think about what peace means in the context of the school.
– Is our school a peaceful place?
– Are there things that we can do to make school more peaceful?
– How could we make our classrooms more peaceful? What about our playgrounds? What about dinner times?
We may feel like we can’t make a massive difference to the whole world, but each of us can do little things that together make a big difference.
Prayer
Dear God,
We pray for people in parts of the world where there is no peace,
Where there are wars and unrest.
We pray for peace.
We pray for the people we come into contact with each day.
Please help us to live in peace with them.
Help us to recognize that we are all different and that everyone’s opinions matter.
Amen.