This week’s bible story
A persistent builder: Genesis 6:5-22
God gave Noah a pretty big job; God asked him to build a huge boat. Even though he didn’t live near a lake or ocean, Noah persevered in finishing the job that God gave him.
Someday, God might give one of us a hard job to do, too. God might ask you to be friends with a kid who everyone else is choosing to ignore. He might ask you to forgive a brother or sister who teases you every day. God was pleased with Noah’s perseverance, and God will also be pleased with you when you persevere in doing what is right.
Reflection:
What is the biggest project that you have built out of Lego, wooden blocks or something else?
How long did it take? Did it take much perseverance to keep going and finish the project?
What would have happened if Noah had given up and left the ark half built?
Prayer:
Dear God,
There are times when we face some hard challenges. Sometimes those challenges seem so big for us to do and to finish. Help us to persevere and remember that we can do it.
Amen
Apologies!
Oops!
We forgot to hand out the next word passport words. These will be sent out on Monday 01 November. Sorry!
Have a good half-term!
A fantastic end to a fantastic first half-term!
What have we been up to this week?
We had a long discussion about all of the autumn treasures in their brown bags.
We went on our local walk around Wetherby to look at landmarks.
In literacy, we made missing posters to help find Leaf Man.
We used the leaves from our brown bags to make Leaf Man.
We read Funny Bones and used chalk to draw skeletons.
Check out their amazing drawing skills!
On Tuesday, the children found three frozen hands with spiders trapped inside. Of course, they were eager to rescue the spiders! We heard lots of great discussions about how to melt the ice.
“We need warm water.”
“Break it up into small pieces.”
“I’m going to squeeze it in my hand so it gets warmer and melts.”
In maths, we talked about more and fewer. The children picked up a handful of bears and compared their amount with a friend. The children were encouraged to use these stem sentences when explaining their answers:
… has/have more than …
or
… has/have fewer than …
Word passports
The second set of words to go in word passports have been sent out today. Please practise blending these words at home over half-term.
Finally…
It was lovely to speak to all of the Reception parents at the parent-teacher meetings. You’re doing a great job with the home-link challenges – thank you! I hope you all have a wonderful half-term. Don’t forget to send me lots of photos of what you get up to. Make sure you recharge your batteries ready for another jam-packed half-term starting Monday 04 November.
Finger gym Friday!
Finger gym activities are designed to work out the smaller muscles and fine motor skills in children’s hands and fingers. Every Friday the children will explore a range of fun activities to help get their fingers ready for writing.
This week’s bible story
The Good Samaritan: Luke 10: 25-37
Today, we’re thinking about how we treat people and reminding ourselves that we should never bully or intentionally hurt other people. First, think of some kind things that you could do today. Second, think of some things that you should not do today because they would upset other people.
Hopefully, many more of the kind things than the unkind things will happen today. Next, read the Bible story about someone who got hurt and think carefully to see who did and who did not help him.
Reflection:
In the story, someone had been badly hurt, or bullied, but only one of the three people who came by helped him. I wonder what we could learn from that story about how we treat other people, especially those who are feeling hurt or upset.
Think about these two suggestions for how you could help.
The first is that, if you see someone who is hurt or upset, don’t just ignore them – either go and help them yourself or fetch an adult who can help.
The second is to be prepared to help anyone, not just someone you like.
Prayer
Dear God,
There are times when we need help from others and times when others need help from us.
Help us always to be ready to help each other, even people we don’t like, just as Jesus taught us.
Amen
Parent-partnership Zoom session – maths
The session will start at 6 pm and last around 20-25 minutes, plus there will be a question and answer session at the end of around 5-10 minutes.
The link to this zoom session will be emailed to all parents and carers. If you do not receive a link, please contact the school office.
To get us in the mood for autumn, we’ve been reading Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. We looked closely at the illustrations, drew a picture of our favourite part and created a word tree full of adjectives to describe what autumn leaves look and feel like.
Next week, we will use our word tree to help us make missing posters for Leaf Man.
We also went on a leaf hunt to see if we could find Leaf Man on our field.
The creative chilli challenge was to turn a bare tree into an autumn tree.
Next week, we will continue learning about the autumn changes.
Number 3!
In early years, we like to be really practical to help us with our learning. This week, we’ve played lots of fun and active games to help us learn all about the number 3.
We did some racing games and handed out medals to our friends to help us learn about ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd & 3rd)
We played the Three Billy Goats game.
The children used the cubes to build 3 towers to represent the 3 goats.
1 cube – littlest Billy goat
2 cubes – middle-sized Billy goat
3 cubes – biggest Billy goat
They then rolled a 1-3 die and moved the corresponding tower over the bridge.
Played a track game.
We used hoops and beanbags to help us understand the parts that make 3. We threw 3 beanbags into a hoop and talked about how many landed inside and how many landed outside. The children were encouraged to record their learning in anyway they liked. Many of them chose to draw a picture of their hoop and where their beanbags landed.
Next week, we will recap numbers 1, 2 and 3 to finalise our learning.
Writing process
In phonics, we’ve started to write captions, e.g. a pin on a map or pat a pig.
To help us with the process, we follow six simple steps.
1. Think about what we want to write.
2. Say the caption aloud.
3. Count the words.
4. Segment each word on our phoneme fingers.
5. Write the words.
6. Check our writing makes sense.
When the children are confident at writing caption, they will begin to write sentences using capital letters and full stops.
Here are some more highlights from this week…
Finally…
I look forward to chatting to you about how well your child has settled at school at the parent-teacher meetings on Tuesday and Thursday next week.
Home-Link Challenge
Their bag will be in their bookbag!
Thank you to all the parents who to do the home-link challenges. It is always lovely to receive emails of their amazing home learning moments!
Feelings
Last week, our living and learning statement was I can talk about my feelings. During circle time, we talked about a range of feelings and when they might change. We also had fun making lots of faces!
Can you guess how we are feeling?
Last Friday
Last Friday, a lot of children went home very muddy and this is why!
It was lovely to see the children sharing ideas, thinking critically, and most importantly having fun! One child set a trend by making bear prints. More children joined in and together they created their own bear hunt.
This week’s bible story
Our friendship with Jesus: John 15:12-15
Jesus calls us his friend and He wants to be in a relationship with us. In the Bible, we see the friendship of Jesus and his disciples develop. Although their intent was to serve and follow Jesus as Master, He calls them friends. Jesus’ love and sacrifice for those He walked with is the ultimate example of a relationship. Though we may show it differently, we show our friends how much we love them by the actions that we take.
Jesus calls us friend and He wants to live in a relationship with us. This means that He wants us to get to know Him and He wants us to share our lives with Him – every joy, every care, every hurt, every triumph.
Reflection:
We show our friends we care by the actions we do and how we behave towards our friends. Think about how you can show your friends you care this week and how you can share your week with them.
Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you that we will always have a friend in Jesus. Help us to be good friends to our friends and show them that we care about them.
Amen