Forest School Fun!
This week the children had their first session at forest school, they learned the rules for forest school and explored the different areas. They also had the chance to look for bugs, something they are very good at and love to do!
They are definitely looking forward to their next session week.
Forest School Fun
Our Early Years classes thoroughly enjoyed their first Forest School session on Friday.
First, we met our instructor, Sarah, and Spike – the hedgehog! We learnt how to keep safe during Forest School and did brilliantly at remembering the forest safety rules.
Our morning consisted of mini-beast making, relaxing with friends in hammocks, getting busy in the mud kitchen, swinging on bars, and forest storytelling.
We can’t wait for more fun-filled weeks ahead!
What did your child enjoy most about Forest School?
We’d love to know so we can pass on the feedback!
The Night Pirates
Ahoy, Me Hearties!
This week, we’ve been reading The Night Pirates by Peter Harris.
This is a story about a group of ‘Rough, tough little girl pirates‘ who take a little boy called Tom, on an adventure.
We looked at some repeated phrases in the story and how the author had chosen to end the story exactly as it had begun.
This great book has inspired our learning in the areas of provision.
Understanding the world; Identifying land and sea
Our ‘Word of the week’ is country. We know that we live in the country of England.
We’ve been looking closely at the globe and we’ve been discussing how we can identify which parts are the land and which is the sea.
Next week our focus book is Seaside Poem.
Have a lovely week.
Summer 2
Our final theme for this year is Seaside and Cities, our first focus book this week is The Night Pirates.
This week we will be Geographers and will be looking at where we all live in England, we will also identify where we would find seaside towns on a map of the UK. Our word of the week is Country we live in the country England.
Help at home: talk to your child about where they live can they say their full address?
Literacy
We’ve been reading Walking Through the Jungle by Julie Lacome.
We have loved talking about all the different animals in the book and how they travelled.
“Creeping through the jungle I can see a tiger.”
“Stomping through the jungle I can see a elephant.”
Phonics
This week, we focused on reading and writing longer words and compound words. We learnt 4 new tricky words: were, here, little, says.
Help at home: Go on a tricky word hunt around your house. Ask an adult to write some tricky words on scrap pieces of paper and stick them up around your house. How many tricky words can you find and read?
Maths
This week, we consolidated our understanding of the composition of 5 and practised recalling the parts of 5 when 1 part is not visible. We used our fingers on 1 hand to help with the composition of 5. We looked at how many fingers are ‘up’ and and how many are ‘folded down’. We used a rhyme about 5 kittens jumping ‘down’ from the bed to help us with this.
“5 is made of __ and __
__ and __ makes 5″
Help at home: Play a game the kittens game with an adult. You need 5 objects (kittens) and a piece of material or paper (bed) Take turns to hide some kittens under the bed. Use the below stem sentence to explain what you can see.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Mrs. Small and Mr. Smith
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
This week our focus book has been The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
We’ve had a fantastic time on the garden this week, planting more plants and developing our mud kitchen area. We’ve enjoyed smelling the new herbs that have been added and created some delicious spring dishes.
We’ve also been adding things to our amazing Bug Hotel that Mr Atkins made for us and have continued our search for minibeasts.
Help at Home: Go on a bug hunt in your garden or where you live, take some photos or draw some pictures of the minibeast you find.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Mrs. Small and Mr. Smith
A visit from Leeds Rhinos!
St James had a very exciting visitor from the Leeds Rhinos in today during our Collective Worship. Ian came in to talk to the children about teamwork and inclusivity – two key skills that help us to be happy and healthy in our school. We got the opportunity to learn about the different teams that Leeds Rhinos have, such as: men’s and women’s rugby; netball; a wheelchair rugby team and many more. The children responded really well when discussing the importance of inclusivity, teamwork and stereotyping, particularly in sport.
Ian also reminded us of the fantastic offer from Leeds Rhinos for pupils to go and see one of their matches! If you/your child is interested in this, discounted tickets can be purchased through school. Here are the details of the match:
Leeds Rhinos vs Hull FC
Friday 16th May
Kick off: 20:00
Summer 1
Welcome back to the summer term! This half term our theme is Life on Earth and our first focus book is The Bug Detective by Alex Griffiths.
This week we will be beginning to look closely at minibeast and where they live. We will also be creating a class Bug Hotel using the hand drills.
We can’t wait to see you all,
Mrs Kendrew, Mrs Rippon, Mr Smith and Mrs Small
The Tiny Seed
This week our focus book as been The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.
In the story we follow a tiny seed traveling on its journey through the seasons. We went on our own seasons walk to find signs of spring, we spotted blossom, buds, daffodils, insects and leaves. We even stopped to listen to the sound of lots of birds singing.
Our word of the week was miniscule: something that is even smaller than tiny.
Maths
In Maths, we’ve been doubling!
Poetry Picnic
Each week we learn a new poem and recite it every day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Hungry Birdies.
Hungry Birdies
I have built a little nest,
look inside, look inside.
Hungry birdies with their beaks,
open wide, open wide.
And the little birdies grow,
day by day by day.
‘Till they spread their wings and fly,
far away, far away.
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.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Mrs. Small and Mr. Smith
Jack and The Beanstalk
This week’s book has been Jack and the Beanstalk.
It has inspired us to plant our own seeds so we can observe them over time.
We’ve also written some instructions for what we did.
First we put in the soil.
Then we put in the seed.
Next we covered it.
Finally water it.
Maths
This week we have started looking at the number 7 and the different parts it can be split into. We used the stem sentence “7 is made of 5 and 2; 2 and 5 make 7.”
Help at home: by practising partitioning 7. You can do this using pasta, teddies or anything else that you can find at home that you have 7 of.
Thank you to all of those that came to the stay and learn this week.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Mrs. Small and Mr. Smith