Living and Learning
Body image
In Year 3 and 4 this week, we have thought about our bodies and about how they might change. Changes in our body can occur through a variety of reasons, some things we can influence and some things we can’t.
The children wrote down their thoughts and we had some in depth discussions about their ideas. The children were very mature and spoke with respect whilst building on each other’s ideas.
We then focussed on ourselves and wrote down three things that we are good at. We shared our strengths and found that others had the same strengths too. Children understood that even though we are all different in many ways, we can all share similar attributes.
Help at home – Ask your child what they are good at. Can you make opportunities to do something they are good at? How will we change over time? Are there any changes we can/can’t influence? How do you feel about that?
Nell Bank School Trip
Our next school trip is on Tuesday, please see below the kit list for a Day Visit to Nell Bank.
Clothing
Practical outdoor clothing- long trousers please as we will be walking through long grass and will be outside for most of the day.
Trainers
Hat
Waterproof coat
Gloves
Wellies
Packed Lunch
Including a filled drinks bottle
It is hungry work being outside!
If you have any questions please come and catch a member for the team.
Thank you
Mrs. Kendrew
Super Sewers
We have some fantastic sewers in Year 1.
The children have learnt some new vocabulary in their design and technology lessons.
- felt: a kind of cloth made from wool
- needle: a thin piece of metal or plastic with a point at one end and a hole or eye for thread in the other, used in sewing
- thread: a long, thin strand of cotton used in sewing or weaving
- over stitch: a stitch that circles the edge of a piece of fabric
After designing their product (a puppet), it was time to start making. It was amazing to see great resilience when threading a needle and tying a knot!
We are sure you’ll agree that the stitching is incredible!
Clean Up
We have had fun this week using our focus book Clean Up by Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola. The children have been wonderful talking about the messages in this book.
Our word of the week was pollution the children have really enjoyed using this during their learning.
“The girl cleaned up the pollution like in the other story (Somebody Swallowed Stanley) to save the turtle.”
“I saw some rubbish on the way to school that is pollution.”
Poetry Picnic
This week our poem was Five Little Peas
Five Little Peas
Five little peas in a pea pod pressed.
One grew. Two grew.
So did all the rest.
They grew, and they grew,
And they did not stop,
Until one day the pod went POP!
The classroom Challenges this week have been
- to write a thank you message to the clean up crew.
- to cut out the parts of the turtle and put it together.
- to copy and continue a pattern.
- to work as a team like the clean up crew and recycle something.
Sports Day Fun
WOW! what a great time we had, sports day was so much fun! We had a great time showing our super physical skills. We loved our book themed races and it was great to cheer on our friends and grown ups as they raced.
Next week our focus book is The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.
Reminders and Notices
PE– Is on Wednesday please send your child to school wearing their PE kit and trainers they can fasten themselves.
Forest School– Is on Thursday please send your child to school in their PE kit with their forest school water proofs and wellies in a labelled plastic bag.
Please can you send your child to school with a sun hat and sun cream already applied.
Waste Innovation– Please don’t forget to send in any donations for us to be creative.
Have a happy and healthy week and please don’t forget to email any pictures from home to stjames@spherefederation.org thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman.
Maths
Identifying angles
We have had a fantastic maths lesson this morning, searching for and identifying angles. We found right angles, acute angles and obtuse angles. The children were fantastic when using the correct names for each angle and could clearly tell me how they know what type of angle it was.
Help at home – can you find any right angles, acute angles or obtuse angles at home or in your garden. How do you know it is a right angle? How do you know it is an acute angle? How do you know it is an obtuse angle? Can you draw them and put them in order of size? How many quarter turns make a right angle?
Full, half-full and empty!
Over the past two weeks our maths focus has been exploring capacity.
We’ve spoken about understanding what full and empty means, exploring capacity using different materials such as water, sand and rice and comparing capacities directly by pouring from one container to another to find which holds more or less.
Charlie- ‘ It doesn’t all fit in this one (water), the jug is too small’
Wyatt- ‘ It’s gone over the top, it’s too full now’
T- ‘ This is a really small one (jug), it won’t be big enough for all the water’
Next week we will be getting out our eye patches and going on a treasure hunt, the pirates are arriving in their underpants!
We would just like to say a BIG thank you to all our lovely parents and carers for attending our sports day this week. It was a brilliant morning and I think we can all agree that the children had a wonderful time!
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman
Design and Technology
We had a fantastic opportunity this morning to listen to and speak to Joel Wilson. Joel is a footwear designer for DR Martens, he has previously worked at brands like Lacoste and Ellesse.
Speaking to Joel fits in perfectly with our current Design and Technology work. We are currently in the process of creating a pouch. We follow a design brief and specific design criteria to produce an end product. We found that Joel follows a similar process in his area of work.
He told us all about his childhood and how he loved to draw and then about his journey into designing clothes. Can you believe that he didn’t even know that being a designer was a job?
We learnt about the process of creating a pair of Dr Martens – it takes about 18 months from the first design stage to a completed pair of shoes!
The children were extremely engaged and had lots of questions. We have been inspired by what Joel had to say.
It’s inspired me to design clothes.
Shae
I have always wanted to design clothes but now I’m thinking about shoes because when he answered his questions I gave me ideas about what I would like to do.
Emily M
It’s inspired me becasue now I am keen to draw and design clothes and footwear.
Emily G
I never knew that people drew the shoes that we wear!
Beau
Help at home – Ask your child about what they remember from Joel. What design criteria do we need to incorporate into our pouches? What is the purpose of your pouch? Who is it for?
Pie Corbett (Wings) inspired writing
In our reading sessions, years 5 and 6 have been practising our reading fluency, using the poem ‘wings’ by Pie Corbett. In this poem (below), Pie Corbett uses his senses to influence his ideas on what he would do if he were to have wings.
The children were really inspired by his work, so we decided to create our own versions of the poem. We still focussed on our senses to guide our writing. Have a look at some of our fantastic pieces below!
Sharing a Shell
This week our focus book has been Sharing a Shell.
We have enjoyed reading about the three friends in the rockpool. We looked at some non-fiction books to find more information about rockpools. We also compared seaside holidays in the past to the present.
Our word of the week this week was thoughtful the children have really enjoyed using this during their learning.
“We need to be thoughtful when we use the pens and remember to put the lids back on them.”
“My mummy is thoughtful to me all the time.”
Poetry Picnic
This week our poem was The Big Ship Sails
The big ship sails on the ally-ally-o,
The ally-ally-o, the ally-ally-o.
Oh, the big ship sails on the ally-ally-o,
On the last day of September.
The captain said it will never, never do,
Never, never do, never, never do.
The captain said it will never, never do,
On the last day of September.
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea,
The bottom of the sea, the bottom of the sea.
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea,
On the last day of September.
We all dip our heads in the deep, blue sea,
The deep, blue sea, the deep, blue sea.
We all dip our heads in the deep, blue sea,
On the last day of September.
The classroom Challenges this week have been
- to paint a shell to add to our class rockpool.
- to write a message to the friends from our story.
- to make a rockpool.
- to count the pattern on the paper, how many did you count? Can you record the number?
- to explore the rockpool we have made in class, what do you notice?
Getting ready for year one
As the weather becomes brighter and we near the end of the academic year you may be thinking about your child’s next steps as they journey into Year 1. Moving to Year 1 is perhaps a less significant change for children, and that’s because we’re a happy and healthy place to learn where we all know each other.
A zoom meeting for parent’s starts our transition process, here you will meet the Key Stage 1 staff and find out about the Year 1 curriculum.
The zoom meeting is on Monday 1st July at 6pm please follow the link that will be emailed to you.
The next step is for your child to spend some time in the Year 1 classrooms. They’ll meet the teachers and join in with the learning, they’ll get a taste of what it’s like to be in Year 1. The whole-school transition, later in July, completes the process, by spending a morning with their new class teacher.
This is a really exciting time of year, moving on and taking those next steps whilst continuing to strengthen the effective learning behaviours they have established in Reception.
This week we have been to visit the year 1 classroom, the children enjoyed sitting on the carpet and having a look around the classroom. We will pop in again next week to have another look.
Next week our Focus book is Clean Up
Reminders and Notices
Nursery and Reception Sports Day– Wednesday 26th June from 9am (children will be out on the field by 9:30am) we should be finished for 10:30am.
Forest School– Is on Thursday please send your child to school in their PE kit with their forest school water proofs and wellies in a labelled plastic bag.
Please can you send your child to school with a sun hat and sun cream already applied it looks like it is going to be a warm week.
Waste Innovation– Please don’t forget to send in any donations for us to be creative.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and please don’t forget to email any pictures from home to stjames@spherefederation.org thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman.
What’s the commotion?
For the next two weeks the children will be reading ‘ Commotion in the Ocean’ by Giles Andreae
In Nursery we have been talking about different parts of our books. We know that the author is someone who writes the words in our stories and the illustrator is someone who draws the pictures. Next week, we are going to talk about what a blurb is!
After all our hard work in looking after our vegetables, our pototoes we’re finally ready! We dug down deep into the soil to pull them out. We washed them and popped them into the fridge ready to make some potato salad next week for us to try. I think they will be yummy!
Help at home: What vegetables have you grown before? What did they taste like? Which was your favourite?
If you have any photos of your vegetables growing please send them in so we can have a look at them during ‘snack and chat’.
stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org
Notice:
WC. 24/06 the children have been asked to wear their PE kit all week. This is so we can practice our sports day races ready for you all on Wednesday!
Nursery and Reception Sports Day- Wednesday 26 June from 9am (children will be out on the field by 9:30)
If your child doesn’t usually attend a Wednesday, we are more than happy for you to come along and join in, just drop off at Nursery as normal.
Please can your child be wearing suncream before coming to Nursery and be provided with a hat, it’s set to be a hot one this week!
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman