Spellings for the final half-term
One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab.
Welcome to Summer 2! Our theme this half term is Seaside and Cities and our first focus book has been One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab by April Pulley Sayre and Jeff Sayre.
This book is a counting book that counts familiar animals and how many legs each one has! We have had lots of fun with this story making up our own lines.
“5 is a snail and a dog!”
“6 is a dog and a man!”
“11 is a snail and a crab or 5 people and a snail!”
“100 is 10 crabs or 100 snails!”
Our word of the week was country the children have really enjoyed using this during their learning.
“I went to another country on my holiday.”
“We live in the country called England.”
Help at home: how many different countries can you name with your grown ups? can you write a list?
Also this week we released our butterflies, Mrs Rippon looked after them for us over the holidays and we had two to set free on Monday. It was great fun to watch them fly!
The classroom Challenges this week have been
- to write a message to the school fairies
- to join two materials together
- to find some shapes in the outside area
- to draw a shell or crab
- to order numbers from 1 to 10
Next week our focus book is Seaside Poems
Reminders and Notices
PE- is on Wednesday, please send your child to school in their PE and in trainers they can fasten themselves.
Forest School- is on a Thursday please can you send your child to school in their PE kits with waterproofs and wellies in a labelled plastic bag.
Please can you send your child to school with a sun hat and sun cream already applied on sunny days.
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.
Day 2 at Robinwood
Our Year 6 children have had another busy, fun day at Robinwood.
Save the Whale!
Our theme this term is ‘Let’s make a splash!’
We started this week off with Julia Donalson’s, ‘The Snail and the Whale’
A beautiful tale of an unlikely friendship, a tour of the world and a heroic rescue!
We’ve been talking about the differences in the world around us, from the countryside to the seaside, we looked at some artwork and here’s what we thought…
We don’t have beaches at home but we have one outside in our garden’- Ella D
There is lots of grass- Oria
I like the seaside, I went on my holiday – Elliott
I love getting an ice-cream, with sprinkles and red sauce- Louie
It’s full of tree’s and big wall’s – Immy
After the half-term, the Caterpillars had finished growing in their cocoon and we’re ready to be released. We had 4 in total!
They spotted our wild flowers in the garden and went on the hunt for some delicious pollen.
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman
A new Science topic – Growing and Cooking!
This half term, the children in Year 1, are learning about growing and cooking in science. They will be exploring the difference between fruit and vegetables and where they come from. They will also be preparing a simple meal!
Today, the class started by learning about the difference between fruit and vegetables. They recalled how plants are grown and discovered which parts of the plant we can eat.
We investigated the differences and similarities between a strawberry and a carrot. The children thought about smell, taste and texture.
The children identified that the main different between a fruit and a vegetable is that fruit has seeds. Which means that cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes are in fact fruits!
Year 6 residential
The Year 6 children have arrived at Robinwood and having a great first day and night. They’ve been raft building, canoeing and swinging on the trapeze!
Design and Technology: Textiles
Our new topic is Design and Technology. The children will be planning, making and evaluating a puppet.
Today, we discussed the vocabulary that we will be using throughout this learning. Some of these words were familiar to the children and they could confidently speak about them.
A needle has a little hole in it and you can put string through it. Vincent
Needles are sharp! Olly
We made a plan when we wrote a report. Daisy
| design process | the steps that need to happen for something to go from an idea to a finished product |
| to plan | to think about and decide how you’re going to do something |
| to evaluate | to decide, after careful consideration, how good or bad something is |
| 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 |
What is Design and Technology?
I think it means we will need to draw a picture. Daisy
We need a plan first. Vincent
Does it mean we are going to build something? Woody
Design and technology is a subject that explores designing and making products that solve problems, and then evaluating how successful the results are.
Help at home by revising the listed vocabulary regularly and discuss the definitions of each word. Can your child use one of the words in a sentence?
For example:
The thread goes through the needle.
I will use felt for the body of my puppet.
The video below explains the design process in five steps. Watch this with your child and ask them the following questions.
- What would happen if we didn’t plan first?
- Why can’t we just make the product?
- How will I get some ideas?
- Are houses designed before they are built?
Leeds United Wildcats!
Our key stage 2 girls were visited by Leeds United this week to explore and develop routes into football for girls. The morning began with a presentation on current female role models, football backgrounds and some top tips on how to achieve the best you can in all sports.
The children then went outside to take part in some fantastic drills and games run by Leeds. Each and every pupil tried their best and we were super proud of everyone – they were fantastic role models for St James.
We had lots of fantastic talent on show, too! Our visitors left with beaming smiles on their faces, as all of our pupils showed a real interest and desire to take part. Every pupil also used their manners extremely well all morning.
Help at home: There will be some leaflets and information on how our children can continue to be involved with Leeds United. Encourage your children to take up a sport, as they really enjoyed today’s workshop. If you need help getting in touch with any local clubs or events, please let me (Mr Freeman) know and I’ll help!
Science – Sustainability (Plastics)
We’ve enjoyed learning about sustainability in our most recent science unit.
We’ve been learning about how plastic can be helpful and harmful and some of the things we can do to make sure it’s disposed of sustainably.
sustainable – causing no harm to the environment
What is plastic?
Plastic is a man-made material that can have lots of different properties and can be formed into lots of different shapes. This makes it really useful! The children observed that plastic can be:
- light
- flexible
- strong
- rigid
- transparent
- opaque
- and many more…
Some of the children were surprised to learn that even some of our clothes are made out of types of plastic like polyester, nylon and acrylic. After some body-contorting label-checking, we concluded that most of our clothes contained at least a small percentage of plastic.
Single-use plastic
We discussed single-use plastic and had a think about some items we encounter on a day to day basis that, once used, are simply thrown away:
- plastic bags
- plastic straws
- yoghurt pots
- plastic bottles
Plastic lasts a long time in the environment. It doesn’t decompose like paper or wood. The children learnt about how waste is sent away to landfill and some of the problems it poses to the environment, especially when polluted by plastic.
Everyone can help!
After learning of the stark reality of plastic pollution in the environment, we were delighted to learn that everyone can help if we remember to:
reduce
reuse
recycle
Reduce – Use less plastic to cut down on the amount of waste.
Reuse – Use plastic again rather than throwing it away.
Recycle – Dispose of waste responsibly so it can be converted into a material that can be used again.
To tie all of our sustainability learning together, we reused some single use plastic bottles in a way that could help the wildlife in our local area. The children really enjoyed making their bird feeders and we hope the birds in the local area are reaping the rewards!
We’d love to share some photos of the bird feeders in situ. Photographic evidence of avian visitors would be particularly welcomed. Please email them to me: ajnash@spherefederation.org
Help at home by discussing plastic waste with your child.
- What small change could you make to reduce your plastic waste?
- How could you reuse plastic waste rather than putting it in the bin?
- How could you tackle plastic pollution in the environment?
Phonics Screening Check
What is the Year 1 phonics screening check?
The phonics screening check is taken individually by all children in Year 1 in June. It is designed to give teachers and parents information on how your child is progressing in phonics. It will help to identify whether your child needs additional support at this stage so that they do not fall behind in this vital early reading skill.
The check will form part of the assessment, made by your child’s teacher, of how your child is progressing with the important skills of reading and writing. Your child will sit with a teacher he/she knows well and be asked to read 40 words aloud. Some of these words will be familiar to your
child and some will be ‘nonsense words’. All the words will be words that can be read by ‘sounding out’.
Before the end of this term, you will be informed by the school about how your child has performed in the screening check and how
he/she is progressing with phonics.
Help at home by supporting your child to read on a daily basis.
Let your child see you enjoy reading yourself. They are influenced by you and what you do!
Make time for your child to read their school book to you
With all books, encourage your child to ‘sound out’ unfamiliar words and then blend from left to right rather than looking at pictures to guess.
Use the videos below to support your child further.
https://www.youtube.com/@Love2Learn/videos
If you have any questions please ask Mrs Freeman or a member of the Year 1 team.
We are all happy to help.