Living and Learning: I know the importance of ‘five a day’
This week, our living and learning statement is based on healthy eating and ensuring we keep a healthy, balanced diet. A key part of this is in the contents of our packed lunches in school. For our fluency sessions, we have been reading into our school policy around packed lunches (below). We discussed elements of our packed lunches that are vital (protein, carbohydrates, fruit and veg), and some elements that are fine in small portions (oils and spreads). We used some great examples of what pupils have bought in their lunches and compared this to our recommended guidance – the packed lunches were successful against our healthy, balanced dietary advice.
Help at home: Encourage your child to make up their packed lunch with you at home. This way, your child can learn the contents of a packed lunch and why a variety is so important. You could ask questions whilst packing a lunch such as ‘Why are we adding this to the box?’ further develop understand of a healthy, balanced diet.
Forest School is Back!
Forest School is back and we have been learning about plants in Science
Science
In year one the children have been learning about plants. At the start of the term, each child planted their own sunflower and we have been eagerly observing them grow.
The children in class have been monitoring the sunflowers and making sure they have everything they need – light, water, oxygen.
Evergreen and deciduous trees
The children have also been learning about the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees. They can now identify specific features of an evergreen tree and a deciduous tree:
Evergreen
- Keep their leaves all year round.
- Leaves have a waxy coating.
- Leaves can often be spikey or sharp.
Deciduous
- Lose their leaves in Autumn.
- Have colourful leaves and blossom.
- Leaves are often flat and fragile.
Forest School
The children have been extremely excited to get outside for this term’s Forest School. On Friday afternoon’s, they will spend the whole afternoon outside in our own forest. Here they enjoy learning about nature, getting stuck in with outdoorsy crafts and generally getting mucky.
Maths
We had some fun in the sun today, with a maths arithmetic relay – combining maths and PE.
Help at home – set your own maths relay in the garden or park.
Wonders of the Amazon Rainforest!
In geography, years 5 and 6 have been focussing on the Amazon Rainforest (which spans across 9 South American countries, Brazil being the most prominent). We’ve learnt a lot about the climate, biome types and vegetation within the Amazon, but found it difficult to piece everything together. To help with this, the children researched the four layers of the rainforest, along with plants, animals and climate within them. We then used our notes to draw our interpretation of what the Amazon might look like, just like being in our Class Novel (Survivors)!
Here’s some of the brilliant learning from our pupils:
Glug Slug Milkshake!
This week our focus story is called ‘ Spider Sandwiches’ by Claire Freedman
The children got creative making spider sandwiches using appropriate materials to reach their desired outcome! We used, playdough, sticks, leaves and clay to make our own sandwich.
In maths we have been doing lots of counting- 1:1 correspondence. This helps them to build a strong foundation of number sense, by grasping the concept that one object represents one unit. We often ‘touch’ count in nursery to ensure we count each object once.
Help at home:
Here’s the numberblocks explaining the rules of counting and more!
Can you count some objects around your house? how many did you find? did you make sure you touch counted them all?
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: Go to the settings cog (it’s along the play bar) and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip
This weeks sound is: ‘Y’ for Yo-Yo
Rhyme of the week: Incy, wincy spider
Notice:
Just a reminder …
Tuesday- is our forest school session and library book day
Wednesday- is PE day (comfortable clothes)
The weather has started to pick up this week and hopefully long may this continue. Therefore we ask if your child may have suncream applied before school. You may wish to send your child with bottle of suncream (clearly labelled) incase they need a top up in the afternoon. please can you also provide your child with a sun hat.
We hope you have a lovely happy and healthy bank holiday weekend!
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman
Basketball
Today, the sun was shining and we had another superb PE lesson learning key basketball skills. We began by recapping the key principles of dribbling and then moved onto stealing/tackling.
Here’s what the children had to say:
Remember to bounce the ball at waist height to keep control. Use fingers not palms to bounce.
Gabriel Y3
You can’t walk with the ball; you must bounce as you move. Must use two hands. Two hands would be a double dribble.
Madeleine Y4
Use our bodies to block the person trying to steal.
Emily M Y3
Today, I enjoyed playing Gauntlet.
Emily G Y3
I really enjoyed playing Gauntlet and stealing bibs.
Christian Y4
Reading Skill: Inference
The children were presented with some images and they had to find clues in order to answer a question. The class were asked to explain their thinking as they worked.
- We need to find clues to get some answers.
- We need to add those clues to what we already know or have read.
- There can be more than one correct answer.
As the children grow up, they will gain more knowledge and experience of the world around them (and the vocabulary to go with this) and this will help them make inferences effectively.
Here is another picture.
- What is the dad doing?
- Why is the girl standing behind him?
- Why is she dragging a kite on the floor?
- Has she said anything to him? Does he know she’s there?
- How is she feeling? What is she thinking?
- Do you think this has happened before? Why/why not?
- Why is the kite coloured bright red, but everything else is in dull colours?
A couple more examples of excellent inference skills.
PE- Multiskills
We’ve made a great start to this week in Reception. In our PE lesson we have been working on our throwing and catching skills. First we worked on our own to bounce the ball in the hoop and then catch it. Then we worked pairs to bounce the ball to each other and catch it. It was very tricky as first but we persevered and our skills improved so much! Great work Reception!
Our Focus book this week is Walking Through the Jungle by Julie Lacome we can’t wait to share our learning with you at the end of the week.
Living and Learning – Healthy Diet
Our Living and Learning statement this week is:
This week in our Living and Learning session, we discussed the ‘5 a day’ message. We linked this to our science learning, discussing the scientifically identifying features of fruits and vegetables.
fruit – a part of a plant that contains seeds
vegetable – a part of a plant that can be eaten as food
The children impressed me with their knowledge of fruits and vegetables – we’ve some adventurous palates in our class!
We discussed the importance of fruit and vegetables in providing crucial vitamins and minerals in our diet – these help to keep our bodies and minds healthy. The World Health Organisation recommends 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
A portion is an amount you could fit in your hand.
What counts towards your 5 a day?
Almost all fruit and vegetables count towards your 5 a day. They can be fresh, frozen, canned, dried or juiced.
Eatwell Guide
As a class, we looked at the Eatwell Guide and discussed what a healthy meal might consist of.
The children then had the opportunity to ‘prepare’ a healthy dinner.
Help at home by discussing the Eatwell Guide with your child. How does this compare to the meals you eat at home? Are there any opportunities to make healthier choices?
But he was still hungry!
This week the children have really enjoyed reading ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle.
We explored the process of ‘Metamorphosis‘ which was a really big word for the children to try and say!
Metamorphosis is the process of changing physical form, such as the Caterpillar.
Help at home: What are the four stages of the Caterpillar lifecycle? Are there any other animals that go through this process? We may have some wigglying around in our tank in Reception…
We went BIG and created our own Caterpillar lifecycle! We also made a giant Catrepillar using natural resources in forest school.
During our story the children asked why the caterpillat needed to go to sleep for so long. This linked nicley with our living and learning statement this week – ‘I know the importance of sleep’.
Here’s what they thought..
because it’s dark
I put my jarmas on after I’ve had a bath
I get really tired and it’s time to go to bed
When you’re tired you go to sleep
My daddy is grumpy in the morning
I have my teddies in my bed
This weeks sound is: ‘W’ for Wave
Rhyme of the week: 1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a Fish alive
Notice:
Just a reminder …
Tuesday is our forest school session and library book day
Wednesday is PE day (comfortable clothes)
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Ward , Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman