This week’s bible story
How much can we remember?
Let’s start by asking ourselves some questions about today.
– What did you do as soon as you got out of bed?
– What did you eat for breakfast?
– How did you feel when you got to school this morning?
Next, let’s think about last weekend.
– What did you do on Saturday afternoon?
– What did you eat on Sunday?
How about last week?
Have you noticed how it becomes more difficult to remember events the further back in time they are?
These events may have happened quite a long time ago, but they are remembered because they were fun. Happy times tend to stay in our memories for a long time.
Sad times can stay in our memories for a long time, too.
Click the link to read all about Remembrance day and why we remember.
Reflection:
Have a look at the pictures of the poppy. Think about why wearing a poppy is important to people. Wearing a red poppy means, ‘We are remembering together.’
Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you for the many happy memories that we have.
We are sorry that some people have sad memories at this time of year
As they remember those who have died for our country.
May we wear our red poppies with love and compassion,
And may we remember and be thankful.
Amen.
Welcome back!
This week, we have been very busy looking a little more closely at Autumn. One of our focus books for the past week has been ‘Leaf Man’ by Lois Ehlert and this has been the inspiration for lots of learning in our classroom. On Tuesday, we took a trip around the school field to collect lots of leaves which the children sorted and then made into leaf crowns. We have also used conkers to create wonderful mark-making and some of the children have made their own ‘leaf people’. We have also been reading ‘It was a Cold, Dark Night’ by Tim Hopgood and this has given us the opportunity to talk about nocturnal creatures and their homes. Next week, we will be looking at the work of environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy and the children will be creating their own collaborative autumnal pieces of art.
Have a safe Bonfire Night, a lovely weekend and we’ll see everyone next week.
08 November 2021 – Adjective Day
We are learning more about the functions of words. Hopefully, your child has been talking about nouns already! On Monday 8th November, we are going to have an ‘Adjective Day’. The children will be asked to come in to school dressed as an adjective. The adjective can be as simple or as adventurous as you like. Please ensure that your child is aware of the word meaning and feels confident in sharing this with the class. There are lots of ideas if you search ‘adjective dress up day’ on the internet.
Please do not go to the expensive of buying anything new and have fun creating your adjective outfit! Their outfit needs to be suitable for school, safe and warm enough for them to wear all day.
Celebrations
This week, the children have been learning about celebrations: Diwali and Bonfire Night. Here are some snapshots of what activities we did to support our learning…
We used chalk to create fireworks.
We designed and made rockets.
We decided to change the writing area into a fire station. The children enjoyed role-playing fire officers. They pretended to answer 999 calls and made a note of any emergencies on incident forms. Each time we looked up there were fire officers putting out fires in different areas of the classroom. I think we must have had about 10 fires a day in our classroom!
We made Diva Lamps at the playdough table.
We made Rangoli patterns on pegboards.
In PE, we continued the theme and moved around the hall like fireworks.
Maths
Number 4 is our new focus number. After watching the Numberblock Four video, we noticed that the number 4 is a square number. We talked about the different shapes the Numberblock made and had a go at making our own shapes using the cubes. We made different arrangements using conkers and talked about our arrangements, for example,
“I’ve made a triangle with one conker in the middle.”
“One, one, one, one. One in each corner.”
“I’ve got one conker at the bottom and three at the top.”
“I’ve made a square like Numberblock 4.”
We’ve decided to change the Reception timetable for maths. Instead of trying to squeeze maths in every afternoon, we are doing two maths focus days at the end of the week and three shorter maths inputs at the beginning of the week. By doing longer sessions at the end of the week, we can spend more time deepening the children’s understanding. They will now learn a new focus number every two weeks.
Phonics
We jumped straight back into our phase 2 phonics sessions. The children learnt three more phonemes (e, u, r) They also learnt two more tricky words (no, go) These words can’t be blended.
Please keep using your sound book to practise recognising the phonemes and your word passport for blending words.
Pen disco!
On Thursday, we started pen disco. They enjoyed making large and small marks when dancing with their pens to the music. This activity supports fine motor skills and helps to improve pencil control.
News!
I finally got married in the October half-term!
My new teacher name is Mrs Wood.
The children have been a lot better than me at remembering my new name.
Reminders
- Don’t forget to come along to the Reception drop-in session on Thursday 11 November.
- Please make sure your child’s reading book is in their book bag every day.
- The winter weather is creeping in! Please make sure your child comes to school in a suitable winter coat.
- Don’t forget to join the Maths Zoom session on Tuesday 09 November at 6 pm.
Home-Link Challenge
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Yesterday, we visited Yorkshire Sculpture Park. This was a great experience to see some fantastic sculptures in real-life. In our art topic, we are learning about Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth and it was fantastic to see their work and be able to compare and contrast their sculptures. It gave us an opportunity to take some inspiration for our own sculptures that we will make back in school too.
Lots to look forward to…………..
This half term, we have lots to look forward to.
Writing
We will be learning all about nouns, adjectives and expanded noun phrases.
What is an expanded noun phrase? An expanded noun phrase adds more detail to the noun by adding one or more adjectives. An adjective is a word that describes a noun.
Following this, the children will complete a descriptive piece of writing.
Maths
We will be using some known facts to find a 2 digit number and a 1 digit number that compose 100.
What are known facts?
For this learning, the children need to be secure with their knowledge of number bonds to 10. Please practise these at home with your child.
Today, a few children demonstrated how they can use their number bond knowledge effectively.
The children are currently learning their 3 times table.
Topic – Art
The class are going to study the work of two very different artists.
Wassily Kandinsky (Russian artist)
Kandinsky believed that painting did not need a particular subject, but that shapes and colours alone could be art. Over several years, he began to paint what would become known as Abstract Art. Kandinsky felt that he could express feelings and music through colours and shapes in his paintings. The shapes he was most interested in were the circle, triangle, and the square. He thought the triangle would symbolise aggressive feelings, the square calm feelings, and the circle spiritual feelings.
Discuss this painting with your child.
Martha McDonald Napaltjarri (Australian artist)
Napaltjarri used intersecting lines softened and contrasted with concentric circles. Her imaginative and beautiful interpretation of landscapes led her work to become highly sought after. Her work is held in universities across Australia. What are your thought about this painting?
As part of a reading lesson, we thought about some questions we would ask Martha about her life as a famous artist.
Who inspired you to get into art?
Do you have a favourite painting?
Do you have any children and do they like art?
Why did you choose this style?
How did the landscape inspire you?
What do you think of Kandinsky’s work?
Finally, a quick reminder.
Some of the children have been asked to make sure they have their reading books in school every day. Please encourage your child to read at home, too.
If there is anything we can help with then please either pop in before or after school. Alternatively, call the office to arrange to see us. We are always glad to help where we can.
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
A wonderful end to a fabulous half-term!
A big ‘Thank You!’ to all the Nursery Class children for a wonderful first half-term. Mrs Cairnes and I have had a fantastic time teaching you and we’ve seen lots of fabulous learning in our classroom. This week, we have finished reading ‘Room on the Broom’ and the children were able to re-tell the story as a group. We’ve been doing lots of mark-making, mixing more autumnal colours and even had the chance to do some puddle jumping! We have sorted animals by colour and category and have also talked about the textures of bark, leaves and rocks. On our last afternoon, we also taste-tested some lemons and limes and discussed our reactions!
Many thanks to all parents and carers for your support over the last half-term; we look forward to seeing everyone on our first week back after the holiday. If you have any photos to share from half-term, we would love to talk about them in class. You can email them to us at:
stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org
Have a happy holiday and see you soon.
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.